222 



ON THE WEAPONS USED 



withstand this terrific combustible. Pliilostratos confirmed 

 these statements. According to him this worm-like insect lives 

 in the Hyphasis, and the flame caused by the fire can only be 

 subdued by being entirely covered with dust. The king is 

 the sole owner of all these animals. Ktesias, Aelianos, and 

 Pliilostratos, all three agree in the name of this worm, which 

 they call Skolex (crfccoXi]^) . Lassen scorns the possibility 

 of such a worm being in existence, and ascribes the whole 

 description to the imaginative tendency so prevailing in the 

 mind of Oriental nations. The late Professor H. H. Wilson 

 takes a more practical view of the case, by identifying the 

 worm in question with the Indian alligator, and remembering 

 that the oil and the skin of the alligator were considered in 

 ancient times to possess most wonderful qualities, and that 

 the greater part of the other description tallies with the 

 outward appearance and natural habits of the alligator. 

 Wilson seems to have fixed on the right animal. 103 Nevertheless 

 so far as the name o-kcoXtj^ is concerned nobody so far as 

 I know has tried to explain it. An animal of seven cubits in 

 length, and of a breadth in proportion to its size, could hardly 

 have been called a worm,, unless the original name of the 

 beast in question resembled the Greek word Skolex. The 

 word represented by the Greek word Skolex is no doubt the 

 Sanskrit term culuki, cullaki (with the variations ulupin or 

 culumpin). Culukin is derived from culuka, mire, it is there- 

 fore an animal which likes to lie or to live in mud. The 

 cullaki is described in Sanskrit works as somewhat similar to 

 the tiisumdra, which is identified with the Delphinus Gange- 



103 See Indische Alterth.umsku.nde von Christian Lassen, II, pp. 641 and 

 642. " Unter diesen Erzeugnissen der uberschwanglichen Einbildungskraft 

 der Inder moge Her noch besonders gedacht werden, des aus im Indus 

 lehenden Wurmern gewonnenen Oeles, welches die Eigenschaft besessen 

 haben soil, alles anzuziinden und zu der Ansicht verleitet hat, das die alten 

 Inder Feuerwaffen gekannt hatten. Diese Nachricht muss im G-egentheil 

 gebraucht werden,um zu beweisen, dass schon zur Zeit des Ktesias dichterische 

 Vorstellungen, welche den Indern eigenthumlich sind, den Persern bekannt 

 geworden waren." Compare also Elliot's History of India, VI, pp. 478-80. 



