ECONOMIC BIOLOGY 377 



for they supply the feminine population of the world with scents and per- 

 fumes, hair tonics and washes, face powders and toilet soaps, creams and 

 other aids to beauty — even with their lip-sticks and eyebrow pencils, and 

 mascara. Quite aside from the innumerable flowers used in manufacturing 

 perfumery there are many other plants vital to the industry. The leaves 

 of the West Indian bay-tree supply bay-oil from which bay-rum is made. 



On one occasion when I was visiting a tribe of primitive Indians in the 

 South American jungles, the women and girls gathered about my camp-fire 

 chatting and sniffing the air as Sam, my black camp-boy, prepared my 

 dinner. Presently, having peeled and sliced an onion, he tossed aside the 

 waste. Instantly there was a wild scramble among the brown-skinned belles 

 followed by squeals of delight as the lucky ones smeared the fragments 

 of odorous bulbs over their faces and naked bodies. That gave me an idea. 

 I was short of trade goods, especially beads and knives, and had been 

 unable to secure many of the ornaments and other ethnologic specimens I 

 desired for my collections. But the women's fondness for onion perfume 

 solved the problem, and for the next thirty minutes or so I did a rushing 

 business doling out sections of onions in exchange for weapons and imple- 

 ments, musical instruments and feather work, bead aprons and jaguar teeth 

 necklaces. But our stock of the bulbs was soon exhausted and there were 

 still many objects I wished to acquire, while many of the Indians were still 

 minus a supply of the perfume they so greatly desired. 



"Can't you dig up any more onions, Sam?" I asked while the Indians 

 stood about laden with possessions they wished to trade. "Perhaps some 

 got into the potato bag by accident." 



The Negro dumped out the contents of bags and boxes and searched 

 diligently. "No, sir. Chief," he replied at last. "Ah 'spec' they complete 

 finish. But Ah come 'pon httle garlic, Chief, an' they sure do smell a-plenty." 



The little bulbs certainly did "smell a-plenty" and how those Indians 

 did clamor for them! To them the odor of garlic compared to that of 

 onions was as delightful and desirable as attar of roses compared to the 

 cheapest rose-water would be to any white woman. They were willing 

 and anxious to exchange anything or everything they owned for a mere 

 fragment of garlic, and had I possessed a few pounds of the bulbs I could 

 easily have purchased the entire village with all it contained — including 

 the entire feminine population — had I so desired. Taking all things into 

 consideration, perhaps it was just as well that our supply of garlic was so 

 very limited. 



