1624: Capt. John Smith wrote that for their music, the Virginia Indians used as their “chief instruments or Rattles… small gourds or Pumpeon shells,” likely referring to what is also known as the bottle gourd.

Source, “The Gourd Book,” Charles Bixler Heiser, University of Oklahoma Press, 1993

http://books.google.com/books?id=26gqQPjHbm4C&lpg=PA4&ots=REzGCT9q3o&dq=%2Bpumpeon&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q=+pumpeon&f=false