Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/74

Rh This is an interesting example of a figure which starts unsymmetrically, and then, after a series of very different movements by each hand comes out almost per- fectly symmetrical at the end. You will notice that there is a twist at the right end {{misisng image}] of the right lozenge and a simple loop at the left end of the left lozenge. If the right palmar string be taken up first in the formation of Opening A, and then the movements of the hands reversed, the wrist will be caught in a double loop when the right-hand strings are dropped. By forming the figure first one way and then the other you can add to the perplexity of the observer.

BAGOBO DIAMONDS I was taught this figure by a young man of the Bagobo Tribe in the Philippine Reservation at the St. Louis Exposition in August, 1904. He had no name for it.

I found that it was also known to the Philippine Linao Moros.

First: Opening A. (The left palmar string must be taken up first.)

Second: Release the loops from the little fingers. There is now a loop on each thumb and a loop on each index (Fig. 88).

Third: Transfer the thumb loops to the index fingers by taking up from below with the back of each index the far thumb string (Fig. 89, Right hand). You now have on each index, two loops, an upper and a lower (Fig. 89, Left hand).