Calabash

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Calabash are made from the dried, hollowed-out shells of various types of gourd. They include containers such as bottles and drinking gourds, utensils such as bowls and ladles, and musical instruments or components thereof such as drums and rattles.

They are made and used throughout the world, particularly in Africa and Central and South America.

Tahā (calabash) Parihaka/Taranaki/New Zealand,1850-1881, hue (gourd), string

An orange coloured Hue (gourd) with an opening at neck on one side. A string is looped through the main opening and a hole in the gourd opposite.  Handwritten in black ink below the opening  "Got at Parihaka / 13 Nov 1881".  Handwritten in pencil to the left and below " Corporal Dalrymple / [illeg] / [illeg]." Handwritten in ink on a paper label on the underside "KIAKA Presented by / Mr. G. W. S. Dalrymple / from Parihaka 1881"

Tahā (calabash),1850-1900, hue (gourd), harakeke (NZ flax)

A tahā (calabash), with opening at neck on one side. strips of flax woven around the base like a net.