Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/38

Rh It is not essential that the loop shall be put on the hands by the movements just described; any method will answer, so long as the proper position of the string is secured. This method, however, has been found to be as easy as any other. The First Position is, of course, absurdly simple, yet it not infrequently puzzles the beginner, largely because it is the reverse of the first steps in the ordinary English Cat's-Cradle known to every child.

OPENING A

More than half of the string figures described in this book open in the same way; to avoid constant repetition therefore, we may follow Drs. Rivers and Haddon (p. 12.

148), and call this very general method of beginning Opening A. It should be learned now, because in the descriptions of the figures in which it occurs, the first movement will be simply noted as Opening A. It is formed by three movements.

First: Put the loop on the hands in the First Position.

Second: Bring the hands together, and put the right index up under the string which crosses the left palm (Fig. 12), and draw the loop out on the back of the finger by separating the hands.

Third: Bring the hands together again, and put the left index up under that part of the string crossing the palm of the right hand which is between the strings on the right index (Fig. 13), and draw the loop out on the back of the left index by separating the hands.