"Of Baffin Island's Cumberland Sound area Boas tells us that when 'the sun is going south in the fall, the game of cat's cradle is played, to catch the sun in the meshes of the string, and to prevent his disappearance.

When the sun is returning, the game of cup-and-pin {ajagaq} is played to hasten his return. (Boas 1907:151)

By contrast, in East Greenland on 'the day after the shortest day in the year, water must be scooped from the sea into a wooden vessel and as quickly as possible poured over a mountain top. Then the sun will rise quickly in the sky' (Ostermann 1938:198).

François Quassa recalls hearing of similar games being played in Igloolik:

I have heard that when the sun was just returning they used to play a lot of ajagaq. When this game is played one has to throw a bone up and try to poke the stick through one of the holes in the bone. So the idea was that by throwing the ajagaq bone up in the air they would appear to be trying to get the sun higher in the same manner that the bone was going higher. They did this when the sun had just started to come out, and at the same time string games, ajaraaq, were discouraged; otherwise the sun might get tangled up in the strings and keep falling down, making its progress much slower. (Quassa 1990, IE-156)" (Arctic Sky)

"So strong was the prohibition against playing string games when the Sun was back on the horizon, the special strings used for the game were destroyed to prevent their further use. Aipilik Innuksuk hints at the almost obsessive attraction of string games and the constant desire to increase one's repertoire of figures:

They used to play a lot of string games during the period of Tauvikjuaq [The Great Darkness^*]. I also noticed that when we were living at Akimaniq we used to play a lot of string games during this period. I believe there must have been some other motive than mere amusement for playing string games, there must have been something else to it.

^{*  "}The Great Darkness - Tauvikjuaq: 'The sun is a great ball of fire which moves around a hill.... In winter it is greatly weighed down by the cold and the frost and so cannot rise up into the sky.' (Archibald Fleming, 1928)." (Arctic Sky)

Once when I left for a caribou-hunting trip there was a camp further on, so I was told to check if they might have the string game called Anarulluk. I was able to bring it back home with me, but now I have forgotten how it is made though I can still picture how it looks. {The figure} has a cane and a pointed hood and the excrement {appears} to drop.

I am sure someone still has it here in Igloolik. I have heard that in former times, the people would cut their Ajaqaat {string figures} to pieces when the Sun returned. (A. Innuksuk 1990, IE-164)

Michel Kupaaq, on the other hand, allows that string games could be resumed after it was clear that the Sun had managed to leave the horizon and was rapidly gaining in altitude: 'Before the sun starts to leave the horizon ... when it shows only on the horizon, ... then string games were no longer allowed as they might lacerate the sun. Once the sun had started to go higher and could be seen in its entirety, string games could be resumed, if one so wished. So the restriction on playing string games was only applicable during the period between the sun's return and its rising fully above the horizon' (Kupaaq 1990, IE-153).

Among Iglulingmiut the proscription against playing string figures after the Sun had returned was explained by the notion that the strings would somehow cause lacerations on the legs of those who ignored the taboo." (Arctic Sky)