To finish the history of goats, gazelles, chevrotains, and other
animals of this genus, which are all found in the old continent, it
only remains to give that of the Musk, an animal as famous as it is
unknown. This is the animal which produces the real musk; all modern
naturalists, and the greatest part of travellers through Asia, have
mentioned it, some by the name of a stag, a roe-buck, or a musk-goat,
and others have considered it as a large chevrotain. It seems indeed
to be of an ambiguous nature, participating of all the above animals,
yet at the same time we can assert, that its species is different from
all other quadrupeds. It is about the size of a small roe-buck, but its
head is without horns, and by this character it resembles the _memina_
or _chevrotain_ of India. It has two great canine teeth or tusks in
the upper jaw, and by this it approaches the _chevrotain_ of India;
but what distinguishes the musk from all other animals is a kind of
bag about two or three inches in diameter, which grows near the navel,
and in which the liquor, or rather the greasy humour called musk is
secreted, and which differs from that of the civet both in smell and
consistence. Neither the Greeks nor Romans mention the musk animal. The
first that noticed it were the Arabs. Gesner, Aldrovandus, Kircher,
and Boym have given more extended accounts of this animal; but Grew is
the only person who has made an exact description of it, from a skin
which was preserved in the cabinet of the Royal Society of London. His
description is as follows:--"The musk stag is about three feet six
inches in length, from the head to the tail; the head is about half a
foot long; the neck seven or eight inches; the fore part of the head
three inches broad, and the nose sharp like that of a greyhound; the
ears are erect, like those of a rabbit, and about three inches long;
the tail is not above two inches; the fore-legs, including feet and
thighs, are thirteen or fourteen inches long; he is cloven-footed,
armed on his fore-feet behind and before with two horny substances:
the hind feet were wanting. The hair of the head and legs about half
an inch long, and very fine; thicker under the belly, and an inch and
a half in length; on the back and crupper they are three inches, and
three or four times thicker than the bristles of a hog, of course more
so than that of any other animal. It is brown and white alternately,
from the root to the point; on the head and thighs it is brown; under
the belly and tail white; a little curled, especially on the back and
belly; it is very soft, and has the appearance of being something
between a common hair and a quill; on each side of the lower jaw, under
the corners of the mouth, there is a small tuft of thick hair, which
is short and hard, about three-fourths of an inch long, and somewhat
resembling the bristles of a hog. The bladder, or bag, which contains
the musk is about three inches long, two broad, swells out from the
belly about an inch and a half, and stands near as much before the
groin. The animal has twenty-six teeth, sixteen in the lower jaw, of
which the eight in front are incisive, the four grinders behind, are
rugged and continuous, and as many similar grinders in the upper jaw.
There is also a tusk about two inches and a half long on each side in
the upper jaw, which terminate in the form of a hook, not round but
flat, and have a sharp edge behind. They have no horns, &c.[AA]"
[AA] Grew's Museum.
In 1681, a year after Grew's publication, Luc Schrockius printed a
history of this animal at Vienna, in which we do not find any thing
very exact, nor absolutely new. We shall, however, select such facts as
may be collected from it, and which agree with those in other authors,
and especially in the works of the more modern travellers. We have
been under the necessity of contenting ourselves with collecting what
has been said of this animal, which we have never seen, and which we
have not been able to procure. By Grew's description, which is the
only authentic work we can rely on, it appears, that the hair of this
animal is long and rough, the muzzle pointed, and the tusks somewhat
like those of the hog: in these characters it approaches the boar
kind, or perhaps still more the babiroussa, which the naturalists
have denominated the _Indian boar_; and which, though resembling the
hog in many characters, like the musk animal, he is much smaller, and
has longer and slender legs, like those of the stag, or roe-buck. On
the other hand, the American hog, which we have called _pecari_, has
a bag, or cavity, on its back, containing an odoriferous humour. The
musk animal has a similar bag, not on his back, but under the belly.
In general, those animals which produce odoriferous liquors, as the
badger, the bearer, the pecari, the musk-rat, the civet, the zibet,
are not of the stag or goat genus: thus we might be tempted to think,
that the musk animal is nearer the hog kind, of which he has the tusks,
if he had, at the same time, incisive teeth in his upper jaw; but
his deficiency in that respect, makes him come nearer the ruminating
animals, and especially the chevrotain, which ruminates, though it
has no horns; but all these external indexes can only furnish us with
conjectures. It is the inspection of the internal parts alone that can
decide the nature of this animal, which is not even as yet perfectly
known; nor have I placed him after the goats and antelopes from any
conviction or even reason to conclude he belongs to those species.
Marco Polo, Barbosa, Thevenot, and Marini, are all more or less
deceived in the characters they have given of this animal[AB]. The only
true point in which they agree is, that the musk is formed in a bag, or
tumour, near the navel, and it appears by their testimonies, as well as
those of other travellers, that the male only produces the musk; that
the female has a similar bag near the navel, but that the humour which
gathers there, has not the same smell; that this tumour of the male is
only filled with musk at the rutting-time, and that at other times the
quantity of this humour is less, and the odoriferous scent much weaker.
[AB] There exists in fact, says Sonnini, a variety of the musk animal
which is entirely white. It is however very rare. Pallas saw a female
of this variety which came from the country of the Abakanks. _See
Pallas, vol. iv. p. 14._
In respect to the musk itself, its essence, or pure substance, is,
perhaps, as little known as the nature of the animal which produces it.
All travellers agree, that the musk is always mixed and adulterated
with blood, or some other drugs, by those who sell it. The Chinese not
only increase the quantity by this mixture, but they endeavour likewise
to increase the weight, by incorporating with it lead very finely
ground. The purest musk, and that which is the most sought after, even
by the Chinese themselves, is that which the animal deposits upon trees
or stones, against which he rubs himself when the quantity becomes too
great, or renders the pouch uneasy. That which is found in the bag is
seldom so good, because it is not fully ripe, or because perhaps it
is only in their rutting season that it acquires all its strength and
smell; and that it is at this time the animal endeavours to disburthen
himself of a matter which then causes violent itchings, and possibly
some degree of pain.
Chardin and Tavernier have both described the means, which the eastern
nations make use of to adulterate the musk[AC]: the merchants must
necessarily increase the quantity of it beyond conception, since in one
year Tavernier purchased 1673 bags, which supposes an equal number of
animals to have been taken. But as this animal is no where domestic,
and as the species is confined to some few provinces of the East, it is
impossible to be sufficiently numerous to produce so great a quantity
of this matter. We cannot, therefore, doubt the greatest part of these
pretended bags, or bladders, are only artificial ones made of the skin
of the other parts of the animal, and filled with its blood, mixed
with a very small quantity of true musk. Its scent is, in fact, the
strongest of any yet known; a single grain is sufficient to perfume a
great quantity of other matter; the odour of the smallest particle will
perfume a considerable space; and the perfume itself is so permanent,
that at the end of several years it does not seem to have lost much of
its power.[AD]
[AC] It is said that when the animal is taken, and the musk bag first
opened, that the odour is so strong the hunter is obliged to have
several folds of linen over his nose and mouth, and that even then it
sometimes proves fatal. I am inclined to believe this is true: because
the musk decreases in strength with time, and when I dealt in that
article, I always found it requisite to stand in the open air, and at a
distance from those who moved the bladders. This drug is, however, very
frequently adulterated by the hunters with the blood of the animal,
and by the merchants with the blood of oxen, lead, &c. But the natives
of India have various methods of detecting this adulteration, they
discover it by the taste, and weight, but mostly with a thread steeped
in the juice of garlic which they draw through the bag with a needle,
and if it retains that smell they are certain of its being adulterated.
_Voyage de Chardin._
[AD] The musk is a solitary animal, which prefers high mountains and
rugged rocks; sometimes he descends into the profound and dark chasms
which separate the highest chains of mountains, and sometimes he climbs
to their tops covered with snow. He is very agile, and swims very well;
extremely ferocious, it is difficult to approach him, and equally so to
tame him, though mildness forms the basis of his character. He is in
rut in the months of November and December; this season of love is also
the season of furious combats between the males. They eat the flesh of
this animal: but that of the young ones alone is good and tender.
_Engraved for Barr's Buffon_
[Illustration: FIG. 161. _Cabiai._]
[Illustration: FIG. 160. _Babiroussa._]
The Babiroussa.
Although we have only the head of this animal in the royal cabinet,
it is too remarkable to be passed over in silence. All naturalists
have looked upon it as a kind of hog, though either its head, size,
bristles, nor tail, resemble that animal: its legs are longer, and its
muzzle shorter; it is covered with short hair, as soft as wool, and
its tail is terminated by a tuft of this wool; its body is likewise
not so thick and clumsy as that of the hog; its hair is grey, mixed
with red and a little black; its ears are short and pointed; but the
most remarkable character, and which distinguishes it from all other
animals, are four enormous tusks, or canine teeth, the two shortest of
which shoot out of the lower jaw, like those of the wild boar, and the
two others, which come from the upper jaw, pierce the checks, or rather
the upper part of the lips, and rise in a curve almost to the eyes. The
tusks are a very beautiful ivory, much smoother and finer, but not so
hard as that of the elephant.
The position and the direction of these two upper tusks, which rise
upright, and then bend in the form of a circle, have made some skilful
naturalists, such as Grew, imagine that these tusks ought not to be
looked upon as teeth, but as horns. They founded their opinion upon the
circumstance that in all animals the sockets of the teeth in the upper
jaw open downwards; that in the babiroussa, as in the other animals,
the sockets are turned downwards, except those of these two great
tusks, which, on the contrary, are turned upwards; and they concluded
from thence, that from this essential character of the upper teeth,
these tusks, whose sockets are directed upwards, ought to be looked
upon as horns and not as teeth. But these philosophers were deceived;
the position or direction is only a circumstance, and not essential to
the existence of an object. These tusks, though situate in an opposite
manner to that of the other teeth, is only a singularity in the
direction, which cannot change the nature of the thing, nor make an
ivory horn of a true canine tooth.
These enormous tusks give this animal a very formidable appearance;
they are, however, less dangerous than our wild boars. They go
in herds, and have a very strong smell, by which they are easily
discovered, and are hunted by dogs with good success. They growl
terribly, defend themselves, and wound their enemies with their under
tusks; for the upper are rather of disservice than of use to them.
Although savage and ferocious, they are tamed with great ease; and
their flesh, which is very good, putrifies in a short time. As their
hair is fine, and their skin delicate, it is soon penetrated by the
teeth of dogs, who hunt them in preference to wild boars, and sooner
accomplish their purpose. They fasten their upper tusks in the branches
of trees, to rest their heads, or to sleep standing. This habit they
have in common with the elephant, who, in order to sleep in a standing
posture, supports his head by fixing the end of his tusks in the holes
which he makes in the walls of his lodging.
The babiroussa differs still more from the wild boar, by his natural
appetites; he feeds upon grass and leaves of trees, and does not
endeavour to enter gardens to feed on beans, pease, and other
vegetables; while the wild boar, who lives in the same country, feeds
upon wild fruit, roots, and often destroys the gardens. Besides, these
animals who go together in herds, never intermix; the wild boars keep
on one side, and the babiroussas on the other. The latter walk quicker
and have a very fine smell, and often stand erect against the trees to
scent the approach of dogs or hunters. When they are pursued to any
great distance they make towards the sea, and, swimming with great
dexterity, very often escape their pursuers, for they swim for a long
time, and often to very great distances, and from one island to another.
The babiroussa is found not only in the island of Bouro, or Boero,
near Amboyna, but also in many parts of the South of Asia, and Africa;
as at Celebes, Estrila, Senegal, and Madagascar, for it appears that
the wild boars of this island, which Flaccourt speaks of, and says,
_that the males chiefly have two horns on the side of their nose_, are
babiroussas. We have not had it in our power to determine whether the
female has the two tusks which are so remarkable in the male, but most
authors seem to agree that they have.