The crown-top kite (Fig. 13) is three feet and six inches wide, three feet high, and one foot across the bottom. These sizes are for a kite of medium size; if a larger one is desired it can be made five feet and three inches wide, four feet and three inches high, and eighteen inches across the foot. The sticks are from a quarter to half an inch square and bound together with strong, thin cord (Fig. 14). Muslin is the proper covering for this frame, but if thin, strong paper is preferred it can be used to good advantage.
Sandwich Islands Bird Kite
One afternoon in the village of Paihiihi, on Maui, one of the Sandwich Islands, I saw, at a considerable distance from me, a curious object floating in the air and at first mistook it for a large bird. It would glide about in graceful curves or dart suddenly towards the ground only to soar upward just as suddenly, or poise motionless save for a slight flapping of its wings.
But my blissful ignorance was soon dispelled by the laughter of a friend who assured me that I was gazing at one of the kites of the cannibals—a name sportively applied to a number of natives of the Gilbert Islands who immigrated to Maui some time since. They are a more barbarous people than the Hawaiians but seem to be amiable, and I have never known them to eat anything worse than a shark.
Wishing to see this new variety of kite, I started immediately for the scene of action, and was soon in the midst of a dozen or more men and women about half of whom had kites, which were larger than I had supposed, being from thirteen to fifteen feet wide and two to three feet high. When I arrived several were floating high in the air almost directly over the men who held the strings—sometimes, indeed, sailing directly over them.
I watched for some time their graceful, birdlike motion and then tried to buy one. They seemed loath to part with them, however, and it was only after I had exhausted nearly all my persuasive powers and all the small change in my pockets that I succeeded in obtaining one. My awkward endeavors to carry it away with me were greeted with much laughter until one of the cannibals showed me the proper way to handle it.
The drawings which I have made of one of these kites will enable any enterprising boy to make one. As no tail is used great care must be taken to make it perfectly symmetrical. It is also desirable to have the kite very light and yet as stiff as possible.
The proper construction of the frame is shown in Fig. 15. The total width of this kite is thirteen feet and the height at the middle is thirty-two inches. First cut the middle stick C C thirty-two inches long and lay it on the floor of a barn where a few nails can be driven in temporarily to hold the sticks while bending them into the proper shapes. Cut sticks D D, E E, and F F, and place them on the floor either side of the middle one. The long, straight stick A A is twelve feet in length, of half-inch basswood or pine, and slightly tapered with a plane at both ends. Lash this to each of the cross-sticks, then with a long stick bend the bow around nails driven in the floor as indicated by the dots under the bow-piece in Fig. 15.
This bow-piece is half an inch square and tapered with a plane at both ends. It would be well to pour boiling water on this stick for a distance of three feet at both ends, so as to make it easier to bend. Leave it in this position for a few hours until the water dries out and the wood is shaped, then lash the top ends of the cross-sticks to the bow-piece.