TAHITI AN DRUMS. 
195 
very curiously carved. One which I brought from 
High Island, and have deposited in the Mission¬ 
ary Museum, is not inelegantly decorated; others, 
however, I have seen, exhibiting very superior 
workmanship. 
The drums used in their heivas and dances 
were ingeniously made. Their construction resem¬ 
bled that of those employed in the temple, the 
skin forming the head was fastened to the 
open work at the bottom by strings of cinet, 
made with the fibres of the cocoa-nut husk. 
Drums were among the martial music of the 
Tahitians, and were used to animate the men 
when proceeding to battle. The drums beaten as 
accompaniments to the recital of their songs, were 
the same in shape, but smaller. They were all 
neatly made, and finely pulished. The large 
drums were beaten with two heavy sticks, the 
smaller ones with the naked hand. When used, 
they were not suspended from the shoulders of the 
performers, but fixed upon the ground, and con¬ 
sequently produced no very musical effect. The 
sound of the large drum at the temple, which was 
sometimes beaten at midnight, and associations 
connected therewith, were most terrific. The 
inhabitants at Maeva, where my house stood 
within a few yards of the ruins of the temple, have 
frequently told me, that at the midnight hour, 
when the victim was probably to be offered on the 
following day, they have often been startled from 
their slumbers by the deep, thrilling sound of the 
sacred drum ; and as its portentous sounds have 
reverberated among the rocks of the valley, every 
individual through the whole district has trembled 
with fear of the gods, or apprehension of being 
seized as the victim for sacrifice. 
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