These were only of paper or thin cardboard, or leather, or other flexible materials.

The great height at which the kite hung made a great concave curve in the string, so that as the runners went up they made a flapping sound.

If one laid a finger on the string, the sound answered to the flapping of the runner in a sort of hollow intermittent murmur.

Edgar Caswall, who was now wholly obsessed by the kite and all belonging to it, found a distinct resemblance between that intermittent rumble and the snake-charming music produced by the pigeons flying through the dry reeds.
One day he made a discovery in Mesmer's chest which he thought he would utilise with regard to the runners.

This was a great length of wire, "fine as human hair," coiled round a finely made wheel, which ran to a wondrous distance freely, and as lightly.