I have got one, cried Fritz, and it is exactly like a gourd, only the rind is thicker and harder.
It then, like the rind of that fruit, can be used for making various utensils, observed I; plates, dishes, basons, flasks. We will give it the name of the gourd tree.
Fritz jumped for joy. O heavens! cried he in ecstasy, how happy my mother will be! She will no longer have the vexation, when she makes soup, of thinking that we shall all scald our fingers!
What, my boy, do you think is the reason that this tree bears its fruit only on the trunk and on its topmost branches?
I think it must be because the middle branches are too feeble to support such a weight.
You have guessed exactly right.
But are these gourds good to eat?
At worst they are, I believe, harmless; but they have not a very tempting flavour. The negro savages set as much value on the rind of this fruit as on gold, for its use to them is indispensable. These rinds serve them to keep their food and drink in, and sometimes they even cook their victuals in them.
Oh, father! it must be impossible to cook their victuals in them; for the heat of fire would soon consume such a substance.
I did not say the rind was put upon the fire.