64 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



endwise, and this is done a foot before they come to 

 the hole, and that without any stop or stay ; and this 



is observable, that they never pull contrary m ays. 



A table being cleared with great care, by way of ex- 

 periment, of all the ants that were upon it, and some 

 sugar being put upon it, some, after a circuitous route, 

 were observed to arrive at it, when again departing 

 vvithout tasting the treasure, they hastened away to 

 inform their friends of their discovery, w ho upon this 

 came by myriads ;" — " and when they are thickest upon 

 the table," says he, "clap a large book (or any thing 

 fit for that purpose) upon them, so hard as to kill all 

 that are under it ; and when you have done so, take 

 away the book, and leave them to themselves but a 

 quarter of an hour, and when you come again, you 

 shall find all those bodies carried away. Other trials 

 we make of their ingenuity, as this : — Take a pewter 

 dish, and fill it half full of water, into which put a 

 little galiy-pot filled with sugar, and the ants will pre- 

 sently find it and come upon the table ; but when they 

 perceive it environed with water, they try about the 

 brims of the dish where the gally-pot is nearest ; and 

 there the most venturous amongst them commits him- 

 self to tlie water, though he be conscious how ill a 

 swimmer he is, and is drowned in the adventure : the 

 next is not warned by his example, but ventures too, 

 and is alike drowned ; and many more, so that there 

 is a small foundation of their bodies to venture ; and 

 then they come faster than ever, and so make a bridge 

 of their own bodies^." 



The fact being certain, that ants impart their ideas 



• Ilist. of Jiarbadocs, p. 63. 



