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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(NOVEMBER, 1881.
(B) Ælian, III, 41.
case it should be necessary to fell the monster India, he says, produces unicorn horses and with blows. As soon as it is hooked and swallows breeds likewise unicorn asses. Drinking cups the bait, it is hauled ashore and despatched by are made from these horns. Should one who
the fishermen, who suspend its carcase till it has plots against another's life put a deadly poison
beon exposed for 30 days to the heat of the into these cups no harm is done to the man
sun. An oil all this time oozes out from it, and who drinks therefrom. The horn of the horse
falls by drops into earthen vessels. A single and the ass, it would appear, is an antidote worm yields ten kotulai (about five pints). The against evil.
Vessels having been sealed up, the oil is desFRAG. XXVI.
patched to the king of the Indians, for no one Ælian, Nat. An. V, 3.
else is allowed to have so much as one drop of The river Indus has no living creature in
it. The rest of the carcase is useless. Now this it except, they say, the skôlex, a kind of worm
oil possesses this singular virtue, that if you which to appearance is very like the worms that
wish to burn to ashes a pile of any kind of wood, are generated and nurtured in trees. It differs
you have only to pour upon it half a pint of the however in size, being in general seven cubits in
oil, and it ignites without your applying a length and of such a thickness that a child of
spark of fire to kindle it, while if it is a man or a ten could scarcely clasp it round in his arms.
beast you want to burn, you pour out the oil, and It has a single tooth in each of its jaws, quadran
in an instant the victim is consumed. By means gular in shape and above four feet long. These
of this oil also the king of the Indians, it is teeth are so strong that they tear in pieces with ease whatover they clutch, be it a stone or be
said, captures hostile cities without the help of
rams or testudos or other siege apparatus, for it a beast, whether wild or tame. In the day
he has merely to set them on fire with the oil, time these worms remain hidden at the bottom
and they fall into his hands. How he proceeds of the river, wallowing with delight in its mud
is this. Having filled with the oil a certain and sediment, but by night they come ashore
number of earthen vessels which hold each in search of proy, and whatever animal they
about half a pint, he closes up their mouths, and pounce upon-horse, cow, or ass, they drag down
aims them at the uppermost parts of the gates; to the bottom of the river, where they devour it
and if they strike there and break, the oil runs limb by limb, all except the entrails. Should they
down the woodwork, wrapping it in flames be pressed by hunger they come ashore even in
which cannot be put out, but with insatiable the daytime, and should a camel then or a cow
fury burn the enemy, arms and all. The only come to the brink of the river to quench its
way to smother and extinguish this fire is to thirst, they croep stealthily up to it, and having
cast rubbish into it. This account is given by with a violent spring secured their victim by
Ktësias the Knidian. fastening their fangs in its upper lip, they drag
FRAG. XXVII. it by sheer force into the water, where they make a sumptuous repast of it. The hide of the skôlex
(A) From Antigonos, Mirab. Nar. Oong. Hist. 165. is two finger-breadths thick. The natives have
It is said that Ktêsias mentions certain lakes in
India, one of which, like the lakes in Sicily and devised the following method for catching it. To a book of great strength and thickness they
Media made everything that was cast into it attach an iron chain, which they bind with a
sink down [float] except gold, copper, and iron.
Moreover, should anything fall into it aslant, it is rope made of a broad piece of white cotton.
thrown up standing erect. It is said to cure the Then they wrap wool round the hook and the
disease called the white leprosy. Another lake rope, to prevent them being gnawed through by
at certain seasons yields an oil which is found the worm, and having baited the hook with a
floating on the surface. kid, the line is thereupon lowered into the
(B) From Sotion in scattered passages where he relates stream. As many as thirty men, each of whom
marvels about rivers, fountains and lakes. is equipped with a sword and a spear fitted There is a fountain in India which throws with a thong, hold on to the rope, having also out upon its banks as if shot from an engine those stout cudgels of cornel lying ready to hand, in who dive into its waters, as Ktégias relates.123
1 Conf. Aristot. Mir. Ausc. c. 122 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. II, 103.
