History Of Kites And Making Kites

Man has always wanted to fly. He has watched the leaves tossed on currents of air. He has seen birds floating on the wind. lie has followed butterflies with his wistful eyes. And because he could not fly with wings, man at first tried to fly with strings. And so he built the first kite.

That was so long ago that the actual place and originator of the kite are lost in time. Many countries claim the kite for their own China, Malay, Greece, Egypt, India citing folk stories and works of art as evidence. Each tale is wilder than the last but all are equally creditable. Because the kite is the tool of the dreamer there are dreamers in every country the kite sprung up in, widely separated countries in widely separated eras. And each claim is as authentic as the next. Kite flying belongs to every land, to every age.

In Egypt there are hieroglyphics carved some 2,500 years ago that tell the story of a Pharaoh and a kite. It seems that the Pharaoh had heard many things about his wily Assyrian vizier, Ahikar, and he wanted to test the man's cunning for himself. He ordered Ahikar to build a palace for him midway between heaven and earth. The punishment for failure would be banishment or death. Ahikar caught and trained two young eagles to fly on a lead string. Simultaneously he trained two small boys to ride astride the eagles' backs. Then he brought the boys and their mounts to the Pharaoh. The boys were sent up into the air on the eagles' backs, higher and higher in ever widening circles.

History Of Kite Flying Continued