14

Original Water Vessels.

[Book I.

CHAPTER III.

Origin of Vessels for containing water—The Calabash the first one—It has always beeil used—Found by Columbus in the cabins of Americans —Inhabitants of New Zealand , Java , Sumatra , and ofthe Pacific Islands employ it—Principal vessel of the AfricanS'—Curious remark of Pliny respecting it—Common among the ancient Mexieans, Romans and Egyptians—Offered by the latter people on theiraltars—The model after which vessels of capacity were originally formed—Its figure still preserved inseveral—Ancient American vessels copied from it—Peruvian bottles—Gurgulets—The form of the Cala-bash prevailed in the vases and goblets of the ancients—-Extract from Persius ’ Satires—Ancient vetselsfor heating water modeled after it—Pipkin—Sauce-pan—Anecdote of a Roman Dictator—The com-mon cast iron cauldron, of great antiquity; similar in shape to those used in Egypt , in the time of Ra-ineses—Often referrcd to in the Bible and in the Iliad—Grecian, Roman, Celtic, Chinese , and Peruviancauldrons—Expertness of Chinese tinkers—Crcesus and the Delphic Oracle —Uuiformity in the figureof cauldrons—Cause of this—Superiority of their form over straight sided boilers—Brazen cauldronshighly prized— Water Pots of the Hindoos—Women drawing water—Anecdote of Darius and ayoung female of Sardis—Dexterity of oriental women in balancing water pots—Origin of the Canopus—Ingenuity and fraud of an Egvptian priest—Ecclesiastical deceptions in the middle ages.

Water being equally necessary asmore solid food, man would early beimpelled by his appetite, to procure it in larger qnantities than were re-quired to allay his thirst upon a single occasion; and, also the means bywhich he might convey it with him, in his wanderings, and to his family.It is not improbable that this was the first of man’s natural wants whichrequired the exercise of his inventive faculties to supply. The luxuri-ance of the vegetable region, in which all agree that he was placed, fur-nished in abundance the means that he sought; and which his natural sa-gacity would lead him, almost instinctively, to adopt. The calabash orgourd, was probably the first vessel used by man for collecting and con-taining water: and although we have no direct proof of this, there isevidence, (that mav be deemed equally conclusive,) in the general fact—that man, in the infancy of the arts, has always, when under similar cir-cumstanccs, adopted the same means, to accomplish the same objects. Ofthis, proofs innumerable, might be adduced from the history of the oldworld, particularly with regard to the uses and application of naturalproductions; and when at the close of the fifteenth Century, Columbus opened the way to a new World, having in his search after one continent dis-covered another (of which neither he, nor his contemporaries ever dreamt,and which in extent exceeded all that his visions ever portrayed;) he foundthe calabash the principal vessel in use among the inhabitants, both forcontaining and transporting water.

The calabashes of the Indians, (says Washington Irving, ) served allthe purposes of glass and earthenware, supplying them with all sorts of do-mestic Utensils. They are produced on stately trees, of the size of elms. a TheNew Zealanders possessed no other vessel for holding liquids ; and thesame remark is applicable at the present day to numerous savage tribes.Osbeck, in his Voyage to China , remarks, that the Javanese sold to Eu-ropean ships, among other necessaries, “ bottles of gourds filled with wa-ter, as it is made up for their own use.” b

When Kotzebue was at Owhyhee, Tamaahmaah the king, although he

Irving’s Colum. i, 105, and Penny Mag. for 1834, p. 416. b i, 150.