I have read the description of such a process, replied I, in books of travels; and also, that such of the savages as have no knives, and who make a sort of twine from the bark of trees, are accustomed to use it for this kind of purpose. So you see what benefit may be derived from reading, and from afterwards reflecting on what we read.
And the flasks, father; in what manner are they made?
For this branch of their ingenuity they make preparation a long time beforehand. If a negro wishes to have a flask or bottle with a neck, he ties a very young gourd round in the proper place with a piece of string, of linen, bark of a tree, or any thing he can get hold of; he draws this bandage so tight, that the part at liberty soon forms itself to a round shape, while the part which is confined contracts, and remains ever after narrow. By this method it is that they obtain flasks or bottles of a perfect form.
Are then the bottle-shaped gourds I have seen in Europe trained by a similar preparation?
No, they are not; they are of another species, and what you have seen is their natural shape.
Our conversation and our labour thus went on together. Fritz had completed some plates, and was not a little proud of this achievement. Ah, how delighted my mother will be to eat upon them! cried he. But how shall we convey them to her? They will not, I fear, bear travelling well.
We must leave them here on the sand for the sun to dry them thoroughly; this will be accomplished by the time of our return this way, and we can then carry them with us; but care must be taken to fill them with sand, that they may not shrink or warp in so ardent a heat. My boy did not dislike this task; for he had no great fancy to the idea of carrying such a load on our journey of further discovery. Our sumptuous service of porcelain was accordingly spread upon the shore, and abandoned to its fate.
We amused ourselves as we walked along in endeavouring to fashion some spoons from the fragments of the gourd-rinds. I had the fancy to try my skill upon a piece of cocoa-nut; but I must needs confess that what we produced had not the least resemblance to those I had seen in the Museum at London, and which were shown there as the work of some of the islanders of the Southern Seas. A European without instruments must always find himself excelled in such attempts by the superior adroitness and patience of savages; in this instance too, of ourselves, we had the assistance of knives, while the savages have only sharp flat stones to work with.
My attempt has been scarcely more successful than your own, I cried; and to eat soup with either your spoon or mine, we ought to have mouths extending from ear to ear.
True enough, father, answered Fritz; but it is not my fault. In making mine, I took the curve of my bit of rind for a guide; if I had made it smaller, it would have been too flat, and it is still more difficult to eat with a shovel than with an oyster-shell. But I am thinking that they may serve till I have learned to improve upon my first attempt, and I am quite sure of the pleasure they will afford my mother. I imagine it pleases God sometimes to visit his creatures with distress, that they may learn to be satisfied with a little.