CHAPTER VIII TOYS AND GAMES: CAT'S CRADLE AND KITES AT T first sight it does not appear that games played by children would afford a very profitable field for investigation, but if we wish to learn all we can about mankind no branch of inquiry should be neglected. I shall endeavour in this and the following chapters to indicate some of the conclusions which may be drawn therefrom. The games played by children have a very varied origin, and a similarly unequal value to the student. Before we consider the games played by our children it is desirable to glance at those played by savages. The children of savages play at the occupations of their elders, and the boys will have their toy bows and arrows; where the natives spear fish, boys and girls will have toy fishing-spears, with which they attempt to catch fish. They play with toy canoes, and so forth. Even when the adults have discarded a weapon such as the bow and arrow for a more serviceable weapon, the children will continue their toy-whether it be in New Guinea or in England. Our English boys still delight in the implements of warfare of their barbaric ancestors, such as the bow and arrow, the sling, the sword and shield. The memory of these has been preserved from generation to generation through the unbroken continuity of boyish practice. Games of ball have now with us purely a diversional char acter, but it seems probable that even this harmless amusement has a somewhat sinister history. Mr. Newell, the distinguished American folklorist, reminds us that in England, country folk speak of the "camp-game" of ball and of the "camping-ground." Pollux, writing in Greek in the second century, gave an account of the" common ball," or "ball-battle," of his day. Almost exactly the same was the ancient Norse game, except that the resemblance to warfare was closer. Playing the game was called “kemping," from Kemp, a warrior or champion, and the field was a "kemping-ground." kemping-ground." The Persians and Turks still practise a different sort of game, which is played on horseback. The Byzantine court adopted from the East the playing on horseback and the racket, but introduced these into a game resembling the ancient" ball-battle." The historian Cinnamus describes the Emperor Manuel, in the twelfth century, as fond of this kind of polo. From the Eastern custom we get our tennis, whilst, according to Newell, most of our games with bat and ball seem to have come down to us from the North. "The history of the change from actual to imitative warfare, from the latter to a harmless and courtly amusement or to a rustic pastime, from this last again in our days to a scientific sport, may supply material for serious reflection." These early games of ball were evidently martial exercises, and encouraged for the purpose of keeping the young men in good condition. for actual warfare. Our children also copy the actions of their parents, but it is noteworthy that they prefer the more primitive to the more civilised pursuits, and their games retain more of the savage character than is typical of nineteenth-century culture. The love of playing with dolls and of dressing and W. W. Newell, Games and Songs of American Children, New York, 1884, pp. 177, 178. tending them, and of pretending to keep house, of preparing food, and other characteristics of girlhood, fall into the same category as the hunting and martial games of boys. There are other games which may be regarded as being more purely diversional in character, as, for example, certain of the games of ball and numerous other simple amusements. Many of these are played equally by adults and children, whether savage or civilised. Mr. Stewart Culin, who has made the study of games a specialty, and who has written a valuable and beautifully illustrated work on the subject, from which I have made many gleanings, emphasises the fact that while games occur as amusements or pastimes among civilised men, among savage and barbarous peoples they are largely sacred and divinatory; and this naturally suggests a sacred and divinatory origin for many modern games. The latter have, however, so nearly lost their original meaning, that even with the light afforded by history it is practically impossible to trace their origin. The only other available method of inquiry is the comparative one, and it will be found that I have largely availed myself of this in the following essays, though I have employed the more strictly historical method wherever possible. ་་ 1 Games," says Culin, "must be regarded, not as conscious inventions [here he is speaking in general terms], but as survivals from primitive conditions, under which they originated in magical rites and chiefly as a means of divination. Based upon certain fundamental conceptions of the universe, they are characterised by a certain sameness, if not identity, throughout the world. Without the confirmation of linguistic evidence, they are insufficient to establish the connection of races or the transference of culture." 'Stewart Culin, Korean Games: with Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan, Philadelphia, 1895. Introduction, pp. xvii.-xix., xxxiv. The most important point elucidated by Culin is the proof of the early use of arrows for divining purposes. For convenience the arrows were flattened, and ultimately were replaced by long narrow strips of cardboard, on one side of which was painted a distinctive device, while on the other a queer design, which is evidently the conventional representation of the scar of the leaf which primitively marked the shaft of the arrow when it was actually a reed (Fig. 35). These elongated cards were shortened and broadened, and from them have been derived our modern playing FIG. 35. Back of a Korean Playing-Card; after Culin. This figure was kindly lent by the proprietors of the Reliquary and Illustrated Archæologist. cards, which even now retain amongst the credulous a divinatory property, and are also still used for gambling as well as for more innocent amusement. Korean playingcards still bear representations of the feathers of the arrows from which they were derived, and their Chinese name varies only in tone from that of the arrow, tsin. In the fourth year of the Hejira, Mohammed prohibited wine and Meisir; the latter was a gambling game of the heathen Arabs, in which seven arrows were shaken from a quiver. Another remarkable evolution from the employment of arrows in divination is that of the Chinese dominoes, and Europe has borrowed this game from China. Culin calculates that of the ninety-seven Korean games described by him, twenty-three may be referred to the arrow employed as an implement of magic or divination. Lastly, there are games and toys which are the secularised and degenerate survivals of magical practices other than purely divinatory, and even of religious rites, although these two often merge into one another. I have taken a few games and toys, and have endeavoured to work out their history as an illustration of the methods of modern research. The evidence is at present incomplete, but we cannot satisfactorily determine the game of cat's cradle, with which I commence, or that of the top, in the following chapter, to be other than simple diversions. The tug-of-war was probably a magical rite, and kite-flying had apparently a religious significance. Finally, the bull-roarer at the present day represents the three aspects of amusement, magic, and religion. CAT'S CRADLE. One child holds a piece of string joined at the ends on his upheld palms, a single turn being taken over each, and by inserting the middle finger of each hand under the opposite turn, crosses the string from finger to finger in a peculiar form. Another child then takes off the string on his fingers in a rather different way, and it then assumes a second form. A repetition of this manoeuvre produces a third form, and so on. Each of these forms has a particular name, from a fancied resemblance to the object-barn-doors, bowling-green, hour-glass, pound, net, fiddle, fish-pond, diamonds, and others.' The following forms are those known to Mrs. Gomme. They are produced seriatim. 1. The cradle. 2. The soldier's bed. 3. Candles. 4. The cradle inversed, or manger. |