tribes have been known "to express dislike at the white man's smell."[1]
Even among ourselves it is possible to soon ignore or even welcome an unpleasant odour. This is well illustrated by the way European residents in the East soon overcome their repugnance to the evil smell of that delicious fruit, the Durian (Durio zibethinus). Here we have a fruit which, were it distasteful, would be banished for its malodorous qualities from any decent habitation, but for its delicious properties is welcomed on the most aesthetic tables. A similar remark applies to the Jack-fruit (Artocarpus integrifolia). Mr. Nicholas Pike, describing his experience of this fruit, which is highly esteemed by the Brazilians at St. Domingo, near Rio Janeiro, states that, "when cut, we could not be tempted to eat, though assured it was very nice. Being blessed with an acute scent, we could not get over its disgusting smell of putrid meat; and, strange to say, the meat-fly hovers round it, just as if it were a piece of carrion."[2] Nor can such a strange appreciation of disagreeable odours be confined to men of ordinary intellect. Goethe once nearly fainted when writing at Schiller's table from the effects of a dreadful odour that issued from a drawer. Schiller's wife stated that the drawer was always filled with rotten apples, because the scent was beneficial to her husband, and he could not live or work without it.[3] According to Augustus J.C. Hare, throughout life "the senses of smell and taste were utterly unknown" to the late Dean Stanley.[4]
May we not conclude that other animals may conquer their repugnance to an evil smell possessed by creatures of otherwise highly edible recommendations, and that odoriferous protection may prove of a highly partial and uncertain character? The Tiger, contrary to what has been generally believed, is not at all averse to putrid meat.[5] Lions have a similar habit, as recorded by Gordon Cumming and Selous.
