“The house was over-warm, and there was a musty smell of over-aged furniture, old leather, and the pungence of mothballs.”
“It had a cured smell, the comfortable pungence of a can of pipe tobacco or mink coats in closets.”
“Animals do not distinguish between us and the other beasts, or between us and the rocks and trees, each with its pungence and relevance to the struggle for existence.”