Figure 168.—Aitutaki drum (Auckland Mus., 987). a, wooden body (1): height, 495 mm.; greatest diameter near top, 407 mm.; bottom diameter, 350 mm.; interior partition, 146 mm. from bottom. Upper opening edge (2) shows against skin cover; inner diameter, 222 mm. Shark-skin cover (3) in one piece covers upper opening and overlaps from 75 to 100 mm.; single strip of shark skin, 64 mm. wide, placed under outer edge of cover to reinforce part where holes are cut through both layers, 12 mm. from edge, 32 to 39 mm. apart, 32 holes in all. Rectangular slots (4): height, 64 mm.; width, 25 mm.; 25 mm. apart; 57 mm. from bottom edge, 21 slots in all; lower rim, 37 mm. thick. Sennit lashing (5, 6) in pairs, one descending (5), the other ascending (6). Pandanus leaf strip (7) wrapped around bottom rim to hide lashing turns and knots and kept in place by cord (8) passing through slots and around bottom rim. b, drum head fixation: 1, lower edge of shark-skin cover showing triangular hole cut through it; 2, inner strip of shark skin projecting below lower edge of cover, showing in triangular aperture of cover, and with small round hole for passage of sennit; 3, lower part of slot corresponds to cover holes above; 4, lower rim of drum. Sennit is cut into lengths, each over twice length between cover and lower rim. First length of sennit (5) was fixed temporarily on left, passed through holes in cover and underlying strip, and descended to slot below where it passed back around rim (4) to which it was temporarily tied. Another sennit length (6) was temporarily tied to lower rim to left of first length (5) and in same slot. It ascended on left, passed over cover edge, under loop formed by first length (5), and turned to right where it passed through next cover holes to descend to slot below to be tied to lower rim. This procedure was followed with all cover holes working from left to right. Each new length was tied to lower rim in same slot in which previous length ended, and on its left. It ascended over cover edge, under previous loop, passed to next cover hole on right, passed down through it under cover edge, descended to slot below and was tied to lower rim. When last length passed down through last cover hole and was tied to rim, first length (5) was detached from its temporary attachment, and its first half passed back to left to be passed down under loop of last length and to be fastened below to lower rim on left of last length in same slot. As there were only 21 lower slots, to 32 cover holes, 11 slots took two pairs of cords but this did not alter technique of fastening. Each pair of sennit lengths in same slot was drawn as taut as possible and retied to remove slack. Beginning end of left cord was usually left long and after drawing left cord taut and taking a turn around rim, end was passed back in a loop (7) around pair which were drawn downward and forward to further tighten them. End was then tied to rim or to surplus end of its fellow pair. Knots were on back or lower surface of rim, and these as well as turns around rim were concealed by covering front, back, and lower edge with strips of pandanus leaf, as shown in a,7. c, section of lower rim, showing how loop (7), by drawing sennit pair downward and forward from its previous position indicated by dotted lines, further tautens braid pairs.