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CHAPTER VI. 

 THE CIVET FAMILY. 



General Characteristics of the Civet Family Their Scent, Skull, and Teeth THE AFRICAN CIVET Its Characters and 

 Habits THE ASIATIC CIVET THE LESSER CIVET THE GENETTE THE MUNGOOS, or ICHNEUMON Curious Super- 

 stition regarding it THE CKAB MUNGOOS THE PARADOXURE THE BINTURONG. 



THE name of this family* is given to it from the fact that the most important forms included in it 

 are what are known as Civets, or Civet Cats, animals from which the well-known perfume of that name 

 is obtained. 



The civet is a white, fatty substance, found in two curious little pouches or turnings-in of the 

 skin just under the animal's tail. Thus Touchstone says : " Civet is of a baser birth than tar ; the very 



SKELETON OF CIVET. 



uncleanly flux of a Cat." The perfume " is procured by scraping the inside of the pouch with an iron 

 spatula at intervals, about twice a week. If the animal is in good condition and a male, especially ii 

 he has been irritated, a drachm or thereabouts is obtained each time. The quantity collected from the 

 female does not equal that secreted by the male. Civet, like most other articles of this nature, is 

 much adulterated, and it is rare to get it quite pure. The adulteration is effected with suet or oil, to 

 make it heavier." 



Civet is far less esteemed as a perfume now than in former times ; its odour is rank and almost 

 overpoweringly strong, so that musk and other vegetable perfumes are now generally preferred. But 

 in Shakspere's time it was quite " the thing." Don Pedro, in " Much Ado," says of Benedick : " Nay, 

 he rubs himself with civet : can you smell him out by that V And Claudio answers : " That's as much 

 as to say, the sweet youth's in love." 



The animals comprised iii this group are confined entirely to the Old World, where they arc 

 represented in South Europe by the domesticated Genette ; in Africa and South Asia by the true Civet 

 ( Viverra), the Ichneumons, so celebrated for their propensity for eating Crocodile's eggs, the curious 

 Paradoxures, and many others. 



In anatomical characters, as well as in external appearance, the animals are related both to the 

 Cat family and to the Hyaenas, as will be seen by comparing the various points of their structure with 



* Viverridce. 



