ABSTRACT
Another game played with string is cat’s cradle, which originated in Asia and traveled to Europe via the tea trade of the early seventeenth century. Using cord tied in a loop, the players take turns grasping the string with their fingers in elaborate patterns. The common cup-and-ball toy derives from ancient Greece and India. It was popular in Europe in the late sixteenth century among both children and adults. Transmitted to America, the toy was used to develop hand-eye coordination; playing with it involved maneuvering a wooden ball connected to a handle by a string into the cup without the hands touching the ball.
