Chap. 37.] 
THE CHRYSALIS. 
39 
of Hercules, at Erythrse,^^ have been looked upon as quite 
iniraculous for their size. This ant excavates gold from holes, 
in a country in the north of India, the inhabitants of which are 
known as the Dardse. It has the colour of a cat, and is in 
size as large as an Egyptian wolf.^^ This gold, which it ex- 
tracts in the winter, is taken by the Indians during the heats 
of summer, while the ants are compelled, by the excessive 
warmth, to hide themselves in their holes. Still, however, 
on being aroused by catching the scent of the Indians, they 
sally forth, and frequently tear them to pieces, though pro- 
vided with the swiftest camels for the purpose of flight ; so 
great is their fleetness, combined with their ferocity and their 
passion for gold I 
CHAP. 37. (32.) THE CHETSALIS. 
Many insects, however, are engendered in a different man- 
ner ; and some more especially from dew. This dew settles 
upon the radish^^ leaf in the early days of spring ; but when it- 
has been thickened by the action of the sun, it becomes re- 
duced to the size of a grain of millet. From this a small grub 
afterwards arises, w^hich, at the end of three days, becomes 
transformed into a caterpillar. Eor several successive days 
it still increases in size, but remains motionless, and covered 
with a hard husk. It moves only when touched, and is 
covered with a web like that of the spider. In this state it 
is called a chrysalis, but after the husk is broken, it flies forth 
in the shape of a butterfly. 
S9 See B. v. c, 31. 
M. de Yeltheini tliinks that by this is really meant the Canis corsac, 
the small fox of India, but that by some mistake it was represented by 
travellers as an ant. It is not improbable, Cuvier says, that some quadru- 
ped, in making holes in the ground, may have occasionally thrown up some 
grains of the precious metal. The story is derived from the narratives 
of Clearchus and Megasthenes. Another interpretation of this story has 
also been suggested. We find from some remarks of Mr. Wilson, in the 
Transactions of the Asiatic Society^ on the Mahabharata, a Sanscrit poem, 
that various tribes on the mountains Meru and Mandara (supposed to lie 
between Hindostan and Tibet) used to sell grains of gold, v/hich they 
cd^^di paippilaka^ or ant-gold," which, they said, was thrown up by ants, 
in Sanscrit called pippilaka. In travelling westward, this story, in itself, 
no doubt, untrue, may very probably have been magnified to its present 
dimensions. 
Cuvier observes, that this is a very correct account of the cabbage 
or radish butterfly, the Papilio brassicae or Papilio raphani of Linnaeus. 
