5 - Bitter Perfumes

Summary

Chapter 5 focuses on four animal products valued for their scent: musk, civet, ambergris and bear’s grease. Musk was an extremely pungent substance extracted from a ‘pod’ belonging to a species of Himalayan deer. Civet was secreted by the animal of the same name and imported from Indonesia and later Ethiopia (then Abyssinia). Ambergris was ‘the morbid secretion of the spermaceti whale’ and could be found washed up on the shore or floating on the surface of the ocean. Bear’s grease was imported from Russia and widely used as a hair restorative in the early nineteenth century. The chapter examines how all of these products were obtained, processed and used and assesses their changing value and popularity. It emphasises both the ecological and humanitarian concerns associated with the harvesting of animal perfume and the persistent issue of adulteration, which repeatedly brought the authenticity of musk, civet and bear’s grease into question.