THE CAT'S PAW..

I'll be posting more on Canute and Sarah later today. But I want to show you this first. It's part of the story and may take you a minute to figure it out...

My Grama showed me this when I was a young girl
and said her Grampa Canute taught it to her.

The picture is from Photo Search..
But I've added the months to help you figure it out...

Canute called it the 'Old Woman's Almanac' and it shows you how to keep track of how many days are in each month of the year.

He used a cats paw as an example...and for a reason you'll learn as the story continues. But you can use your own hand.
Ok, here's Canute's  words...

"The four claws of the cat corresponds to the old woman's fingers. You can know the number of days in each month of the year by the knuckles joining the fingers to the hand and the clefts between the knuckles. The knuckles and the claws on the cat beginning with the first one, representing January, which has thirty one days; and the clefts between the knuckles on the woman's hand and the claws on the cat representing the next month, or less than thirty one days. Go across and come back and start on the first knuckle again and that gives you the right number of days for the different months of the year."

Ok, did you get all that? You can do it by making a fist.  Grama said it's easier to just put your right hand on a table, hiding your thumb and showing only your four fingers. Then starting with your index finger being January, and the space between that and the middle finger being February, you can go to your pinky, being July, then back to your index finger being August.

It's really pretty simple once you get the idea of it. And so accurate!
I wonder how Canute learned it....

Let me know if you've heard this before
and what you think. Did you get it?

see ya later with more....