164 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



from sleeping in the most fetid atmosphere,* nor many savages 

 from eating half-putrid meat.f Many such people who have 

 acquired for generations the habit of eating half-decomposed 

 meat positively enjoy these odours. "What you take for a 

 stink, a Hottentot, if you will believe him, receives as the most 

 agreeable perfume."! Even savages differ in this respect, when 

 residing on the same island. The seaboard natives of most of 

 the large islands of the New Hebrides differ in language from the 

 Bushmen of the interior, and look with much disgust on the 

 latter, among whom the family and dogs lived in such dirt, that 

 a native of the coast told Lieut. Somerville that of the Bushman, 

 or "Man-bush," as spoken there, " 'e shtink plenty," not leaving 

 the " house," he said, even to answer the calls of nature. § I 

 well remember, not so many years ago, having, on one of my 

 rambles in the Transvaal, come across a number of Kafir women 

 merrily cutting up a deceased ox on the veld, and I equally 

 remember how I fled to windward of the scene. According to 

 Cameron, the Manyuema not only eat the bodies of animals 

 killed, but also of people who die of disease. " They prepare the 

 corpses by leaving them in running water until they are nearly 

 putrid, and then devour them without any further cooking. They 

 also eat all sorts of carrion, and their odour is very foul and 

 revolting."|| In describing the abode in Borneo of some Malay 

 ladies " of quite the highest aristocracy," Mrs. Pryer states: — 

 " The ground underneath the house (for all houses in this 

 country are built on piles) was in a most horrible and un- 

 sanitary condition, being wet with green slime, and all the refuse 

 from the house — fish-scrapings, potato-parings, and everything 

 else — being got rid of through the open flooring above, and had 

 putrified, and created a most evil smell ; yet here were these 

 people living above in utter unconcern, just as though deprived 

 of the senses of sight and smell. "IT Even the contents of the 



* Cf. Nansen's graphic description of this fact (' First Crossing of Green- 

 land,' new ed. p. 165). 



f ' Descent of Man,' 2nd edit. p. 18. 

 \ Kolben, ' Cape of Good Hope,' vol. i. p. 231. 

 § ' Journ. Anthrop. Instit.' vol. xsiii. p. 365. 

 || ' Across Africa,' vol. i. p. 357. 

 IT ' A Decade in Borneo,' p. 79. 



