Gold-digging ant is an animal from Medieval bestiaries. They were dog- or fox-sized ants that dug up gold in sandy areas. Some versions of the Physiologus said they came from Ethiopia, while Herodotus claimed they were located in India.
Read more about Gold-digging Ant: Herodotus
Other articles related to "ants":
... reports that a species of fox-sized, furry "ants" lives in one of the far eastern, Indian provinces of the Persian Empire ... These giant ants, according to Herodotus, would often unearth the gold dust when digging their mounds and tunnels, and the people living in this province would then ... province of Pakistan, may have been what Herodotus called giant "ants" ...
Famous quotes containing the words ant, gold-digging:
“As a thinker and planner, the ant is the equal of any savage race of men; as a self-educated specialist in several arts, she is the superior of any savage race of men; and in one or two high mental qualities she is above the reach of any man, savage or civilized.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“The humblest observer who goes to the mines sees and says that gold-digging is of the character of a lottery; the gold thus obtained is not the same thing with the wages of honest toil. But, practically, he forgets what he has seen, for he has seen only the fact, not the principle, and goes into trade there, that is, buys a ticket in what commonly proves another lottery, where the fact is not so obvious.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)