After the sticks are in position the kite will appear as shown in Fig. 2.  The dotted lines show the lugs bent over the ends of the bow and pasted down.  Figure 3 shows how the band is put on and how the kite is balanced.  This is the most important part and cannot be explained very well.  This must be done by experimenting and it is enough to say that the kite must balance perfectly.  The string is fastened by a slip-knot to the band and moved back and forth until the kite flies properly, then it is securely fastened.

A reel is next made.  Two ends—­the bottoms of two small peach baskets will do—­are fastened to a dowel stick or broom handle, if nothing better is at hand.  These ends are placed about 14 in. apart and strips nailed between them as shown in Fig. 4, and the centers drawn in and bound with a string.  The kite string used is generally a heavy packing thread.  This is run through a thin flour or rice paste until it is thoroughly coated, then it is run through a quantity of crushed glass.  The glass should be beaten up fine and run through a fine sieve to make it about the same as No.2 emery.  The particles should be extremely sharp and full of splinters.  These particles adhere to the pasted string and when dry are so sharp that it cannot be handled without scratching- the fingers, therefore the kite is flown entirely from the reel.  To wind the string upon the reel, all that is necessary is to lay one end of the reel stick in the bend of the left arm and twirl the other end between the fingers of the right hand.

A Chinese boy will be flying a gaily colored little kite from the roof of a house (if it be in one of the large cities where they have flat-roofed houses) and a second boy will appear on the roof of another house perhaps 200 ft. away.  Both have large reels full of string, often several hundred yards of it.  The first hundred feet or so is glass-covered string, the balance, common packing thread, or glass-covered string.  As soon as the second boy has his kite aloft, he begins maneuvering to drive it across the wind and over to the first kite.  First, he pays out a large amount of string, then as the kite wobbles to one side with its nose pointing toward the first kite, he tightens his line and commences a steady quick pull.  If properly done his kite crosses over to the other and above it.  The string is now payed out until the second kite is hanging over the first one’s line.  The wind now tends to take the second kite back to its parallel and in so doing makes a turn about the first kite’s string.  If the second kite is close enough, the first tries to spear him by swift dives.  The second boy in the meantime is see-sawing his string and presently the first kite’s string is cut and it drifts away.

It is not considered sport to haul the other fellow’s kite down as might be done and therefore a very interesting battle is often witnessed when the experts clash their kites.  —­Contributed by S. C. Bunker, Brooklyn, N. Y.