106 ' THE WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



that which comes from the Levant or India, because the latter is generally less pure. That which is 

 brought from Guinea would be the best, if the negroes, as well as the Indians and Levantines did not adul- 

 terate it with the juices of plants, or with labdanum, storax, and other balsamic and odoriferous drugs. 

 The perfume is gathered from time to time, and always abounds in proportion as the animal is fed. 

 Before any of these animals were seen in Europe, or it had been observed how the perfume had been 

 gathered, the common opinion, founded on the relation of travellers, was, that it was the sweat of the 

 animal, when irritated and provoked into rage. To produce this effect it was said that the animal was 

 enclosed in an iron cage, and after having been a long time beaten with rods, they gathered with a spoon 

 through the bars of the cage, and between the thighs of the animal, the sweat or foam which the rage or 

 agitation had produced, and that without this precaution the animal would yield no perfume at all: this 

 statement is, however, undoubtedly false. The civet is a secretion formed in a large double glandular 

 receptacle, situated at some little distance beneath the tail, and which the animal empties spontaneously. 

 When the civet cats are kept in a state of confinement, as is usually the case with the perfumers at 

 Amsterdam and other places, they are placed from time to time in strong wooden cages or receptacles, 

 so constructed as to prevent the creature from turning round and biting the person employed in collect- 

 ing the secreted substance. This operation is said to be generally performed twice a week, and is done 

 by scraping out the civet with a small spatula or spoon. The substance is of a yellowish colour and 

 of the consistence of an unguent, of an extremely strong and even unpleasant odour when fresh, so as 

 sometimes to cause giddiness or headache : the quantity obtained each time amounts to about a drachm. 

 The quantity supplied depends much upon the quality of the nourishment and the appetite of the 

 animal, which always produces more according to the goodness of the food. Boiled flesh, eggs, rice, 

 small animals, birds, young poultry, and especially fishes, are the best kind of food, and they ought to 

 be so varied as to preserve the health and excite the appetite. Very little water is given to it ; but 

 although the animal drinks very seldom, he discharges urine frequently, and in this operation the male 

 is not to be distinguished from the female. When the scented substance becomes incommodious to 

 the animal on account of its quantity, or when the reservoirs are too full, it is provided with proper 

 muscles for squeezing it out. The perfume of the animal is so strong that it infects all parts of the 

 body ; the hair and the skin are so thoroughly penetrated with the odour, that they retain it long after 

 death, and, during life, it is so violent as to be quite insupportable, especially if a person be shut up 

 in the same apartment with the animal. When heated with rage, the odour becomes more highly 

 exalted, and if the animal be tormented till he sweats, the keeper collects the sweat, which has likewise 

 a strong scent, and serves for adulterating, or at least augmenting the quantity of the perfume. The 

 males yield a greater supply of civet than the females, but the odour of the latter is twice as strong as 

 that of the males. 



The civet was formerly used in medicine as highly stimulant and antispasmodic ; but is now chiefly 

 confined to the perfumers, the tobacconists, who scent some of their choice snuffs with it, and to the 

 confectioners, who use it as an ingredient in their pastilles and other odorous comfits. 



