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Pirori (Hoops).
The hoop is an old-time Maori toy. They were made of a tough forest creeper known as aka tea, the join being neatly bound with a lashing of flax-fibre. They were 18 in. or 2 ft. in diameter. Players stood opposite each other on either side of the marae, or plaza, and each held a short stick in his hand. The hoop was not trundled as with us, but was thrown so as
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to roll across to the opposite player, who would strike it with his stick in order to drive it back to No. 1; but he would not follow it up. Should the hoop not run true, but wobble in its passage, that is termed a “tiko-rohe-tu.”
At page 58, vol. v., of White's “Ancient History of the Maori” is an account of how a certain old-time gentleman, having slain a much-hated enemy, did thereupon flay the same and proceed to stretch his skin upon a hoop, with which he, together with other chivalrous warriors of that ilk, amused themselves, after the manner of their kind, by trundling the aforesaid hoop and belabouring it unmercifully with cudgels.
Hoops were sometimes thrown so as to rebound from the earth and jump over high hurdles.