[256] These ants are mentioned first by Herodotus, iii. c. 102, where he gives an account of the stratagem by which the Indians steal the gold thrown up by them as they burrow. The most plausible conjecture is that which identifies this animal with the Pangolin or Ant-eater. See Blakesley’s and Rawlinson’s notes on the passage, in the latter of which the statement in the text is referred to. [257] This headdress must have resembled that of the Janissaries Busbecq saw at Buda. See p. 87 and note. [258] Aleppo is really a considerable distance from the Euphrates. [259] The date of Bajazet’s death was September 25, 1561. [260] See note, page 108. [261] See _Sketch of Hungarian History_. [262] Compare page 159. [263] Theriac, the original form of the word treacle, is derived from θηρίον, i.e. a venomous serpent (see Acts xxviii. 4). It originally meant a confection of vipers’ flesh, which was popularly believed to be the most potent antidote to vipers’ poison. Hence the word came to mean any antidote against poison. [264] The value of this balsam is illustrated by the amusing account of the adventures in Ireland of Jean de Montluc, Bishop of Valence, given by Sir James Melville in his _Memoirs_ (page 10, Bannatyne Club edition). Like his friend Busbecq (see vol. ii. p. 34, _Letter to Maximilian_, XI.) he had been ambassador at the Turkish Court, and was afterwards sent in the same capacity to Scotland. On his return he paid a visit to Ireland to intrigue with the chieftains who were hostile to England. Melville, then a boy of fourteen, was sent back with him by Mary of Guise, the Queen Regent, to be a page to her daughter Queen Mary. They landed on Shrove Tuesday, 1550, in Lough Foyle, and were taken to Odocarte’s house. A woman, who had been brought to entertain the bishop, and was kept quietly in his chamber, ‘found a little glass within a case standing in a window, for the coffers were all wet by the sea waves that fell in the ship during the storm. But she believed it had been ordained to eat, because it had an odoriphant smell; therefore she licked it clean out; which put the bishop in such a rage that he cried out for impatience.... But the Irishmen and his own servants laughed at the matter, for it was a phial of the only most precious balm that grew in Egypt, which Solyman the great Turk had given in a present to the said bishop, after he had been two years ambassador for the King of France in Turkey, and was esteemed worth two thousand crowns.’ [265] See p. 86. [266] Here we part from the gallant Spaniard. For his future career see note p. 317. He was finally Governor of Oran, ‘où il a finy ses jours fort vieux et cassé.’—_Brantôme_, i. 219.