Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/32

Rh pass across the palm of the hand or around other fingers and is a string, or strings, common to two finger loops of the same hand (Fig. 2). When you have arranged loops on the fingers, and the hands are held in the usual position, the loops are named from the fingers on which they are placed; thus, right index loop, left little finger loop, and so on; whenever a loop or string is changed to another finger, of course its name is changed to that of the new finger on which it is placed.

The strings of the finger loops which leave the finger from the side nearest you are called near strings, and the strings which leave the finger from the side of the finger furthest away from you are called far strings; hence we have a right near middle finger string or a left far thumb string, etc. A finger may have two loops on it, in which case they are called upper and lower loops; and we have upper and lower near strings and upper and lower far strings. A string crossing the palm is a palmar string (Fig. 2).

The movements which are necessary to form a final pattern are many, and in some cases most complex. They consist of a series of manipulations of the loops and strings which have been put on the fingers by the opening movement. Loops and strings are drawn over other loops and strings (Fig. 3), or under them; or are