cuLIn] TOPS: ARAPAHO Koo 
Tors 
The top is one of the most widely diffused of Indian children’s 
playthings. The assertion has been made that it is of recent intro- 
duction, but its general use, taken in connection with its existence in 
prehistoric times in Peru, would seem to point to its having been 
known before the period of contact with the whites. 
The most usual form is the whip top, made of wood, horn, stone, or 
clay, and sometimes painted in colors. Spinning tops is a winter 
game and is commonly played on the ice. Tops consisting of disks 
of wood, bone, or ivory, with wooden or bone spindles, also occur. 
On the Northwest coast a pierced slat is sometimes used to hold the 
top while the string is being unwound. The strings are of sinew or 
bark cord. 
Top spinning occurs as a game among the Eskimo, the player 
endeavoring to run round the house while his top is spinning. 
The Niska try to see who can keep his top spin- 
ning longest. Among the Oglala the player tries 
to whip and hold his top in a square. Some of 
the wooden peg tops of the Pueblos have a hole 
in the side to make them hum when they spin. 
Of all forms, these peg tops seem most likely to 
be of European introduction. The spindle and 
cord tops seem to be related in form and mech- 
anism to the spindle employed in weaving, and 
the whip top appears to be analogous to the 
whipped ball, but this remains mere conjecture. Rye. 961. Whip top; 
height, 3} inches; Arap- 
ALGONQUIAN STOCK aho Indians, Wind 
River reservation, Wy- 
a - . 3 oming; cat. no. 36980, 
ArapaHo. Wind River reservation, Wyoming. Free Museumof Science 
(Cat.no.36980, Free Museum of Science 224 Art, University of 
and Art, University of Pennsylvania.) ee ee 
Wooden whip top (figure 961); height, 34 inches. Collected by 
the writer in 1900. 
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Mig, MTN ATE LAT we 
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Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation, Oklahoma. 
Mr James Mooney ?” says: 
Tops are used by all Indian boys, and are made of wood or bone. They are 
not thrown or spun with a string, but are kept in motion by whipping with a 
small quirt or wkip of buckskin. In winter they are spun upon the ice. The 
younger children make tops to twirl with the fingers by running a stick through 
a small seed berry. 
*The Ghost-dance Religion. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Hthnology, 
pt. 2, p. 1006, 1896. 
