_Uncle Phillip tells the Boys a Story about a Philosopher and
his Kite.--He tells them, too, about Ants that have Awls, and build
Cities, and Stairs, and Bridges, and many other things._
"So, boys, you have come again to see me. I am very glad of it; for as
this is a leisure day, we shall have time enough to talk: but what is
that you have there? Oh, I see now; it is a kite."
"Yes, Uncle Philip; it is a French kite that we have been making, and we
have come to ask you to go out with us this morning and see us fly it."
"Very good, boys; I will go. I am an old man now; but I remember that I
was a boy once, and loved to make a kite sail. It always makes me happy
to see boys and girls playing about in health, provided they are not
wasting time, and their play is not to do harm to anybody or any thing.
So come on; we will go out upon the green common yonder, behind the
church, and I think we shall have a grand kite-flying, for the wind is
about right.
"There, boys! up she goes! Let out the string. I think she behaves very
well; there, she is done pitching about: now she is steady; see how she
mounts. Ah, that is a very good kite."
"Uncle Philip, I was reading a book yesterday which said, 'A philosopher
once found great help from a kite.' What did it mean?"
"Do you know what a philosopher is?"
"Yes, Uncle Philip; a philosopher is the same thing with a very wise
man, is it not?"
"That is pretty near the meaning. Philosopher means a person who loves
wisdom; and such a person, you know, will always be trying to get
knowledge; and a person who is always trying to get knowledge is apt to
be a wise and learned man."
"Well, how could a kite help a man to get learning? Did he read the old
newspapers it was made of? I cannot see any other way."
"But there may be another way without your seeing it, you know. The
philosopher whom your book meant was Dr. Franklin. Did you ever hear of
him?"
"Oh, yes; he was born in Boston, and was a printer, and afterward became
a very great man."
"That is true. He was a man of excellent sense, who both read and
thought a great deal; and in the war which the people of this country
had with England to get their freedom. Dr. Franklin's sound sense was of
great use to his countrymen."
"But, Uncle Philip, how did the kite help him?"
"I will tell you. If you take a proper piece of glass, or sulphur, or
sealing-wax, or rosin, and rub it for some time, and then hold it near
to small bits of thread or paper, the thread or paper will fly towards
the glass or sealing-wax, and stick to it for a short time. That which
makes them fly to the glass and stick there, is called _electricity_.
After this was found out, men went on slowly finding out more and more,
until at last a man named Hawksbee made a large machine with a glass
barrel, which could be turned around by a handle like that which you see
to a grindstone; and with this machine (which I will show you at some
other time) he managed to get a great deal of this electricity, and it
would shoot off in sparks, which appeared like little lightning.
"And now, boys, what I am going to tell you will show you the use of a
man's eyes. Dr. Franklin knew all about the electrical machine, and was
very fond of drawing off the sparks from it, to see what he could find
out about it. And when he saw it appeared so much like lightning, and
could feel too a spark strike his hand a smart blow, he began to think
that perhaps it was exactly the same thing with the lightning which came
from the clouds; so he determined, if he could, to find out whether it
was or not. He was a great deal troubled for some time to know how he
should get down any of the lightning from the clouds; until at last,
one day, he saw a boy flying a kite; and that showed him the way. So
he took a large silk handkerchief, and stretching it upon sticks, soon
made his kite; and not long afterward, when he saw a black thunder-cloud
coming up, he took his kite and walked out of Philadelphia (where he
then lived) into the fields, and sent his kite up. He had a string like
yours, made of hemp, and to the end of this he tied an iron key, and
then fastening it to the post of a shed by a silk cord, which he tied
to the end of the hemp string, he got under the shed, and waited a long
time. Now, boys, if he had been impatient, all his work would have been
of no use. But he even waited, after a very heavy cloud had passed over
his kite without giving it any of its lightning. At last, when he was
almost ready to give it up and go home, he saw some loose threads on the
hemp string rise and stand up straight, just as he knew the electrical
machine would make them do. He directly put his knuckle to the iron key,
and off came the spark, which he knew at once was exactly like the spark
which he could get from the machine. And so, boys, he found out what
he wished to know; and this was the way in which the kite helped the
philosopher."
"Well, Uncle Philip, this is really a very pretty story about Dr.
Franklin and his kite. Was anybody with him?"
"Nobody but his son; he took him out to help him raise the kite. But,
boys, I see the other lads are walking on towards the bridge with our
kite; let us follow them, and as we go, I will tell you of an electric
_animal_."
"Oh, we shall be very glad to hear of him."
"Listen, then. There is a kind of eel, which when it is touched will
give a very hard blow, just like an electric shock, to the person who
touches it."
"Is there any spark, Uncle Philip?"
"No, boys; there is no spark,--but the blow is tremendous. I remember
reading of one of these fish which was caught in a net, and a foolish
sailor would take it up, though he was told it would hurt him. The fish
shocked him so violently that he fell down in a fit, and it was a long
time before he came to his senses; and his story was, that the moment he
touched the fish, 'the cold ran swiftly up his arm into his body, and
pierced him to the heart.' The fish has this power to defend itself, and
to kill other fish for food."
"But, Uncle Philip, how do they ever manage to catch them alive? I
should think they would be shocked to death."
"I will tell you. A very sensible traveller and learned man[9] gives an
account of the manner in which they catch them, by a way called, by the
South American Indians, 'fishing with horses.'"
"Fishing with horses! What does that mean?"
"The savannas, or large open plains, in South America have a great many
wild horses and mules running over them. M. Humboldt says that the
Indians caught about thirty of these, and drove them into the pond where
the electrical eels were. The horses made a great noise, and stirred up
the mud with their hoofs, and this brought up the eels from the bottom
in a great rage. They were very large, and looked more like water-snakes
than like eels; and rising to the top of the water, they crowded under
the bellies of the horses and mules, and began to shock them. The poor
horses would try to get out of the pond; but the Indians, with spears
and long reeds, would stand around to hinder them from coming out: some
of them, too, would climb upon the trees around the banks, and get out
upon the branches which were over the pond, and by crying out aloud,
and using their long reeds, kept the horses in the pond. The eels would
continue to shock them with tremendous blows, and a great many of the
poor creatures were either stunned or killed, and would sink. Those not
killed would pant and raise their heads, while their eyes would show
their pain, and they would try to get out. The Indians still drove them
back, but some few escaped, and reached the shore, stumbling at every
step, and would stretch themselves on the bank, tired out, and benumbed
in their limbs by the shocks they had received. M. Humboldt says that in
less than five minutes after the fight began, two horses were drowned;
and he thought that the end of it would be, that every horse which did
not get out of the water would be killed: but at last the eels became
tired, and began to disperse. This is just what the Indians wish. They
know that the eels have spent so much of their electrical power that
they will need a long rest. It takes them a great while to get back
their strength; so that if, the next day after such a fight, you send in
more horses, they cannot kill one. When the eels, tired out in this way,
begin to separate, they will swim to the edge of the pond, and there the
Indians take them with small harpoons fastened to long cords. When the
cords are dry, the Indian feels no shock in raising the eel out of the
water. In this way M. Humboldt got five, all alive, and very little
hurt. But here we are at the bridge."
"Uncle Philip, suppose we sit down under the shade of this tree, and
rest."
"I am willing, boys; but take care of the damp ground: there is an old
piece of timber that the men have taken out of the bridge, for I see
they have been mending it; we will sit on that."
"But, Uncle Philip, what shall we do with the kite? shall we draw it
down?"
"Do with it! Why, just tie the end of your string to that root, and it
will take care of itself in this wind."
"What a monstrous piece of timber this is. Uncle Philip! It must have
taken a great many men to move it; and see--there are some larger ones
still in the bridge. It must be a difficult work to build a bridge."
"Yes, it is so: but there are bridges much harder to build than our
little wooden one here. Some are built of stone, and it takes years to
finish them. None but a good workman can plan and build a good stone
bridge: but I know a little fellow that can make as good a bridge as
anybody; and yet no man ever taught him the trade."
"Ah! now we know what is coming. You are going to tell us of a dumb
animal that can make a bridge."
"Yes, I am: and a small animal it is, too, for it is an ant."
"What sort of an ant is it?"
"It is called the white ant; and as there is a great deal that is very
curious about this insect. I think that I had better tell you all about
it at once."
"Pray do, Uncle Philip; you know you promised to tell us about ants."
"True, boys; and I like to keep my promises. In my story about these
ants, I think, if you attend, you will find more tools; and besides
that, you will hear of a great many things which man makes, and which
show matters quite as strange as any of which I have yet told you."
"What are they, Uncle Philip?"
"They are the building of something like a city, and bridges, and
stairs, and roads, and tunnels under ground, and--"
"Oh, let us hear--let us hear! We have heard nothing equal to this yet."
"Well, then, I begin by telling you that these insects are very common
in Africa, and in the East Indies, and are troublesome enough, for they
eat almost every thing but metal and glass. They love wood, though,
better than any thing else; and they are so numerous that they destroy
it wonderfully fast. They are very cunning, too; they never eat the
outside of the wood first, but will work upon the inside, so as to leave
the outer part not thicker than a piece of pasteboard. But the curious
things I meant to tell you were about their city; so I will go on to
that. When they first begin to build you will see little hills shaped
like a sugar-loaf, and rising up above the ground about a foot, or a
little more. Here is a picture of them.
[Illustration]
The highest of these little hills is always in the middle; and they go
on building more and more, and making them all higher, still keeping
the tallest one in the centre. When they have made them as high as
they wish, then they fill in the spaces between the tops of all these
sugar-loaf hills, so as to make one roof over all. Here is a picture of
one finished.
[Illustration]
After this is done, they take down nearly all of the little sugar-loaf
hills inside; for they only wanted them for a scaffold to support the
top while they were building it."
"Uncle Philip, what is all this built of?"
"It is built of clay, which the ant makes almost as hard as stone."
"Are they strong, Uncle Philip?
"So strong, boys, that five men may stand on them; and it is a common
thing for the wild bulls to get upon them and look out, while the rest
of the herd are feeding below."
"Why, how high are they?"
"Oh, of different heights; some as many as five or six feet, others are
twelve, and the largest are as high as twenty feet, and would easily
hold a dozen men."
"And how large are the ants, Uncle Philip?"
"Not above a quarter of an inch high as they stand. Now, boys, just
compare the size of one of these nests with the size of the ant that
made it; and it is quite as large in proportion as the city of New-York
is when compared to a man's size; yes, it is a great deal larger in
proportion. These nests are sometimes five hundred times as high as the
ants which build them: now suppose that men built their houses five
hundred times as high as themselves, and as large at the foundation in
proportion to their height, what monstrous buildings they would be! But
let me go on. This outside shell, which I have been telling you how they
make, is nothing but the wall of the city; the buildings are all inside
of that."
"But, Uncle Philip, there is one thing I have been thinking of which
would make it more like a city still. But I hardly think they can have
that."
"What is it?"
"Why in a city, you know, where there are a great many people, there are
a great many trades: some do one thing and some do another to get money."
"Yes, that is true; and I am glad that you mentioned it, because it
reminds me of one thing I intended to tell you about these ants. Now,
it would not be reasonable, you know, to expect the ants to have many
different kinds of business to do, as the people in New-York have; but
still, boys, they are not all alike, and they do have work of different
kinds. There are in the city of the white ants a king and a queen, and
soldiers, and labourers, or workmen, and all these are different. Here
are pictures which will show them all to you. This is the king.
[Illustration: King of the Termites.]
At first he has four wings, but soon loses them. He never grows any
larger after he loses them. The king may be known by his having two
large eyes. Here is the queen. She is the mother of the whole city;
and you see what a large body she has. It is full of eggs, and eighty
thousand will come from her in twenty-four hours. She also has two eyes.
[Illustration: Queen of the Termites.]
"Here is a soldier: he has a large head, armed with two hooks, shaped
like a crooked awl, and very sharp.
[Illustration: Soldier of the Termites.]
"For every one of these soldiers there are about one hundred labourers.
The soldiers do the fighting; and though they are perfectly blind, they
fight well, and are very brave. The following is a picture, too, of the
soldiers' awls, seen through the microscope, to show you how sharp they
are.
[Illustration]
"And here is a picture of the labourer; the largest part of the city is
made up of the labourers,--which shows us, I think, boys, that there is
more need of working than there is of fighting.
[Illustration: Labourer of the Termites.]
This class, like the soldiers, is blind, and scarcely ever go into the
open air; their work is mostly under ground or in the inside of wood.
Both, however, do come out when their city is attacked and broken: but I
will tell you of that presently."