Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/253

216 fingers erect; release the loops from the thumbs, and turn the palms away from you, drawing the strings tight (Fig. 486).

The "Bow" is not very interesting; it is the first of a series of six Navaho figures which begin in the same way—by an opening peculiar to the Navahos. At first glance the result of this movement—a loop on each thumb and a loop on each index—appears the same as you would have by releasing the little finger loops after Opening A; but you will notice that, whereas in that case the upper straight string is formed by the far index strings and the lower straight string by the near thumb strings, by this Navaho opening we get the upper straight string formed of the near index strings and the lower straight string formed of the far thumb strings. In the Eskimo "Mouth" the result of the opening movement gives a loop on each thumb and index, but here the straight strings are both near strings.

LIGHTNING I obtained this figure from Dr. Haddon in August, 1904. He learned it from two old Navaho men in Chicago in 1901, and has published a description of it (5, p. 222, pl. xv, Fig. 5). The Navaho name is Atsinil-klish. In the Philadelphia Free Museum of Science and Art there are two examples of the finished patterns, collected by Mr. Stewart Culin, but they are so badly distorted as to be scarcely recognizable: No. 22712 is Navaho, from St. Michael's Mission, Arizona; No. 22732 called Vo-pi-ri-dai = Lightning, is by the Tewa Indians from Isleta, N.M.

First, Second and Third: The same as the First, Second and Third movements of the "Bow."