loftar wrote:Burinn wrote:People have been killing whales to make perfumes and incense with it since Ancient Egypt.
Unless I've understood the whole thing wrong, you don't generally kill whales for ambergris, but rather it is simply "foraged" from the sea.
Some Sea Captain from 1902 wrote:Ambergris
The following description is quoted verbatim from Charles H. Stevenson “Aquatic Products in Arts and Industries,” Report of the Commissioner for the Year Ending June 30, 1902, U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Part 28 (Washington, 1904).
“Ambergris is a wax-like substance found at rare intervals, but sometimes in relatively large quantities, in the intestines of the sperm whale. With the exception of choice pearls and coral it is the highest-priced product of the fisheries, selling upward of $40 per ounce. It is now generally conceded that ambergris is generated in either sex of the sperm whale, but far more frequently in the male, and is the result of a diseased state of the animal, caused possibly by a biliary irritation, as the individuals from which it is secured are almost invariably of a sickly appearance and sometimes greatly emaciated. It occurs in rough lumps varying in weight from less than one pound to 150 pounds or more. It generally contains fragments of the beak or mandible of squid or cuttle-fish which constitutes the principle food of the sperm whale. When first removed from the animal it is comparatively soft and emits a repugnant odor, but upon exposure to the air, it grows harder, lighter in color, and assumes the appearance it presents when found floating on the ocean. Its color ranges from black to whitish gray, and is often variegated with light stripes and spots resembling marble somewhat.” Although ambergris was used as an aphrodisiac, incense and medicine in ancient times it came to be used principally in perfume manufacture because it served to impart homogeneity and permanency to different ingredients employed.
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