332 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
It is soft as the worm called skélex, and is found on the trees which 
produce amber, eating the fruits of those trees, as in Greece the wood- 
louse ravages the vine-trees. The Indians grind these insects to a 
powder, and therewith dye such robes, tunics, and other vestments as 
they want to be ofa purple hue.” Speaking of the race Kynokephaloi, 
they are said to ‘‘ eat the fruit of the Scptakhora, the tree which pro- 
duces amber, for it is sweet. They also dry this fruit, and pack it in 
hampers, as the Greeks do raisins. The same people construct rafts, 
freight them with the hampers as well as with the flowers of the 
purple plant (vide p. 344), after cleansing it, and with 260 talents 
weight of the dried fruits, and a like weight of the pigment which dyes 
purple, and 1000 talents of amber. All this cargo, which is the 
season’s produce, they convey annually as tribute to the king of the 
Indians.” 
In spite of exaggeration, in the account above given of the red 
insects, I think they may be safely identified with the so-called lac in- 
sects, Coecus lacca. They cannot have been cochineal insects, as has been 
suggested, since they do not occur in India. The elektron was certainly 
shell-lac, as above stated. The Periplus mentions Adkkos ypwpatwos, 
coloured lac, as an export to Adouki from Ariaké, which, whether it means 
the dye itself, or garments coloured byit,as has been suggested, sufficiently 
proves that the substance was known at that early time. The Stpta- 
khora tree presents some difficulty, owing to its combining attributes 
belonging to two distinct trees, which, however, grow in the same 
region. The tree which most abundantly yields lac is the Khuswm— 
Schleichera tryuga. It is found on others too ; but not, so far as my ex- 
perience goes, on the Ihowa (Bassia latifolia), the dried flowers of which 
are brought down from the mountainous regions in baskets for sale in 
the plains. The flowers are used both as food and in the manufacture 
of a spirit, the well-known J/howa spirit.” It is possible that some 
of the confusion may have arisen from the fact that the IZhowa, like 
other trees belonging to the same natural order, does exude a gum. 
The fruit of the Ahusum, though edible, is not so treated. The fructs 
of the Mhowa include stones, and grow in clusters. 
These identifications, taken together with the statement of Pliny, that 
the Hyparkhos, or Hypobaros river flows into the Eastern Sea, enable us, 
I think, so far to localise it as to say, that it was one of those which rise 
in Western Bengal (or Orissa), and among them it may have been either 
the Damuda, the Dalkissar, Kossai, Brahmini, or Mahanadi. Possibly 
the old native names of these, which I cannot at the moment refer to, 
may help to elucidate the identification. 
As for the race called Kynokephaloi, they are subjects fit for 
separate examination, it being here sufficient to suggest that they were 
a Kolarian race. 
7 Of. Jungle life in India (passim). 
