Crescentia cujete

L.

Calabash tree (E); Calabaza (C,P); Merique (D); Naba (Cu); Totumo (C,P); Yatuseque (Ch). This species was noted by Columbus in Panama. The seeds are eaten roasted, but the pulp of the mature fruit is dangerous, astringent, emollient, expectorant, and laxative. Cattle that eat the fallen frui9t may suffer abortion. Nonetheless, a tea, made of the cooked pulp of green fruits, is mixed with honey to alleviate childbirth among Chiricanos in Darien. After birth, ashes of chicken feathers are placed on the umbilical scars. Young fruits are pickled like walnuts in Jamaica. In Africa, young leaves are cooked in soups with those of Adansonia. The shell of the fruit is used for utensils by all ethnic groups in Darien (!). In Colombia, halved totumos are called socobe, pilche, and suchamate. Cuna women probably carry more than a thousand calabashes of water a day down the Rio Ailigandi to the dry island of Ailigandi (!). Almost no Darien dugout is without a halved calabash for bailing (!). Stained totumos have been exported to an appreciative Europe for centuries. Around the Caribbean, natives float half-empty totumos at the mercy of the wind. After aquatic birds have become accustomed to the totumos, a hunter comes in with his head in a totumo and his body submerged, and can thus catch the birds. Columbus was once "bombed" with totumos full of washed hot peppers and ashes, which made an effective tear and sneeze gas when they broke. Other Indians used totumos with rocks attached to strings strung across conquistador trails, so that the conquistadores accidentally announced their arrival. Halved totumos serve as suin helmets . They are also used for masks for chamber pots , glasses, jock straps, brassieres, and perforated, for sieves. Chickens have been observed eating the pulp of dry fruits. In San Blas, small totumos are kept over the barbacoas with salt.