Polynesia. The knowledge of this pastime was certainly common to the members of the Polynesian stock before they separated off into different groups, as we find it played from the Hawaiian Islands in the north to New Zealand in the south, and as far east as the Hervey group.
Culin (1, p. 222) figures sixteen examples from Hawaii and refers elsewhere (3, p. 106) to three more, but says, "many others are said to be known." They are known as Hei, "net." Elmer E. Brown (p. 163) refers to the unpublished investigations of Mr. J. S. Emerson into the folk-lore of the Hawaiian Islands. "With reference to the Hawaiian cat's-cradle," says Mr. Emerson, "I have collected most carefully a considerable amount of valuable information, which I propose to publish as soon as I can get at it. The last bit of information with regard to the subject I came upon almost unexpectedly this morning at South Cape (Ka Lae). It was the last resting-place (in stone) of the famous rat that saved the human family from starvation when the god Makalii hung up the food in a net to a cloud in the heavens. Thus, little by little, scrap by scrap, all over the islands, I gather the detached materials of a most strangely interesting structure that requires all my patience and ingenuity to dovetail together. There is no native now living who knows enough to give a full and connected story of this remarkable Hei, Koko or Makalii. Part of it comes from Iole, the home of the rat in Kohala. Part must be looked for in Waioli, Kanai, where the net was hung up to the cloud. And at last I have stumbled unawares upon the stars (Pleiades), the home of Makalii, his net, and the rat, all in the rock at South Cape." Mr. Brown goes on to say: "I think Mr. Emerson has fully established its connection with superstitious rites and beliefs in the Hawaiian Islands."
Two early travellers give us the following account of the game as played in New Zealand. Dieffenbach (p. 32) writes: "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, left this amusement to them as an inheritance." Taylor (p. :r 72) says: "He whai, or maui, the 'cat's-cradle,' is a game very similar to our own, but the cord is made to assume many more forms, and these are said to be different scenes in their mythology, such as Hine-nui-te-po, Mother Night bringing forth her progeny, Maru and the gods, and
