these kites are box-shaped, with their ends open and their sides partly covered with cloth or silk. This style of kite, which has also been in use at Blue Hill for some months, is found to be admirably adapted to the purpose for which it is intended, and when fine piano wire is used to hold it, instead of twine, is a splendid flyer. "Clayton, of the Blue Hill Observatory, has for some time been using kites to help in determining the altitudes of the base of stratus and nimbus. These clouds, which so often cover the whole sky with a uniform sheet, can only have their heights determined under the most favourable circumstances if the ordinary theodolite is used. 1 "The work done at Blue Hill Observatory with kites was outlined by Clayton before the Boston Scientific Society at a recent meeting. The kites at present in use are the Eddy, or tailless, and the Hargrave, or box-kite. Continued experiments at Blue Hill have resulted in the development of scientific kite-flying on a remarkable scale. Recent ascents have reached altitudes but little short of a mile above sea level; and excellent records have been obtained by means of a self-recording instrument which gives automatic readings of temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind velocity. The meteorological results already obtained are of great value, and the full discussion of them is awaited with interest. Among the most important matters that have been noted is the presence of cold waves and warm waves at considerable elevations some hours before the temperature changes are noted at the earth's surface. The prospect of improving our weather forecasts by such soundings of the free air is very encouraging, and it is more than likely that before long some practical use will be made of these discoveries. "The next few years will undoubtedly witness many improvements in kites used for meteorological purposes, and the United States seems to be distinctly in the lead in this work at the present time.' 1 Boston Commonwealth, May 9, 1896, 12-13. 2 R. De C. Ward, Science (N.S.), iii., 1896, p. 801. True to the tradition of thousands of years, the ingenuity of Europe is concerned in an endeavour to increase her machinery for war. It is extremely difficult for an expert marksman to hit even a captive balloon, and it is doubtful whether our newest field-gun would be of much service in this respect, but a kite would be much more difficult to hit. Therefore it really does become of some interest to know whether an enemy can by means of a parcel of kites take photographs of our defences, and by the same method detonate over our cities several dozen pounds of nitro-glycerine. Captain Baden-Powell, of the Scots Guards, is our great authority on kites in England. He makes these toys of our childhood on such a scale that they can, with a good wind, carry up a staff-officer. He is understood to laugh at balloons as a means of observing a foe, and to claim that, whereas balloons must be a failure when the wind is strong, kites will do nearly all their work in a gale or half a gale. The use of kites for scientific purposes is obvious enough. By their aid real bird's-eye views may be taken with a camera flying aloft, the shutter being actuated by mechanical means or preferably by electricity. Mr. Woglom' gives us some specimens of views of New York City taken from the neighbourhood of Washington Square. We do not know that they show us much more than could be had from the roofs of some of the monster buildings which the straitness of New York necessitates, and which are unhappily not unknown now in London. But they at least prove the possibility, which the ordinary man might well have doubted, of manipulating a camera attached to a kite. If that can be done at two hundred feet from the ground while the kite is in the air, it can obviously be done at two thousand feet. 1 Gilbert Totten Woglom, Parakites: A Treatise on the Making and Flying of Tailless Kites for Scientific Purposes and for Recreation (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896). "The form of kite from which the 'parakite' is an evolution is the general form of the Asiatic kite, substantially a square, whereof the two diagonals are respectively horizontal and vertical with a convex windward side, the convexity produced by a third transverse member which is curved upward as well as to the windward face. The Woglom parakite flies without a tail, and will not fly properly with one. 99 1 With all our vaunted progress and science we have not so very much to pride ourselves upon even in this latest development of military tactics; for we are, after all, only following in the footsteps of the Chinese and Japanese. Kites are said to have been invented by the Chinese General, Han-Sin, about 200 B.C. He flew in the air figures of different forms and colours, and thus signalled from a besieged town to the army that was coming to his succour.' In a war with Japan, some four hundred years ago, a Korean general encouraged his dispirited soldiers, who were discouraged by the appearance of falling stars, by secretly making a kite, to which he attached a small lantern, and one dark night he sent it up. The soldiers accepted this as an auspicious omen, and renewed the struggle with increased energy. Another general flew a kite across an impassable stream; it lodged in a tree on the other side, and by its means he pulled a strong cord across and ultimately made a bridge. Ui Shosetsu, the Japanese who tried to upset the Tokugawa government in the seventeenth century, made a large kite, to which he fastened himself, and, being carried up into the air, he was enabled to overlook the castle of Yedo. A famous Japanese robber, Ishikawa Goemon, in the sixteenth century, attempted by mounting on a kite to steal the two celebrated solid golden fish, which, as finials, adorned two spires of the great castle of Nagoya. The fish 1 Loc. cit., p. 16. 2 F. Dillaye, Les Jeux de la Jeunesse, 1885, p. 34. were worth the risk, as they were valued at from £15,000 to £16,000, but the daring thief failed in his purpose. 1. A Korean kite, with "crow's feet." 2. A Chinese kite. 3. from a Japanese drawing (1-3 after Culin). 4. Kite from the Solomon Islands It is to the same end of Asia that we must turn if we wish to study kites from an anthropological point of view, and there we shall find them in profusion, of quaint and varied form, brilliant in colour, and in addition we find them put to diverse uses and imbued with symbolic significance. Nor are the times and seasons for kite-flying unimportant. With us kites may be flown all the year round, provided there is wind enough; but, as a matter of fact, spring is the more usual season for the sport. In the far East we find that definite times are appointed for this exercise. In his learned book on Korean Games, Mr. Stewart Culin informs us that the time for kite-flying in Korea is the first half of the first month; after this time any one would be laughed at who flew a kite, nor will any one touch a lost kite. On the fourteenth day of the same month it is customary in Korea to write on kites a wish to the effect that the year's misfortunes may be carried away with them. A mother does this for a small boy, adding his name and the date of his birth. The inscription is written along the bamboo frame, so that it may not be readily seen by any one who might be tempted to pick up the kite. The boys tie a piece of sulphur paper on the string of such a kite, which they light before sending up, so that when the kite is in the air the string will be burnt through and the kite itself blown away. 44 64 99 66 It is evident that the kite is, in this instance, treated as a scapegoat," the goat of the Hebrews being replaced by a bird. In Japan, kites are called "octopus,' paper-hawk, paper-owl," etc.; and in Korea the rectangular kites are provided at each of the lower angles with triangular pieces of white paper called the "crow's foot," and near the upper border is a disc of coloured paper, which probably is the vestige of an antecedent bird's face (Fig. 36, No. 1). All classes fly kites, from the king downwards. Women some |