KITE FLYING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2571, 24 June 1903, Page 66

KITE FLYING.

There are few more interesting and healthy pastimes than kite-flying ; and yel English boys and girls never seem to get much "forwarder" with it. • As for men, it is regard---' j>s too childish for them to have anything to do with. We take many other games, and improve upon most of them ; but with kite-flying it is altogether different. Probably the fun is not sufficiently rough or robust. At anyrate, the fact remains that we are no further advanced witli the •>rt than we were a century ago. In China there is much about kites that is more than ordinarily interesting. In addition to being picturesque, they always mean something, One kind represents, not inappropriately, the Chinese Wind God, carrying two huge bags of wind Another is a great bat — a creature not of evil portent in the Far East, but emblematic of good fortune. Thus a kite of this sort is covered with good luck symbols. Kites in China are made in the likenesses of frogs, lizards, cranes, gigantic flies, and enormous grasshoppers. There are owls also, which blink their eyes in mid air, thanks to an ingenious mechanical contrivance. Fish kites are of various designs.

Most extraordinary of all is the dragon kite, which attains a* length of 30ft or 40ft. Nobody but a Chinaman would suppose that such a thing could be flown. It is composed of a number of pasteboard discs, each a foot in diameter, fastened together, with spaces between, T>y a cord running the length of the dragon, which has a ferocious-looking paper head. The string held by the manipulator of this remarkable toy is 'attached at three or more points in its length, so that it may be controlled in the air. While afloat the long tail has an undulating and serpentine motion, thus producing a highly realistic effect.

In China and Corea kite-flying is a national pastime, and many thousands of people will gather upon a hill on a holiday for the purpose of enjoying the sport, but in Corea the simple sport of kite-flying is quite aicondary to that of kite-fighting. The kites are always rectangular bamboo frames covered with piper and with a circular hole in the middle ; they have no tails, and the strings used are of fine silk. For fighting purposes the silken strings are prepared by dipping them into a mixture of powdered glass and fish glue, and any kite may be cut down by another. Even the King's kite enters into the contest, and it is said that the present Sovereign is extremely fond of the amusement.

The kite-flying season in China culminates on the ninth day of the ninth month, which is -known as the festival of "ascending on high." The Japanese are also great kiteflyers, and in that country certain days are set apart for tint kind of sport.