The qilaut (

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

: "that by means of which the spirits are called up",Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. ''Primitives and the supernatural''. Haskell House Publishers, 1973 , , pg 132. syllabic: ᕿᓚᐅᑦ) or qilaat (Greenlandic) is a type of

frame drum A frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. It is one of the most ancient musical instruments, and perhaps the first drum to be invented. It has a single drumhead that is usually made of rawhide, but man-made mat ...

native to the

cultures of the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

. The drum is distinctive in that it has a handle and is made of caribou skin, which is not particularly resonant, giving it a dull, rumbling sound. It is beaten with a stick, the ''qatuk''.

References

Membranophones Inuit musical instruments North American percussion instruments Canadian musical instruments {{nunavut-stub