CONCERNING LAPLAND. 
3°9 
drums more have been counted ; the Noaaids, or magicians, not 
perfectly agreeing in this refpedt 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 
fbn, in a long line of fucceeding magicians, they are confidcred 
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 durfl flie 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 fmart 
flroke with a fmall hammer made from a deer’s horn, the ring is 
fliaken 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 fuccefsin 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 poffefs fuch a drum, to which they refer 
for advice in the retirement of their habitation, confidering it as 
their guide and director upon common occafions ; but in matters 
of 
