156 FORMICID^ — ANTS. 



eaten ; in the mean time one swarm running down the string, 

 and the other up.^ 



It has been suggested, that in such instances as the pre- 

 ceding, 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 dis- 

 covered 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 pur- 

 sue a different route "'^ 



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 I 

 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 I'' 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 crawl- 

 ing 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 with- 

 in 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.^ We need not 

 wonder at this, if we believe what Bosnian has said of the 

 Black- ants of Guinea, which were so surprisingly rapacious 



1 Kalm in Pinkerton's Col. of Voy. and Trav., xiii. 474. 



2 Chainb. Misc., x. 22. 



^ Piukertou's Cul. of Vuy. and Trav., xvi. 174. 



