C.S.
Myers with regard to their olfactory acuteness and olfactory
preferences. It was found that acuteness was, if anything,
slightly greater than among Europeans. This appeared to be
largely due to the careful attention they pay to odors. The
resemblances which they detected among different odorous
substances were frequently found to rest on real chemical
affinities. The odors they were observed to dislike most
frequently were asafoetida, valerianic acid, and civet, the last
being regarded as most repulsive of all on account of its
resemblance to faecal odor, which these people regard with intense
disgust. Their favorite odors were musk, thyme, and especially
violet. (_Report of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to
Torres Straits_, vol. ii, Part II, 1903.)
In Australia Lumholtz (_Among Cannibals_, p. 115) found that the
blacks had a keener sense of smell than he possessed.
In New Zealand the Maoris, as W. Colenso shows, possessed,
formerly at all events, a very keen sense of smell or else were
very attentive to smell, and their taste as regarded agreeable
and disagreeable odors corresponded very closely to European
taste, although it must be added that some of their common
articles of food possessed a very offensive odor.
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