84 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



the females; tliey feed them and the larvae; and they 

 pay the necessary attention to the daily sunning of the 

 eggs, larvne, and pupae. Besides this, they have also 

 to feed their masters and to carry them about the nest. 

 This you will say is a serious addition to the ordinary 

 occupations of their own colonies : but when you con- 

 sider the greater division of labour in these mixed so- 

 cieties, which sometimes unite both negroes and miners 

 in the same dwelling, so that three distinct races live to- 

 gether, from their vast numbers so far exceeding those 

 of the native nest, you will not think this too severe em- 

 ployment for so industrious an animal. 



But you will here ask, perhaps — " Do the masters take 

 no part in these domestic employments ? At least, surely, 

 they direct their slaves, and see that they keep to their 

 work ?" — No such thing, I assure you — the sole motive 

 for their predatory excursions seems to be mere laziness 

 and hatred of labour. Active and intrepid as they are 

 in the field, at all other times they are the most helpless 

 animals that can be imagined ; — unwilling to feed them- 

 selves, or even to walk, their indolence exceeds that of 

 the sloth itself. So entirely dependent, indeed, are they 

 upon their negroes for every thing, that upon some oc- 

 casions the latter seem to be the masters, and exercise a 

 kind of authority over them. They will not suffer them, 

 for instance, to go out before the proper season, or alone; 

 and if they return from their excursions without their 

 usual booty, they give them a very indifferent reception, 

 showing their displeasure, which however soon ceases, 

 by attacking them ; and when they attempt to enter the 

 nest, dragging them out. To ascertain what they would 

 do when obliged to trust to their own exertions, Huber 



