194 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
were all cut out of a solid piece of wood. The 
block out of which they were made, being hol¬ 
lowed out from one end, remaining solid at the 
other, and having the top covered with a piece of 
shark’s skin, occasioned their frequently resem¬ 
bling, in construction and appearance, a kettle¬ 
drum. The pua and the reva, which are remark¬ 
ably close-grained and durable, were esteemed the 
Tahitian Drums . 
most suitable kinds of wood for the manufacture 
of their drums. The large drums were called 
pahu , and the smaller ones toere. The pahu 
ra , sacred drum, which was rutu , or beaten, on 
every occasion of extraordinary ceremony at the 
idol temple, was particularly large, standing some¬ 
times eight feet high. The sides of one, that I 
saw in Tane’s marae at Maeva, was not more than 
a foot in diameter, but many were much larger. 
In some of the islands, these instruments were 
