Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/24

Rh I, too, can find no early mention of this game in Europe, and as our method is precisely similar to that of Eastern Asia I can only conclude that, like the kite, it was introduced directly into Europe from that part of the world. At present it is impossible to say more exactly where it arose, whether in Korea, China, or Indo-China; presumably it passed from the main-land to the Asiatic Islands.

We should expect to find the overlap of the Asiatic and Oceanic types of the game in the East Indian Archipelago, and therefore we need not feel surprised that Mrs. Jayne has discovered the latter form (p. 43) among the Filipinos. My friend, Miss A. Hingston, has worked out a method by means of which the ordinary Asiatic opening can be converted to the Oceanic Opening A, but I do not know that it is actually practised. Her method is as follows: Cat's-cradle opening. With little fingers take up the ulnar (far) middle-finger strings below the point where they cross. Pass the straight string from the radial (near) side of the indices to the ulnar (far) side of the little fingers. Press thumbs against the indices to hold the radial (near) index string firm. Bring the straight ulnar (far) string that passes over the back of the hand over the tips of all fingers and thumbs. Transfer middle-finger loops to indices. Result, Oceanic Opening A.

So far as I am aware the only figure in Europe which begins with the Oceanic Opening A is that known as "The Leashing of Lochiel's Dogs" (p. 116). I am unable to explain the significance of this anomaly.

It is a highly significant fact that the American cat's-cradles belong to the Oceanic type, and that nowhere in this whole region, so far as is yet known, does the Asiatic type occur. This type must be extremely ancient, otherwise it would not occur among such widely different races as the Australians, Melanesians, Polynesians, Eskimo, and North American Indians.

It is surprising what an enormous number of figures can be made from an endless loop of string, and there are very numerous varieties in every place where the Oceanic type of the game is played. No surprise, therefore, need be felt if similar figures occur in various places; at all events if they are of simple construction, a complex figure or one with difficult manipulation is not so likely to be often invented independently.

So far as our knowledge goes the figure known as "The Leashing of Lochiel's Dogs," "Crow's Feet," etc. (p. 116), is-the most widely spread of all, as versions of it occur in North Queensland (Roth), East Africa, North America, and the British Islands. Mr. W. Innes Pocock has discovered that it can be made by a dozen different methods.