PERFECT SOriETIEf? OF INSECTS. /S 



wliicli it is to be feared are the devoted victims of a 

 cannibal feast. 



Having, I apprehend, satiated you with the fury and 

 carnage of Myrmidonian wars, I shall next bring- for- 

 ward a scene still more astonishing', w hich at first, per- 

 haps, you will be disposed to regard as the mere illu- 

 sion of a lively imagination. What will you say when 

 I tell you that certain ants are affirmed to sally forth 

 from their nests on predatory expeditions, for the sin- 

 gular purpose of procuring- slaves to employ in their 

 domestic business ; and that these ants are usually a 

 ruddy race, while their slaves themselves are black? 

 I think I see you here throw down my letter and ex- 

 claim — " What ! ants turned slave-dealers ! This is a 

 fact so extraordinary and improbable, and so out of the 

 usual course of nature, that nothing- but the most 

 powerful and convincing evidence shall induce me to 

 believe it." In this I perfectly approve your caution ; 

 such a solecism in nature ouglit not to be believed till 

 it has undergone the ordeal of a most thorough investi- 

 gation. Unfortunately in this country we have not the 

 means of satisfying- ourselves by ocular demonstration, 

 since none of the slave-dealing ants appear to be na- 

 tives of Britain. We must be satisfied, therefore, with 

 weighing the evidence of others. Hear what M. P. 

 Huber, the discoverer of this almost incredible devia- 

 tion of nature from her general laws, has advanced to 

 convince the world of the accuracy of his statement, 

 and you will, I am sure, allow that he has thrown over 

 his history a colouring of verisimilitude, and that his 

 appeal to testimony is in a very high degree satis- 

 factory. 



