ii6 A NATURAL HISTORY 



LEGUAT^ who gives this Account, and was In Bafavia^ 

 A> D. i6gyj liiys, he faw a Serpent in that Country about fifty 

 Foot long. N. B. The Skin of one that was 20 Foot long, is 

 lliewn in Batavia, that fwallow'd an Infant, ibid. 



LXXIV. The Musk-Serpent, fo termed from its muflcy or 

 fweet Scent. Thefe fweet-fcented Animals are Inhabitants of the 

 Eaji, between Calicutj the fecond Kingdom of Malabar, and 

 Ca?idahor. In Cevhn are Mufk-Rat?, where the Inhabitants eat 

 all Rats, but this kind. 



These Mufk-Rats are in all things iliaped like our Water- 

 Rats, only fomething larger; and in other refpecfts differ only in 

 that mufky Scent. A Gentleman, who kept one of them in a 

 wooden Cheft, obferved that two days before it died, 'twas mofl 

 odoriferous, and fcented the Room above what was common *". 

 In Mtijcovy is a Water-Rat, which fmells like MulTv 3 and alfo a 

 great number of Musk-Cats, which look like young Bucks with- 

 out Horns, and therefore call'd Musk-Harts by the Chinefe, be- 

 caufe they refemble thofe Creatures. The Mufk is contain'd in 

 a little Excrefcence near the Navel -f*. 



I N America alfo, are found Woods abounding with Mufk- 

 Rats, that are as big as Rabbits, and have Burrows in the Ground. 

 Their Skins are black. Bellies white, and fmell exceeding ftrong 

 of Mulk. J. The vegetable World alfo, entertains us with Muffc- 

 Pears, Mufk-Rofes, fmgle and double, and the Ever-green, ^c, 

 N, B. Mufk-Rats frequent frefli Streams, and no other. 



The word Musk comes from the Arabic, Mofcha, a Perfume 

 of flrong Scent, only agreeable when moderated by the Mixture 

 of fome other Perfume, by which it becomes an agreeable artifi- 

 cial Odour Mufk is found in a little Swelling, like a pras- 



ternatural Tumor, or Bag growing (about the Bignefs of a Hen's 

 Egg) under the Belly of a wild Beafl, of the fame Name ; and 

 appears to be nothing elfe, but a kind of bilious Blood there 

 congeal'd. 



This Musk- Animal is common in the Eaji-Lidies, as in the 

 Kingdoms of Boiiian, Cochin-China, but the mofl efleem'd are 



thole 



* l.oivthorp's Abridg. vol. iii. p- 594.. 



t This Animal is defcribed by Fbilip Marthnis in his Chlnefe Atlas. 



X liifiory of the Antilles. 



