ANTS AND THEIR SLAVES. 17 I 



Huber, to complete the experiment, then introduced into 

 the case one black ant. Its presence changed the whole 

 face of things. It went straight to the honey and proceed- 

 ed to feed the helpless and starving giants. It dug a hole 

 in the ground, and put the cocoons in it and placed them 

 favorably for further development. The red ants were 

 soon on their feet again, strong and vigorous, and quite 

 likely the black ant would have been delighted to have 

 them go on the warpath and take more prisoners, since 

 that was the only thing they knew how to do. 



It will be understood, of course, that this was a Europe- 

 an species of ant which Pierre Huber studied and after- 

 wards wrote about. There are slave-holding ants in this 

 country, but they work in company with their slaves, and 

 have not given up the control of affairs. They are not only 

 abundantly able to feed themselves, but they plan the 

 work for the community and see that the little blacks help 

 to carry out the plans. Perhaps sometime I will tell about 

 a colony of slave- holding ants that I had the good fortune 

 to be able to watch one summer, right here in New Eng- 

 land, but for now we must go back to Pierre Huber and 

 his slave-holding ants in Switzerland. 



The discoveries he had made were so new and strange 

 that he could scarcely credit them himself, and he did not 

 at all expect other people to believe them. So he sent for 

 M. Jurine, one of the greatest naturalists in Sweden, to 

 come and go through the investigation with him. M. Ju- 

 rine, and afterward others who pursued the same course 

 of experiments, found that the young naturalist's observa- 

 tions were entirely correct. 



Jules Michelet has told us that when he first read Pierre 

 Huber's published account of his investigations, he threw 

 the book down in disgust. He did not want to believe it. 

 He knew there were slavery and slave-hunting in the 

 world, but he wanted to think that only human beings 



