Besides these two drums, I had also a third given me by the same Lord of as great a size as any that can be usually met with.
To these I add a fourth, given me by the Illustrious Baron Lieutenant Henry Flemming, mark’t with the letter F.
Now there are two things required to fit the drum for use, an Index and a Hammer, that shews among the pictures the thing they enquire after, with this they beat the drum. The Index is the bunch of brazen rings mentioned before. They first place one great ring upon the drum, then they hang severall small ones upon that; the shape of the Index’s is very different, for of these I have one made of copper, of the bigness of a Dollar, with a square hole in the middle, several small chains hanging about it instead of rings. Another hath an Alchymy ring, on which a small round plate of copper is hung by little chains. I have seen another also of bone, in the shape of the Greek Δ, with rings about it; and others of a quite different make. I have described mine under the drums A, and B, by the mark G; but the common sort of rings are of copper, and those upon the Chancellors drums are altogether such. Some writers call these rings serpents, or brazen frogs, and toads, not that they resemble them, but because by them they signifie these creature, whose pictures they often use in their conjuring, as supposing them very grateful and acceptable to the Devil. The Laplanders call the Index Arpa, or Quobdas; and make it indifferently of any sort of metal. The hammer they use in raising their familiars, is not the Smith’s; which was the errour of him that drew it in Olaus Magn. but is an instrument belonging only to the Laplanders, and called by a peculiar name by them: it is made of a Rain-deers horn, branching like a fork, this is the head of the hammer, the other part serves for the handle. The instrument is placed under the two drums A. B. with the letter H, with the hammer they beat the drum, not so much to make a noise, as by the drumming to move the ring lying on the skin, so as to pass over the pictures, and shew what they sought after. This is the description of the drum, with all its necessaries as it is used by the Laplanders that are subject to the Swedes; the Finlappers also that are under the Crown of Danemarke, make use of drums something different in fashion from the former; yet however the difference is so small, that I believe their drums are not of a different kind from ours, but made only for some particular uses. I shall give an account of one of those, described in Wormius’s Study, who saies that “the Laplanders drum, which they use in their magic, and by beating which they discover those things they desired, is made of an oval piece of wood hollowed, in length a foot, in breadth ten inches; in this they make six holes, and put a handle to it, that they may hold in the left hand, whilst they beat it with the other; upon it they stretch over a skin, painted with diverse rude figures, drawn with blood, or red; upon this lies a piece of brass, in the shape of a Rhomboides, somewhat convexe, about two inches in diameter, in the middle of this, and at each corner hangs a small chain. The instrument, with which they beat the drum, is of bone, six inches long, about the thickness of a little finger, and made much like the Latine T.”
This instrument the Laplanders use for diverse designs, and are of opinion that whatever they do it is don by the help of this. For this reason they have it in great esteem and reverence, taking such care in securing it, that they wrap it with the Index, and hammer, up in a Lambskin, and for its greater safety, lay it in some private place. But I think it an errour, to suppose them to lay it in a Lambskin: for it is written in some places Loomskin, which signifies the skin of a bird that lives altogether in the water. They think it so sacred, and holy, that they suffer no maid that is marriageable to touch it; and if they remove it from place to place, they carry it the last of all, and this must be don too only by men; or else they go with it thro some untrod way, that no body may either meet or follow them. The reason they give for their great care in this particular, is, because they believe if any one, especially a maid that is marriageable, should follow the same way, they would in three daies time at least fall into some desperate disease, and commonly without any hopes of recovery. This they seem to verifie by many examples, that we may give the more credit to it; and we have the less reason to doubt the truth of this, since the devil severely commands his worship to be observed, and suffers not those rites and customs he hath imposed to be violated, so long as God is pleased to grant him this liberty. Now because it may happen sometimes that a woman may out of necessity be constrained to go that way, by which the drum hath bin carried, the devil is so favorable as to permit it without any danger, upon condition she first offers a brazen ring to the drum.