No! “Cat’s Cradle” is the name of a string game in which children loop string around their fingers. It is a game played by children everywhere today.
Cat’s cradle did not originate as a child’s game; rather it goes back to adult uses of string all over the world.
For example, in the Far East, string traps were set outside villages to catch wandering ghosts.
In Finland, sea witches were believed to control the power of the wind by tying it up with magical string knots and untying it for sailors who needed wind power, but only for a price.
Eskimos used a kind of cat’s cradle to catch the sun’s rays in an attempt to hold back the coming of winter.
In the hot Congo, on the other hand, the sun is trapped in a cat’s cradle for quite a different reason. The Congolese want the sun to rest awhile, and not shine so strongly.
In ancient Greek mythology, three Fates, goddesses who governed human fate, worked threads for everybody’s life. Clotho spun the person’s life; Lachesis wove the web of his luck, and Atropis cut the thread when it was time for his death.
