The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c26.28

v1.c26.28

Others of the Indians would not eat the flesh of any living thing or sow fields or live in houses. ‘Whenever a man of this people falls into a sickness, he goes into the desert and lies down there: and no one pays any regard when a man is dead or fallen ill.’ The Indians who dwelt near the city of Kaspapyros and the country of the Pactyes (Pashtus), that is, the hill-tribes about the Kābul valley, were, he says, the most warlike. It was from these, of course, that the Persian government drew levies. Among them was the tribe called Kallatiai, who ate the bodies of their dead relations¹. He describes the dress of the Indians serving in the army of Xerxes. They wore garments made from trees (i.e. cotton) and carried bows of reed and arrows of reed with iron heads². Some fought on foot and some in chariots drawn by horses and wild asses³. The account of the ants who throw up mounds of gold dust, which afterwards became a permanent element in the classic conception of India, was given in full by Herodotus⁴. The facts on which the account was based seem now fairly clear. Gold-dust was actually brought as tribute by the tribes of Dardistān in Kashmīr and was called by the Indians *pipīlika*, ‘ant gold’⁵. When Herodotus says that the ants were the size of dogs and fiercely attacked any one carrying off the gold, it has been plausibly suggested that the account was derived from people who had been chased by the formidable dogs kept by the native miners⁶.