Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/207

Rh repulsive musk-glands of the Alligator, as found in the Madeira river of Brazil, are, according to Keller, mixed with a little rosewater, and serve to perfume the raven-black tresses of the elegant Bolivian ladies at Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba, in spite of, or rather by reason of, their strong scent, which gives the headache to all save these strong-nerved Señoritas. In Damara Land the women wear necklaces, "the beads of which, Dokkie informed us, were made from the kidneys of the Meerkat, or other small animals, compared with whose odour that of the Polecat is mildness itself." Mr. Bailey, in the Congo Free State, had to prevent his Kroo boys from stopping his canoes to secure the putrid flesh of a blown-out dead Crocodile, which emitted a most fetid odour. He writes:—"Many times after, when with other tribes in the interior, I remarked their preference for bad meat to fresh." The Coreans are described as extremely filthy in their habits, being commonly supposed never to wash their bodies. Amongst their staple food is Kimchi, which "is a dish peculiar to the country, and is made of turnips, chilies, and dried fish, soused in native vinegar. This mixture is kept in jars until it ferments, and is then eaten. It has a most atrocious smell—so atrocious, indeed, that I have never heard of an European being so bold as to taste the stuff." According to Guillemard, the natives of the interior of Kamschatka "prefer their fish in an advanced stage of decomposition." Mr. Stephens, of Ugi, told Mr. Guppy that at Ontong-Java, which lies off the Solomon Group, he had known natives to allow the carcase of a pig to remain buried in the ground until it was rotten, when they dug up their treasure, and enjoyed their feast under cover of the night, as though conscious of the depravity of the act. It was the strong odour which penetrated his dwelling that attracted the attention of Mr. Stephens to their proceedings. Besides the well-known fact of the peculiar odour appertaining to the black races as non-appreciated by ourselves, the American