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CONCERNING LAPLAND. 309
drums more have been counted; the Noaaids, or magicians, not
perfectly agreeing in this refpect in different parts of Lapland :
they, however, all coincide in the principal or leading deities. The
runic drums are of the more value as they are of greater antiquity ;
and if they can be proved to have been delivered from father to
fon, in a long line of fucceeding magicians, they are confidered
above all price: they are preferved with great care and fecrecy,
and are hidden from fight, except at the time they are ufed. A
woman dares not to approach the place where one of thefe drums
lies concealed, much lefs durft fhe prefume to touch it.
Before a Laplander fets out upon a journey, or undertakes any
matter of moment, he confults his drum, which he does in the
following manner. He places a ring, which is ufed for this pur-
pofe only, upon the drum, and then ftriking upon it a {mart
ftroke with a {mall hammer made from a deer’s horn, the ring is
fhaken or driven over the furface from fide to fide, which, as it
touches certain figures of good or bad omen, he conceives the
better or worfe opinion of his fucce{s in what he is about to under-
take. As, for example, if the ring move according to the courfe
of the fun, he pronounces that he fhall fucceed ; if contrarily to
the fun’s courfe, that he fhall fail in his enterprize, whatever it
be, of hunting, fifhing, or the like. In the fame manner he judges
of every event upon which he is difpofed to confult this oracle.
Families in general poflefs fuch a drum, to which they refer
for advice in the retirement of their habitation, confidering it as
their guide and direétor upon common occafions; but in matters
of
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