Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/315

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CHAPTER VII

FIGURES WHICH DO NOT BEGIN WITH OPENING A (CONTINITED)—PYGMY DIAMONDS—A MOUTH—TWO LITTLE BOYS RUNNING AWAY—A LITTLE FISH THAT HIDES IN THE MUD—A LITTLE BOY CARRYING WOOD—A SECOND WORM—A BRUSH HOUSE—A SIX-POINTED STAR—TE BREASTBONE AND RIBS—A BIRD'S NEST—TWO BOYS FIGHTING FOR AN ARROW—FLINT AND STEEL—THE REAL CAT'S-CRADLE.

PYGMY DIAMONDS

AMONG the African Batwa Pygmies, from the Congo Kasai Valley, at the St. Louis Exposition, was a bright little man, "Ottobang," who taught me this figure.

First: Put both hands through the loop of string, up to the wrists, and take up between the thumb and index of each hand a short piece of the upper wrist string. Then make a small hanging ring in this string, by passing the string held by the right

Fig. 632.

hand toward you over the left hand string (Fig. 632). Turn this ring up,. and put first the fight thumb (Fig. 633 ) and then the left thumb (Fig. 634 ) away from you into the ring, and separate the hands (Fig. 635).

Second: Get another person to take between the thumb and index the cross formed in the centre of the figure by the far thumb and near wrist strings, and

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