DRUM, is a martial musical instrument in form of a cylinder, hollow within, and covered at the two ends with vellum, which is stretched or slackened at pleasure
by the means of small cords or sliding knots. It is beat upon with sticks. Drums are sometimes made of brass, but most commonly they are of wood.—The drum is by Le Clerc said to have been an oriental invention, and to have been brought by the Arabians, or perhaps rather the Moors, into Spain.