"CATS CRADLE."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13210, 22 June 1906, Page 7

"CATS CRADLE."

INVENTED BY MAUI. ' [FROM. OCR OWN' (JORRKSrON'DEXT.] ■. London, .May 11. A most interesting article on " Cat's Cradle," written by Andrew Lung, appears in the Morning Post to-day. It starts with the following preface':'—"Deep meaning lieth oft in childish play, but, though there arc volumes of meaning in the gamo of Cat's Cradle, the significance seems to. have been added by way of afterthought. First, people played with an endless piece of string. Being in the savage condition they had abundance of leisure so soon as the daily deer or fish' or kangaroo had been provided. Having no business, early man had plenty of time on his hands. ' Ho 'appears to Have devoted 'it to inventing stories, elaborating a maze of marriage laws, evolving new figures in Cat's Cradle, and singing songs about them. Satan had clearly run out of mischievous ideas, and could ' find no mischief still for idle' hands to do' when early man, left uninspired by the Evil One, developed such an innocent form .of ingenious indolenco as Cat's Cradle." .. ■ ;•

The article goes on to say: "The game occurs in Fiji, where Buchncr suggests that it wjif taught by the missionaries to the natives. But all such things are independently evolved. The early missionaries found among Fijian riddles the famous enigma of the .Sphinx, which need not have puzzled the Thebans so terribly. In the Polynesian Islands, from Hawaii to New Zealand, and the Harvey Group, an identical set of figures prevails. Hero the figures record the ancient mythology of the race, the various adventures of their Prometheus, Maui and the story of the rat which saved mortals from starvation, when an unfriendly god collected all tho food in the world and hung it up to the sky in a net. Whether religious instruction might here bo imparted through Cat's Cradle, as among the Maoris, is a question for legislators, but. the practice works well in New Zealand, the string figures supplying a memorin tcchnica. This is, perhaps, the most serious purpose to which Cat's Cradle has ever been adapted. But it cannot have been invented as a record, the figures," when onoe evolved," have merely been named after mythological incidents, such as Mother Night bringing forth her family. Maru with the gods, and Maui fishing tip New Zealand from the sea with the barbed fishhook, of which" he was the inventor. Indeed, Maui is said to have invented Cat's Cradle; there is nothing that this genii.:? did not invent. Songs of appropriate significance, hymns, perhaps, are Ming as the figures are developed, and, on the whole, New Zealand is the sacred isle of the gams.'."

To make ham brine:—(l l Eight gallons of water, eight quarts salt, three quarts nolasses sugar, Jib saltpetre. (2) To 1001b meat, eight gallons wafer. 81b salt. 51b brown sugar, 507. saltpetre. Bacon should be left in tho brine for four weeks. Hams from four to six weeks, according to size. Ham« without brine: -lib salt, loss saitr>ett'e>. and sufficient ntola.sses to mate a stiff paste. The hams should he laid on a table in a cellar or outbuilding, and; thoroughly nibbed with sab; the paste is tiien laid on, and every day for six weeks the pa««e. which will run off the hams, must, bt» laid on as-ain with a spoon. The following is, Meg Dor'd's recipe for curing hams and bacon:—For every 141b of meat. loz saltpetre, Jib brown pusrar. scz salt. soz bay-salt, and loss black pepper. Mix the ingtedtento. and rub t'ne hams well with it. Rub, and turn every day for a month.. It is estimated by the. Royal Statistical Society of England that the average annual consumption of milk in the lower middle classes is 25 gallons per head; in the middle class 33 gallons, and in the upper class 31 gallons. The average annual consumption by the whole population is only estimated to be 15 gallons per head. Even if the average consumption were increased by 50 per cent., viz., to 22£ gallons, the daily consumption would only be about-half a pint per head—an allowance that ought always to be enjoyed by th» children of the poorest wage-earners of the country. Gibbs' Cold Cream Soap brings beauty to all, leaves the skin like velvet, and very clear. A curative cleanser, fatal to complexion flaws, and peculiarly agreeable to use. ' .■"'. y : ':/ ; '-- .: ; •