GrocrAPuy oF INDIA. 469 
There are really lumps of gold dust, consolidated together by some un- 
known substance, which was probably supposed to be the indurated dung 
of large birds. 
Tess are to be met with in the N. W. of India, where gold dust is to 
be found. ‘They contain much gold, it is said, and are sold by the weight. 
in Sauscrif these lumps are called Swarx a-mdcshicas, because they are 
supposed to be the work of certamm Macshicas, or flies, called by us flying 
ants, because in the latter end of the rains, they spring up from the ground 
“in the evening, flying about im vast numbers, so as to fill up every room, 
in which there are candles lighted, to the great annoyance of the people 
in them. ‘These flies are one of the three erders of termites, apparently of 
a very different, though really of the same species. This third order ¢con- 
sists of winged, and perfect insects, which alone are eapable of propaga- 
tion. These never work, nor fight, and of course if they can be said to 
make gold, it must be through the agency of their own offspring, the 
labourers, or working termites, which in countries abounding with gold 
dust are supposed to swallow some of this dust, and to void it, either along’ 
with their excrements, or to throw it up again at the mouth. According 
to the Geographical Comment on the Mahd-Bhdrata, the Suvarna-Macshica 
mountains, are on the banks of the Vitasta. There are also Macshicas 
producing silver, brass, &c. I never saw any, but Mr. Wurson informs 
me that they are only pyrites, and indeed, according to Purny, there were 
gold and silver and copper pyrites. Alchemists, who see gold every where, 
pretended formerly, that there was really gold and silver in them,’ though 
VOL. XIV. 6D 
