HOSTILITIES OF ANIMALS. 'xJ09 



of seeing them come out to fight or to work, alternately, may 

 be obtained as often as curiosity excites, or time permits ; and 

 it will certainly be found, that the one order never attempts 

 to fight, nor the other to work, let the emergency be ever so 

 great. 



It is exceedingly difficult to explore the interior parts of a 

 nest or hill. The apartments which surround the royal cham- 

 ber and the nurseries, and,. indeed, the whole fabric, have 

 such a dependence on each other, that the breaking of one 

 arch generally pulls down two or three. There is another 

 great obstacle, namely, the obstinacy of the soldiers, who dis- 

 pute every inch of ground, and fight to the very last, wound- 

 ing severely those who are engaged in the attempt, and 

 sometimes obliging them to desist. Besides this, while the 

 soldiers are engaged in defending the outworks, the laborers 

 are barricading the way within, stopping up the different gal- 

 leries and passages which lead to the various apartments, par- 

 ticularly the royal chamber, all the entrances to which they 

 fill up so artfully as not to let it be distinguishable while it 

 remains moist ; and externally it has no other appearance 

 than that of a shapeless lump of clay. It may be known, 

 however, by its situation, and by the crowd of soldiers and 

 laborers who assemble around and within it, to defend or 

 perish with it. It is never abandoned, and, when taken out, 

 is always found full, the attendants running in one direction 

 around the queen with the utmost solicitude, some of them 

 stopping at her head, as if to give her something, and others 

 taking her eggs away from her and piling them carefully to- 

 gether in some part of the chamber. 



CHAPTER IX. 



OF THE HOSTILITIES OF ANIMALS. 



IN contemplating the system of animation exhibited in this 

 planet (the only one of which we have any extensive knowl- 

 edge), the mind is struck, and even confounded, with the gen- 

 eral scene of havoc and devastation which is perpetually, 

 and every where, presented to our view. There is not, per- 

 haps, a single species of animated beings, whose existence 

 18* 



