COMMERCE OP INDIA. 223 



in India is a fact beyond doubt, and some rivers contain gold 

 dust. Even the second chapter of Grenesis according to the 

 generally accepted explanation attributes gold to India. 

 Gold was found in the Himalaya in the north and in the 

 Western Grhat in the south ; and in the rivers, which 

 spring from the Himalaya, especially in Ladakh and Iskardo. 

 Herodotos relates (111. 102) the story, that in the country 

 of Daradas, ants smaller than dogs but larger than foxes 

 collect gold in their dens, that the inhabitants of these 

 regions take the gold out from the holes and bring it to 

 Darius, the king of Persia. The old Hindus were acquainted 

 with this story, called the gold collected thus pipiHka, from 

 piptla a black ant, Megasthenes and Nearchos saw the skins 

 of these ants, and the former describes them as equal in size to 

 those of foxes and in outward appearance similar to those of 

 panthers. Later investigations have shown that those black 

 ants are marmots which live in Thibet, and whose annularly 

 marked skins are a great export article to India and China. 

 These marmots heap up the shining gold dust in their dens, 

 and their mode of life resembles that of ants. This is the 

 reason why they were called ants. Alexander von Humboldt 

 observed that the ants in northern Mexico carried to their 

 ant-hills a certain shining substance which sparkled like 

 Hyalith. It may be, that the Daradas remarked a similar 

 habit among the ants. However that may be, and though 

 gold is found evidently in India, it is extremely unlikely 

 that gold was ever in any considerable quantity exported 

 from India. We had an opportunity of speaking about this 

 subject when discussing Solomon's expeditions to Ophir. 

 India has long been regarded as the richest country in the 

 world, and though this is far from being true, the greater 

 the ignorance, the greater was also the exaggeration. The 

 geographical ideas of the extent of India were very indefinite, 

 and the uncertainty attaching to the limits of India in the 

 Ancient and the Middle Ages creates a great difficulty in 



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