NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



little brothers of the ant-hill have a long priority in this 

 mode of warfare. 



Sometimes these duellists are allowed to fight to the 

 death unmolested, and many such hand-to-hand com- 

 bats are seen, especially on the fringe of the field, 

 as the thick of the fray sways closer to the formi- 

 cary. Oftener the duel draws others into its vortex. 

 A passing red warrior seizes a leg of the black com- 

 batant, and a black, rushing into the battle, stops to 

 clasp the red foeman's antenna. Thus the fight thick- 

 ens into a group, from which now and then a pair 

 may drop away to form another centre of con- 

 flict. 



The slave-makers are not always victors; but in this 

 case they succeed in entering the besieged city and 

 capturing many larvic and pupse. As they trail home- 

 ward with their booty, one may occasionally see a war- 

 rior bearing her prey and dragging along a trophy of 

 battle in the shape of a severed black head, whose unre- 

 laxed jaws still cling to its foeman's leg. The plunderers 

 do not always return scot-free. The pillaged villagers 

 will sometimes follow and harass the rear of the colunm, 

 pounce upon stragglers, and succeed in rescuing some 

 captives. Erelong the fugitive Fuscans return from the 

 jungle of grass and ferns whither they had fled with their 

 young, and come up from the cavernous recesses wherein 

 they had been barricaded, and the life of the commune 

 is reorganized. Their little ones, for whom all had 

 ventured and many had yielded life, grow up in their 

 ravishers' city, and ere the season ends may be cheering 

 on their captors to another raid upon their native vil- 

 lage. Alas! crude nature is not a Peace Society, and 

 nothing is more purely "natural" than war. Our hope 



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