Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/243

 THE I_ T DIA_N ANTIQUARY. the miners of T h o k - J a 1 u n g ; and this fact, adoted to the active habits of miners, doubtless fast occasioned their "being called ants by the ancients. An ancient record, fortunately preserved to our day, seems to prove beyond doubt that the original tradition of the gold-digging ants referred in the first instance to the Tibetan miners ; and to this evidence, which we owe to Meg&etheneSt I attach the greatest importance. .Sileukus Nikator I., the founder of the Greek dynasty in Syria, sent Megasthenes as ambassador to the Indian king Sandrak ot- tos or Sandragyptos, whom modern science bas long identified with king Clian- dragupta. At the Indian capital, called by the Greeks Palibothra, bnfc the true name of which was Piltaliputra, Megasthenes had frequent opportunities of intercourse with the Brahmans. During bis residence he collected materials for a work in India, which bore tlie title of ra 'iv&itca, but has, unfortunately, only been handed down to us in fragments by other ancient authors. From one of these fragments, preserved by Strabo (XV. 1), who himself had little con- fidence in Megasthenes, we learn that the latter had recorded the following fact regarding the famous Indian ants s— u It is in winter that they excavate the earth, which they heap up at the mouth of the pit like moles." The same state- ment is to be found in Pliny {H. X. XI. 36), who says : " The gold is dug np by them in winter, and the Indians carry it off in summer." X.w it is a remarkable fact that the Pandit ns of the miners of Tliok- Jal u n g : of the cold, tho diggers prefer working in winter ; and tho number of th* it- tents, which in summer amounts to 000, rises to nearly a winter. They prefer the winter, as tlio frozen soil then stands well, and is not likely to trouble them much by falling in."* -,-asthenes informs us that tho Indian ants "I! v_d by hnnting/'fand wo know of | I hat i hey procure their food by hunting the Yak and other witdanimals.J But th. possessed of arms i not, even on I desert plateau, secure from the attacks of rob- bers. The third Pandit, who visited Eastern Sac. XXX I t Strabo, XV 1. I Jour. 11. Qeog. Soc. XXXIX. U& }. R. (levy. Soc. XIV. 200. Tibet in 1868, was an eye--. t* such an attack when, on his return from Rudok, he reach- ed a Tibetan encampment in the neighbour- hood of the gold-field of T h o k - N i a n m o. An annual fair was being beld, and the Sar- pon t or chief inspector of the gold district, to be present. The assailants, a troop of mounted brigands said to have come from the great Tengri -Nor, or Lake of Nam-cho-Chimbo, consented under I i ustances to withdraw on payment of a sum of money ; § but the incident shows that kc- ■ watch-dogs was by no means a useless precau- tion on the part of the Tibetan miners. In the loth century Marco Polo praises the Tibetan dogs, which lie says were "of tho bigness of asses," for their cleverness in hunting wild beasts, Jf and in our century Mir Izze t IT I - la b, whose journey we have already alluded to, remarks as follows ;—" The dogs of 'J are twice the size of those of Hindustan : they have large heads, long hair, a formidable amount of strength, and great coarage.- they are said to be a match for a lion."«ff The Pandit to whom we owe the best information on Eastern Ti- bet, and who before reaching T h el- J a] u n g had already had an opportunity of seeing these dogs at Lassa, tells us that they are called by the Tibetans G y a k i, or ' royal dogs.'* It is [uite conceivable that the fere giant dogs of Tibet should often have been confounded with their masters. Herodotus' stories of the speed with which the -oI._l-.li-_ ants pursued the Indians, and of the presence of some of these animals at the Persian const, arc perhaps applicable to these dogs, and not to their masters. Alluding to an account in which a pack of Turkish dogs aro represent ed as l«aving taken part in the m Russian, m 17i,j-7... M. do la Barro Dn- parcq has though, himself justified in ta it as though the 8 iwpvta in the Seraglio at Cenfitantinople bi ,l been stm t on this occasion in great munbers to reinforce the army. f Now if | sth century, by n wrong interpretation, expressions were applied to the Turkish dogs whicji were intended for masters, il to understand that a (I Le Livrc d. -Marco Polo, II. 380. • i.ir,. t Lea ChiiM de (hum (P_rij, l$&)), p . im.