ing
on Kaspatyrus (or Kashmir), which made their dwellings underground and
threw up sand heaps as they burrowed, the sand which they threw up
being full of gold."
Professor
Schiern points out that the tradition was mentioned in writings of the
Middle Ages, and those by Arabian authors. It survived among the Turks.
Strabo and Albertus Magnus treated the whole story as a fiction. Xivrey
supposed that the animals had become extinct owing to the auri sacra fames. Major Rennell supposed that the dwellers in mounds were termites or
white ants. Humboldt's observations in Mexico on the habit of certain
ants to carry about shining particles of hyalith was quoted by those
who believed that the animals were really ants. Other authorities
suggested that they were marmots, jackals, foxes, or hyaenas. Pliny
having stated that horns of the Indian ant were preserved in the temple
of Hercules at Erythrre, Samuel Wahl, who maintained the hyaena theory,
proved equal to the difficulty by suggesting that the horns might have
been a lusus natures.
Professor
Schiern most ingeniously argues that the horns had been taken from the
skins of animals which formed the garments of the miner. I am informed
by my colleague, Mr. Lydekker, that a common form of pickaxe in use by
miners in Ladak and Kashmir consists of the horn of the wild sheep,
tipped with iron and set in a handle. The ant's horn at Erythrae was
therefore more probably one of these.
Professor
Schiern further points out that ancient writers say that the ants
worked chiefly in winter, and connects this with the statement of the
Pundit above quoted.
