Literary notes about Musk (AI summary)
In literature, "musk" unfolds with layered meanings that blend the sensory with the symbolic. Authors employ it as a literal ingredient in recipes and perfumes, calling attention to its enticing aroma in culinary or medicinal contexts [1, 2, 3]. At the same time, the term evokes the wild, animalistic scents of creatures—ranging from musk-deer to musk oxen—thereby highlighting nature’s raw, unrefined allure [4, 5, 6]. Moreover, it frequently emerges as a commodity of trade and exotic luxury, underscoring themes of distant lands and opulent commerce [7, 8, 9, 10]. Occasionally, the fragrance of musk takes on a metaphorical role, suggesting undertones of passion, mystique, or even danger [11, 12], and thereby enriching the narrative with both tactile and emblematic significance.
- Add a grain of musk, and a few drops of the oil of lemon.
— from The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness by Florence Hartley - After the boiling has ceased, but before it is cold, add one gill of spirits of wine, and a grain of musk.
— from The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness by Florence Hartley - Strain through porous paper, and add a scruple of musk and a scruple of ambergris."
— from The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness by Florence Hartley - On [ 269 ] the following morning we saw two musk-deer,* called “Kosturah” by the mountaineers.
— from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - The musk-ox of the Arctic regions, when encountered, likewise stamps on the ground.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin - Besides the flesh of the deer, a number of musk-rats were skinned, and extended as if standing bolt upright before the fire, warming their paws.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie - [256] Barbosa (p. 186) gives a better account of musk, which really only reaches Pegu from the interior.
— from A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499 - The ships were all of them sunk, with their cloves and nutmeg, and musk and ivory, and coral and sandal-wood and conchs.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore - Civet, musk, ambergris and storax are met with.
— from A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499 - The Bezoar of Goa (Gowa) is an artificial product made up of musk, ambergris, and gum of tragacanth.
— from A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499 - A whiff of musk, a puff of sandal-wood, and a breath of sickly jessamine-oil caught his opened nostrils.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling - I opened it, and the odour of musk was diffused from it, and I was so exhilarated by the scent that I seemed as if I were in paradise.
— from The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.
