Dolphins and gourds

Ah, Sep­tem­ber. The air has turned crisp, and the world will soon be cov­ered in leafy splen­dor. Above all, let us sing in praise of gourds.

The win­ter squash has many uses in our cul­ture. They make col­or­ful items for liv­ing room dis­play. When dried, they make excel­lent mara­cas. Large ones can be fash­ioned into styl­ish hats. Er, they make col­or­ful items for liv­ing room dis­play. They have many uses. I’ll think of more later.

What spouse of an ama­teur stargazer has not received a delight­ful gift of gourds from his or her errant mate return­ing from a long night of stargaz­ing? Many all-night truck stops keep a sup­ply of col­or­ful cal­abashes on hand for just that purpose.

It should come as no sur­prise that a gourd con­stel­la­tion sits high in the south this time of year.

We call it Del­phi­nus, the Dol­phin. Look for it around 9:30 p.m. as a diamond-shaped arrange­ment of stars with a short tail.

Del­phi­nus is the patron of all sailors who have seen dol­phins jump­ing in the wash of their ships. West­ern cul­ture is awash with sto­ries that explain the pres­ence of the dol­phin in the sky. These myths usu­ally tell the tale of a dol­phin sav­ing the life of a human (or god) from a watery demise.

My favorite story has to do with Posei­don, lord of the sea, and his love for Amphitrite, the comely daugh­ter of Oceanus. At first, Amphitrite spurned the god’s advances and tried to hide from him. Posei­don asked Del­phi­nus to fol­low her wher­ever she went and to sing the god’s praises.

The laws against stalk­ing hadn’t been invented in those days, so Amphitrite had to put up with this con­stant harass­ment. Even­tu­ally, she relented and mar­ried the sea god.

In grat­i­tude for the dolphin’s efforts, Posei­don put Del­phi­nus in the sky, where we see him to this day.

The ancient Chi­nese looked at the con­stel­la­tion and saw gourds, which were very impor­tant to their cul­ture (really). The win­ter gourds were eaten in Sep­tem­ber when they were green. Some of the gourds were left to freeze on the gourd bush. (Vine? Tree? My gourd exper­tise is a lit­tle rusty here.) The shell was then removed with a knife. The flesh was soaked for a time in a mix­ture of alco­hol and rice water. The result­ing brew was sweet and deli­cious. (Please, don’t drink gourd juice and drive.)

Most impor­tantly, plas­tic had not yet been invented, so the ancients used gourd shells to hold their food and drink. The dried shells were quite handy as rice bowls, spoons and cups to hold the afore­men­tioned beverage.

Thus, the gourd crop was eagerly antic­i­pated. The emperor had his own exten­sive gourd plan­ta­tion, called the Fruit Gar­den of the Emperor. He needed plenty of cups and gourd booze to enter­tain his many courtiers and drink­ing buddies.

Woe be unto the farmer who let the gourds over-freeze. That made them rot, and they became use­less for cup and bev­er­age making.

The Chi­nese placed two gourds in the sky. Hou-koua, the Good Gourd, is made up of the diamond-shaped head of the occi­den­tal dol­phin. Pai-koua, the Rot­ten Gourd, is com­posed of fainter stars near the dolphin’s tail.

The ancients put them there to remind us not to let our gourds become frost­bit­ten. Lis­ten to the ancients. They knew what they were talk­ing about.

Please sub­mit other uses for gourds to tlburns@owu.edu.

Plan­ets

The morn­ing sky looks so good right now that it might even be worth get­ting up at 5 a.m. to see it. Start by look­ing for Jupiter, the sec­ond bright­est planet, pretty high in the east­ern sky. Below it and to the right are the very dis­tinct and bright stars of Orion, the Hunter. Below it and to the left are the twin stars Caster and Pol­lux in the con­stel­la­tion Gem­ini. As morn­ing twi­light dawns, look below the Twins for the bright­est planet, Venus. Such a view!

Tom Burns is the direc­tor of Ohio Wes­leyan University’s Perkins Obser­va­tory. He can be reached at tlburns@owu.edu.

Posted by Tom Burns on Sep 9 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.