The Whipping-TopAuthor(s): Catherine BrownSource: Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Dec., 1945), pp. 369-370Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1256733 .

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CORRESPONDENCE

To THE EDITOR OF Folk-Lore

SIR,-The following notes, based on information given me by my father, G. Lang Brown, about the use of tops in the days of his boyhood (about 1875) at Dumbarton, Scotland, bear on the interesting idea of the top as a form of scape-goat (Whip-tops, Battledores and Shuttlecocks, Folk-Lore, June 1945).

Whips were not used, but a length of stout rope, frayed at one end to form a kind of brush, which swept, rather than lashed, the top along. This was known, it seems significantly, as the scourge. The word scourge, it should be noted, was not known in any other connection, and the only definition the boys could have given was " rope for spinning tops ".

A player with the special knack of lifting a prone whip-top from the ground with a single quick stroke, so that it fell spinning, was said to " raise the dead man ". Here, perhaps, although I do not feel that it is a point to be pressed, may lie a hint of the " resurrection " element common to so many Spring customs.

The top " slept " when stationary and spinning silently-a familiar expression, but possibly worth noting in this context.

A number of group games were played with tops, but racing was the only one played with the whip-top. In a game played with the peg-top (known as the peerie-probably because it is pear-shaped), the tops were thrown, spinning, and aimed to fall into a ring marked on the ground. Those falling outside the ring were lifted, if still spinning, and dropped, spinning all the time, into the ring; these, besides those aimed success- fully, were winners. Those failing to spin at all and those that " died " before they could be lifted were losers and were laid in the ring. These ran the ordeal of subsequent players, who threw their tops violently from the string in the endeavour to hit and damage the losers. The game was completed when all but one were lying " dead " in the ring. A top having scored many wins and bearing marks of encounter with others was particularly prized. It probably went by a special name which my father cannot however recall. Peeries differing from the ordinary peg-top were known as " fancy peeries ", and of these " French " and " English " peeries were distinct types.

The following jingle, sung by the boys as they span their tops, points clearly to an association with the " Alleluia top ", possibly due to French influence in Scotland:

" Hallelujah, spin your peerie, Hallelujah, make it bung (hum) Hallelujah, spin your peerie, And gi'e the lassies some fun."

369

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370 Correspondence The melody to which it was sung closely resembles that of a well-known

revivalist jingle still, I believe, sung by the Salvation Army, the.words of which run:

" Hallelujah, send the glory, Hallelujah, Amen, Hallelujah, send the glory To revive us again."

It seems relevant, lastly, to recall the application of the term " devil- on-two-sticks " to a variant of the top.

I am, Sir, Yours faithfully,

CATHERINE BROWN

To THE EDITOR OF Folk-Lore

SIR,-I would suggest, with reference to " Some Further Notes on Suffolk Folklore " (Folk-Lore, June, 1945), that the belief that the wearing of ear-rings benefits the sight (still I think fairly common in this country, but not known to me elsewhere) may be a rationalisation of the earlier belief in its efficacy against the evil eye.

I am, Sir, Yours faithfully, CATHERINE BROWN

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