ii6 A NATURAL HISTORY 



LEGUAT, who gives this Account, and was in Batavia^ 

 A.D. 1697, fays, he faw a Serpent in that Country about fifty 

 Foot long. N. B. The Slcin of one that was 20 Foot long, is 

 fhewn in Batavia, that fwallow'd an Infant, ibid, 



LXXIV. The Musk Serpent, fo term'd from its mufky or 

 fweet Scent. Thefe fweet-fcented Animals are Inhabitants of the 

 Eaji, between Calicut, the fecond Kingdom of Malabar, and 

 Candahor. In Ceylon are Mufk-Rats, where the Inhabitants eat 

 all Rats, but this kind. 



These Mufk-Rats are in all things fhaped like our Water- 

 Rats, only fomething larger ; and in other refpe<5ts differ only in 

 that mufky Scent. A Gentleman, who kept one of them in a 

 wooden Chefl, obferved that two days before it died, 'twas mofl 

 odoriferous, and fcented the Room above what was common *. 

 In Mufcovy is a Water-Rat, which fmells like Mufk j and alfo a 

 great number of Musk-Cats, which look like young Bucks with- 

 out Horns, and therefore call'd Musk-Harts by the Chinefe, be- 

 caufe they refemble thofe Creatures. The Mufk is contain'd in 

 a little Excrefcence near the Navel •f-. 



I N America alfo, are found Woods abounding with Mufk- 

 Rats, that are as big as Rabbits, and have Burrows in the Grounds 

 Their Skins are black, Bellies white, and fmell exceeding flrong 

 of Mufk :J;. The vegetable World alfo, entertains us with Mufk- 

 Pears, Mufk-Rofes, fingle and double, and the Ever-green, (Sc^ 

 N. B. Mufk-Rats frequent frefh Streams^ and no other. 



The word Musk comes from the Arabic, Mofchay a Perfume 

 of flrong Scent,, only agreeable when moderated by the Mixture 

 of fome other Perfume, by which it becomes an agieeable artifi- 

 cial Odour Mufk is found in a little Swelling,. Uke a prs- 



ternatural Tumor, or Bag growing (about the Bignefs of a Hen's 

 Egg) under the Belly of a wild Beafl, of the fame Name ; and 

 appears to be nothing elfe^ but a kind of bilious Blood there 

 congeal'd. 



This Musk- Animal is common in the Eaji-Indies, as in the: 

 Kingdoms of £/7«/(7;/, Cochin Cljina, but the mofl efleem'd are 



thofe 



* iMiiwthoTfs Abritig. vol. iii. p. 594. 



■\ Thio Animal is delcribeJ by Pl:!l!£ Mnrtinuf ia his Ck:nefe Atlas, 



X HJjlory of the Antilles, 



