Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/114

 95 eafltern borders,t there is an elevated plateau j! about 3,000 stadia in circuit. Beneatli the surface there are mines of gold, and here ac- cordingly are found the ants which dig for that metal. They are not inferior in size to wild foxes. They run with amazing speed, and live by the produce of the chase. The time when they dig is winter. § They throw up heaps of earth, as moles doj at the mouth of the mines. The gold-dust has to be subjected to a little boil- ing. The people of the neighbourhood, coming secretly with beasts of burden, carry this off. If they came openly the ants would attack them, end pursue them if they fled, and would destroy both them and their cattle. So, to effect the rob- bery without being observed, they lay down in several different places pieces of the flesh of wild beasts, and when the ants are by this de- vice dispersed they carry off the gold-dust. t These are the Dardsa of Fliny, the Daradrai of Ptolemy, and the Daradasof Sanskrit literature. " The Dards are not an extinct race. According to the accounts of modem travellers, they consist -of several wild and pre- datory tribes dwelling among the mountains on the north- west frontier of KAsmir and by the banks of the Indus." Ind, Ant. loc. cit. X The table-land of Ghojotol, see Jour, B, Qeog. 8oc. vol. XXXIX. pp. 149 seqq.—^D. Ind» Ant. § " The miners of Thok- Jalung, in spite of the cold, prefer working in winter ; and the number of their tents, which in summer amounts to three hundred, rises to nearly six hundred in winter. They prefer the winter, as the frozen soil then stands well, and is not likely to trouble them much by falling in."— Id.