Introduction To String Figures

 

Ki UC-NRLF

B

CO 00

O o >-

3

IID 7DM

 

^v

AN INTRODUCTION TO

STRING y^H

FIGURES

Amusement for

Everybody.

BY

W. W. ROUSE BALL.

Cambridge

W.

:

HEFFER   SONS .

1920.

LTD.

 

AN INTRODUCTION TO

STRING FIGURES BY

W. W. ROUSE BALL Fellow ok Trinity College, Camisridgk.

Cambridge W.

:

HEFFER   SONS 1920.

LTD,

 

I

•

^

»

 

Note.

Prefatory

The making primitive

of

Figures

String

people.

Its

is

study by

a

men

game common among of

science

a recent

is

development, their researches have, however, already justified its

description

as

a hobby,

The

mastered.

readily

fascinating to

following

pages

most people and contain

a

lecture

which I gave last spring ,at the Royal Institution, London, to it I have appended full on these figures and their history ;

directions for the construction of several easy typical designs,

arranged roughly

in

wish to go further,

order

lists of

of

is

feet long

at his

;

and, for those

who

additional patterns and references.

The only expense necessary pastime

difficulty,

to

anyone who takes up

the

the acquisition of a piece of good string some seven

with that and this booklet to aid him, he

command an amusement

that

may

while

will

away many a

vacant hour.

W. W. ROUSE BALL. Trinity College, Cambridge.

July, 1920.

have

442984 111

 

Contents.

--------------------

Prefatory Note

String Figures, an Amusement of Primitive

Man

-

PAGE iji

5

Methods of Construction

5

Classification

5

History of Subject before 1902 Precision of description introduced

in

History subsequent to 1902 Search for Figures among Aborigines

-

Historical or Religious Associations Asiatic

Varieties, Cat's Cradle

-

-

-

-

-

10

1902

-

-

11

-

-

-

12

-

-

-

12

-

-

-

15

-

-

-

and widely Openings A and B. Movement T. Addendum of Illustrative Examples Oceanic

Class A.

Varieties

:

numerous

A Fish Spear A Frame-work

for a

Hut

Lightning

A Butterfly A Fishing Net

-

-

-

-

-

19

-

-

21

The Fly

A

Siberian House

The Elusive Loop The Yam Thief Throwing a Spear

A Man Climbing A Salmon Net

-

-

-

22

-

-

-

-

24

_

-

_

The Caterpillar

-

-

24

26 26

27 28

29

30

-

-

-

-

-

31

-

-

-

-

-

32

----------------

a Tree

21

-

References for Eight Other Figures Class B.

16 18

-

-----------------------------

The Batoka Gorge A Tent Flap Crow's Feet

spread.

-

33

-

-

-

-

34

-

-

-

-

35 35

36

References for Seven Other Figures

-

37

IV

 

44l««>

-1

A I

on

Lecture

HAVE chosen

ft

o^»

Figures.

String

as the subject for this Lecture String Figures,

amusement of primitive man, and as being in themselves interesting to most people. In the course of the evening you will see how such figures are actually made, but before coming to that I must tell you I hope you will bear something of their nature and history.

which

with

A

I

present to you as a world-wide

me

if

I

introduce them to you in

string figure

is

usually

my own

way.

made by weaving on

the fingers a

loop of string, about six-and-a-half or seven feet long, so as to produce a pleasing design, often supposed to suggest a familiar object, either at rest or in motion.

Having taken up the string in some defined way, the subsequent weaving may be effected either with the aid of another operator, each player in turn tal