Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/239

 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [August, W75. each other, ' So you thought you were going to smelt gold ! '" The gold-digging ants of the Indiana are mentioned in the writings of the Middle Ages and in those of the Arabian authors, and the tradition of them survived among the Turks as late as the sixteenth century. None of the authorities throw any doubt upon the truth of the tradition except Strabo.who treats the whole story as a fiction, and Albertn s Magnus, who in quoting it adds, "seil hoc non satis est probatum per experimcntuin." The advent of criticism did not at once dispel the belief in this fable. So late as the end of the last century we find the learned Academi- cian L archer, in his French translation of Herodotus,* cautioning his readers against hasti- ly rejecting the narrative of the Greek historian ; and two years later, in 1788, Major James B e n n e 1, while admitting the exaggerations of the story, gives it none the less as his opinion that the formidable adversaries of the Indians were termites or white ants. fin the 19th century when people at length ceased to look upon these bellicose gold-diggers as really ants, the opinion began to prevail that there had simply been a confusion between the names of the ant and of some animal of larger size- In connection with this view, or even excluding the hypothesis of a confusion of names, it was also supposed that a certain resemblance between the ant and some larger animal had given rise to the fable, or at least contributed to maintain it. The idea of resemblance was especially grounded on the larger animal's mode of digging its burrow, or excavating the earth with any other object. This animal has been variously identified with the corsac or Tartary fox, the hyena, the jackal, the liamster (Mus cricetua) and the marmot. J The theory that tho auriferous earth cast up by bur- rowing animals guided the Indian gold-seekers, and originated the tradition of the gold-digging ants, is curiously confirmed by an observation of ■ Tamo III. p. 339. t Memoir of a Map of Hindottom, Int. p. t^t , J Ccraf. Link, Die Unvelt rmd das Alterthnm (Berlin 1821-22), I. 358; Ritter, In. Brdk wtd*. III. 659 ; Humboldt^ Kosmoa, II- 176 ; Wakl, Srdbeschreibung von Out: (Hamburg, 1805-7). IL 485, 486; Wilford, Aaiat. Res, XIV. 467 ; Kruw, Indians nlte Oesckickte (Leipzig, 1856), p. 39: Heeren, Jdeen iiberdij Politik, 1. 1, 344); Yigne, Travels in Kashmir, &e, 11. 287 ; Petchel, Der Ur sprung und die Verbreitung einiger geographuchen My -then imMitUMter Alexander von Humboldt : '* I have often been struck," he says, " by seeing ants in the basaltic districts of the highlands of Mexico carrying along shining grains of hyalith, which I was able to pick out of the anthills. "§ But the supposed similarity which has led to classify- ing as ants animals widely different from them is not limited to their mode of excavating or throwing up the earth, for an attempt has also been made to extend it to their shape and general appearance. This was done long ago by Jacob Gronovius in his interpretation of the ancient narrative,|| and even in our own time X i v r e y expresses himself still more plainly to the same effect. * r The hypothesis of a confusion of names had to be entirely abandoned when Wlte >n poi out that the ancient Sanskrit literature of India itself mentions these ants. In a remarkable pas- sage of the great Indian epic, the MaMbh&i we have an enumeration of the treasures sent by the Northern tribes to king Yudhishthira, one of the sons of Paiidn, and among them are lumps of paipttika gold, so called because it was collected by ants (pvfrttfkk).* Apart from this fact, it must bo admitted that the burrow- ing habits of foxes, jackals and hyenas hardly afford a plausible pretext for confounding them with ants : it would be more natural to make com- parisons of this sort with certain rodents such as marmots, but even those who adopt this solu- tion make no attempt to ignore its weak points. Thus L a s s e n writes : " The accounts of their prodigious swiftness, their pursuit und destruc- tion of gold-seekers and their camels, mmri be Looked upon as purely imaginary, since they (marmots) ore alow in their m i and of a gentle disposition."t In the same way P e s ch e I mak«s th ng admission : "It has not been hitherto explained on what grounds such remarkable speed and ferocity should be attributed to these ants, while mar- mots are represented as peace-loving crea- 1 1 -"'• ; Lassen, Inl. Alt. I. 50, 1022 ; Cunningham, hid aU, i». BBS, § S?f*S^ **• 432 - Compare tho story of the diamond anthill m tha caso of Bubery v. Sampson.— Ed. U Worts in den Anmerkuit- ■'■i.uckn Auegabe von Fomponius Mela (Leipzig,' 1806). III. 3, 245. 1 Traditions Uratologiqiuis, pp. 20,1, B07- i. !.5 Ul! ? n ^#"" Mia Ani *iua, p. 136, »ad Jour. R. As. Soc. (1348) toL VII. p. 143. t lad. Alt. L 1032.