196 I N A G U A 



of well-tanned leather, or the pleasant aroma of an old library. 

 Yet to sniff a book frankly is unthinkable. 



No sense is so apt to arouse memories as that of smell. The 

 odor of tar, no matter where encountered, places me instantly 

 in the center of a shipyard amid the busy tapping of adzes and 

 the sonorous whine of band saws; the pecuhar pungency of 

 iodoform brings back the anxious evening in the hospital where 

 my wife lay ill, and a vista of a long hall down which white 

 clad interns and nurses scurried on seemingly interminable er- 

 rands. The fragrance of maple immediately conjures up visions 

 of crisp brown waffles and cups of steaming tea; asafoetida and 

 an old-fashioned drug store which I used to visit are inseparable. 

 The smell of new-mown hay is more potent than the sight of 

 it; and there is no more stimulating experience then the re- 

 leased fragrances of damp earth after a summer thunder shower. 



The odors that came pouring out of the thombush were 

 strongly reminiscent. A leaf that I crushed gave forth the spici- 

 ness of sassafras and I unconsciously fingered it to see if it was, 

 though I knew that the nearest sassafras bush was nearly a 

 thousand miles away! A beetle blundered into my face and I 

 slapped it, crushing it between my fingers. Immediately they 

 reeked of musk, a vile, unpleasant stench. Although I rubbed 

 my fingers in the sand I could not get rid of it; it almost nau- 

 seated me. The musk attracted other beetles of the same species; 

 they whirred and zoomed about my head; seemingly the pur- 

 pose of the scent was for attraction. 



The beetle smell nearly drowned the odor I was pursuing; 

 only by diligent effort was I able to trace it to its source, a 

 stunted tree from which hung thousands of tiny blossoms. 

 These gleamed faintly white and when I shook the branches a 

 cloud of filmy pollen went drifting off in the moonlight. The 

 wind again; this plant depended on the currents of air for its 

 propagation. What a squandering of pollen cells there must be! 



