Batu—Ldentification of the Animals and Plants of India. 313 
Taking Photios’s account alone, and excluding from it the word 
birds, and for feathers reading hair, we have a tolerably accurate de- 
scription of the hairy black-and-tan-coloured Thibetan mastiffs, which 
are now, as they were doubtless formerly, the custodians of the dwell- 
ings of Thibetans, those of gold miners as well as of others. They 
attracted the special attention of Marco Polo, as well as of many other 
travellers in Thibet ; and for a recent account of them reference may 
be made to Capt. Gill’s “‘ River of Golden Sand.” 
They are excessively savage, and attack strangers fiercely, as I have 
myself experienced on the borders of Sikkim. 
This identification serves also to clear up certain of the details in 
the story of Megasthenes and Herodotus, as to the gold-digging ants, 
which have been identified by Sir H. Rawlinson and Professor Schiern, 
as mentioned in the introductory remarks on p. 303, with Thibetan 
gold miners and their dogs. The former, on account of the great cold, 
are and were clad in furs, and it would appear, shared with the dogs 
in giving characteristics to the famous ants which were for so long 
regarded as a myth incapable of explanation. The ‘ants’ which, 
according to Herodotus, were taken to Persia, and kept there, were, I be- 
lieve, simply these mastiffs. He tells us* elsewhere that Tritantachmes, 
Satrap of Babylon, under the Achzemenians, ‘‘ kept a great number of 
Indian dogs. Four large towns situated in the plain were charged 
with their support, and were exempted from all other tribute.” 
Larcher, in his history of Herodotus, quotes the following, without 
however noticing how far it aids in clearing the myth of the griffins :— 
““M. de Thon, an author worthy of credit, recounts that Shah Thamas, 
Sophie of Persia, sent to Suliman one of these ants in 1559. ‘ Nuntius 
etiam a Thamo oratoris titulo quidam ad Solimanum venit cum mune- 
ribus, inter que erat formica indica, canis mediocris magnitudine, 
animal mordax et sevum. Thuanus—Lib. xxiii.’”’ 
Regarding the name griffin or gryphon, the Persian giriften (to 
gripe, or seize) is suggested by Mr. M‘Crindle as the source. Hin- 
dustani contains several words thence derived, as giriftar, a captive ; 
gwift, seizure, &c. The Thibetans call their dogs gyake, or royal 
dogs, on account of their size and ferocity. 
It may be added here, in its proper place, though already mentioned 
in the introductory remarks, that a passage in Pliny’s account of the 
ants,“ which has been the source of much difficulty to many who have 
diseussed this question, admits, as I have elsewhere shown, of a satis- 
factory explanation. The passage is:—‘‘ Indice formice cornua, 
Erythris in ede Herculis fixa, miraculo fuere.”’ The horn of the 
Indian ant was probably an example of the pickaxe even now in 
common use in Thibet. It is a sheep’s horn fixed on a handle: this 
is, | think, more probable than that it was a horn taken from one of 
the skin garments worn by the Thibetan miners, as has been sug- 
gested by Professor Schiern.* 
23 Clio, lib. 1. cap. excil. 24 Hist. Nat. lib. xr. cap. xxxi. 
26 Indian Antiquary, vol. iv. p. 231. 2N2 
