Chap. 37.] THE CHRYSALIS. 39 



of Hercules, at Erythraa, 39 have been looked upon as quite 

 miraculous for their size. This ant excavates gold from holes, 

 in a country in the north of India, the inhabitants of which are 

 known as the DardaB, It has the colour of a cat, and is in 

 size as large as an Egyptian wolf. 40 This gold, which it ex- 

 tracts in the winter, is taken by the Indians during the heats 

 of summer, while the ants are compelled, by the excessive 

 warmth, to hide themselves in their holes. Still, however, 

 on being aroused by catching the seent of the Indians, they 

 sally forth, and frequently tear them to pieces, though pro- 

 vided with the swiftest camels for the purpose of flight ; so 

 great is their fleetness, combined with their ferocity and their 

 passion for gold ! 



CHAP. 37. (32.) — THE CHRYSALIS. 



Many insects, however, are engendered in a different man- 

 ner ; and some more especially from dew. This dew settles 

 upon the radish 41 leaf in the early days of spring ; but when it 

 has been thickened by the action of the sun, it becomes re- 

 duced to the size of a grain of millet. From this a small grub 

 afterwards arises, which, at the end of three days, becomes 

 transformed into a caterpillar. For several successive days 

 it still increases in size, but remains motionless, and covered 

 with a hard husk. It moves only when touched, and is 

 covered with a'web like that of the spider. In this state it 

 is called a chrysalis, but after the husk is broken, it flies forth 

 in the shape of a butterfly. 



39 See B. v. c. 31. 



40 M. de Yeltbeim thinks that by this is really meant the Canis corsac, 

 the small fox of India, but that by some mistake it was represented by 

 travellers as an ant. It is not improbable, Cuvier says, that some quadru- 

 ped, in making holes in the ground, may have occasionally thrown up some 

 grains of the precious metal. The story is derived from the narratives 

 of Clearchus and Megasthenes. Another interpretation of this story has 

 also been suggested. We find from some remarks of Mr. "Wilson, in the 

 Transactions of the Asiatic Society, on the Mahabharata, a Sanscrit poem, 

 that various tribes on the mountains Meru and Mandara (supposed to lie 

 between Hindostan and Tibet) used to sell grains of gold, which they 

 called paippilaka, or "ant-gold," which, they said, was thrown up by ants, 

 in Sanscrit called pippilaJca. In travelling westward, this story, in itself, 

 no doubt, untrue, may very probably have been magnified to its present 

 dimensions. 



41 Cuvier observes, that this is a very correct account of the cabbage 

 or radish butterfly, the Papilio brassies or Papilio raphani of Linnaeus. 



