ANT EXPEDITIOJVS TO CAPTURE SLAVES. 357 



the surface appeared extremely agitated, as if they had 

 foreseen the attack with which they were threatened. 

 The combatants fonght body to body ; but the stran- 

 gers threw themselves into a gallery with so much 

 impetuosity that the other could not restrain them. 

 This courageous incursion did not succeed ; they all 

 perished, not, however, without making great havoc ; 

 for, when I saw the legionaries of the natural ant-hill 

 resume their expeditions, I found their army reduced 

 to one half its original number : the formicary had 

 not suffered so great a diminution.'* 



* Huber on Ants, p. 328. 



