18
Primitive Boilers.
[Book I.
the Indians do without touching it with their lips.” a The bottles of theNegroes of Africa , are made of woven grass of the same shape. Earth -en görgulets for cooling liquids are made in this city.
The gourd was not merely imitated by primitive potters and braziers,but when the arts were at their zenith, its figure predominated in the mostelaborate of vases. The preceding remarks show, that the forms of manyof our o rdinary vessels of capacity, did not originate in caprice or bychance, but are derived from nature ; that the pattern which man has co-pied, was furnished him by his Maker; and that with all his ingenuity,he has never been able to supersede it. Persius in his third Satire, al-ludes to the transition from primitive earthenware and brazen vessels tothose which luxury had introduced in his days :
Now gold hath banished Numa’s simple vase,
And the plain brass of Saturn’s frugal days.—
Now do we see to preeious goblets turn,
The Tuscan pitcher, and the vestal urn. Drummond, 105.
VESSELS FOR HEATING WATER.
Although not strictly connected with the subject, we may observethat the gourd is probably the original vessel for heating water , noohing,8fc. In these and other applications, the neck is sometimes used as ahandle, and an opening made into the body by removing a portion of it,(see illustration No. 4,) its exterior being kept moistened by water whileon the fire, as still practised by some people, while others apply a eoatingof clay to protect it from the effects of flame.
In some parts where the calabash or gourd is not cultivated, cocoa shellsare used in the same manner. Kotzebue found the Radack Isländersthus heating liquids. “ On my return, I feil in with a Company sittinground a fire and boiling something in cocoa shells.” b A primitive Su-matran vessel for boiling rice is the bamboo, which is still used—by thetime the rice is dressed, the vessel is nearly destroyed by the fire. c Whenin process of time, vessels for heating water were formed wholly of clay,they were fashioned after the gourd. Figures of ancient saucepans bothof metal and fictile wäre, greatly resemble it, and so do some of those ofmodern times. The common earthenware pipkin is an example.
This useful implement has come down from very remote ages, andapparently with slight alteration in its figure. (See figure in No, 4.) Insome parts of Europe , its form approaches still nearer to that of the gourd.
It is used over all the easternworld. Dampier observed inTonquin, “ women sitting in theStreets with a pipkin, over a smallfire full of chau,” or tea, whichthey thus prepared and sold. dFosbroke enumerating the house-hold Utensils represented inEgyptian sculptures, remarks,“ we meet too with vessels ofthe precise form of modern sauce-pans.” e An interesting circum-stance is recorded in Roman history in Connection with one of thesevessels. Marcus Curius Dentatus, who was three times Consul,.was as
No. 4. Gourd, Cauldron, and Pipkin.