PREPARATION OF THE PODS. 97 



untouched. I once found what I thought 

 was a newly killed musk-deer, but on 

 examination I discovered it was merely the 

 skm and skeleton of one, which from its dry 

 and withered state, must have been dead 

 some months ; the flesh had been completely 

 eaten away by maggots, but the musk pod 

 was entire. 



The musk pods which reach the market 

 through the hands of the native hunters 

 are generally enclosed in a portion of 

 the skin of the animal, with the hair or 

 fur left on it. When they have killed a 

 musk-deer, they cut round the pod, and 

 skin the whole of the belly. The pod 

 comes ofi" attached to the skin, which is 

 then laid with its fleshy side on a flat 

 stone previously heated in the fire, and 

 thus dried without singeing the hair. The 

 skin shrinks up from the heat, into a 

 small compass, and is then tied or stitched 

 round the pod, and hung up in a dry place 

 imtil quite hard. This is the general method 

 of preparing them, but some put the pod into 



