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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(AUGUST, 1875.
the miners of Thok-Jalung; and this fact, Tibet in 1868, was an eye-witness of such an added to the active habits of miners, doubtless attack when, on his return from Rudok, he reach. first occasioned their being called ants by the ed a Tibetan encampment in the neighbourancients.
hood of the gold-field of Thok- Nianmo. An ancient record, fortunately preserved to An annual fair was being held, and the Sar. our day, seems to prove beyond doubt that the pon, or chief inspector of the gold district, original tradition of the gold digging ants happened to be present. The assailants, a referred in the first instance to the Tibetan troop of mounted brigands said to have come miners; and to this evidence, which we owe to from the great Tengri-Nor, or Lake of Megasthenes, I attach the greatest importance. Nam-cho-Chimbo, consented under these Seleukus Nikator I., the founder of the circumstances to withdraw on payment of a sum Greek dynasty in Syria, sent Megasthenes as of money ; $ but the incident shows that keeping ambassador to the Indian king Sandrakot. watch-dogs was by no means a useless precautos or Sandragyptos, whom modern tion on the part of the Tibetan miners. In the science has long identified with king Chan- 13th century Marco Polo praises the Tibetan dragupta. At the Indian capital, called by
dogs, which he says were of the bigness of the Greeks Palibothra, but the true name asses," for their cleverness in hunting wild of which was Pataliputra, Megasthenes had beasts,|| and in our century Mir Izzet U. frequent opportunities of intercourse with the lah, whose journey we have already alluded Brahmans. During his residence he collected to remarks as follows:-“The dogs of Tibet materials for a work in India, which bore the title are twice the size of those of Hindustan : the of ta 'Ivoixà, but has, unfortunately, only been have large heads, long hair, a formidable amount handed down to us in fragments by other ancient of strength, and great courage: they are said authors. From one of these fragments, preserved to be a match for a lion." The Pandit to whorn by Strabo (XV. 1), who himself had little con- we owe the best information on Eastern Ti. fidence in Megasthenes, we learn that the latter bet, and who before reaching Thok - Jalung had recorded the following fact regarding the had already had an opportunity of seeing these famous Indian ants :-" It is in winter that they dogs at Lassa, tells us that they are called by excavate the earth, which they heap up at the the Tibetans Gyaki, or royal dogs.'* It is mouth of the pit like moles." The same state- therefore quite conceivable that the ferocious ment is to be found in Pliny (H. N. XI. 36), giant dogs of Tibet should often have been who says: "The gold is dug up by them in confounded with their masters. Herodotus' winter, and the Indians carry it off in summer." stories of the speed with which the gold digging Now it is a remarkable fact that the Pandit ants pursued the Indians, and of the presence tells us of the miners of Thok-Jalung: of some of these animals at the Persian court, " spite of the cold, the diggers prefer working are perhaps applicable to these dogs, and not in winter; and the number of their tents, to their masters. Alluding to an account in which in summer amounts to 300, rises to nearly which a pack of Turkish dogs are represent600 in winter. They prefer the winter, as the ed as having taken part in the war against the frozen soil then stands well, and is not likely Russians in 1769-74, M. de la Barre Duto trouble them much by falling in."
parcq has thought himself justified in taking Megasthenes informs us that the Indian ants | it as though the Segbandi or dog-keepers in lived by hunting,"t and we know of the Tibetan the Seraglio at Constantinople had been sent miners that they procure their food by hunting on this occasion in great numbers to reinforce the Yak and other wild animals. But though the army. Now if in the 18th century, by a possessed of arms they are not, even on their wrong interpretation, expressions were applied desert plateau, secure from the attacks of rob- to the Turkish dogs which were intended for bers. The third Pandit, who visited Eastern their masters, it is easy to understand that a
• Jour. R. Geog. Soc. XXXIX. 154. + Strabo, XV. 1. 1 Jour. R. Geog. Soc. XXXIX. 155.
Proc. R. Beog. Soc. XIV. 209.
|| Le Livre de Marco Polo, II. 380.
Klaproth, Magasin Asiatique, II. 16. • Jour. R. Geog. Soc. XXXIX. 152. + Les Chiens de Guerre (Paris, 1869), p. 140.
