as the top whirled round. Small hurdles were sometimes erected, over which the tops were whipped. The potaka whero rua was a double-ended whip-top, pointed at both ends, and was made to turn ends by means of the whip. Tops were made of matai, mapara, or totara wood. “Kaihōtăa” is given in Williams's dictionary as meaning “a whipping-top,” but that term is not used among Tuhoe.

Some of the humming-tops were made of wood, and were solid like the whip-top.^* Both were of the same form, save that the whip-top was flat on the top, while the humming-top had a piece of wood projecting from the top vertically, in order to receive the string. This upright piece would be part of the original piece of timber from which the top was made, and was not an inserted piece. The body of the humming-top was also larger and longer than that of the whip-top, and was a solid piece of wood.

The word “potaka” means a top. “Ta” is to beat, hence the name applied to a whip-top. “Takiri” means “to loosen; to draw away suddenly; to start or fly back, as a spring,” &c. As applied to the humming-top, the word refers to the mode in which the top is set up by the operator.

The string used for the humming-top was a thin, strong cord made from fibre of the native flax, the kind of cord known as “karure,” which is made by twisting together two miro, or twisted threads of fibre. This string is wound round the piece of wood projecting from the head of the top. The handle or hand-hold by which a purchase is gained is a small, flat piece of wood, and is known as the “papa takiri.” It is not slipped over the upright projection of the top as with us, but is held against the side thereof. This papa is about 6 in. in length and ½ in. in width.

In former times children liked to see their tops “asleep” when spun. To describe this state the term “newha,” or “anewhanewha,” or “tunewha” is used. In the following effusion, which is a kai-oraora, composed by one Te Horo in revenge for the death of his son Pohokorua, these terms are evidently used as meaning “dazed by grief.”

A Tangi Kai-oraora.

Whiti Tuarua.

Humming-tops were also made of a small hue, or gourd, through which a stick was thrust and both ends thereof left projecting, the lower one to serve as a spinning-point and the upper one to wind the string on. A hole was made at one side of the gourd, which caused a humming, wailing sound when the top was spinning. This was the true humming-top; the name was used by myself to denote the wooden potaka takiri for want of a better term.

These gourd humming-tops entered into a very singular custom among the denizens of Tuhoeland and adjacent peoples. They were used in order to avenge death, in the same manner that the wailing of a lament or dirge, with weeping, was said to avenge the stroke of death. This is a world-old idea, a relic of universal personification of all natural events, &c. As the men of old said, “Ko roimata, ko hupe, anake nga kai utu i nga patu a aitua” (By tears and grief only may the strokes of misfortune be avenged).

Humming-tops were spun that the wailing sound thereof might accompany the lament for the dead chaunted by the people after a defeat in battle. The humming of the tops, of which many were used, resembled and represented the murmuring wail of the mourning widows. Appropriate songs or chaunts, termed “whakaoriori potaka,” were composed for such occasions, and were chaunted as the tops were spinning.

When after they had been defeated in battle a party of people came to condole with them, they all assembled in the plaza of the village to receive them, and there was chaunted the lament for the dead. And as the lament was sung the wailing tops were spun—hai ranaki i te mate—as an avenging of the defeat. The tops were spun at a given word at the conclusion of each whiti, or verse, of the song. After this performance was over the tops, together with presents of clothing, &c., would be handed over to the visitors.

Many of the people would be provided with tops for this performance. This custom was revived after the defeat at Orakau. The following whakaoriori potaka was thus sung in many a native village after the defeat of Ngati-porou and Te Whakatohea on the field of Maketu:—

Kumea! Toi te roroa o te tangata—e
Ina noa te poto ki te oma i Hunuhunu—e
Hai! Tukua!