String Games of Australian Children

Abstract

A HASTY hit-or-miss survey made in 1954-51 disclosed ten stringgame-names current among Australian English-speaking children and eight different figures: Crow's Foot (Melbourne and Perth); Parachute - sometimes identical with Crow's Foot (Melbourne) and sometimes the same figure upside down (Queensland); French Lace (Queensland) and Sydney Harbor Bridge (Perth) - the same figure; Queen's Crown (Queensland) and Witches Hat (Queensland) - same figure; King's Crown (Queensland and Victoria); and Cup and Saucer (Melbourne). The traditional European term 'Cat's Cradle' was unfamiliar to all the children and to most of the adults consulted; the activity appeared to be surviving without a title - a strange phenomenon in the academic way of thinking. Nobody has yet made any attempt to find out whether or not Australian white children have learned any string games from the aborigines. The assumption is that they have not; that the current string games have been transmitted via British tradition.2 This assumption may need investigation, however, for Brian SuttonSmith3 found few reports of string games among New Zealand children after 900oo 'except from those places where children have picked it up from Maori children'. Although for geographical reasons, among others, New Zealand white children associate more ' The author, as an American Fulbright Research Scholar, sponsored by the University of Melbourne, spent ten months in Australia collecting and studying children's traditional play customs. 2 A. B. Gomme, Dictionary of British Folklore, Vol. I, London, 1894, pp. 61-2, lists seven string game names and pictures six: The Cradle: The Soldier's Bed;