132 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. VII, 



and the address which they so well know how to 

 display, for the purposes of war." 



On the negroes reared among them they depend 

 not only for house and home, but even for food ; and 

 these faithful and affectionate servants begrudge 

 neither labour nor pains, in providing for their mas- 

 ters. Huber enclosed thirty amazons with several 

 pupae and larvae of their own species, and twenty 

 negro pupae, in a glass box, the bottom of which 

 was covered with a thick layer of earth ; honey was 

 given to them, so that, although cut off from their 

 auxiliaries, the amazons had both shelter and food ; 

 at first they appeared to pay some little attention 

 to the young; this soon ceased, and they neither 

 traced out a dwelling, nor took any food ; in two 

 days one-half died of hunger, and the other re- 

 mained weak and languid : commiserating their con- 

 dition, he gave them one of their black companions : 

 this little creature, unassisted, formed a chamber in 

 the earth, gathered together the larvae, put every 

 thing into complete order, and preserved the lives 

 of those which were about to perish. 



In order to obtain a more intimate knowledge of 

 the facts, the same observer of nature opened and 

 deranged an ant-hill in which the negroes and ama- 

 zons dwelt together ; in doing so, the aspect of their 

 city was so altered as not to be recognised by the 

 amazons, and they were seen wandering at random 

 over its surface. The negroes, however, appeared 

 to be well acquainted with the new localities of the 

 ant-hill, and relieved them from their embarrass- 

 ment, by taking them up gently in their mandibles, 

 and conducting them to the galleries already pierced. 

 "An amazon was frequently seen to approach a 

 negro, and play upon its head with its antennae, 

 when the latter immediately seized the former in 

 its pincers, and deposited it at one of the entrances ; 

 the amazon ant then unrolled itself, caressed once 





