Note AC — Front matter (continued 4)

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.