Ball — Identification of the Animals and Plants of India. 5 
This explanation may have suggested itself independently to others, 
and certainly did so to Porbes,"^ who further remarks that the brooks of 
honey and butter mentioned by Zophar, in the book of Job, probably 
referred to liquid honey from wild bees and ghi, or clarified butter. 
The habits of the wild bees, it may be remarked, appear to be the 
same in Judea as they are in India. 
Elekteon" ("HAeKrpov). 
Coccus lacca. — The Lac Insect and its Products, Shell-lac and Lac Dye. 
The identification in the former Paper of the Indian elehtron and 
the dye associated with it, as described by Ktesias, shows that there 
were really four substances to which the term was applied by classical 
authors, the other three hitherto only recognised being, as enumerated 
by Mallin^ — 1, glass ; 2, a metallic alloy; and 3, amber. 
"When combating the vague suggestion that the red dye was pro- 
duced from cochineal insects, I stated that the latter did not occur in 
India, whereas it would have been more correct to say, were not in- 
digenous to India, since, as a matter of fact, both they and the cactus 
were introduced into the country many years ago f and it is also known 
that they were introduced into Batavia.^*^ Sir A. Bumes mentions 
cochineal (prepared) as being an import into India by way of Cabul. 
The recently-published Anglo-Indian Glossary by Colonel Yule and 
Mr. Burnell contains a number of interesting and quaint extracts from 
early writers on the subject of Indian lac.^^ 
The Dikairon- (AtKatpov). 
Scarabceus sacer, Linn. — The Dung Beetle. 
I am indebted to Professor Mir Aulad Ali for the statement that 
there is an Arabic word, %ikairon^ which may, perhaps, be connected 
with the above : it means ' concealer,' and might very aptly be applied 
to the beetle, which spends so much of its time in burying pellets of 
cattle- droppings in which its eggs are deposited. 
In Houghton's Natural History of the Ancients there is some 
interesting information regarding the scarabceus of Egypt. 
' Oriental Memoirs, vol. i., p. 32. 
8 Mineralogie Homerique, p. 49. 
^ Pennant, View of Sindostan, vol. ii., p. 97. 
^0 See Biervillas' Voyage, vol. ii., p. 128. 
" Page 380. 
