NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



of slavery " has developed, and there are probably 

 no slaveless colonies. A fertilized queen is accepted 

 by some queenless colony of black ants or the like ; 

 her offspring are tended and become dominant ; 

 and the number of slaves is sustained or increased 

 by slave-capturing raids. Forel calculated that 

 a single colony may capture in the course of one 

 summer as many as forty thousand larvae and 

 pupae of slaves who grow up to do everything 

 for their masters, just as if these were their own 

 kith and kin. For the Amazons can do nothing 

 but raid ; their mandibles have become sabres quite 

 unsuited for humble toil ; they cannot dig, but to 

 beg they are not ashamed. Without their slaves 

 they starve to death in two or three days. 



In a sense, then, the tables have been turned, 

 and the slaves are the masters. The Amazons 

 fight and multiply, but the slaves " determine the 

 character of the nest, plan and conduct migrations, 

 carrying the Amazons from place to place, the latter 

 subject to no impulse of their own. ... In America 

 this once widely distributed species is on the road 

 to extinction." It is plain that it is a very dangerous 

 thing to become quite dependent on other people. 



102 



