MALLERY.] MAGIC DRUMS. 517 
underneath. The kam, a kind of shaman, called it the bura. Some 
said that it meant a cloud; others that it meant heavenly horses. 
The left-hand design (a) in Fig. 723 shows four vertical and four 
horizontal lines. The latter represent the rainbow; the vertical lines 
borsui. Circles with dots in the center are represented in three sec- 
tions, and in the fourth one circle. 
The right-hand design in the same figure: On the upper sections are 
represented a number of human figures. These, according to the sha- 
man’s own explanation, are heavenly maidens (in the original Turkish, 
tengriduing kuiz). Below, under a rainbow, which is represented by 
three arched lines, are portrayed two serpents, each having a cross 
inside. These are kurmos nuing tyungurey,i.e., the drums are kurmos’s, 
Kurmos is the Alti word for spirits, which the shamans summon. 
Fic. 723.—Tartar and Mongol drums. 
Bastian (a) makes remarks as follows concerning the magic drum of 
the Shamans in the Altai, which should be considered in this connec- 
tion: 
The Shamans admit three worlds (among the Yakuts), the world of the heavens 
(hallan jurda), the middle one of the earth (outo-doidu) and the lower world or hell 
(jediin tiigara), the former the realm of light, the latter the realm of darkness, while 
the earth has for a time been given over by the Creator (Jiit-tas-olbohtah Jiirdiin- 
Ai-Tojan) to the will of the devil or tempter, and the souls of men at their death, 
according to the measure of their merit, are sent into one or the otherrealm. When, 
however, the earth world has come to an end, the souls of the two realins will wage 
a war against each other, and victory must remain on the side of the good souls, 
SECTION 6. 
MORTUARY PRACTICES. 
Champlain (/) in his voyage of 1603, says of the Northeastern Algon- 
quins that their graves were covered with large pieces of wood, and 
one post was erected upon them, the upper part of which was painted 
red. 
The same author, in 1613, writing of the Algonquins of the Ottawa 
