THE STRIATED WEESEL. 315 



order to relieve themselves, they are under the ne- 

 cessity of frequently thrusting their noses into the 

 earth. The odour may be smelt to an amazing dis- 

 tance ; and so abominable is its stench, as to affect 

 provisions in such a manner that nothing can after- 

 wards make them eatable. When the animal is ir- 

 ritated or killed near a dwelling, the whole place be- 

 comes infected ; the clothes, provisions, and all the 

 rooms, are, in a few minutes, so saturated v/ith the 

 vapour, that no one can live in or use them for a 

 very long time. Clothes, although several times 

 washed, soaked, and dried in the sun, retain their 

 jmell sometimes for weeks. 



Professor Kalm says, that one of these creatures 

 being one day perceived in its cave, a woman, un- 

 thinkingly, attacked and killed it. The whole place 

 was in a moment filled with such a dreadful stench, 

 that the woman was taken ill, and continued so for 

 several days ; and the provisions were so infected, 

 that they were all thrown away * . 



These animals have, by travellers, had indiscri- 

 minately the names oi Devil's Children^ and Stinking 

 Beasts. — Strange as it may appear, they are some- 

 times domesticated: and as they never emit their 

 fetor except when alarmed or irritated, they are not 

 dreaded in this state : " but (an eminent Zoologist 

 justly observes) they ouglit surely to be treated with 

 the highest attention." 



* Kalm'i Travels. 



