String Figures: A Study of Cat's-cradle in Many Lands

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C. Scribner's sons, 1906 - 407 páginas

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Página x - Malay boys have little inclination for active sports and games, which form quite a feature in the life of the Dyak youths; who, besides outdoor games of skill and strength, possess a variety of indoor amusements. One wet day in a Dyak house, when a number of boys and young men were about me, I thought to amuse them with something new, and showed them how to make " cat's-cradle
Página xvi - Boys must not play cat's-cradle, because in later life their fingers might become entangled in the harpoon-line. They are allowed to play this game when they become adults. Two cases were told of hunters who lost their fingers, in which the cause was believed to be their having played cat's-cradle when young. Such youths are thought to be particularly liable to lose their fingers in hunting ground-seal.
Página 5 - Anatomically, that which is nearer to the point of attachment is "proximal," that which is nearer the free end is "distal." Thus, of two loops on a digit, the one which is nearer the hand is the proximal loop, that which is nearer the tip of the digit is the distal loop ; similarly we can speak of a proximal string and a distal string. In all cases various parts of the string figures are transferred from one digit or set of digits to another or others.
Página xv - In the game of Maui they are great proficients. This is a game like that called cat's-cradle in Europe, and consists of very complicated and perplexing puzzles with a cord tied together at the ends. It seems to be intimately connected with their ancient traditions, and in the different figures which the cord is made to assume, whilst held on both hands, the outlines of their different varieties of houses, canoes, or figures of men and women are imagined to be represented. Maui, the Adam of New Zealand,...
Página xix - is precisely the same as Kebe mokeis, ' the mouse,' from Murray Island, Torres Straits, a trick also known to the Omaha Indians." Several patterns are known to widely separated tribes, but under different names. Mrs.
Página x - The figures are identical with those in Korea, but receive different names. The first I have been unable to learn ; the second is called nekomata, defined as " a mountain cat into which a domestic cat is supposed to transform itself;" the third, koto, " a musical instrument," or geta no ha, the two pieces of wood under the sole of clogs ; the fourth, umano me, " horse-eye," and the fifth, tsuzumi,
Página 391 - KOREAN GAMES: WITH NOTES ON THE CORRESPONDING GAMES OF CHINA AND JAPAN, Stewart Culin.
Página 1 - ... be necessary to number the strokes one by one; for this reason, when they came to five, they expressed it by joining two strokes together in an acute angle, thus V, which will appear the more probable, if it be considered that the progression of the Roman numbers is from five to five, that is, from the fingers of one hand to the fingers of <the other. Ovid has touched upon the original of this in his Festorum, lib.
Página 331 - B" puts his right thumb and index (held close together) down into the figure, near "A's" left hand, and then up into the central lozenge, and thus picks up from below on these fingers the crossed strings of that side; in the same way "B" puts his left thumb and index down near "A's...
Página 5 - ANTHROPOLOGIST [xs, 5, 1903 the hand is termed "radial," and anything on the little-finger side is called "ulnar," thus every loop is composed of a radial string and an ulnar string. By employing the terms thumb, index, middle-finger, ringfinger, little finger, and right and left, it is possible to designate any one of the twenty strings that may extend between the two hands. A string lying across the front of the hand is a palmar string, and one lying across the back of the hand is a dorsal string....

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