c. 545.—"This little animal is the Musk (μόσχος). The natives call it in their own tongue καστοῦρι. They hunt it and shoot it, and binding tight the blood collected about the navel they cut this off, and this is the sweet smelling part of it, and what we call musk."—Cosmas Indicopleustes, Bk. xi.
["Muske commeth from Tartaria.... There is a certaine beast in Tartaria, which is wilde and big as a wolfe, which beast they take aliue, and beat him to death with small stanes yt his blood may be spread through his whole body, then they cut it in pieces, and take out all the bones, and beat the flesh with the blood in a mortar very smal, and dry it, and make purses to put it in of the skin, and these be the Cods of Muske."—Caesar Frederick, in Hakl. ii. 372.]
1673.—"Musk. It is best to buy it in the Cod ... that which openeth with a bright Mosk colour is best."—Fryer, 212.
MUSK-RAT, s. The popular name of the Sorex caerulescens, Jerdon, [Crocidura caerulea, Blanford], an animal having much the figure of the common shrew, but nearly as large as a small brown rat. It diffuses a strong musky odour, so penetrative that it is commonly asserted to affect bottled beer by running over the bottles in a cellar. As Jerdon judiciously observes, it is much more probable that the corks have been affected before being used in bottling; [and Blanford (Mammalia, 237) writes that "the absurd story ... is less credited in India than it formerly was, owing to the discovery that liquors bottled in Europe and exported to India are not liable to be tainted.">[ When the female is in heat she is often seen to be followed by a string of males giving out the odour strongly. Can this be the mus peregrinus mentioned by St. Jerome (see [MUSK]), as P. Vincenzo supposes?
c. 1590.—"Here (in Tooman Bekhrad, n. of Kabul R.) are also mice that have a fine musky scent."—Ayeen, by Gladwin (1800) ii. 166; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 406].
[1598.—"They are called sweet smelling Rattes, for they have a smell as if they were full of Muske."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 303.]
1653.—"Les rats d'Inde sont de deux sortes.... La deuxiesme espece que les Portugais appellent cheroso ou odoriferant est de la figure d'vn furet" (a ferret), "mais extremement petit, sa morseure est veneneuse. Lorsqu'il entre en vne chambre l'on le sent incontinent, et l'on l'entend crier krik, krik, krik."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 256. I may note on this that Jerdon says of the Sorex murinus,—the large musk-rat of China, Burma, and the Malay countries, extending into Lower Bengal and Southern India, especially the Malabar coast, where it is said to be the common species (therefore probably that known to our author),—that the bite is considered venomous by the natives (Mammals, p. 54), l.c. p. 236), there is no foundation].
1672.—P. Vincenzo Maria, speaking of his first acquaintance with this animal (il ratto del musco), which occurred in the Capuchin Convent at Surat, says with simplicity (or malignity?): "I was astonished to perceive an odour so fragrant[[176]] in the vicinity of those most religious Fathers, with whom I was at the moment in conversation."—Viaggio, p. 385.
1681.—"This country has its vermin also. They have a sort of Rats they call Musk-rats, because they smell strong of musk. These the inhabitants do not eat of, but of all other sorts of Rats they do."—Knox, p. 31.
1789.—H. Munro in his Narrative (p. 34) absurdly enough identifies this animal with the [Bandicoot], q.v.