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The drum is made of a hollow block of wood, of a cylindrical form, solid at one end, and covered at the other with shark’s skin: these they beat not with sticks, but their hands; and they know how to tune two drums of different notes into concord. They have also an expedient to bring the flutes that play together into unison, which is to roll up a leaf so as to slip over the end of the shortest, like our sliding tubes for telescopes, which they move up or down till the purpose is answered, of which they seem to judge by their ear with great nicety.
To these instruments they sing; and, as I have observed before, their songs are often extempore: they call every two verses or couplet a song, Pehay; they are generally, though not always in rhime; and when pronounced by the natives, we could discover that they were metre. Mr. Banks took great pains to write down some of them which were made upon our arrival, as nearly as he could express their sounds by combinations of our letters; but when we read them, not having their accent, we could scarcely make them either metre or rhime. The Reader will easily perceive that they are of very different structure.
Tede pahai de parow-a
Ha maru no mina.
E pahah Tayo malama tai ya
No Tabane tonatou whannomi ya.
E Turai eattu terara patee whennua toai
Ino o maio Pretane to whennuaia no Tute.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 205, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/205.html