Schellong states that the Papuans of Kaiser Wilhelm's Land rub
various fragrant plants into their bodies for this purpose.
(_Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, 1899, ht. i, p. 19.) The
significance of this practice is more fully revealed by Haddon
when studying the Papuans of Torres Straits among whom the
initiative in courtship is taken by the women. It was by scenting
himself with a pungent odorous substance that a young man
indicated that he was ready to be sued by the girls. A man would
wear this scent at the back of his neck during a dance in order
to attract the attention of a particular girl; it was believed to
act with magical certainty, after the manner of a charm (_Reports
of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_,
vol. v, pp. 211, 222, and 328).
The perfume which is of all perfumes the most interesting from the present
point of view is certainly musk. With ambergris, musk is the chief member
of Linnaeus's group of _Odores ambrosiacae_, a group which in sexual
significances, as Zwaardemaker remarks, ranks besides the capryl group of
odors. It is a perfume of ancient origin; its name is Persian[59]
(indicating doubtless the channel whence it reached Europe) and ultimately
derived from the Sanskrit word for testicle in allusion to the fact that
it was contained in a pouch removed from the sexual parts of the male
musk-deer.
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