The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c26.81

v1.c26.81

Nearchus¹, honest man that he was, admitted that he had never seen one of these ants, but he had seen their skins, which were brought to the Macedonian camp. Megasthenes in repeating the story with minor variations added the useful piece of information that the country the gold came from was the country of the Derdae (in Sanskrit *Darad* or *Dārada*; modern Dardistān in Kashmīr)². Among the mineral wonders of the land Megasthenes seems also to have reckoned sugar-candy, which he took to be a sort of crystal; a strange sort which, on being ground between the teeth, proved to be 'sweeter than figs or honey'³. He wrote down too what his Indian informants told him of a river Silas among the mountains of the north in which all substances went to the bottom like stone⁴.