438 VIVERRA MUSSUNGA. 



a variety of, if not actually the disease called, 

 leprosy.* 



I met several natives going into the interior ; 

 they were all well armed with krisses, klawangs 

 or Malay swords, spears, and blunderbusses or 

 musquets ; the country in the interior being de- 

 scribed as in a very unsettled state. Some of the 

 spears were about six feet long, resembling walk- 

 ing-staves, covered above by a wooden sheath, 

 similar to the other part of the weapon, and orna- 

 mented with rims of silver ; the upper part, or 

 sheath, being taken off, displays the head of the 

 spear. 



I purchased a specimen of the Viverra musanga, 

 similar to one I had before procured at Java, for 

 half a rupee ; although very wild with strangers, 

 it was exceedingly domesticated with its master, 

 following him like a cat, as he walked along the 

 path : they called him, on this coast, as at Java, 

 " Mussang." 



This specimen was very little larger than one 



* It is mentioned in Lahillardiere s Voyage, (Eng. Transl. 

 8vo. vol. i. p. 358,) that at Amboyna " I saw, on my return, 

 a white negro, a Papuan man by birth ; he had Hght hair, his 

 skin was white, and marked with reddish freckles, like those 

 of the Europeans who have red hair ; but he was not weak- 

 sighted, as is generally the case with other Albinos. 



