Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/29

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STRING FIGURES

(p. 341); in the Loyalty Islands from Rivers and Haddon (p. 148); in the Fijis from Buchner (p. 269); in New Zealand from Dieffenbach (Vol. II, p. 32), Taylor (p. 172), and Tregear (1, p. 115; 2, p. 58); in the Hervey group from Gill (p. 65); in the Hawaiian Islands from Culin (1, p. 223) and Brown (p. 163); in the Caroline Islands from Furness; and in the Marshall Islands from Stephen. In America we learn of their prevalence among the Eskimos from Boas (1, p. 229; 2, p. 85; 3, p. 569; 4, pp. 151, 161), Hall (1, p. 316; 2, p. 129) , Klutschak (p. 138), Murdoch (p. 383), Nelson (p. 332), and Tenicheff (p. 153); among the Salish from Smith (p. 281); the Tlingits, Tsimshians, and Kwakiutls, from Boas (2, p. 85); the Clayoquahts from Haddon; the Tewas and Zufiis from Culin; the Pawnees, Omahas, and Cherokees from Haddon (5, p. 217); and among the Navahos from Haddon (5, p. 219) and Culin. Mr. John L. Cox has gathered games for me from the Klamaths, Tewas, Omahas, and Onondagas, and I collected string figures from the Navahos, Osages, Chippewas and Apaches at the St. Louis Exposition.

Of the name "cat's-cradle," which is confined, of course, to the English game, no satisfactory derivation has ever been given (see Murray, N.E.D.). Comparatively few of the native names have been recorded. The Eskimos of Cumberland Sound call it ajararpoq; the Navahos, na-ash-klo, "continuous weaving"; the Japanese, aya-ito-tori, "woof-pattern string-taking"; the Caroline Islanders, gagai (the word also employed for the pointed stick used to open coco-nuts); the Hawaiians, hei, or "net"; the New Zealanders, he-whai, huhi, or maui; the natives of Lepers' Island in the New Hebrides, lelagaro, and of Florida in the Solomon Islands, honggo. In the eastern islands of Torres Straits it is known as kamut, in the western islands as wormer. The Bugis and Makassars of the Celebes call it toêka-toêka, from toêka, "a ladder." In some places in Australia it is named cudgi-cudgick. In North Queensland the various tribes of blacks have different names for it. The Kokoyimidir of Cape Bedford call it kápan (used also for "words, letters, writing," etc.); the Ngaikungo and Ngatchan of Atherton, etc., morkuru; the Nggerkudi of the Pennefather and Batavia rivers, ane-inga; the Kungganji of Cape Grafton, manjing; the Koko-lama-lama of the Hinterland and coast of Princess Charlotte Bay, yirma; the Koko-rarmul of the same, mianman; the Koko-wara of the same, andalibi; the Mallanpara of the lower Tully River, kumai or kamai.

Although the existence of the game has been known for years, no one had described how the figures are made until Dr. Boas, in 1888, recorded the methods employed in two Eskimo games. In 1900 Mr. Harlan I. Smith figured certain stages of two games played by the Salish Indians of British Columbia. To Dr. W. H. R. Rivers and Dr. Alfred C. Haddon, however, must be attributed the real impetus given to the study of string games: their paper, published in 1902, gives us the first plan whereby all these intricate and difficult figures may be described so that anyone can repeat them; their simple and accurate nomenclature now makes it possible to record all future discoveries. A second paper, in 1903, by Dr. Haddon (5) on the string games of the American Indians, and a paper, in 1903,