UNKNOWN

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

UNKNOWN

T 7-HEX we were very young most J of us learned to make cat's cradles with a loop of string, and we probably thought this to be a game played only by British children. Perhaps we were not very interested in the game, and so did not bother to think about it at all, and soon forgot how to play it. (>io\\n older, we read and learn of t ne people other lands, their work end pi-ay. so that we find children ! rom all parts of the world playin® many of the same games.

Doesn't it surprise us, though, to find that the children of Europe, Asia and Africa, the small brown people of the Pacific Islands, and our own Maori friends amuee themselves by making pictures with a piece of string? Throughout the world the name for this pastime varies. We speak of cat's cradles while the Maori knows it as whai. The pictures have different meanings, too, for the people make the things about them, so the African child will show you in string the framework of . a round hut, but the Maori makes a figure showing the carved front of a meeting house.

This was a favourite pastime for young and old in ancient Maori days, when the people gathered in the great house to amuse themselves in the evenings, and many were the patterns formed. One figure grew into another to show the adventures of the soul on the to the spirit world; canoes and houses with numerous every-day objects were quickly made. They wove patterns to show stars, and even Te Moana Nui o Kiwa, the Pacific Ocean. The most amusing of all were the "movie"

pictures, such as Mouti, which show? two people chasing each other. It is manipulated to the time of a versi until one figure runs into the arm: of the pursuer and is captured. Yoi will not have difficulty in findin someone to teach you this, for it i. well remembered. Some games are so complicate! that the fingers cannot hold all the loops, and teeth and toes assist them and two or three people often work at one picture. The gam© k said to have been

invented and taught to the Maori people by the hero Maui. See if you can begin by making Kopu. At first this game is the same as the ordinary cat's cradle opening, eo probably you know it already. Use a piece of string about 4ft long, knotted at the ends to form a loop, and place this behind the thumbs and little fingers of each hand. That leaves a string across each palm. Pick this up from your left hand with the back of your right forefinger and then from your right palm with the left forefinger. Now you have a loop on the thumbs, first and little fingers of each hand.

This is the way in which most string figures begin. You will have to be careful now that none of the strings slip off your lingers as you bend them, for if they do there will be no chance of catching them again as they slip through the other strings. The only thing to do when this happens is to start all over again. Your thumbs slip over two strings and down into the first finger loop; when "they stand up in their places again they carry the far string of

by OLWYN RUTHERFORD

his loop on their backs. You, hould now have two strings on each humb; the old loop and part of the orefinger one.

This part you will find more diffiult unless you are used to playing tring games. The second finger has one nothing yet, so now it comes 'own right over the string on the rst fingers. pretenSing it is not here. Inside the thumbs a single ■ord runs from hand to hand and lown behind this pass the second Ingers. pick it up on their backs and go back to their places. Now you can slip the thumbs from their loops.

This leaves strings round the first, second and little fingers, and it is this last loop which must now be transferred to the thumbs, a change which seems much more puzzling than it really is. This is how it is done: Press down the near string of the first finger loop where it is marked (a), pass your thumbs over this as they push it down, and under the next four strings. They will come up in the last loop close to the little fingers.

Now you must be careful! Carry the near little finger string on the backs of the thumbs under the three strings of the first and second fingers until the thumbs are in their right places again. I warned you that some of the strings might slip off, but if they did not free the little fingers so that the tangled strings are held on the thumbs and two fingers of each hand. In the next and last stage, if you have picked up the right strings and have not slipped a finger into the wrong loop, you will see the figure you are making take shape. Kopu,

the evening star, which we call Venus, will rise from the tangle of string as she appears through the clouds at dusk. To see her you must pass your thumbs up through the first finger loop close to the finger and into the third finger loop from below. The third fingers are removed from this loop and ' their places taken by the thumbs. Xow there are two loops on each thumb and a longer, outside loop held by the first fingers. Close the tips of the thumbs and first finjsers and bend the hands toward each other. The finger loops will slip over on to the other strings, but the two loops will still be held. ' To spread the figure place your other fingers, too, into the double loop beside the first fingers and use them to spread the strings which form a frame to hold the star. The drawing will show j r ou how to do this. In some parts of the North Island [ have heard this figure called Rau Kumara. Last of all, if you have mastered

this figure hv doing it several times till your fingers can work ahead of your thoughts, as is the eafiy way, you must know the important knack of undoing it. The Maori would despise the player who knotted hi« string in a hopelee® tangle instead of shaking it out deftly. Each figure, if held at a oertain point, is easily unravelled. For this one lay it on your knee and take between your fingers and thumbs those two loop* at the points marked (b). Holding these, the figure is flicked neatly away and there is only a loop of string in your hands again.