Thevenot mentions “Solomon’s Ant” among the “Beasts that shall enter into Paradise” in the belief of the Turks, and gives the following reason: “Solomon was the greatest king that ever was, for all creatures obey’d him, and brought him presents, amongst others, an Ant brought him a Locust, which it had dragged along by main force: Solomon, perceiving that the Ant had brought a thing bigger than itself, accepted the present, and preferred it before all other creatures.”[520] Plutarch, speaking of the Ant, says: “Aratus in his prognostics setteth this down for a rain toward, when they bring forth their seeds and grains (pupæ), and lay them abroad to take the air: ‘When Ants make haste with all their eggs aload, Forth of their holes to carry them abroad.’”[521] In the Treasvrie of Avncient and Moderne Times, it is also asserted that “when Ants walk the thickest, and more than in vsuall numbers, meeting together confusedly, it is a manifest signe of raine.”[522] It is related of the celebrated Timour, that being once forced to take shelter from his enemies in a ruined building, he sat alone many hours; and, desirous of diverting his mind from his hopeless condition, at length fixed his observation upon an Ant which was carrying a grain of corn (probably a pupa) larger than itself, up a high wall. Numbering the efforts it made to accomplish this object, he found that the grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground; but the seventieth time it reached the top of the wall. “This sight,” said Timour, “gave me courage at the moment, and I have never forgotten the lesson it conveyed.”[523] Plutarch, in his comparison between land and water creatures, narrates the following anecdote: “Gleanthus the Philosopher, although he maintaineth not that beasts have any use of reason, made report nevertheless that he was present at the sight of such a spectacle and occurrent as this. There were (quoth he) a number of Ants which went toward another Ant’s hole, that was not their own, carrying with them the corpse of a dead Ant; out of which hole, there came certain other Ants to meet them on the way (as it were) to parl with them, and within a while returned back and went down again; after this they came forth a second, yea a third time, and retired accordingly until in the end they brought up from beneath (as it were a ransom for the dead body) a grub or little worm; which the others received and took upon their shoulders, and after they had delivered in exchange the aforesaid corpse, departed home.”[524]