MOSCHUS MOSCHIFERUS. 



musk, which during the life of the animal is soft, unctuous, 

 in irregular reddish-brown granules. The quantity in the bag 

 varies ; in the young animal it is empty and contracted, in the 

 adult it contains about a drachm and a half of musk, arid in 

 old animals more than two drachms. But these quantities 

 must be below the average, since the dried pods of commerce 

 contain, on the average, more musk than this. The animal 

 itself often expresses part of the contents of the bag when it 

 becomes too full, by rubbing itself against stones, and the mat- 

 ter thus ejected is said to be a purer musk than that which is 

 brought to market. The bag is generally cut from the animal 

 while it is yet alive, and an idea prevails that the animal must 

 be caught alive in order to obtain the musk, which is said to 

 be absorbed and lost if the deer be shot. As soon as the bag 

 is cut away, a small hollow reed is inserted into it that the 

 musk may not suffer, which it would be apt to do from want of 

 air, and the whole is tied around with a sinew of the animal. 



Various methods of catching the animals are adopted. 

 Sometimes they are taken by snares or gins, sometimes by 

 pitfalls, sometimes by shooting them. The Tungouses, one 

 of the native tribes of Siberia, employ the bow and arrow 

 only. 



Two kinds of musk are found in the market. One, the 

 Tonquin or Chinese, has the bag covered with reddish or 

 cinnamon-colored hairs. The other, called the Kabardine or 

 Russian, is covered with coarse white hair. The Tonquin or 

 Chinese is the best. This is imported in small rectangular 

 boxes or caddies, covered externally by silk, and lined with 

 sheet-lead and paper. These boxes contain from twenty to 

 sixty and one hundred ounces each, in sacs or pods separately 

 wrapped in paper. These natural follicles or pods are round- 

 ish or somewhat oval, generally broader at one end than at 

 the other. The hairs are brownish-yellow, or grayish, or whit- 

 ish, bristle-like and stiff, arranged in a concentric manner 

 around the orifice of the sac. The weight of each pod, as 

 well as of the contained musk, is very variable. 



The Kabardine or Russian musk is an inferior kind. The 

 pods are said to be more oblong or oval than those of the 

 Chinese kind, the hairs longer and whiter. The odor is much 

 less powerful, and more nauseous and disagreeable, being 

 somewhat empyreumatic. Geiger says it is sometimes ac- 

 companied by an odor similar to that of the sweat of a horse. 



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