Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/229

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192
STRING FIGURES

by pressing the thumb against the index, but permit it to slip through slightly, to make the figure tight (Fig. 440).

"Two Chiefs" is an attractive figure, and not difficult after you have mastered the method of extension. The crossing of the strings in the first movement is found elsewhere only in the Osage "Thumb Catch." The Fourth movement resembles a characteristic Navaho movement; the result of the Sixth movement is similar to the

result produced by one of the movements in the "Leashing of Lochiel's Dogs."

The Ninth movement is really peculiar to this figure. We shall see the same general principle, however, applied to the Seventh movement of the Eskimo "Mouth."

A MAN AND A BED

This is a Torres Straits figure collected by Dr. Haddon and heretofore unpublished. The native name is Le Sik.

First: Opening A.

Second: Pass each thumb away from you under the index loop; pick up on the back of the thumb the near little finger string, and return the thumb to its former position (Fig. 441).

Third: Pass each little finger toward you and, from above, through the index loop, and pick up on the back of the little finger the far thumb string (not the palmar string) (Fig. 442), and return the little finger to its position (Fig. 443).

Fourth: Release the loops from the index fingers, and sing, "Le sikge, le sikge, uteidi, uteidi, sik erapei" (Man on a bed, man on a bed, lies sleep, lies sleep, bed breaks). At the word "erapei," release the loops from the little fingers, and the figure will disappear.