WARRIOR ANTS, AND THEIR EQUIPMENT 



despite the overwhelming odds, Camponotus joins battle, 

 and only succumbs, and is dragged within the walls, after 

 a number of its assailants have been maimed or slain. 



The agitation in such a case is limited to a narrow 

 sphere, for somehow the commune knows that the dan- 

 ger is merely local. Therefore, outside of that circle, 

 the various duties of the government go quietly on. 

 But it is a notable feature of this commune that upon 

 a general alarm the whole citizenship rises up to meet 

 the threatening peril. Many times in many ways has 

 the author tested this. A few pats of the foot or strokes 

 of a stick upon the surface would call out a host of 

 sentinels and workers. The interior construction of the 

 mound is well adapted to communicate sound or vibra- 

 tory movements rapidly. Through the conical mass of 

 intercommunicating galleries and rooms the agitation 

 at the surface appeared to be quickly carried to all parts 

 of the mound. 



At all events, it reached enough to call out, almost in- 

 stantaneously, a multitude of insects. With antennae 

 erect and quivering, with abdomens well raised from the 

 ground, with legs a jerk and heads aloft, they circled 

 about and rushed to and fro, their whole mien showing 

 keen excitement. With them, assuredly, "the toil of 



%/ * 



war" is "a pain that only seems to seek out danger." 

 It is not a question of who has made the attack, or why 

 made, or whether one or another should come to the 

 rescue. At once the republic is ready to launch forth 

 its entire force, if need be, against real or imaginary 

 foes. This perfect unison in resisting the assault of an 

 enemy is surely an element of civic strength and per- 

 manence. During my boyhood a saying of one of our 

 naval heroes was widely current, and was a theme for 



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