Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/273

236 Fifth: Turning the palms away from you, release the loops from the thumbs, and the figure is extended between the tips of the index fingers and the little fingers (Fig. 532). The string held by the little fingers may be drawn tight by closing the middle, ring and little fingers over it. Dr. Haddon says there are four fishes—the four double strings arranged like a W.

The opening movement of this figure is different from any we have had so far, and it occurs again only in the following "Storm Clouds" of the Navaho Indians. In the two Bagobo Diamond figures, after Opening A, the two loops become ar-

ranged on the index finger, but not in the same manner as in "Little Fishes," for in the "Bagobo Diamonds" the upper straight string is a near index string and the lower straight string is a far index string; and in the "Bagoho Two Diamonds" it is just the reverse, the upper straight string being a far index string and the lower a near index string. In "Little Fishes" both straight strings are near index strings. You cannot, therefore, make the Bagoho Diamonds from this opening, nor can you form this figure by beginning as you begin the Bagobo figures.

STORM CLOUDS

This is a Navaho figure which I learned at the St. Louis Exposition, in November, 1904. It was shown to me by the same two Navaho girls. First: The same as the First movement of "Little Fishes."

Second: Pass the right thumb away from you over the right lower near index string, and pick up from below on the back of the right thumb the right lower far index string, and return the right thumb to its position (Fig. 533, Right hand).

Third: Pass the left thumb away from you over the left lower index loop and pick up on the back of the left thumb the left upper far index string, and return the left thumb to its position (Fig. 533, Left hand).