DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 123 



Transactions, who had such a horror of them, that du- 

 ring the season in which they abound in houses, she 

 always confined herself to her apartment. 



Ants are insects of this order, which, though our in- 

 digenous species may be regarded as harmless, in some 

 countries are gifted with double means of annoyance, 

 both from their sting and their bite. A green kind in 

 New South Wales was observed by Sir Joseph Banks 

 to inflict a wound scarcely less painful than the sting of 

 a bee^. Another, from the intolerable anguish occa- 

 sioned by its bite, which resembles that produced by a 

 spark of tire, and seems attended by venom, is called 

 the fire-ant. Captain Stedman relates that this caused 

 a whole company of soldiers to start and jump about as 

 if scalded with boiling water ; and its nests were so 

 numerous that it was not easy to avoid them''. We 

 are told of a third species, which emulates the scorpion 

 in the malignity of its sting or bite*". Knox, in his ac- 

 count of Ceylon, mentions a black ant, called by the 

 natives Caddia, which he says " bites desperately, as 

 bad as if a man were burnt by a coal of fire ; but they 

 are of a noble nature, and will not begin unless you 

 disturb them." The reason the Cinghalese assign for 

 the horrible pain occasioned by their bite is curious, 

 and will serve to amuse you. " Formerly these ants 

 went to ask a wife of the Noj/a, a venomous and noble 

 kind of snake ; and because they had such a high spirit 

 to dare to offer to be related to such a generous creature, 

 they had this virtue bestowed upon them, that they 

 should sting after this manner. And if they had ob- 



* Ilawkesworth's Cook, iii. 223. " Stedman, ii. 94. 



* Bingley, iii. 385, first edi*. 



