Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/46

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Kite Time.
21

it. The breast-band is made like that upon an ordinary kite the cross-strings, being attached to the face at the top and bottom, intersect each other about opposite a point between the eyes.

Fig. 26 represents the top view of a single disk, showing where the reeds and string are attached. Fig. 27 shows a side view of two disks, and the way in which they are connected by strings, six and a half inches space being left between each two disks. A (Fig. 27) is a front view of finished kite.

The Japanese Square Kite
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Fig. 28.Japanese Square Kite Frame.

is not, as its name might imply, perfectly square. It is rectangular in form, and made with a framework of very thin bamboo or cane sticks, bound together as shown in Fig. 28. This frame is covered with Japanese paper, to which all the sticks are tightly glued. The kite is bent backward, making the front slightly convex, and held in this position by strings tied from end to end of the cross-sticks at the back; the breast-band may be attached as on an ordinary six-sided kite. Instead of a tail-band, with a single tail attached, this foreigner carries two tails, one tied at each side to the protruding ends of the diagonal sticks at the bottom of the kite. The illustration on page 4, of two boys making ready to fly one of these kites, is a copy from a picture made by a Japanese artist.

The Moving Star

is a paper lantern attached to the tail of any large kite.

A Chinese lantern will answer this purpose, although it is generally so long and narrow that the motion of the kite is apt to set fire to it.

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