Monbuttu women,
according to Parke, have a strong Gorgonzola perfume, and Emin told Parke
that he could distinguish the members of different tribes by their
characteristic odor. In the same way the Nicobarese, according to Man, can
distinguish a member of each of the six tribes of the archipelago by
smell. The odor of Australian blacks is less strong than that of negroes
and has been described as of a phosphoric character. The South American
Indians, d'Orbigny stated, have an odor stronger than that of Europeans,
though not as strong as most negroes; it is marked, Latcham states, even
among those who, like the Araucanos, bathe constantly. The Chinese have a
musky odor. The odor of many peoples is described as being of garlic.[30]
A South Sea Islander, we are told by Charles de Varigny, on coming to
Sydney and seeing the ladies walking about the streets and apparently
doing nothing, expressed much astonishment, adding, with a gesture of
contempt, "and they have no smell!" It is by no means true, however, that
Europeans are odorless. They are, indeed, considerably more odorous than
are many other races,--for instance, the Japanese,--and there is doubtless
some association between the greater hairiness of Europeans and their
marked odor, since the sebaceous glands are part of the hair apparatus.
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