LLX > Neil Parker > String Figures > Elementary School
This is one of the most widely known string tricks in the world. I don't recall my schoolmates having a specific name for it, so I'm calling it "String Off the Fingers" to describe the effect. It's the same as [Jayne 1906]'s "Mouse" trick.
1. Holding left hand palm toward you, with fingers pointing toward the right, hang the loop on the left thumb, so that a palmar string hangs in front of the palm of the hand, and a dorsal string hangs behind the back of the hand.
2. Pass the right index finger under (proximal to) the left palmer string, between the left thumb and index finger. Reaching between the left thumb and index fingers, hook the right index finger over the left dorsal string, and pull it back an inch or two toward you, under the left palmer string.
3. Give the right index a half-twist clockwise, and place its tip against the tip of the left index, and let the new right index loop fall off onto the left index.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 three more times, leaving new loops on the left middle finger, then the ring finger, and finally the little finger, each time pulling the dorsal string from between that finger and the one above (radial to) it.
To perform the trick, release left thumb loop, and with the right hand, grab the two loose strings dangling from the left little finger, and pull. The string will come completely free from the left hand.
A very different way of achieving the same effect was known to one or two of my schoolmates.
1. Holding left hand with fingers pointing up, and palm facing right, hang the loop on the left little finger, so that the near and far strings hang down the left palm. Grab both string of the left little finger loop with the right hand, a few inches from the left little finger.
2. Give the loop held in the right hand a half-twist counter-clockwise, and pass the left ring finger into it from below, close to the right hand, so that the cross in the strings falls between the left little finger and ring finger.
3. Give the loop held by the right hand a half-twist clockwise (i.e. the opposite direction from before), and pass the left middle finger into the loop from below, close to the right hand, so that the cross in the strings falls between the left ring and middle fingers.
4. Repeat step 2, but putting the loop onto the left index finger instead of the left ring finger.
5. Repeat step 3, but this this time give the loop a full twist (i.e. two half twists) clockwise, and insert the thumb into the loop. (The full twist in this step, and only in this step, is essential...without it the trick doesn't work.)
6. Give the loop held in the right hand a half-twist counter-clockwise, and pass it away from you back over the left thumb. Turn the left hand so that its palm faces toward you.
7. Give the loop held by the right hand half-twist counter-clockwise, and pass the left index finger into it from below, close the right hand, so that the cross in the strings falls between the left thumb and index finger.
8. Give the loop held by the right hand half-twist clockwise, and pass the left middle finger into it from below, close the right hand, so that the cross in the strings falls between the left index and middle fingers.
9. Repeat step 7, putting the loop onto the left ring finger.
10. Repeat step 8, putting the loop onto the left little finger.
As with the first version, the trick is performed by releasing the left thumb loops and pulling on the strings dangling from the left little finger. If all the twists were done correctly, the string comes completely free of the left hand.
The trick also works if all the twists are made in the opposite direction. A slight variation is to make no twist in step 5.
The instructions above are taken from [Abraham 1932], because I don't recall the exact twists used by my schoolmates. They may have used the no-twist-in-step-5 variant.