152 FORMICID.E — ANTS. 



own soldiers that had been killed, while they left those of 

 their adversaries a prey to the birds. ^ 



Alexander Ross, in his Appendix to the Arcana Micro- 

 cosmi, 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).'" 



Ants were used in divination by the Greeks, and gener- 

 ally foretold good.^ They were also considered an attribute 

 of Ceres.* 



The following extract is from an English North- Country 

 chap-book, entitled the Roy^l 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."^ The Ant 

 and the Bee are common figures to express these predic- 

 tions. 



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 par- 

 ticular 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, pros- 

 perity attends the owner of that house. "^ 



We read in Purchas's Pilgrims, that "the natives of 

 Carabaia and Malabar will go out of the path if they light 

 on an Ant-hill, lest they might happily treade on some of 

 them."^ 



Other insects, as will be noticed in the course of this 



1 Mouf. Theatr. Ins., p. 242. 



2 Quot. in Brande's Pop. Antiq., iii. 224. 



3 Harwood's Grec. Antiq., p 200. 



* Stosch. CI., ii. 227-8. Fosbr. Encyd. of Antiq., ii. 738. 



5 Quot. in Brande's Pop. Antiq., iii. 134. 



6 The Mirror, xxx. 216. 

 ■^ Pilgrims, v. 542. 



