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AUGUST, 1883.)
MISCELLANEA.
235
different mineral productions mentioned by the earliest writers on India, my attention has been drawn to the allusions which accompany them to many so-called fabulous races of men and species of animals and plants. A tolerably intimate acquaintance with the wilder tribes of India and with some of its natural productions enables me, I venture to think, to make some new contributions towards explaining the origin of certain of these Oriental myths. The portion of my work which refers to the mineral productions will shortly be published; but, as it may be some time before I can complete my notes on the races of men, animals, and plants, I make an offering of this instalment to those who are interested in the subject, hoping that what I have to say will be subjected to their criticism. My knowledge of Ktesias and his commentators is almost wholly founded on Mr. M'Crindle's recently published work."
First, as regards the Pygmies. They were of small stature, covered with long hair, and lived by hunting. In the country occupied by them there was a lake which produced oil, and there were also many silver mines situated in the same region. Other accounts represent them as fighting with cranes and robbing their nests. Now, without going into details, it will be suffi. cient, perhaps, to point to the facts that a hairy tribe of men of low stature who live in trees is reported to dwell in the upper valley of the Irawadi, between Momein and Manipur. In this region, too, are the famous Upper Burma petroleum wells of Ye-nan-gyoung, while in the Shan States and towards Bhamo argentiferous galena is worked at the present day, and the silver is extracted. The robbing the cranes' nests, &c., may have arisen simply from a figurative description of the fact that these people had their dwellings in the tops of trees.
The martikhora is described as an animal of the size of the lion, red in colour, with three rows of teeth and stings on various parts of its body, but especially on the tail, which caused it to resemble the scorpion. Its name records the fact that it was a man-eater (Persian mardkhor), which is also expressly stated by Ktesias. It was hunted by the natives from the backs of elephants. Although it has been suggested by some commentators that this was the tiger, others appear to be unwilling to accept it as such, and regard the whole as pure fable. Now, among facts not generally known, though mentioned in some works on zoology, is one which I can state from my own personal knowledge is familiar to Indian Shikaris --it is that at the extremity of the tail of the
tiger, as well as of other felidae, there is a little horny dermal structure like a claw or nail, which, I doubt not, the natives regard as analogous to the sting of the scorpion. Moreover, the whiskers of the tiger are by many natives regarded as capable of causing injury; and sportsmen know, where this is the case, that, if they do not take precautions, the skins of their slaughtered tigers will be destroyed by the removal or burning of the whiskers-to prevent accidents. The idea of the three rows of teeth probably had its origin in the three lobes of the carnivorous molar, which is of such a different type from the molar of the ruminant or of the horse. The martikhora was therefore, I believe, the tiger, and the account of it embodies actual facts, though they were somewhat distorted in the telling.
The griffins, or gryphons, which guarded the gold, are described as "a race of four-footed birds, about as large as wolves, having legs and claws like those of the lion, and covered all over the body with black feathers, except only on the breast, where they are red." If from this account we exclude the word birds, and for feathers read hair, we have a tolerably accurate description of the hairy black-and-tan coloured Thibetan mastiffs, which would naturally be, and are, in fact, the custodians of the dwellings of Thibetans
those of gold-miners, no doubt, as well as of others. Capt. Gill's frequent references to these fierce dogs in his River of Golden Sand fully bear out this identification. They appear to have played a part, too, in the other fable of the golddigging ants which has been so fully cleared up by Sir H. Rawlinson and Prof. Schiern."
The bird (!) called dikarion, which was the size of a partridge's egg, and buried its dung, may be identified with the beetle of that size, a species of scarabaeus, or dung beetle, and which is called gabaronda in Hindustani. As is well known, it buries pellets of cattle droppings as a receptacle for its eggs or larvæ.
I might add many items to this list, but I forbear further trespassing on your space, save that I would point out that the amber of Ktesias and the red insects with which it is associated may obviously be identified with shell-lac and lac dye (coccus lacca), while the Siptakhora tree on which they were found may possibly be the Khusm. H. (Schleichera trijuga), the fruit of which is edible. Or it may have been the Mhowa (Bassia latifolia), the flowers of which, when dried, constitute an important article of food, and the fruit is also eaten.
V. BALL. Trinity College, Dublin, April 6, 1883. • Loc. cit. p. 234.
Ind. Ant., vol. IV, pp. 226ff.
Ind. Ant., vol. X, pp. 296 ff. - Economic Geology of India, p. 148.
