1853 7 135/2 This tappa cloth is made by beating a part of the bark..with a sort of wooden mall.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore I. 172/2 An exceedingly tough cloth, called tapa or kapa cloth.
1870 H. Meade 305 The unpleasant sound of the tappa mallet.
1891 R. L. Stevenson (1895) iv. 47 With blacked faces, turbans, tapa kilts, and guns, they looked very manly.
1906 Apr. 479 Sitting cross-legged on the tappa-mats.