22 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



seven, when Professor Emery's son stopped count- 

 ing. It seems likely that the Amazons are moved 

 by an instinctive restlessness, which becomes peri- 

 odically irrepressible, and leads to the impetuous 

 raids, which, by the way, are almost invariably 

 confined to the afternoon. 



In 1914 the veteran observer made a study of a 

 flitting from one nest to another. On the first 

 afternoon the Amazons were seen carrying their 

 slaves, sometimes in contradictory fashion in 

 opposite directions; but after that the slaves did 

 most of the work of transporting the young, and 

 even carried their mistresses. On another occasion 

 Emery saw an unusual sight, perhaps a mutiny, 

 but more probably a madness. Several slaves 

 attacked an Amazon and began to pull her about; 

 she slew two of them forthwith, but was soon 

 afterwards attacked by another Amazon, and there 

 ensued a quarrel fatal to both. Next day the slaves 

 were seen carrying off the two bodies. 



Like Huber and Forel before him, Emery puzzled 

 over the resistance that the auxiliaries often offer 

 to the issue of an expedition of Amazons. Forel 

 suggested that the young auxiliaries, brought in 

 from outside, have to become accustomed to the 

 strange proceedings before they can acquiesce in 

 raids as part of the order of the day. Emery 

 suggests, however, that there is something subtler 

 namely, " a myrmecophilous relation " that the 

 servants hold their mistresses as something like 

 wayward pets. He admits, however, that in the 



