Up there in the mountains where money is scarce, playthings are not stuff you would think of buying. That doesn’t mean they don’t have toys.

Menfolk make tops. Big tops. Out of food. They use their bolos to make these. They chopped off a branch and then cut out a top; from the round top to the bottom spike, all from one wood.

I still have to look for my photos of how these are played by big men. Especially the big tops. Kids get a smaller version because it takes a lot of muscle power to make these big gyros spin. The Matigsalug men, however, have a lot of that.

Tomorrow, I trek up those mountains again, hopefully to see them playing. With tops, with stilts, with sticks, and playing with these with so much power, they build muscles and flexibility with these.