ANT EXPEDITIONS TO CAPTURE SLAVES. 353 



The warrior ants, on the other hand, seem to have 

 as much dishke to any sort of labour but war, as the 

 barbarous Spartans of old; and, when not in active 

 service in the field, they seem to be as helpless as an 

 Otaheitan prince. They are apparently incapable even 

 of feeding; themselves, an office which is always per- 

 formed by the slaves, on whom therefore they depend, 

 not only for house and home, but even for existence ; 

 and so faithful are these devoted negroes, that they 

 seem to begrudg-e no exertion in providing for their 

 masters. In their turn, however, they also exercise 

 authority ; for they will not permit them to leave the 

 colony alone, nor before the proper season ; and when 

 they return from a predatory excursion without the 

 expected booty, they meet with a very cold reception, 

 and are often refused admission, or dragged out 

 again if they presume to enter. In these cases, the 

 slaves are evidently the masters, and in no case are 

 the latter ever observed directing their employments 

 or keeping them to their work. 



Anxious to learn whether the warrior ants could 

 subsist by their own exertions without the assistance 

 of slaves, Huber tried the experiment of isolating 

 them, to ascertain how they would proceed. "I 

 enclosed," he tells us, "thirty of the legionary ants 

 {F. rufescejis)y with several pupse and larvae of their 

 own species, and twenty pupse belonging to the 

 negroes, in a glass box, the bottom of which was 

 covered with a thick layer of earth. I placed a little 

 honey in the corner of their prison, and cut off all 

 association with their auxiliaries. At first they ap- 

 peared to pay some little attention to the larva? : they 

 carried them here and there, but presently replaced 

 them. More than one half of the legionaries died of 

 hunger in less than two days. They had not even 

 traced out a dwelling, and the few individuals still 

 in existence were languid and without strength. 



2h3 



