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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



five to thirty ants upon him before he real- 

 izes their presence. The only remedy is to 

 strip and pull them off individually, and 

 usually each one picked off takes a piece out. 



An old fable (one of ^sop's collection, in 

 fact) found by the writer in somewhat al- 

 tered style among the Creoles of Louisiana, 

 has as its main point the singular effective- 

 ness of a good honest ant bite. Briefly the 

 fable is as follows: A dove seeing an ant 

 struggling in the water threw the insect a 

 leaf by means of which it was able to reach 

 shore. Another day the dove sitting drow- 

 sily in a tree was approached by a hunter. 

 As the hunter raised his gun and was about 

 to fire, the ant, taking in the situation, 

 quickly climbed to the man's neck and bit 

 with all his might. With a sharp cry the 

 hunter put his hand to his neck, and in so 

 doing dropped his gun. The commotion 

 aroused the dove which flew off in safety. 



Another fable exj)lains how certain ants 

 acquired their thrilling power of jaw. A 

 black ant of Ceylon, called by the natives 

 coddia, is said to "bite 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." i The rea- 

 son the Cingalese assign for the horrible 

 pain occasioned by the bite is curious. "For- 

 merly these ants went to ask a Avife of the 

 Noya, a venomous and noble kind of snake; 

 and because they had such a high spirit as 

 to dare to offer to be related to such a 

 generous creature, they had this virtue be- 

 stowed upon them that they should sting 

 after this manner. And if they had ob- 

 tained a wife of the Noya, they should have 

 had the privilege to sting full as bad as he." 

 The "Noya" is, of course, the well-known 

 Naga, or cobra de capello.2 



In the categories of biting thus far con- 

 sidered, the ants were in no sense the tools 

 of other creatures; they were doing just what 

 they pleased. The fact that they sometimes 

 lose their lives in misguided ventures does 

 not alter the entirely volitional character of 

 these attempts. But the mandibular powers 

 of ants are put to use by other animals, 

 chiefly by man. Some of these uses are praise- 

 worthy, others are decidedly the reverse. 

 The terrific biting powers of some tropical 

 ants, together with the abundance in indi- 

 viduals of these species, have prompted their 



^ Quoted from Knox. 

 ^Kirby, 1898, pp. 146-7. 



use not only in moderate punishments, but 

 also in revolting forms of torture and execu- 

 tion. It has been found 3 that in British 

 Guiana biting ants are used in certain ordeals 

 and in punishing youngsters. The ants are 

 placed in the interstices of specially woven 

 mats, and held there by stretching upon the 

 handles. These ant mats are then applied 

 to various parts of the body of the victim, 

 where the ants naturally bite their best, thus 

 carrying out the wishes of the monitor. There 

 is an account ■* that among the Mundurucu 

 and related tribes of Brazil, biting and 

 stinging ants are used to test the courage 

 of the young men. Bark cylinders half full 

 of ants are put on a young man's arms, and 

 while enduring the most fiendish biting and 

 stinging, the victim must go about the vil- 

 lage paying his respects to various house- 

 holders and officials, showing no signs of 

 distress. From the fact that the fire ant or 

 tecandiero is preferred, it is certain that the 

 stinging is more essential to the complete 

 success of this ceremony than the biting. 



Ants are used even as executioners. In 

 Burma the criminal is usually tied to a tree, 

 smeared Avith honey, and left to be devoured 

 by the ants. The Kafirs of South Africa used 

 to stake doAvn their prisoners upon an ant 

 hill, "and they Avere eaten atom by atom in 

 a few hours." s 



Passing to less exciting but more praise- 

 worthy uses of the biting poAvers of ants, Ave 

 must remember their utility to science in 

 cleaning skeletons. Those Avho have tried 

 this method know that a beautifully cleaned, 

 but still articulated skeleton is the result. 

 Their proficiency in this occupation is some- 

 times painfully obtruded upon the zoological 

 collector.6 



It is stated that during pioneer days in 

 the Southwest, it Avas a custom to throAV 

 clothing upon an ant hill, for the purpose of 

 freeing it from the vermin frequently an 

 unavoidable accompaniment of mining camp 



5 By Dr. W. E. Roth, Journ. Roy. Anthrop. 

 Inst., 42, 1912. p. 539. 



* By Captain Mayne Reid, Odd People, pp. 

 134-6. 



= Authority of Sir Richard Burton. Kirby, 1898, 

 pp. 134-5. 



^ Mr. Heller states that the siafus often com- 

 pletely consumed the catch of his entire line of 

 traps, the skeletons only remaining. Messrs. Nel- 

 son and Goldman became acquainted with a Mex- 

 ican ant which had a very precise formality to be 

 accomplished before actual skeletonizing began. 

 The hair of the specimens Avas all bitten off close 

 to the skin, leaving the mice and other small mam- 

 mals looking as if they had been shaved. 



