Cat's cradle

Cat's cradle is a well known series of string figures created between two people as a game. The name of the entire game, the specific figures, their order, and the names of the figures vary. Versions of this game have been found in indigenous cultures all over the world--from the Arctic to the Equatorial zones. In some regions of the US, this game is also known as Jack in the Pulpit.

How to play

The game begins with the first player wrapping a loop of string around the hand (around the fingers or wrists) and taking one side of the string and circling the hands again. Then this player performs the last two moves of Opening A: taking the string witch runs on the inside of the left arm onto the first finger of their right hand, then, reaching through the triangle created, the loop on the inside of the right hand is taken onto the first finger of the left hand).

The aim of the game is to make a series of figures include the "cat's cradle". This is created by two sets of crossed string between both hands. A second player grasps each cross horizontally using the thumb and first fingers, pulls these outwards, down under the line which runs below the crosses from the first players wrists, and back up. The first player lets go of the figure and the second player stretches it open by bringing apart the thumbs and fingers. This figure is the "diamonds". A series of other alterations produce more figures, some of which lead back to the diamonds while some are dead ends and cannot be transformed. (Some say that "diamonds" is the cat's cradle from the game title, while others insist it's only the game title, and not any figures.)

This game is very simple and is always started with the above opening. After that one mostly pinches the x's and wrap them around the outside strings. The other moves tend to need a little more practice.

History

The origin of the name "cat's cradle" may have come from a corruption of cratch-cradle, or manger cradle [Taylor, "Cats-Cradle", p. 421-422: "Nares, under Cratche, an archaic word for manger, deems it to be the origin of the name of this game, which, however, he calls "scratch-cradle". But it clearly, he says, meant originally "cratch-cradle," the manger which held the Holy Infant as a cradle..."] [Nares, "A Glossary", p. 203: "This opens to us the meaning of a childish game, corruptly called "scratch-cradle," which consists in winding a packthread double round the hands, into a rude representation of a manger, which is taken off by the other player on his hands, so as to assume a new form, and thus alternately for several times, always changing the appearance. The art consists in making the right changes. But it clearly meant originally the "cratch-cradle;" the manger that held the Holy Infant as a cradle."] (though this derivation is disputed by the OED). The French word for manger is "crèche", and cattle feed racks are still known as "cratches". The "manger cradle" is significant in the nativity: Jesus was born in a barn and laid in a manger because no other lodgings were available.

In an [http://www.john-leech-archive.org.uk/1858/snowed-up.htm 1858 Punch Cartoon] it is referred to as "Scratch Cradle", a name supported by [http://www.bartleby.com/81/15032.html Brewer's 1898 Dictionary] . Different cultures have different names for the game, and often different names for the individual figures. (For instance, the Russians call the whole game simply "the game of string" and the "diamonds" pattern a "carpet", and have names like "field", "fish" and "sawhorse" for all other figures. The cat isn't ever mentioned, but the cradle is, though it's the initial figure that is called so.)

Cat's cradle is probably one of humanity's oldest games, and is spread among an astonishing variety of cultures, even ones as unrelated as Europeans and the Dyaks of Indonesia; Alfred Wallace who, while traveling in Borneo, thought of amusing the Dyak youths with a novel game with string, was in turn very surprised when they proved to be familiar with it, and showed him some figures and transitions that he hadn’t previously seen. In China Cat's Cradle is called Catch Cradle. The anthropologist Louis Leakey has also described his use of this game to obtain the cooperation of Sub-Saharan African tribes otherwise unfamiliar with, and suspicious of, Europeans. A character in Joanna Russ's 1975 novel "The Female Man" calls cat's cradle "the universal symbol of peace".

World Record

Geneva Hultenius, Maryann DiVona, and Rita Divona completed 21,200 cat's cradles in 21 hours in Chula Vista, California. The Guinness Book of World Records reported it as a world record in the 1975 and 1976 editions.

References

Bibliography

*Nares, Robert. "A Glossary: Or, Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions to Customs, Proverbs, Etc." London: Gibbings and Company, Limited (1901).
*Taylor, E.S. "Cats-Cradle", pp. 412-422 of "Notes and Queries: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, Etc." Vol. 11 (January—June, 1855). London: George Bell (1855).

External links

* [http://www.alysion.org/figures/catcradle.htm Cat's Cradle Section on the WWW Collection of Favorite String Figures]