SLAVES AND THEIR SERVITUDE. 263 
little attendants to feed them at the mouth. No other occupations are 
theirs but war, theft, and kidnapping. No other movements in the 
intervals than to wander about lazily, and bask in the sunshine at the 
door of their barracks. 
The most curious circumstance is, that these civilized helots really 
love their great barbarous warriors, and carefully tend their children, 
gladly and cheerfully perform their.tasks of servitude, and, more, en- 
courage the extension of their slavery and the abduction of the little 
blacks. Does not all this wear the appearance of a free adhesion to the 
established order of things ? 
And who knows but that the joy and pride of governing the strong 
and tyrannizing over their tyrants, may be for the little blacks an 
inner liberty—an exquisite and sovereign freedom—far superior to any 
pleasure they could have derived from the equality of their native 
country / 
Huber made an experiment. He was desirous of observing what 
would be the result if the great red ants found themselves without 
servants, and if they would know how to supply their own wants. He 
thought, perhaps, that the degenerate creatures might be inspired and 
uplifted by the maternal love which is so strong among the ants. 
He put a few into a glass case, and with them some nymphs. In- 
stinctively they began to move them about and to cradle them after 
their fashion; but soon discovered (big and robust as they, neverthe- 
less, were) that the weight was too much for them; they accordingly 
left them on the ground, and coolly abandoned them. In truth, they 
abandoned themselves. Huber put some honey for them in a corner, 
so that they had nothing to do but to take it. Miserable the degrada- 
tion, cruel the punishment with which slavery afflicts the enslavers! 
They did not touch it; they seemed to know nothing; they had become 
so grossly ignorant and indolent that they could no longer feed them- 
selves. Some of them died from starvation, with food before them! 
Huber, to complete the experiment, then introduced into the case 
one black ant. The presence of this sagacious helot changed the face 
of things, and re-established life and order. He went straight to the 
honey ; he fed the great dying simpletons; he dug a hole in the ground, 
