194 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
were all cut out of asolid piece of wood. The 
block out of which they were made, beimg 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 
