Bauu —Identification of the Animals and Plants of India. 3038 
field naturalist, using the title inits widest sense, has caused many com- 
mentators, both among the early Greeks and Romans and the Continental 
and English literati of the present day, when at a loss to explain the 
so-called myths, to turn upon their authors and accuse them roundly of 
mendacity. Thus Strabo states succinctly that, ‘‘ Generally speaking, 
the men who have hitherto written on the affairs of India were a set of 
liars.”” Again, Lassen has spoken of Ktesias, when referring to a par- 
ticular statement of his, in much the same way, although I shall be 
able to demonstrate that the condemnation was in that particular case 
wholly undeserved. 
The Euemeristic treatment of myths, according to which all that is 
possible may be accepted as historical, while the remainder is to be 
rejected as fiction, is all very well, provided that the person who con- 
ducts the analysis has become competent to do so by the nature and 
extent of his experience. 
Elsewhere? I have recorded numerous reported cases of children 
having been found living in wolves’ dens in India; and these, to say 
the least, cannot be fairly disposed of in the off-hand manner that the 
follower of the Euemeristic doctrine would apply to the story of 
Romulus and Remus, and many others lke it. 
The well-known Arabian story, related by the author of Sinbad 
the Sailor, Marco Polo, and Nicolo Conti, of the method of obtaining 
diamonds by hurling pieces of meat into a valley, had its origin, as I 
believe, in an Indian custom of sacrificing cattle on the occasion of 
opening up new mines, and leaving portions of the meat as an offer- 
ing to the guardian deities, these naturally being speedily carried 
off by birds of prey. This custom is not yet extinct. 
The so-called myth of the gold-digging ants was not cleared up till, 
by chance, information was received® as to the customs and habits of 
the Thibetan gold miners of the present day. Then Sir H. Rawhn- 
son, and, independently, Dr. Schiern, of Copenhagen, were enabled to 
come forward and state beyond a question of doubt that the myrmeces 
of Herodotus and Megasthenes were Thibetan miners, and, it may be 
added, theirdogs. Thesame dogs are now for the first time identified, 
as will be seen further on, with the griffins. The full account of this 
discovery by the above-named authors would find its proper place in 
a Paper on races of men, so that I pass from it now, save that I 
mention a contribution which I have made to it, namely, that the 
horn of the gold-digging ant, which we are told by Pliny was pre- 
served in the temple of Hercules at Erythr, and which for centuries 
has been the subject of much speculation, was probably merely one 
of the gold-miners’ pickaxes. I have been informed by an eye- 
witness, Mr. R. Lydekker, that the picks in use by agriculturists and 
miners in Ladak consist of horns of wild sheep mounted on handles. 
? Jungle Life in India, and Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1880. _ 
5 From the Reports of the Pundits employed in Trans-Himalayan Exploration 
by the Indian Gos ernment. 
