Twenty thousand voices, lifted in all pitches of the human compass, were caught by tom-TOMS and the impelling cadence of the singing nautch-girls-like drift-wood in a swift current-and driven into rhythmic pulsation.
"Son of Power"
Will Levington Comfort and Zamin Ki Dost
People who live in savage huts and beat on tom-TOMS and fight with bows and arrows and cannot count beyond a dozen-such people are not the mental or moral equals of our highly civilized races, and to treat them as equals, and compete with them on that basis, means simply to exterminate them.
"The Book of Life: Vol. I Mind and Body; Vol. II Love and Society"
Upton Sinclair
They still retain some of their half-pagan rites, such as the use of magical drums and tom-TOMS for conjuring purposes, and to frighten away or to propitiate supposed devils, malicious diseases, and so on.
"Due North or Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia"
Maturin M. Ballou