468 ON THE ANCIENT 
about the size of aman. ‘This is really the griffin of the Hinds; but 
he is never even suspected of purloining the gold of the Hemacara birds. 
Tue large ant of the size of a fox, or of a Hyrcanian dog, is the Yuz 
of the Persians, in Sativont Chitiraca-Vyaghra, or spotted tyger, in 
Hindé Chitta, which denomination has some affinity with Cheunta or 
Chyonta a large ant. ‘This has been, in my opinion, the cause of this 
ridiculous, and foolish mistake of some of our ancient writers. The Yus 
is thus described in the Ayin Acheri.(?) “ This animal, who is remark- 
« able for his provident, and circumspect conduct, is an inhabitant of the 
« wilds, and has three different places of resort. They feed in one place, 
“ yest in another, and sport in another, which is. their most frequent 
« resort. This is generally under the shade of a tree, the circuit of which 
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they keep very clean, and enclose it with their dung. Their dung in 
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the Hindovee language is called Akhir.” 
Axut-Fazit, itis true 1 -- not say positively, that their dung, mixing with 
sand, becomes gold, and p: ably he did not believe it. However, when 
he says, that this dung was called Akhir in Hindé, it implies, the transmu- 
tation of the mixture into gold. Ak/iur is for C’hir in the spoken dialects, 
from the Sanscrié Cshira; from this are derived the Arabic words Acsir, 
and El-acsir-Elivir, is water, milk also, and a liquid in general. ‘To effect 
this transmutation of bodies, the Hindus have two powerful agents, one 
liquid called emphatically Cshér, or the water. The other is solid, and is 
called Mani or the jewel; and this is our philosopher’s stone, generally 
called Spars‘a-mant, the jewel of wealth; Hiranya-mani, the golden jewel. 
