Ants. 181 



The young captive ants came out of their cocoons, and 

 being naturally industrious they bustled about and gave 

 the babies their nimmy-nimmy when they cried for it, 

 swept the floor, and carried in the coal till the approving 

 workers of the captors began to talk to each other like 

 this: " That Fusca is a handy little thing about the house. 

 Seems a kind of a pity to kill her when we got so much 

 provisions on hand, and right in the busy season when 

 help is hard to get. She's so good to the children, too. 

 Let's keep her a while. What do you say ? And then, 

 when it was decided to put off butchering day, they went 

 to Fusca and said, (f Fusca, we've concluded not to kill 

 you for a spell yet. You can stay around and do up the 

 work, but mind, if there are any complaints about you, 

 or the children are neglected, or you give any of your 

 back talk- Well, there'll be fresh meat for supper, 



do you understand ? ; 



And Fusca dropped a courtesy and made answer : 

 " Yaiss, missy. T'ank yo', missy. Ah'll do de des' Ah 

 kin." (It is almost needless to say that / ; . fusca is a black 

 ant.) 



F. sanguineas can do their own work and often do not 

 keep slaves at all, but they are little thought of in ant 

 circles. The real nobility and gentry are Polyergus 

 rufcsccns and Pol\crgus lucid us. Work? They work? 

 No, indeed. You don't see them demeaning themselves 

 building and minding the children, collecting food, or 

 even feeding themselves, if you please. When the nest 

 is changed they do not set foot to the ground ; they are 

 carried by slaves. They have always been accustomed 

 to having help about the house. But they can fight. 

 Their mandibles are fit only to crush other ants' heads. 

 Huber put thirty of them in a box with honey and a lot 

 of their larvae and pupae. What followed reminds one 



