104 ANIMALS OF THE 



care to keep shut ; and when a sufficient quantity 

 is procured, it is sold to very great advantage. 



The civet,* although a native of the warmest 

 climates, is found yet to live in temperate, and 

 even cold countries, provided it be defended care- 

 fully from the injuries of the ah-. Wherefore it 

 is not only bred among the Turks, the Indians, 

 and Africans, but great numbers of these animals 

 are also bred in Holland, where this scraping 

 people make no small gain of its perfume. The 

 perfume of Amsterdam is reckoned the purest of 

 any ; the people of other countries adulterating 

 it with gums, and other matters, which diminish 

 its value, but increase its weight. The quantity 

 which a single animal affords generally depends 

 upon its health and nourishment. It gives more 

 in proportion as it is more delicately and abun- 

 dantly fed. Raw flesh, hashed small, eggs, rice, 

 birds, young fowls, and particularly fish, are the 

 kinds of food the civet most delights in. These 

 are to be changed and altered, to suit and entice 

 its appetite, and continue its health. It gets but 

 very little water; and although it drinks but 

 rarely, yet it makes urine very frequently ; and 

 upon such occasions we cannot, as in other ani- 

 mals, distinguish the male from the female. 



The perfume of the civet is so strong, that it 

 communicates itself to all parts of the animaPs 

 body ; the fur is impregnated thereby, and the 

 skin penetrated to such a degree, that it conti- 

 nues to preserve the odour for a long time after it 



' Buffon, vol. xix. 



