Stick

“ In this sense I can see what a man is driving at when he draws a tree merely as a stick with smaller sticks standing out of it. He may be trying to trace in black and white or grey a primeval and almost prenatal illumination; that it is very remarkable that a stick should exist, and still more remarkable that a stick should stick up or stick out. ”

“ Stick, stik, n. a small shoot or branch cut off a tree: a staff or walking-stick: anything in the form of a stick, a cudgel: a piece of printers' furniture used to lock up a form in a chase, a printer's composing-stick: a stiff, stupidly obstinate person.—v.t. to furnish or set with sticks: to arrange in a composing-stick.—n. Stick′-in′sect, a walking-stick or phasmid insect. ”

“ A man holds the stick in his hand and waves it, and the stick, being pliable, makes the fly dance upon the water; and whether it be magic, or whether the fish be befooled, I know not, yet they bite the fly and are pierced with the hook, and so drawn to land. ”

“ Having planted in the ground a strong stick, in which a longitudinal slit has been made, or in which there is a natural slit, and having filled the slit with dry powdered gum leaves or the like, he draws the stick towards him, and keeps it firmly in its place by pressing his chest against it. ”

“ The stick is an ordinary broomstick in the end of which is a sharpened nail. In use the end of the stick is held in the left hand and the point is pressed into the board at any required height. The right hand, holding the tool, is rested on the stick just as the hand of a painter rests on the mahl-stick. ”

“ Stick play is a fine test of a man’s condition. At first every hit leaves an ugly mark, but as soon as the player gets really “fit,” it takes a very heavy blow indeed to bruise him. The sticks themselves should be ash-plants, about forty inches in length and as thick as a man’s thumb, without knots and unpeeled.
If you want them to last any time it is as well to keep a trough of water in the gymnasium, and leave your ash-plants to soak in it until they are wanted. ”

“ To go forth so simply equipped means that you are leaving your brains at home on that day—a thing I often do myself—but, I assure you, only when out for mere play!
A stick that cannot be used on an emergency either as an anchor or as a sounding-line to take castings with, is a poor friend. It is instructive to look curiously into the hole made by one’s stick. ”

“ You will each of you break a stick. A very strong but brittle stick. A large, thick stick. You will grasp it in tremendously strong mental hands. It is tremendously strong, each stick, but each of you is even stronger. ”

“ Anyone who has thrown away all his sticks is free to pick up any stick lying on the ground, with a pole which has a hook at the end, or by dexterously bending down and snatching it up with his hand as the horse gallops by. ”

“ Throughout all the early ages the stick was both the symbol and the instrument of power; and it is only the hand that can grasp and wield the stick. The early kings reigned by virtue of the strong arm and the supple hand. ”

“ A stick; a bludgeon, often made of the male bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) , and sometimes bound at short intervals with iron rings, forming a formidable weapon. {510b}The word is Hind. lāṭhī and laṭhī, Mahr. laṭhṭha. This is from Prakrit laṭṭhī, for Skt. yashṭi, 'a stick,' according to the Prakrit grammar of Vavaruchi (ed. Cowell, ii. 32) ; see also Lassen, Institutiones, Ling. Prakrit, 195. Jiskī lāṭhī, us kī bhaiṇs, is a Hind. proverb (cujus baculum ejus bubalus) , equivalent to the "good old rule, the simple plan." ”

“ Sometimes the stick is held in the left hand, to support the performer while he sways his body backwards and forwards. At each forward movement he strikes the stick in his left hand either with a bough or with another stick. ”

“ Farther on he met a man brandishing a thick stick as he walked.
"What is your stick good for that you brandish it so proudly?" asked the turbulent man.
"My stick is so much good that when I say to it, 'Fly, that man has stolen somewhat of me, fly after him and kill him and bring me back my goods,' it instantly flies at the man and brings my things back."
"Yours is a good stick, but see my goblet; whatsoever you desire of meat or drink this same goblet provides for the wishing. Will you exchange your stick against my goblet?" ”

“ She felt in the hole with her yam stick, and soon felt that there was something large there in the water. She cut a forked stick and tried to raise the body and get it out, for she felt sure it must be her son. But she could not raise it; stick after stick broke in the effort. ”

“ You see a stick set up on end, if it is perfectly straight and set true, will bear vastly more weight than a stick of twice or three times its thickness, if laid crossways. In fact a straight eight-inch stick nine feet long, if set on end will support nearly as much as another stick nine feet thick—if there were any sticks that thick—laid lengthwise. ”

“ The stick is meant partly to hold a man up, partly to knock a man down; partly to point with like a finger-post, partly to balance with like a balancing pole, partly to trifle with like a cigarette, partly to kill with like a club of a giant ”

“ When man was developed, no doubt one of his first ideas was to get hold of a really good serviceable stick—not a little modern masher’s crutch—a strong weapon, capable of assisting him in jumping, protecting him from wild beasts, and knocking down his fellow-man. ”

“ If you find the stick, and it is too long, you can easily saw off an end. Now comes the difficult part of the work: The inside of the stick must be scooped out to within four inches of the bottom. The easiest way of accomplishing this will be to send it to a turning-mill if there is one at hand; if not, patience and a jack-knife will in the end prevail. Next, with a little oil-color, paint a pretty design on the bark, if you can,—trailing-arbutus, partridge berry, sprays of linnea,—any wood thing which can be supposed to cluster naturally round a stump. ”

“ A stick is a useful thing to a gentleman. Gives him grace, furnishes occupation for his hands. Gloves in one hand, stick in the other—no man need get his hands mixed. Got this stick down on Washington Street an hour ago. How do I seem to handle it?" He walked across the room, holding the stick in the most approved fashion—of thirty years before.
"It's fine, Billy Little, it's fine," answered Dic, sorry to see an apparent weakness in his little friend, though loving [Pg 288] him better for the sake of it. ”

“ Single stick is a different weapon, a cane or light cudgel with a basket-hilt covering the back of the hand, like the imperfect guard of the Highland Clay-more; it is straight, not curved, and as the rod has no edges, so in practice every blow equally represents a cut. ”

“ A large walking stick, with an iron spike at the end, lay beside him, and a well-worn leather back to his coat, upon which he probably carried a basket or box, prompted the idea of his being either a messenger, or more likely a travelling pedlar, one who visits fairs and festivals, bringing wonderful news from distant lands, remedies for women against mad animals, and all sorts of coloured ribands and silks for girls. ”

“ The stick
held between the palms of the hands is rubbed rapidly to and fro, and some pressure is exerted downwards. When the hands nearly touch the flat piece of wood, they are suddenly raised almost to the top of the vertical stick, but so skilfully as to keep the stick in its place (and this is a movement not easy to Europeans) , and then again the twirl and downward pressure follow, and the movements are repeated until the charcoal-dust ignites. Fig. 232 shows the
form of the sticks employed. ”

“ The Balanced Stick.—A stick may be balanced and made to stand upright on the top of the finger by first taking the precaution to insert into its upper end, at about half an inch from that end, two knives, or two forks, or two other articles of equal weight. ”

“ To the right we see that the plain stick held in the centre gave the first idea of a defensive weapon, and was used to parry off the darts of the assailant; an aperture was then made in the stick for the hand, and the face of it became broader, developing into a shield, the narrow ends, however, being still retained for parrying. [38] Below I have shown that the long stick simply pointed at one end became a lance; a row of sharp flints were gummed on to one side to produce a cutting edge, and these were then imitated in wood, and by pointing them obliquely they were converted into barbs. ”

“ The stick wherewith it had learned to walk would now serve it to beat its younger brothers and then it found out its service as a lever. Man would thus learn that the limbs of his body were not the only limbs that he could command. ”

“ He sees the tree and it is alive and sentient to him; you cut a stick horse from its boughs, and that is separately alive; cut the stick again into two horses, and they will prance whole and satisfying. Later when the game is played out, the stick may burn and furnish live flame to dance, live smoke to ascend, live ash to be [Pg v] treated with contumely; all of which arises not so much in the mere trick of invention as in the natural difficulty in thinking of objects freed from consciousness, almost as great as the philosopher's in conceiving empty space. ”

“ Sometimes when the ground is soft two stakes (Fig. 10) should be driven in front instead of one. A stick a foot long will serve equally well for the bed-piece. Then a pen or house is built of stakes, or long chips, or stones, or pieces of board in the form of a V or Π, about nine inches tall, eight inches deep, and six inches wide. Then two sticks are prepared—one three inches long and half an inch thick, called the “standard” (Fig. 12) , the other eight inches long, and of the same thickness, called the bait-stick, one end being sharpened, the other flattened. ”

“ If the stick is to be a fancy one to be carried and swung in the hand, the roots can be carved into grotesque or fancy forms. But if for use, the handle should be round and smooth, so as to fit comfortably in the hand. The head of a dog, or a swan or goose, forms an appropriate design for a stick that is to be held on the arm when lighting a match, or when wishing to have both hands free. The crutch and hook are also comfortable forms. ”

“ The stick itself, rising above the grass, is visible at some distance, and when thrown it holds the hare or rabbit up for any one to see that passes by. With a wire set in the present manner the captured animal lies extended, and often rolls into a furrow and is further hidden. ”

“ Nowadays these sticks, which strictly speaking are of phallic significance, are flat and more like a tjuringa in shape, and have a number of peculiar markings on them. For a time the stick is laid beside the great water-stone, and the sorcerers kneel while they chant with a barely audible voice. They rise to their feet and the most influential individual who is decorated with stripes of yellow vegetable-down and wears a dog-tail tassel on his belt, lifts the [265] stick towards the sky and continues mumbling. ”

“ Placing the stick with a flat surface between the feet, the point of the other is placed in the hole made to receive it, and turning it between the palms with a backward and forward motion, and pressing the point forcibly into the lower stick, a fine powder is made, which runs through the groove and falls on the ground. ”

“ The manner of setting a stick may depend upon the kind of work to be done. For job work of a few lines only, where the lines are to be locked by themselves in a chase, the stick may be set by a bunch of leads of the required length. These are placed in the stick and the movable knee set up to them loosely, so that the leads do not bind at the ends. If the job is to be enclosed in a border or rule panel the stick should be adjusted accurately to ems of 12-point or 6-point.
Fig. 5
For ordinary measures a line of perfect 12-point quads will be a good gage. ”

“ The witch took the stick, waved it at the girl and said: [209] "then this is your fortune; through the woods and through the woods and out with a crooked stick. If you were less hard to please, you would have better luck; but you will pass many a good man by, and come out with a crooked stick."
Maybe some of our Woodcraft girls can find an initiation in this. Put it just as the witch did it, but let it be considered a success if the stick is two feet long and nowhere half an inch out of true line. ”

“ As instances of fearlessness, I admire the pluck which can place a face directly against a window with each pane made out as on page 12, and the arrangement of the stick in Jack Horner which coincides with his head and both hands, and as it (the stick) is not continued to the ground we can only suppose it to be resting on the boy’s knees. ”

“ The difficulty of making a scientific picture of the ultimate nature of reality may be illustrated by an example. Our first conception of a wooden stick involves the ideas of a certain long-shaped form, of smoothness, of hardness, of weight, of a certain brown colour, perhaps of some amount of elasticity. ”

“ In passing, let me say that if a man will try to overwhelm you with rushes, the best thing you can do is to straighten your stick, thrust, and don’t let the stick run through the basket. This has a wonderfully soothing effect upon an excitable player.
In Fig. 27 the upright guard (or high tierce) is shown, in which the right elbow should be close in to the side, the forearm at right angles to the body, wrist bent, so as to turn the knuckles outwards, and the stick pointed upwards, at an angle of about 45°. ”