Silver Tongue

somethingcorenotsure:

I think it’s so adorable that early humans took wild gourds - a tiny fruit that hollows out as it dries, making it float - and decided to make something out of it

a wild Buffalo Gourd. the small, yellow fruit is compared to a USA quarter coin. they are almost the same diameterALT

they thought the tiny fruit was so good that they bred it for thousands of years, making it larger to form into bowls and cups, and different shapes to become bottles and spoons

dozens of products made from carved, dried gourds of various sizes. bowls and water pitchers make up most of the itemsALT
similar to the previous image, with many bowls made from gourds. there are also spoons made from long handled gourdsALT

and musical instruments

various drums of different sizes made out of gourds with the tops and bottoms of the fruit cut off, leaving behind a cylinder shape. a membrane tied over one side to make it into a drumALT
a small gourd with a beaded lattice of shells around the exterior, made so that one can hold the handle of the gourd and shake it to produce a musical beatALT
a series of images showing the process of turning a very large gourd into a Mandolin, a stringed instrumentALT

And then, people took the hollow gourds they farmed, and they turned them into houses for birds. We adapted them into the perfect houses for birds, and now there are specific breeds of birdhouse gourd just for making into birdhouses

six birdhouses made of gourds, each of them painted and decorated with different brightly colored designsALT
natural colored birdhouse gourds hanging from wooden posts. the gourds are roughly the same size, but are various different shapes. it is winter and there is a light dusting of snow over everything in the imageALT

And humans dedicated gardening space and time and thousands of years of breeding to make the gourds so absolutely perfect for birds, that there is a species of bird that lives almost exclusively in them

a vintage print of Purple Martins. there are four birds, drawn in a way to show off their dark indigo plumage and white bellies. one bird is hanging off of the entrance of a birdhouse gourd. another is standing on top of it. the other two are in the tree branch which the gourd is hanging off of.ALT
Reblogged 9 months ago from thescyfychannel (Originally from somethingcorenotsure)
30,601 notes
  1. lomesasfannishthings reblogged this from swiftsnowmane
  2. yevrosima-the-third reblogged this from swiftsnowmane
  3. swiftsnowmane reblogged this from dasfeministmermaid
  4. all-about-thebees reblogged this from somethingcorenotsure
  5. jeorgia-with-a-j-3 reblogged this from somethingcorenotsure
  6. jahafnir reblogged this from somethingcorenotsure
  7. zsofika-sexpistol reblogged this from somethingcorenotsure
  8. sister-shotgun reblogged this from somethingcorenotsure
  9. benyw reblogged this from hellanahmean
  10. shes-a-menace-to-society reblogged this from hellanahmean
  11. hellanahmean reblogged this from drachenstochter
  12. tempibearxo reblogged this from somethingcorenotsure
  13. captainbragd-personal reblogged this from demitsorou
  14. academiccorvid reblogged this from ay-its-grey
  15. ay-its-grey reblogged this from salami-salamander
  16. salami-salamander reblogged this from somethingcorenotsure
  17. gonewithartemis reblogged this from somethingcorenotsure
  18. abri-chan-references reblogged this from somethingcorenotsure
  19. somethingcorenotsure posted this
    I think it's so adorable that early humans took wild gourds - a tiny fruit that hollows out as it dries, making it float...