cULIN] TOPS: ESKIMO 739 
its top. The moment the top is spun the owner runs out through the entrance 
passage and attempts to make a complete circuit of the house and enter again 
before the top stops spinning. A score is made every time this is done suc- 
cessfully. 
Continuing, Mr Nelson ¢ says: 
From Kuskokwim river to Cape Prince of Wales, on both the mainland and 
the islands, children of both sexes were found using tops. These are commonly 
of disk shape, thin at the edge, and perforated in the center for a peg. One from 
Cape Prince of Wales [figure 979] is of walrus ivory; it is 24 inches in diam- 
eter and has a hole an inch wide in the middle, which is closed by a neatly- 
fitted wooden plug of the same thickness as the top, through which passes a 
spindle-shaped peg 4 inches long. This is the general style of top used in the 
region mentioned, but another kind is made to be spun with a guiding stick 
and cord; these are often used by men as well as boys. 
Fig. 978. Fig. 979. Fig. 980. 
Fig. 978. Top; height, 5f inches; Western Eskimo, Point Barrow, Alaska; cat. no. 56491, United 
States National Museum. 
Fig. 979. Top; height, 4inches; Western Eskimo, Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska; cat. no! 45478, 
United States National Museum. 
Fic. 980. Ivory top; height, 3 inches; Western Eskimo, Kotzebue sound, Alaska; cat. no. 127908, 
United States National Museum. 
Referring to the tops spun by children on the lower Yukon, he 
says: 
These toys are spun between the two hands, the upper part of the spindle 
being held upright between the palms. 
Esximo (Western). Kotzebue sound, Alaska. (Cat. no. 127908, 
United States National Museum.) 
Disk of ivory (figure 980), 2% inches in diameter, the top convex and 
marked with an incised line painted red, with a wooden spindle 
3 inches in length. Collected by Lieut. George M. Stoney, U.S. 
Navy. 
«'The Eskimo about Bering Strait. Wighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Amer- 
ican Ethnology, pt. 1, p. 341, 1899. 
