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times fly kites from their yards, but it is said that any one can tell when a kite is flown by a woman.

In Japan the season for kite-flying greatly varies; in general it appears to depend upon the prevailing winds. At Tokyo it begins on the first day of the New Year, and kites are never flown at any other season. On the other hand, at Nagasaki, kites are not flown in the first month, but the festivals for kite-flying are the 3d, 10th, 15th, and 25th of the third month, the 3d being the occasion of a “religious festival of dolls" (literally of "chickens," or "young birds ").

On the 5th of the fifth month is the boys' festival. Streamers and small flags are displayed, and a large coloured carp of cloth or paper. This fish is respected, as it resolutely overcomes all the difficulties it encounters in its passage up the streams of the country, even ascending waterfalls; thus it is emblematic of what it is hoped will be the career of the boys. Models of helmets and warriors are also exhibited as expressions of the hope that boys may become great men. There is a distinct association of ideas between long flags and kites. The same day in other parts of Japan is an especial occasion for kite-flying. In the province of Suruga all the boys who can afford it have a kite on this day. It is considered very unlucky for a boy to lose his kite; should this happen, it is customary for search parties to follow the lost kite even for a distance of twenty miles, and those who bring it back are rewarded with presents of sake. It is recorded that a boy once lost his kite on the day of this feast, and a few months later he died. Girls never have kites. In this case it appears that the kite is regarded as a "life-token," or " external soul," of the boy. But this symbolism is limited to certain occasions and places. In Nagasaki, when a kite escapes, no special effort is made to recover it.

The middle and upper classes in China indulge in the pastime in a desultory way; it is not with them a national sport, as with the Japanese and with the natives of the countries south of China.' The Koreans say that the Chinese do not know how to fly kites, and that when a Chinaman grows tired he will tie the string on to a tree and lie down and watch it.'

In Hong-Kong the kite-flying season is the end of summer; but in some parts of China the ninth day of the ninth month has been from ancient times the great kite-flying festival, when paper birds and bizarre monsters flit, swoop, and hover in multitudes in the bright sunshine (Fig. 36, No. 2).

In the mountains of the province of Canton kites are flown in gangs.

"The flier dismisses a leash of three, united by three lines of a few feet in length. At the junction of the three ends he attaches a single line, which is dismissed a few feet farther in the air. Then raising another separate leash of three-similar in arrangement to the first-he ties the joined ends of the second leash to his main single line, and dismisses the second trio, the first trio being in the air beyond and above the second. He repeats the operation as many times as his stock of kites and his stock of patience will allow. He heedfully chooses kites which have been proven sidewise fliers, so that they may not foul each other; if a fresher wind attacks his exhibit, his painstaking is ineffective; they will whirl into a confusion of entanglement which would exasperate any but a Chinaman.'' '

To a very large extent kite-flying in China and Japan is now a simple amusement; but this is what one constantly finds in the history of ancient ceremonial customs. Mr. 1G. T. Woglom, Parakites, p. 9.

2 S. Culin, Korean Games, p. 12. 3 G. T. Woglom, Parakites, p. 9.

Woglom informs us that the Japanese have their kite-clubs with quite large membership rolls. One prominent club, the Shiyen Kwai, holds assemblies annually in January for consultation and to decide competitively upon new designs. Prizes for beauty of design and decoration, and for perfection in build and accuracy in flight, are competed for at the meetings, which are protracted for several days. The club meetings are held in Tokyo, and the flights are held in the suburbs.

The "Festival of the Cherry-Bloom" is a season for national sport. Old men, up to eighty years of age, after their tiring efforts in raising their pets into the heavens, and too feeble to stand continuously, are attended by servants with chairs. When travelling through a sparsely inhabited section, the rider will see an ancient, mummy-like Japanese sitting by the roadside, perhaps upon a bamboo-pole support, contentedly flying and watching his kite hour after hour. Nowadays in Japan, the kite-flying by both adults and children is practised outside the cities; the police regulations forbid it in the narrow city streets.

One exciting form of the sport is known as kite-fighting. The strings, for a portion of their length, are covered with powdered glass, or sharp-edged, curved pieces of glass are fastened to the tails of the kites, the object being to cut the string of an opponent's kite by a sawing motion of the string of your own kite whilst both are flying. It has been stated that kite-cutting did not originate in China, but that it was brought from India. A description of this skilful pastime is given by Woglom in Parakites.'

In Siam each mandarin has his special form of kite with a distinctive colour. The king, also, is said to have a magnificently decorated kite, which is flown at sunset and kept flying all night by mandarins of the first rank. It is with1 1 Pp. 6, 8, 9.

drawn at sunrise.' Here again there must be a symbolic or magical significance for this curious custom.

Not only in Further India, but in India itself, on the one hand, and in the Malay region to the south, is kite-flying practised. It is very prevalent in Java. The several Javanese communities have each their peculiar kinds of kites, and they hold contests to prove superiority of manufacture or skill in manipulation. The old form of English kite was a Javanese pattern. Woglom says that the Javanese kites are seldom decorated, except with dirt. The Javanese, more generally than the Japanese, gamble on the results of kite competitions and kite battles. They fly them to heights of 700 to 1200 feet for display.

Dr. Codrington' informs us that in Melanesia kites are used as toys in the Banks Islands, and in the New Hebrides they are made and flown at the season when the gardens are being cleared for planting. The kite is steadied by a long reed tail, and a good one will fly and hover very well.

In Lepers' Island the kite is called an "eagle," and the following song is sung when flying one:

"Wind! wherever you may abide,

Wherever you may abide, Wind! come hither;
Pray take my eagle away from me afar.

E-u! E-u! Wind! blow strong and steady,
Blow and come forth, O Wind!”

But the kite is put to a more utilitarian use in the Solomon Islands and Santa Cruz. Here it is flown from a canoe, and from it hangs a tangle of spiders' web or of fibre, which it drags along the surface of the water and in which fish with long slender under-jaws become entangled (Fig. 36, No. 4). F. Dillaye, Les Jeux de la Jeunesse, 1885, p. 39.

R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians: Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-Lore, 1891, pp. 342, 336. 3 Loc. cit., p. 318.

The Fijians know of the kite by the Polynesian name of Manumanu," bird," but apparently they do not fly it.'

The use of the kite was widely spread in Polynesia, being recorded from the Society Islands and as far south as New Zealand. Ellis states: "The boys were very fond of the uo, or kite, which they raised to a great height. The Tahitian kite was different in shape from the kites of the English boys. It was made of light native cloth instead of paper, and formed in shape according to the fancy of its owner. In New Zealand

Their figure

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"the name of the kite is the old term for the hawk. is generally a rough imitation of the bird with its great out-spread wings; these kites are frequently made of very large dimensions of raupo leaves, a kind of sedge, neatly sewn together and kept in shape by a slight framework. The string is most expeditiously formed and lengthened at pleasure, being merely the split leaves of the flax plant [Phormium tenax]. This is a very favourite amusement."

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Dieffenbach says: "The kite is of triangular form, and is very neatly made of the light leaves of a sedge; its ascent is accompanied with some saying or song, such as the He karakia pakau. It is a sign of peace when it is seen flying near a village. Dieffenbach gives the words of this song, but unfortunately it is not translated. Tregear' says that the kite kahu (hawk), or pakau (wing), is made from the leaves of the raupo (Typha angustifolia).

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There were three kinds of kites in the remote Hervey Islands, which were either egg-shaped, club-shaped, or bird1 Seemann, Viti, p. 45.

W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i., 2d ed., 1831, p. 228.

3 R. Taylor, Te Ika a Maui; or, New Zealand and its Inhabitants, 1855, P. 172.

E. Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, ii., 1843, p. 31.

'E. Tregear, Journ. Anth. Inst., xix., p. 115.

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