Page:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu/410

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NAURU FIGURES
367

will find out the method by which they are made; with our present knowledge it is practically impossible to work back from the finished pattern to the opening movements.

NAURU FIGURES

These patterns are the most elaborate that have ever been collected; yet we are told that in other Pacific islands there are many equally complex. The following fifteen were secured by Mr. E. Stephen, a resident of Nauru, or Pleasant, Island

of the Marshall group, mounted by him on paper and presented to Dr. W. H. Furness. They are produced with strings made of plaited human hair; in some cases the string is easily sixteen feet long. They are apparently formed on the hands, and Mr. Stephen has indicated on twelve of them the method of extension, which is the same as that used for the Caroline Islands "Coral," where one loop is held on the index (Fig. 837, II), one loop on the little finger (V), and the two middle strings

between the thumb and index (I and II). I am not sure of the method of extension of the remaining three figures.

(1) Deimano; the hull of a ship (Fig. 827).

(2) Representation of a mat (Fig. 828).