ORDER CARNASSIER. 385 



The ears are ten lines distant in the Rasse, and two inches 

 in the Zibetha ; this character gives a very different phy- 

 siognomy to the two animals. The tail is nearly cylindrical 

 in the Tanggalung ; in the Rasse, it is regularly and uni- 

 formly attenuated to a point. In the hairy covering, or fur, 

 these two animals are essentially different ; while it is rigid, 

 coarse, and rather scantily disposed in the Rasse, it is close, 

 soft to the touch, and provided with much down at the base 

 in the Tanggalung, and its thickness affords a peculiarity 

 to the tail of the latter. 



" I shall now concisely enumerate the distinctions afforded 

 by the external marks. The Viverra Zibetha has a single 

 black line of considerable breadth, in the highest part of 

 the back, bounded on each side by a white line ; exterior to 

 this, is an interrupted line of a dark colour, while the rest 

 of the back and sides is covered with smaller spots, dis- 

 posed in such a manner, as to give the appearance of these 

 parts of being transversely undulated. In the Rasse, eight 

 regular parallel lines are clearly distinguishable. The 

 upper parts of the head and neck present no difference in 

 these two animals ; but the marks on the lateral and inte- 

 rior parts of the neck, are very dark in the Zibetha, while 

 they are faint and indistinct in the Rasse. The rings are 

 strongly marked, and pass uniformly around the tail in the 

 Rasse ; in the Viverra Zibetha, they are irregularly defined, 

 and scarcely perceptible on the under side of the tail. 



" The name Rasse, like many other Javanese names, is 

 derived from the Sanskrit language ; and it is therefore 

 entitled to be employed as a specific name, with the same 

 propriety as Civetta and Zibetha, which are derived from 

 the Arabic. Rasse, as employed by the Javanese, is a modi- 

 fication of Rasa, and is applied to our animal as producing 

 an odoriferous substance. In the original, Rasa has vari- 

 ous significations, of which flavour or taste appears to be 



