Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/371

mid-finger string, and maintaining this position (Fig. 4), moves the hand up to B's right hand, the ring being between A's hand and B's left. Drawing the mid-finger string between himself and

Fig. 4.

his index loop A places the tip of the mid-finger against the point of B's right thumb and transfers the string to B's thumb, still retaining the index loop. Taking this index loop in the left hand, A takes up with the back of the right index the part of B string between the ring and B's left. Placing the tip of the index against the tip of B's right thumb, A again transfers the loop, the long string of this loop being the one nearer to B. A now takes hold of the ring with his right hand and works it up to B's right, drops the index loop held in the left hand, and pulls the ring, which will slide off the free end of the slack part of the loop (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5.

I am indebted to Miss Haddon for this method, which seems to be composite. See the remark appended to the "World-wide Finger-string Trick," infra.

There is a third way, intermediate in complexity to the two just described.

Placing the loop as before on B's thumbs or indices, A takes up A string on the back of the left index, between the ring and B's right hand. At the same time, with his left little finger he pulls a part of the same string still nearer to B's right, a little towards himself, making a little finger loop. A transfers