The mode in which the skunk is protected from the attack of enemies more powerful than itself, is by emitting an odour so fetid and abominable that few creatures are able long to continue within its influence. Cattle are said to be so much alarmed by it as to utter the most dreadful bellowings. Clothes that are infected with this smell retain it for many weeks; no washing can render them sweet, and they must be for some time buried in the fresh soil before they are thoroughly cleansed. Notwithstanding this, the American Indians frequently eat the flesh of the skunk; but great care is requisite in killing it, to prevent any ill effect which would arise from its noxious vapour. As soon as the animals are dead, the glands, from which this vapour issues, are cut away, and the flesh, then untainted, is said nearly to resemble that of a young pig. The skins of these quadrupeds, which are sweet, and well clad with hair, are much in request by furriers. The inhabitants of Chili are very partial to them as coverlids for their beds, and for other useful purposes. The Indians also make purses of them, which they hold in great esteem.
52. The CIVET (Viverra civetta) is an animal of the ichneumon tribe, distinguished by having coarse hair of yellowish ash-colour, marked with large blackish or dusky spots and stripes; a sort of upright mane on the neck and back, and the tail spotted above, and brown towards the tip.
The whole length of the civet is generally about two feet. It is a native of several parts both of Africa and India.
The drug or perfume called civet is the production of this animal. It is formed in a large bag or receptacle situated at a little distance beneath the tail, and the creature often spontaneously presses it out through an external orifice. This substance is a fatty secretion about the consistence of soft pomatum, of lively white colour when fresh, but darker when it has been some time kept. Its perfume is so strong, that it infects every part of the animal's body. The skin and hair are so entirely impregnated with it, that they retain their original smell long after they have been taken from the body; and if a person be shut up in the same apartment with one of these quadrupeds, the odour is almost insupportable.
Civet was formerly much employed in medicine; but it is now seldom used, except as a perfume. It communicates some smell both to watery and spirituous liquors; hence a small portion of it is often added to odoriferous waters and spirits. The Italians make it an ingredient in perfumed oils, and in this manner obtain the whole of its scent; for oils dissolve the entire substance of the civet. When genuine, its value is from thirty to fifty shillings per ounce.
Although the animals which produce this drug are inhabitants of hot climates, they are kept in great numbers, and with a commercial view, at Amsterdam. They are fed with boiled meat, eggs, birds, small quadrupeds, and fish; and, as soon as the receptacle of any of them is supposed to be nearly full, the animal is put into a long cage, so narrow that it is unable to turn round. This cage has a door behind, through which a small spoon or spatula is introduced into the pouch. This is carefully scraped, and its contents are deposited in a proper vessel. The operation is usually performed twice or thrice a week.
In many parts of the Levant and the East Indies, civets are reared and fed, as domestic animals are with us: but as, in the Levant particularly, they are few in number, and brought from a great distance, the perfume is increased by introducing into the bag a small quantity of butter or other fat. The people then shake the animal violently, and, by beating, irritate and enrage it as much as possible. This accelerates the secretion; and the fat, after having imbibed a great portion of the perfume, is used in place of the genuine drug. Civet is adulterated by mixing it with storax and other balsamic and odoriferous substances. That which is procured from Amsterdam is said to be less adulterated, and consequently is held in higher estimation than the civet which is imported from the Levant and the East Indies; but, notwithstanding the apparent care to sell it genuine, as would appear by the sealed bottles in which it is purchased, there is reason to suppose that very little indeed of it is free from adulteration.
It must be remarked, that the drug called civet is not only produced by this animal, but by some others of the same tribe, though in smaller quantity, and of less value. Civet is more pleasant than musk ([65]), to which it has some resemblance, and with which, by ignorant persons, it is sometimes confounded.
53. The GENET (Viverra genetta) is a quadruped belonging to the ichneumon tribe, and nearly allied to the civet, but is distinguished by its tail having seven or eight black rings, and the body being of tawny red colour, spotted with black.
It is an inhabitant of some parts of Asia, and is also found in France and Spain. Its length is about seventeen inches.