Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/118

 CHAPTER IV

A WELL OBTAINED this figure in August, 1904, from Dr. Haddon, who learned it from a native of Lifu, Loyalty Islands, who happened to be residing in Mabuiag in Torres Straits. (See Rivers and Haddon, p. 149, Fig. 2.) In Lifu it is known as Tim,=a Well. It is precisely similar to the Torres Straits figure which in Murray Island, is called Ti Meta,=the Nest of the Ti bird, and in Mabuiag, Gul = a Canoe.

First: Opening A.

Second: Keeping the hands well separated, with the strings quite tight, and turning the palms slightly away from you, pass each index away from you over the far

index string and the near little finger string and then well down into the little finger loop. Now, turning the palms gradually toward you, bend each index carrying these two strings toward you (with the tips pointed toward each palm), and then up between the near index string and the thumb (which must be kept upright), but not touching the thumb loop (Fig. 181). This movement brings the far index string and the near little finger string up toward you while the near index string slips away from you over the knuckle of the index and entirely off that finger. Now turn each