The keeping of a top by the parish in its corporate capacity is not likely to have arisen for the sake of supplying people with amusement, and we must look to a far more ancient origin for this singular custom. Hone mentions a doubtful story of a top being used in the ritual of one of the churches at Paris. (The burial of Alleluia. The top was whipped by a choir-boy from one end of the choir to the other: _Every Day Book_, i. 100), and if this can be confirmed it would be a link in the chain of evidence. But the whole subject requires much more evidence than it is now possible to go into here, though even, as far as we can now go, I am tempted to suggest that this well-known toy takes us back to the serious rites of ancient religions.
Brady's _Clavis Calendaria_, i. 209, mentions the discontinued custom of whipping tops on Shrove Tuesday as originating in the Popish Carnival as types of the rigour of Church discipline.
It is not improbable that the tee-totum is the earliest form of top, and as its use is for gambling, it is probable that this and the top were formerly used for purposes of divination.
See "Gully," "Hoatie," "Hoges," "Peg Top," "Peg in the Ring," "Scurran-Meggy," "Totum."
The Totum is really only a top to spin by hand. It is made of a square piece of wood or bone, the four sides being each marked with a letter, and the peg is put through a hole in the centre. Sometimes the totum is shaped to a point on the under side, and a pin fixed in the upper part, by which it is twirled round.
The game played is one of chance; it may be played by two or more, either boys or girls, and is played only at Christmas. In Keith the letters are A, N, D, T. In playing the stake is one pin, and each plays in turn. If the side with A on it falls uppermost the player wins the whole stake--"A, tack a'." If N turns up the player gets nothing--"N, nikil (nihil), nothing." If T turns up one pin falls to the player--"T, tack ane." If D comes uppermost the player has to lay down a pin--"D, dossie doon." At times the game was played by paying a stake to all the letters except A, and the words used were--"D, dip it," "T, tip it," and "N, nip it."--Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
We played the game when children usually at Christmas time. The players sat round a table. A pool was made, each player putting in the same amount of stakes, either pins, counters, nuts, or money. One player collected the pool and then spun the tee-totum by his fingers. Whichever letter was uppermost when it stopped, the player had to obey.