it’s an age old story: you find yourself in some thick rainforest a million miles from your cozy suburb. the call of nature strikes and while taking a crap behind a tree (wiping with some poisonous leaf of course) your surprised to be surrounded by naked blow-gun toting natives! in this all too common scenario the sensible thing is to make friends, quick-like. according to this little book i’ve got, originally published in 1934, titled string games for beginners representational pictures made with a length of string are one of the most common bits of cultural overlap going and for this reason are one of the best possible ways of making friends with natives! indeed.

what follows is a short primer of some useful string symbols if you should ever find yourself (most likely after exiting a malfunctioning time machine of your own design) faced with some strangers in a strange land, like some pissed off inuits, some aboriginal roughnecks, or say a group of angry navahos / apaches. better grab some twine and get practicing-

that last one is especially useful for complimenting a chieftain’s wife. take my word for it, very smooth.