Editing Cat's cradle

{{Short description|String figure game}}
{{about|the specific string game, Cat's cradle|string figures and games in general|string figure}}
{{Other uses}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2017}}
[[File:Cats-cradle.svg|thumb|"Cradle", the first (and opening) position of Cat's cradle]]
[[File:String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu|thumb|page=377|"Cat's eye to fish in a dish" illustration from Jayne (1906)]]

'''Cat's cradle''' is a game involving the creation of various [[string figure]]s between the fingers, either individually or by passing a loop of string back and forth between two or more players. The true origin of the name is debated, though the first known reference is in ''The light of nature pursued'' by [[Abraham Tucker]] in 1768.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/87650.html|title='Cat's Cradle' - the meaning and origin of this phrase|last=Martin|first=Gary|website=Phrasefinder|language=en|access-date=2018-01-16}}</ref> The type of string, the specific figures, their order, and the names of the figures vary. Independent versions of this game have been found in [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous]] cultures throughout the world, including in Africa, Eastern Asia, the Pacific Islands, Australia, the Americas, and the Arctic.<ref name=boas>{{cite book |first=Franz |last=Boas |author-link=Franz Boas |title=The Central Eskimo |orig-date=First published 1888 |contribution=introduction |contributor=Henry B. Collins |date=1964 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=0-8032-5016-9 }}</ref>{{rp|page 161}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cats-cradle_us_5a3bcd4ae4b0df0de8b062f5|title=Cat's Cradle|last=Zgheib|first=Yara|date=2017-12-21|website=Huffington Post|language=en-US|access-date=2018-01-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://si-siris.blogspot.com/2010/05/cats-cradle.html|title=Cat's Cradle|last=Archives|first=National Anthropological|date=2010-05-13|website=Smithsonian Collections Blog|access-date=2018-01-16}}</ref>

==Play==
[[File:Eishosai Choki - Cat's Cradle.jpg|thumb|upright|''The lovers, Okiku and Yosuke, play cat’s cradle'', by [[Eishōsai Chōki]] (1804)]]

The simplest version of the game involves a player using a long string loop to make a complex figure using their fingers and hands.<ref>Gryski, Camilla (1985). ''Many Stars & More String Games'', pp. 66–72. Tom Sankey, illustrator. {{ISBN|0-688-05792-6}}.</ref>

Another version of the game consists of two or more players making a sequence of string figures, each altering the figure made by the previous player. The game begins with one player making the eponymous figure ''Cat's Cradle'' (above). After each figure, the next player manipulates that figure and removes the string figure from the hands of the previous player with one of a few simple motions and tightens the loop to create another figure, for example, ''Diamonds''. ''Diamonds'' might then lead to ''Candles'' (which is also known as ''Pinkies''), for example, and then ''Manger''—an inverted ''Cat's Cradle''—and so on. Most of the core figures allow a choice between two or more subsequent figures: for example, ''Fish in a Dish'' can become ''Cat's Eye'' or ''Manger''. The game ends when a player makes a mistake or creates a dead-end figure, which cannot be turned into anything else.<ref>[[Camilla Gryski|Gryski, Camilla]] (1984). ''Cat's Cradle, Owl's Eyes: A Book of String Games''. Tom Sankey, illustrator. {{ISBN|0688039413}}.</ref> Many players believe that ''Two Crowns'' or ''King's Crown'' is one such dead-end figure, although more experienced players recognize that it can be creatively maneuvered into ''Candles'' or ''Pinkies'', which allows the game to continue.

==History==
[[File:Mma two young women seated by a kotatsu playing cats cradle 55802.jpg|upright|thumb|"Two Young Women Seated by a [[Kotatsu]] Playing Cat's Cradle", [[Suzuki Harunobu]], Japan, ca. 1765]]

The origin of the name "cat's cradle" is debated but the first known reference is in ''The light of nature pursued'' by [[Abraham Tucker]] in 1768.<ref name=":0" /> 

{{blockquote|An ingenious play they call cat's cradle; one ties the two ends of a packthread together, and then winds it about his fingers, another with both hands takes it off perhaps in the shape of a gridiron, the first takes it from him again in another form, and so on alternately changing the packthread into a multitude of figures whose names I forget, it being so many years since I played at it myself.<ref name=":0" />}}

The name may have come from a corruption of cratch-cradle, or [[manger]] [[bassinet|cradle]]{{#tag:ref|"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..."<ref name="Taylor">Taylor, E.S. "Cats-Cradle", pp.&nbsp;412–422 of ''Notes and Queries: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, Etc.'', pp. 421–422, Vol. 11 (January&mdash;June, 1855). London: George Bell (1855).</ref>|group="nb"}}{{#tag:ref|"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."<ref name="Nares">Nares, Robert. ''A Glossary: Or, Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions to Customs, Proverbs, Etc.'', p. 203. London: Gibbings and Company, Limited (1901).</ref>|group="nb"}} (although this derivation is disputed by the [[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]]). The connection between the two words, ''cratches'' and ''cradle'', may come from the Christian [[Nativity of Jesus|story of the birth of Jesus]], in which a manger is used as a cradle.<ref name="Taylor" /><ref name="Nares" />

In an 1858 ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' cartoon,<ref>"[http://www.john-leech-archive.org.uk/1858/snowed-up.htm Snowed Up]", ''John-Leech-Archive.org.UK''.</ref> it is referred to as "scratch cradle", a name supported by [[E. Cobham Brewer|Brewer]]'s 1898 ''[[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable|Dictionary]]''.<ref>"[http://www.bartleby.com/81/15032.html Scratch Cradle]", ''Bartleby.com''.</ref> As "Cat's cradle" often is used to refer to string figures and games in general, Jayne uses "Real Cat's-Cradle" to refer to the specific game.<ref name="Jay">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/stringfigureshow0000jayn/page/324|url-access=registration|author=Jayne, C. F.|authorlink=Caroline Furness Jayne|year=1906|title=String Figures and How to Make Them|page=[https://archive.org/details/stringfigureshow0000jayn/page/324 324]|isbn=978-0-486-20152-8|publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]]|place=New York}}</ref>

Different [[culture]]s have different names for the game, and often different names for the individual figures. The [[French language|French]] word for manger is ''crèche'', and cattle feed racks are still known as ''cratches''. In [[Japan]], it is called “ayatori.” In [[Korea]], it is called "sil-tteu-gi." In [[Russia]], the whole game is called simply, ''the game of string'', and the ''diamonds'' pattern is called ''carpet'', with other pattern names such as ''field'', ''fish'', and ''sawhorse'' for the other figures—a ''cat'' isn't mentioned.<ref name="B&P">Buchanan, Andrea J. and Peskowitz, Miriam (2007). ''The Daring Book for Girls'', p.277. {{ISBN|978-0-06-147257-2}}.</ref> The game may have originated in China.{{Citation needed|reason=no relevant information found in the alleged source|date=December 2023}}<ref>(1989). ''Anthroquest: the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation news'', Issues 39–46, p.17. The Foundation.</ref> In [[China]], the game is called 翻繩 ''fan sheng'' ({{langx|en|turning rope}}),<ref name="Jay"/><ref name="B&P"/> In [[Israel]], the game is called "Knitting Grandmother" (in [[Hebrew]]: "סבתא סורגת", ''Savta Soreget''). In some regions of the [[United States|U.S.]], this game also is known as ''Jack in the Pulpit''.<ref>Anderson, John P. (2010). ''Joyce's Finnegans Wake: The Curse of Kabbalah'', Volume 4, p.301. {{ISBN|978-1-59942-810-9}}.</ref>

==World records==

Geneva Hultenius, Maryann Divona, and Rita Divona completed 21,200 changes of cat's cradles in 21 hours in Chula Vista, California between August 17–18, 1974. The ''[[Guinness World Records|Guinness Book of World Records]]'' reported it as a world record in the 1975 and 1976 editions.<ref>McWhirter, Norris and McWhirter, Alan Ross (1975). ''Guinness Book of World Records, 1976'', p.459. Revised. {{ISBN|978-0-8069-0014-8}}.</ref>

Jane Muir and Robyn Lawrick completed 22,700 changes of cat's cradles in 21 hours at [[Market Mall|Calgary Market Mall]], Alberta, Canada on August 25, 1976.<ref>McWhirter, Ross (1983). ''Guinness Book of World Records 1979'', p.453. {{ISBN|978-0-8069-0130-5}}.</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of string figures]]

==Notes==
<references group="nb" />

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* "[http://www.stringfigures.info/cfj/real-cats-cradle.html Directions for play by C.F. Jayne]", a digital version of C.F. Jayne's 1906 compendium, featuring many other string figures.
* "[http://www.alysion.org/figures/catcradle.htm Directions for play at Alysion.org]"
* "[http://www.ifyoulovetoread.com/book/chten_cats1105.htm Directions for play at IfYouLoveToRead.com]"
* "[http://www.wikihow.com/Play-The-Cat%27s-Cradle-Game Directions for play at wikihow.com]", a high-bandwidth page with videos for each of the different steps of the game.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpHTPnrYLzQ How to do Cat's Cradle], MomsMinivan, video, August 7, 2013, with a link to written instructions.
{{Library resources box}}

{{String figures}}

[[Category:String figures]]
[[Category:Geometry]]
[[Category:Ropework]]