Every shaman must have his own tambourine, this is the law. The tambourine is the voice of the shaman, his companion and the first guide to the world of spirits. This is not just a flat drum with a mallet, oh no, the tambourine is a living creature, or rather, a dwelling for a small spirit. This is true, at least if we are talking about a real shamanic tambourine, and not about a souvenir craft bought from a passing peddler in the Village of the Frost Tribe.

These tambourines - real and souvenir - have a lot in common. For example, you can knock on them in the same way. They also have beautiful fur upholstery and a wooden cross to make it comfortable to hold the instrument. Well, the drawing, yes.

The pattern on the membrane of the tambourine is literally a story being told. On the most ancient tambourines they depicted scenes of hunting and everyday life, painted various animals, trees, mountains, rivers, stars... But then the plots began to change. The shamans were no longer drawing small sketches, they were trying to draw the very structure of the world! Some succeeded, some did not, but you and I hardly have the right to judge how competently some shaman transferred onto his tightly stretched skin what was revealed to him during his travels to other worlds. One thing is certain - the more powerful the shaman, the more accurately he remembered and reproduced what he saw.

And what we have in front of us now is not a souvenir craft, this is a real tambourine of the supreme shaman! He was found in the abandoned hut of a spirit seer near the peak of Frostfangs. Where the old man went will remain a mystery forever. Maybe he went north, or maybe the spirits finally called him to themselves, and there, in other worlds, he no longer needed a guide.

One way or another, the shaman set off on his last endless journey, and his faithful assistant was left alone. It is not suitable for such a powerful object to be buried under the snows of the Valley of Cold, so now the high shaman’s tambourine will be transferred to safe hands. Maybe it’s yours.

It is unlikely that you will be able to use the tambourine for its intended purpose, and it is unlikely that it will open the way for a stranger to other worlds, but the spirit living in it will definitely be grateful for salvation from snow captivity and careful care of its home. I guarantee that this little thing will bring a bit of luck to its new owner. And who knows, maybe he will reveal to him the secrets of our world.