I 
504 Quadrupeds of Ceylon. 
The musk-rat, or perfuming shrew, is very small, with a 
long snout, much extended beyond the under ja^\^ In running 
about it makes a squeaking noise like the squirrel, but much 
shriller and louder. From the intolerable smell of musk which 
accompanies, and remains behind, these animals wherever they 
go, they are very disagreeable inmates ; and there is scarcely 
a house, in Columbo particularly, which has not been strongly 
scented by them in every corner. Many articles are rendered 
entirely useless by the smell of musk which they communicate 
in merely running over them. For it is a certain fact, that of 
so penetrating a nature is their effluvia, that if they even pass 
over a bottle of wine ever so well corked and sealed up, it 
becomes so strongly tainted with musk that it cannot be used ; 
and a whole cask may be rendered useless in the same manner. 
When I arrived in Ceylon in the latter end of the year 
1796, the houses were terribly infested with rats. This was in 
a great measure to be attributed to the slovenliness and neg- 
ligence of the Dutch ; for though vanity induced them to keep 
their rooms for the reception of company sufficiently clean, 
the other parts of their houses, particularly their go-downs or 
out-houses for their servants and slaves, were so dirty and full 
of old lumber as to harbour all sorts of vermin, nor were the 
dogs and cats of the country of much service in destroying 
them. Since the residence of the British officers on the island, 
their terriers have been continually employed in clearing the 
houses of rats, the number of which have sensibly diminished. 
More attention is also now paid to the cleanliness of those 
apartments allotted to the servants, who naturally follow the 
example- of their masters, and are consequently much more 
cleanly in the service of the English than the Dutch. 
