ABSTRACT
The Leŋge make various kinds of figures with a string made of a vegetable fibre known as vuʃolwa. The fibres are extracted from the bark of the branches of the shrub of this name ( = Grewia occidentalis Linn.) and rolled in the usual way to form the string. The general name for string figures in Leŋge and Tʃopi is vuʃolwa, but amongst the Thoŋga they are called vatʃaka or tʃakata. The word gutʃaka in Leŋge means to throw the dice (or bones) for divination. According to the statement of an old Leŋge woman, ‘the mothers make string-pictures of everything, and teach their little daughters to make them, in order that the little girls may be wise, and may play by themselves when their mothers are in the fields’. While this is so there seems to be something more than mere play in the string figures. A native once told me that he thought they were connected with divination, and that to know too much about them was to show that you were well instructed in witchcraft. I have noticed that the majority of girls whom I ask about them are very eager to disclaim any knowledge of them, or perhaps reluctantly admit that they know one or two.
