which were as large as the skins of leopards. They were brought by the
Macedonian soldiers into Alexander’s camp.[492]
Pliny, as a matter of course, believed this marvelous story, and has
inserted it in brief in his compilation of natural history. He adds,
too, that in his time there were suspended in the temple of Hercules, at
Erythræ, this Ant’s horns, which were looked upon as quite miraculous
for their size. He also informs us it was of the color of a cat.[493]
Strabo and Arrian, from the manner in which they refer to the statements
of Megasthenes and Nearchus, no doubt disbelieved them;[494] not so,
however, Pomponius Mela.[495]
M. de Veltheim thinks this animal, which, as Pliny says, “has the color
of a cat, and is in size as large as an Egyptian wolf,” is nothing more
than, and really is, the _Canis corsac_, the small fox of India, and
that by some mistake it was represented by travelers as an ant. It is
not improbable, Cuvier says, that some quadruped, in making holes in the
ground, may have occasionally thrown up some grains of the precious
metal. Another interpretation of this story has also been suggested. We
find some remarks of Mr. Wilson, in the _Transactions of the Asiatic
Society_, on the Mahabharata, a Sanscrit poem, that various tribes on
the mountains Meru and Mandara (supposed to lie between Hindostan and
Thibet) used to sell grains of gold, which they called _paippilaka_, or
_Ant-gold_, which, they said, was thrown up by Ants, in Sanscrit called
_pippilaka_. In traveling westward, this story (in itself, no doubt,
untrue) may very probably have been magnified to its present
dimensions.[496]
The laborious life and foresight of the Ant have been celebrated
throughout all antiquity, and from the wise Solomon down to the amiable
La Fontaine, the sluggard has been referred to this insect to “learn her
ways and be wise.”[497] The Arabians held the wisdom of these animals in
such estimation, that they used to place one of them in the hands of a
newly-born infant, repeating these words: “May the boy turn out clever
and skillful.”[498] But their wisdom is magnified by all, and in the
panegyrics of their providence we always find the following curious
notion. Plutarch, in his Land and Water Creatures Compared, thus
mentions it: “But that which surpasseth all other prudence, policy, and
wit, is their (the Ants’) caution and prevention which they use, that
their wheat and other corn may not spurt and grow. For this is certain,
that dry it cannot continue alwayes, nor sound and uncorrupt, but in
time will wax soft, resolve into a milky juice, when it turneth and
beginneth to swell and chit; for fear, therefore, that it become not a
generative seed, and so by growing, loose the nature and property of
food for their nourishment, _they gnaw that end thereof or head where it
is wont to spurt and bud forth_.”[499]
The ancients, observing the Ants carry their pupæ, which in shape,
size, and color very much resemble a grain of corn, and the ends of
which they sometimes pull open to let out the inclosed insect, no doubt
mistook the one for the other, and this action for depriving the grain
of the embryo of the plant.
Some modern writers, as Addison[500] and Pluche,[501] it is curious to
observe, have fallen into this ancient error; so ancient, in fact, it is
that some have supposed the Hebrew name of the Ant to be derived from
it.[502] Among the poets, Prior asks:
Tell me, why the _Ant_
In _summer’s plenty thinks of winter’s want_?
By constant journey _careful to prepare
Her stores_, and _bringing home the corny ear_,
By what instruction _does she bite the grain_?
Lest, hid in earth, and taking root again,
It might elude the foresight of her care.[503]
Thus Watts, also:
They don’t wear their time out in sleeping or play;
But _gather up corn_ in a sunshiny day,
And _for winter they lay up their stores_:
They manage their work in such regular forms,
One would think they _foresaw_ all the frosts and the storms,
And so _brought their food within doors_.[504]
And Smart:
The _sage, industrious Ant_, the _wisest insect_,
And _best economist_ of all the field:
For when as yet the favorable sun
Gives to the genial earth th’ enlivening ray,
----All her subterranean avenues,
And storm-proof cells, with management most meet,
And unexampled housewif’ry, she frames;
Then to the field she hies, and _on her back
Burden immense! brings home the cumbrous corn_:
Then, many a weary step, and many a strain,
And many a grievous groan subdued, at length
Up the huge hill she hardly heaves it home;
Nor rests she here her providence, but _nips
With subtle tooth the grain_, lest from _her garner_,
In mischievous fertility, it steal,
And back to daylight vegetate its way.[505]
Milton also entertained this erroneous opinion:
First crept
The _parsimonious Emmet, provident
Of future_, in small room large heart inclos’d;
Pattern of just equality perhaps
Hereafter, join’d in her popular tribes
Of commonalty.[506]
And also Dr. Johnson:
Turn on the _prudent Ant_ thy heedless eyes,
Observe her labors, sluggard! and be wise.
No stern command, no monitory voice,
Prescribes her duties or directs her choice;
Yet _timely provident_ she hastes away,
To snatch the blessings of a plenteous day;
When fruitful Summer loads the teeming plain,
_She crops the harvest, and she stores the grain_.[507]
There is an old Eastern proverb, that “what the Ant _collects_ in a year
the monks eat up in a night,” which seems to be founded on the
supposition that the Ants provide themselves with stores of food.
Juvenal, also, observes, in his Sixth Satire, that “after the example of
the Ant, some have learned to _provide_ against cold and hunger.”[508]
“Since, therefore,” says Moufet, “(to winde up all in a few words) they
(the Ants) are so exemplary for their great piety, prudence, justice,
valour, temperance, modesty, charity, friendship, frugality,
perseverance, industry and art; it is no wonder that Plato, in Phædone,
hath determined, that they who without the help of philosophy have lead
a civill life by custom or from their own diligence, they had their
souls from Ants, and when they die they are turned to Ants again. To
this may be added the fable of the Myrmidons, who being a people of
Ægina, applied themselves to diligent labour in tilling the ground,
continual digging, hard toiling, and constant sparing, joyned with
virtue, and they grew thereby so rich, that they passed the common
condition and ingenuity of men, and Theogonis knew not how to compare
them better than to Pismires, that they were originally descended from
them, or were transformed into them, and as Strabo reports they were
therefore called Myrmidons. The Greeks relate the history otherwise than
other men do; namely, that Jupiter was changed into a Pismire, and so
deflowered Eurymedusa, the mother of the Graces, as if he could no
otherwise deceive the best woman, then in the shape of the best
creature. Hence ever after was he called Pismire Jupiter, or, Jupiter,
King of Pismires....
“They do better, in my opinion, who observe the Pismire, and grow rich
by following his manners in labor, industry, rest, and study. We read of
Midas that he was the richest King of all the West, and when he was a
boy, the Pismires carryed grains of wheat into his mouth while he slept,
and so foreshowed without doubt that he should be endowed with the
Pismire’s prudence, and should by his labour and frugality, gain so much
riches, that he should be called the Golden boy of fortune, and the
Darling of prosperity. _Ælianus._ And when the Ants did devour and eat
up the live serpent of Tiberius Cæsar, which he so dearly loved, did
they not thereby give him sufficient warning that he should take heed to
himself for fear of the multitude, by whom he was afterwards cruelly
murthered? _Suetonius._”[509]
Of the wars and battles of the Ants, now so familiar from the writings
of Huber and others, one of the oldest records is that given by Æneas
Sylvius, who afterward became Pope Pius II., of an engagement contested
with obstinacy by a great and a small species, on the trunk of a
pear-tree. “This action,” he states, “was fought in the pontificate of
Eugenius the Fourth, in the presence of Nicholas Pistoriensis, an
eminent lawyer, who related the whole history of the battle with the
greatest fidelity.” Another engagement of the same description is
recorded by Olaus Magnus, as having happened previous to the expulsion
of Christiern the Second, of Sweden, and the smallest species, having
been victorious, are said to have buried the bodies of their own
soldiers that had been killed, while they left those of their
adversaries a prey to the birds.[510]
Alexander Ross, in his Appendix to the Arcana Microcosmi, p. 219, tells
us: “That the cruel battels between the Venetians and Insubrians, and
that also between the Liegeois and the Burgundians, in which about
thirty thousand men were slain, were presignified by a great combat
between two swarms of Emmets (Ants).”[511]
Ants were used in divination by the Greeks, and generally foretold
good.[512] They were also considered an attribute of Ceres.[513]
The following extract is from an English North-Country chap-book,
entitled the Royal Dream Book: “To dream of Ants or Bees denotes that
you will live in a great town or city, or in a large family, and that
you will be industrious, happy, well married, and have a large
family.”[514] The Ant and the Bee are common figures to express these
predictions.
I heard a mother once say to her child, “Never destroy Ants, for they
are fairies, and will so bewitch our cows that they will give no milk.”
This superstition prevails in particular about Washington and in
Virginia.
Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, in an interesting article on the Ants of India,
remarks that she has often witnessed the Hindoos, male and female,
depositing small portions of sugar near Ants’ nests as acts of charity
to commence the day with.
With the natives of India, this lady also tells us, it is a common
opinion that wherever the Red-ants colonize, prosperity attends the
owner of that house.[515]
We read in Purchas’s _Pilgrims_, that “the natives of Cambaia and
Malabar will go out of the path if they light on an Ant-hill, lest they
might happily treade on some of them.”[516]
Other insects, as will be noticed in the course of this volume, are
looked upon by these people with the same respect.
Moufet says: “In Isthmus the priests sacrificed Pismires to the sun,
either because they thought the sun the most beautiful, and therefore
they would offer unto him the most beautiful creature, or the most wise,
as seeing all things, and therefore they offered unto him the wisest
creature.”[517]
In the twenty-seventh chapter of the Koran, which was revealed at Mecca,
and entitled the Ant, we find, among other strange things, an odd story
of the Ant, which has therefore given name to the chapter. It is as
follows: “And his armies were gathered together unto Solomon, consisting
of genii, and men, and birds; and they were led in distant bands, until
they came to the valley of Ants.[518] And an Ant, seeing the hosts
approaching, said, O Ants, enter ye into your habitations, lest Solomon
and his army tread you under foot, and perceive it not. And Solomon
smiled, laughing at her words, and said, O Lord, excite me that I may be
thankful for thy favour, wherewith thou hast favoured me, and my
parents; and that I may do that which is right, and well pleasing unto
thee: and introduce me, through thy mercy, into paradise, among my
servants, the righteous.”[519]
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]
Of the ingenuity of the Ant in removing obstacles, the following
anecdote is a very appropriate illustration: A gentleman of Cambridge
one day observed an Ant dragging along what, with respect to the
creature’s size, might be denominated a log of wood. Others were
severally employed, each in its own way. Presently the Ant in question
came to an ascent, where the weight of the wood seemed for a while to
overpower him: he did not remain long perplexed with it; for three or
four others, observing his dilemma, came behind and pushed it up. As
soon, however, as he got it on level ground, they left it to his care,
and went to their own work. The piece he was drawing happened to be
considerably thicker at one end than the other. This soon threw the poor
fellow into a fresh difficulty; he unluckily dragged it between two bits
of wood. After several fruitless efforts, finding it would not go
through, he adopted the only mode that even a man in similar
circumstances would have taken: he came behind it, pulled it back again,
and turned it on its edge; when, running again to the other end, it
passed through without the slightest difficulty.[525]
Franklin was much inclined to believe Ants could communicate their
thoughts or desires to one another, and confirmed his opinion by several
experiments. Observing that when an Ant finds some sugar, it runs
immediately under ground to its hole, where, having stayed a little
while, a whole army comes out, unites and marches to the place where the
sugar is, and carry it off by pieces; and that if an Ant meets with a
dead fly, which it cannot carry alone, it immediately hastens home, and
soon after some more come out, creep to the fly, and carry it away;
observing this, he put a little earthen pot, containing some treacle,
into a closet, into which a number of Ants collected, and devoured the
treacle very quickly. He then shook them out, and tied the pot with a
thin string to a nail which he had fastened in the ceiling, so that it
hung down by the string. A single Ant by chance remained in the pot, and
when it had gorged itself upon the treacle, and wanted to get off, it
was under great concern to find a way, and kept running about the bottom
of the pot, but in vain. At last it found, after many attempts, the way
to the ceiling, by going along the string. After it was come there, it
ran to the wall, and thence to the ground. It had scarcely been away
half an hour, when a great swarm of Ants came out, got up to the
ceiling, and crept along the string into the pot, and began to eat
again. This they continued till the treacle was all eaten; in the mean
time one swarm running down the string, and the other up.[526]
It has been suggested, that in such instances as the preceding, the Ants
may have been led by the scent or trace of treacle likely to be left by
the solitary prisoner; and the following case, related by Bradley, is
quoted to favor the opinion: “A nest of Ants in a nobleman’s garden
discovered a closet, many yards within the house, in which conserves
were kept, which they constantly attended till the nest was destroyed.
Some, in their rambles, must have first discovered this depot of sweets,
and informed the rest of it. It is remarkable that they always went to
it by the same track, scarcely varying an inch from it, though they had
to pass through two apartments; nor could the sweeping and cleaning of
the rooms discomfit them, or cause them to pursue a different
route.”[527]
Dionisio Carli, of Piacenza, a missionary in Congo, lying sick at that
place, was awakened one night by his monkey leaping on his head, and
almost at the same time by his Blacks crying out, much to his surprise,
“Out! Out! Father!” Thoroughly awake now, Carli asked them what was the
matter? “The Ants,” they cried, “are broke out, and there is no time to
be lost!” Not being able to stir, he bid them carry him into the garden,
which they did, four of them lifting him upon his straw bed; and yet
though very quick about it, the Ants had already commenced crawling up
his legs. After shaking them off their master, the Blacks took straw and
fired it on the floor of four rooms, where these insects by this time
were over half a foot thick. The pests being thus destroyed, Carli was
conveyed back to his chamber, where he found the stench so great from
the burnt bodies, that he was forced, he says, to hold his _monkey_
close to his nose!
These Ants, Carli relates, ate up every living object within their
reach; and of one cow, which was accidentally left over night in the
stable through which they passed, nothing but the bones were found the
next morning.[528] We need not wonder at this, if we believe what Bosman
has said of the Black-ants of Guinea, which were so surprisingly
rapacious that no animal could stand before them. He relates an
instance where they reduced for him one of his live sheep in one night
to a perfect skeleton, and that so nicely that it surpassed the skill of
the best anatomists.[529] Du Chaillu says the elephant and gorilla fly
before the attack of the Bashikouay-ants, and the black men run for
their lives. Many a time has he himself, he says, been awakened out of a
sleep, and obliged to rush out of his hut and into the water to save his
life![530] The Driver-ants[531] of Western Africa, _A. nomma arcens_,
have been known to kill the _Python natalensis_, the largest serpent of
that part of the world.[532]
Col. St. Clair, after a visit by a species of small Red-ants, makes
mention of the following instance, among others, of their singular
destructiveness: “I next discovered that a little pet deer, which I had
purchased from a negro, was extremely ill. I could not discover the
cause of its malady, until, placing it on its legs, I observed that it
would not let one foot touch the ground, and, on examining it, I found,
to my grief, that the Red-ants had absolutely eaten a hole into the
bone. The poor little animal pined all that day and died in the
evening.”[533]
Capt. Stedman relates that the Fire-ants of Surinam caused a whole
company of soldiers to start and jump about as if scalded with boiling
water; and its nests were so numerous that it was not easy to avoid
them.[534] And Knox, in his account of Ceylon, mentions a black Ant,
called by the natives _Coddia_ or _Kaddiya_,[535] which, he says, “bites
desperately, as bad as if a man were burnt by a coal of fire; but they
are of a noble nature, and will not begin unless you disturb them.” The
reason the Singhalese assign for the horrible pain occasioned by their
bite is curious, and is thus related by Knox: “Formerly these Ants went
to ask a wife of the _Noya_, a venomous and noble kind of snake;[536]
and because they had such a high spirit to dare to offer to be related
to such a generous creature, they had this virtue bestowed upon them,
that they should sting after this manner. And if they had obtained a
wife of the Noya, they should have had the privilege to sting full as
bad as he.”[537] Capt. Stedman has a story of a large Ant that stripped
the trees of their leaves, to feed, as was supposed by the natives of
Surinam, a blind serpent under ground,[538] which is somewhat akin to
this: as is also another, related to Kirby and Spence by a friend, of a
species of Mantis, taken in one of the Indian islands, which, according
to the received opinion among the natives, was the parent of all their
serpents.[539] But, the reverse: Among the harmless snakes of Mexico is
a beautiful one about a foot in length, and of the thickness of the
little finger, which appears to take pleasure in the society of Ants,
insomuch that it will accompany these insects upon their expeditions,
and return with them to their usual nest. From this peculiarity it is
called by the Spaniards and Mexicans the “Mother of the Ants.”[540]
When in Africa, Du Chaillu was told by the natives that criminals in
former times were exposed to the path of the Bashikouay-ants, as the
most cruel way of putting them to death.[541] This dreadful manner of
torturing was at one time also practiced by the Singhalese, and I have
heard that several British soldiers have thus met their fate. The
Termites have been referred to before as having been employed for a
similar purpose.
To check the ravages of the Coffee-bug, _Lecanium coffea_, Walker, which
for several years was devastating some of the plantations of Ceylon, the
experiment was made of introducing the Red-ants, _Formica smaragdina_,
Fab., which feed greedily on the Coccus.[542] But the remedy threatened
to be attended with some inconvenience, for, says Tennent, the Malabar
coolies, with bare and oiled skins, were so frequently and fiercely
assaulted by the Ants as to endanger their stay on the estates.