Another error, which has made more progress, is that of Gregoire de Bolivar, with respect to the climates in which the civet is found. After stating them to be common in Africa and the East Indies, he positively affirms they are also very numerous in all parts of South America. This assertion, transmitted by Faber, has been copied by Aldrovandus, and adopted by all the authors who have since treated of the civet. But the truth is, that they are animals peculiar to the hottest climates of the old continent, and which could not have found a northern passage into the New World; where, in fact, no civets ever existed until they were transported thither from the Philippine Islands and the coasts of Africa. As the assertion of Bolivar is positive, and mine only negative, it is necessary I should give my particular reasons, to prove the falsity of the fact. Besides my own remarks, I refer to the very words of Faber himself.[S] On this head it is to be observed, that the figure given by Faber, was left to him by Recchi, without any description[T]; and of which the inscription is, animal zibethicum Americanum; but this figure has no resemblance to the civet or zibet, and rather represents the badger; secondly, Faber gives a description and the figures of a male and female civet, which resemble our zibet; but these civets are not the same animal as that represented in the first figure; nor do they represent animals of America, but civets belonging to the old continent, of which Fabius Columna had procured drawings at Naples, and furnished Faber with their figures and descriptions; thirdly, after having quoted Bolivar respecting the climates in which the civet is found, Faber concludes with admiring Bolivar’s prodigious memory, and that he was indebted for this recital to the oral information of that gentleman. These three remarks are alone sufficient to create a suspicion respecting the pretended animal zibethicum Americanum, but what completely proves the error, Fernandes, in his description of the animals of America, flatly contradicts Bolivar, and affirms that the civet was not a native of America, but that, in his time, they had began to transport some of them from the Philippine Islands to New Spain. In fine, if we add this positive testimony of Fernandes, to that of all the travellers, who mention that civets are very common in the Philippine Islands, in the East Indies, and in Africa, not one of whom intimates having seen this animal in America, every doubt will vanish of what we advanced in our enumeration of the animals of the two continents, and it will be admitted that the civet is not a native of America, but an animal peculiar to the warm climates of the old continent, and that he was never found in the new, until after he had been transported thither. Had I not guarded against such mistakes, which are too frequent, I should have described my civet as an American animal, from its having been sent to me from St. Domingo, and not directly from Guinea, the place of its nativity, of which I was, however, assured by the letter from M. Pages which accompanied the animal. These particular facts I consider as confirmations to the general position, that there is a real difference between all the animals of the southern parts of each continent.
[S] Novæ Hisp. Anim. Nardi Antonii Recchi Imagines & Nomina, Joannis Fabri Lyncei Expositione, p. 539.
[T] Ibid. p. 465.
Both the civet and zibet are then animals of the old continent, nor have they any other external differences, besides those already pointed out; and as to their internal differences, and the structure of their reservoirs which contain the perfume, they have been so accurately described by Messrs. Morand and Peyronnie, in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1728 and 1731, that I could do little more than give a repetition of their accounts. With regard to what remains to be further observed of those two animals, as the few facts are hardly more applicable to the one than the other, and as it would be difficult to point out the distinction, I shall collect the whole under one head.
The civets, (by the plural number I mean the civet and zibet) though natives of the hottest climates of Asia and Africa, can yet live in temperate and even cold countries, provided they are carefully defended from the injuries of the weather, and supplied with succulent food. In Holland they are frequently reared for the advantage obtained by their perfume. The civet brought from Amsterdam is preferred to that which comes from the Levant or the Indies, as being the most genuine. That imported from Guinea would be the best, were it not that the Negroes, as well as the Indians, and the people of the Levant, adulterate it with the mixture of storax, and other balsamic and odoriferous drugs and plants.
Those who keep these animals collect the perfume in the following manner; they put them into a narrow cage, in which they cannot turn themselves; this cage opens behind, and two or three times in a week the animal is drawn a little out by the tail, and kept in that position by putting a bar across the fore-part of the cage; this done, the person takes out the perfume from the pouch with a small spoon, scraping all the internal parts, and then, putting the matter into a vessel, the greatest care is taken to keep it closely covered. The quantity so procured depends greatly upon the appetite of the animal, and the quality of his nourishment, as he always produces more in proportion to the goodness of his food. Hashed flesh, eggs, rice, small animals, birds, young poultry, and particularly fish, are the best, and which he most prefers; and these ought to be so varied as to excite his appetite and preserve his health. He requires but little water, and though he drinks seldom, yet he discharges urine very frequently; and even on such occasions, the male is not to be distinguished from the female.
The perfume of the civets is so strong that it communicates itself to all parts of the body; the hair and skin is impregnated with it to such a degree, that it preserves the odour for a long time after it is stripped off. If a person be shut up in a close room with one of them alive, he cannot support the perfume, it is so copiously diffused. When the animal is enraged, its scent is more violent than ordinary, and if tormented so as to make him sweat, that is also collected and serves to adulterate, or at least increase the perfume which is otherwise obtained.
The civets are naturally wild, and even ferocious; and though tameable to a certain degree, they are never perfectly familiar. Their teeth are strong and sharp, but their claws are blunt and feeble. They are light and active, and live by prey, pursuing small animals, and surprising birds. They can bound like cats, and run like dogs; and sometimes steal into yards and out-houses to carry off the poultry. Their eyes shine in the dark, and they probably see better in the night than in the day. When they fail in procuring animal food, they subsist on roots and fruits. As they seldom drink they never inhabit moist places, but cheerfully reside among arid sands and burning mountains. They breed very fast in their native climates; but though they can live, and even produce perfume in temperate climates, yet they cannot multiply. They have a voice more powerful, and a tongue less rough than the cat, and their cry is not unlike that of an enraged dog.
The odorous humor which exudes from these animals is called civet in England and France, and zibet, or algalia, in Arabia, the Indies, and the Levant, where it is more used than in Europe. It is now very little employed as a medicine, but it is still used as an ingredient in the compositions of perfumers and confectioners. The smell of the civet, though stronger, is more agreeable than that of the musk. Both, however, lost their repute when the method of preparing ambergris was discovered; and even that seems now to be proscribed from the toilets of the polite and delicate.
