My dictionary says that "civet" is valuable secretion for making perfumes, derived from the
"civet cat". At the bottom was a reference to "cacomistle" which I thought might mean
something about chemical warfare. Folk etymology again.

>cacomistle
n.
5AmSp cacomixtle < Nahuatl %atkomis%i < %atko, half + mis3%i, cougar6
1 a slender, long-tailed, raccoonlike carnivore (Bassariscus astutus) of the SW U.S. and Mexico
2 its fur Also cac$o[mix#le 73mis#!l, 3mik#s!l8