The shaking tent, or "conjuring lodge," as early chroniclers also called it, was the setting for a divinatory rite performed by specially trained shamans across much of the Great Lakes and Subarctic. It was a small booth built of saplings. The Chippewa customarily used three birch and two separate spruce uprights, and two birch and two spruce horizontal hoops to bind it together; other tribes used four or seven uprights. Three of the saplings were planted deeply in the ground and angled slightly outward so that when they were drawn together at the top the building was held in a state of tension. Rattles of caribou and deer hooves, or cups of lead shot, were tied to the frame. The floor was usually softened with freshly cut spruce boughs. After the shamen entered the frame, it was completely covered with bark or cloth. Onlookers could hear strange sounds issuing from inside as the tent swayed wildly from side to side. During his transcendent state, the shamen could dispatch a supernatural helper, usualy a mystical turtle, to distant regions to answer questions from his audience about the most auspicious places to hunt, the well-being of distant relatives, and what would happen in the future.
A native observer, who reported seeing small lights like stars around the top, told anthropologist A. Irving Hallowell, "We cannot see them, but we understand that turtle rests at the bottom of the lodge, feet up, keeping it from sinking into the ground; that thunder is at the top, covering it like a bird; and that the other spirits are perched around the hoop that encircles the frame. They look like human beings about four inches tall, but have long ears, and squeaking voices like bats."
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