THE BASHIKOUAY ANTS
Millions upon millions of bashikouay ants inhabit their subterranean
dwellings; but no one to this day has been able to see how they live
there, and what their home is like.
One day there was great excitement among them. They all shouted: “Let us
go above the ground and make a raid. The forest is also our home; it is
there that we get our living.”
They cried boastfully: “We are very small, it is true, and when we are
alone we are powerless; but as an army we are the most formidable and
dreaded creatures of the forest. Who can withstand our fierceness when
we are on the war path, and are eager for attack! The big njokoo runs as
fast as he can at our approach,” and they laughed when they thought of
his big size and the capers he cut when they swarmed into his ears, and
everywhere over his huge body. “The terrible and mighty ngina whose
roarings fill the forest, runs away when warned by the multitude of
insects and animals fleeing for life’s sake at our coming; but he is
often caught while surrounded by our swarms, and his shrieks of pain
ring through the forest as he flies, with many of our number covering
his body and biting him. The sly and blood-thirsty njego has no time to
look for prey, and flies, yelling, ‘The bashikouays are coming!’” Then
all the bashikouays laughed at the same time, for they imagined the
stampede created by their appearance.
Then they cried more boastfully still: “All the night prowlers,—the
kambis, the ncheris, the omembas,—and all the living creatures of the
great forest in which we live, insects and all, cry in great distress,
‘Let us flee for our lives, for the bashikouays are coming!’ The forest
is filled with the buzz of the fleeing host, small and large; all are
panic-stricken; the heavy tramping of the njokoo is heard above all.
They do not all escape. Many of the animals leave their helpless young
behind, to be eaten by us, and multitudes of insects are devoured by our
hordes. The human beings fear and hate us. We are afraid only of three
things,—fire, water, and the sun. The only creatures that are not afraid
of us are those that live in the water and in the air.”
After the great uproar of their boasting had subsided, their chiefs said
to them: “Be still; wait a while till our young get larger and stronger;
for we cannot leave them behind.”
As with other ants, the great chiefs, acting as the generals of an army,
are the largest and the least numerous of all. Their heads are furnished
with ugly, powerful, long nippers, the head being as large as the rest
of the body.
The officers are smaller than the chiefs, and much more numerous, and
armed likewise with powerful nippers. They attend to the discipline of
the great army; then come the soldiers forming the mass of the great
army. The number of these is beyond computation. Their heads are square
and their nippers are not as powerful as those of the others; but they
can bite terribly also.
One day the chiefs decided that the time had arrived for the bashikouays
to make their raid. They came out of the earth by multitudes of tunnels,
close together in amazing numbers, forming themselves into a compact
marching column, led by the chiefs and officers. For many hours the
bashikouays poured out incessantly from their abode. They numbered
countless millions. It was one of the largest armies that had ever come
out of the earth. Their discipline was perfect. There were ruling brains
among them, who gave orders and who kept their ranks in perfect
formation. Officers, very alert in their movements, walked on both
flanks, seeing that no one left the column.
If perchance any bashikouay left the ranks for one reason or another,
the officer having charge of that squad at once went after the
straggler, inquired what was the matter, or ordered him to go back to
the ranks. If sick, he was left alone, to rejoin the host later on. If
too sick, he was left to die.
The van of the army marched on, and still the main body was pouring out
of its subterranean home. By and by the van came to a place which they
had to cross where the sun was shining. Immediately tunnels were dug for
the whole army to pass through and be protected from the sun. Farther on
they came to a stream where two dead trunks of trees overlapped each
other above the water, and immediately the advance guard of the column
made a chain or tunnel by holding onto each other firmly with their
legs, as bees do, forming a suspension bridge connecting with the tree
underneath, and the whole body crossed to the other side and continued
their march.
News came that the last of the host had come out from under the ground.
There was great excitement among all the bashikouays at this news. How
the news was flashed along the lines, only the bashikouays could tell.
Suddenly the order came from the front to the rear to prepare for the
attack. It passed along the line as quickly as if by telegraph. There
was a tremendous uproar among the troops. By preconceived plan, the long
line of bashikouays, miles in length, formed itself into several army
corps which manœuvred in such a manner that some of them made a great
circle, as if to corral their victims.
They broke ranks, advanced in large masses together in every direction,
or in deployed columns, and attacked every living thing before them with
great fury and the utmost bravery, fearless of danger or death, only
having in view the conquest of their prey. They rushed upon their
victims, who in an instant were covered with them, and then the strong
pincers were fastened in the skin or body, cutting out a piece each
time.
The news spread among all the living creatures that their dreaded enemy
the bashikouays were advancing and attacking everything. A great panic
seized the whole population of the forest; all cried at once, “Flee!
Flee for your lives!” There was great confusion among the denizens of
the forest; omembas, kambis, ncheris, njokoos, nginas, njegos, ngoas,
and all other creatures fled to escape their dreaded enemy. No one
attacked the other, for in their flight they were too frightened and too
much in a hurry to get away and save their own lives. They had all lost
their appetites.
Beautiful birds of all kinds followed the columns of bashikouays,
picking up insects as they fled and often bashikouays themselves.
In one place the bashikouays had succeeded in surrounding a njokoo. In
an instant myriads of them were on his body. They covered the inside of
his trunk and ears, also his eyes. The poor njokoo fled for his life,
and disappeared in the forest, tearing everything before him, making for
a river.
Some of the men of the woods had narrow escapes. They received great
bites and gave shrieks of pain. They had never run so fast in their
lives, and did not stop until they thought they were out of danger. Here
a njego was to be seen fleeing with her tiny little baby in her mouth,
carrying him away from the bashikouays. She had been obliged to leave
two little ones in her lair. When the bashikouays reached the lair, they
precipitated themselves with great frenzy upon the little njegos, who
soon were black with them. In a short time only their bones were left,
and the bashikouays continued on their errand of destruction.
[Illustration: “_The poor njokoo fled for his life_”]
[Illustration: [Leopard]]
All the abodes of the night prowlers that were in the way of this great
army were visited, and the young destroyed. Some of the old ones even
fell victims to the bashikouays. Onward they went. During the night they
reached a village where there were no human beings. They had all left
for their plantation. The bashikouays swarmed into every house, attacked
and overpowered the rats, mice, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, lizards,
and the many cockroaches that were there, and when they went away not
one of these was left. All had been devoured.
Farther on they entered another village. Here the human beings were fast
asleep. The terrible bites of the bashikouays soon awoke them. “The
bashikouays have come!” shouted the people. The women seized their
helpless little babies, and the fathers their little children, otherwise
they would have been overpowered and devoured by the bashikouays.
In haste the inhabitants lighted fires everywhere across the street down
which the invading army came, and brought burning brands, hot ashes,
etc., to burn the invaders, and poured boiling water upon them. One man
who was bedridden was surrounded by hot ashes and burning brands;
otherwise, he would have been eaten up, and in less than two hours his
bones would have been all that was left of him.
Before daylight this attacking column was thoroughly disorganized, and
entered the forest, for they knew that the sun was coming.
The chiefs and officers had the greatest trouble, and it required great
genius to reform the scattered host into a solid column. The loss of
life during the raid of the bashikouays had been very great.
After the raid, the tract of forest where the bashikouays had passed was
deserted. The animals who afterward dared to go back to their lairs or
burrows saw only the bones of their little ones.
When the bashikouays disappeared, no one in the forest could tell
whether they had reformed their army column, where they had gone, or if
they had entered once more into the bowels of the earth.