COMMENCEMENT OF THE RAINS 73 



reached the termination, and there, at a depth of about 

 two feet below the surface, we came on an insect the 

 like of which neither I nor any of the servants had ever 

 before beheld. The head and body were those of an 

 ant, but of an ant of gigantic dimensions ; the abdomen, 

 both in size and appearance, was that of a small slug. 



I had the insect carefully lifted and placed on the 

 ground for examination. Unfortunately, near where it 

 was placed there was ,an ant-track, and at the time many 

 ants were passing along it,- The insect was hardly 

 deposited on the ground before, by some instinct, the 

 ants seemed to become aware of its presence. A party 

 of them immediately left the track and made a rush to 

 attack it. The details of the attack and its result were 

 much the same as those I have already described made 

 on the ant-lions. i\s the ants advanced the insect 

 received them with its jaws ; at each snap an ant was 

 left headless. Three or four had thus fallen, and I and 

 the servants had driven off the remainder, when the 

 same catastrophe occurred as had happened to the ant- 

 lion — two ants got round unnoticed behind, and now 

 fastened themselves on the insect's abdomen. 



One of the two ants I managed to brush off; the 

 other had fixed himself too firmly, and to have torn 

 him off might have fatally injured the insect. As the 

 best thing to do, I had the insect removed on a leaf 

 and placed on a patch of very soft earth, there to 

 burrow if he desired to. This the insect did, but he 

 only burrowed just sufficiently deep to conceal himself. 

 I had the spot marked, and the next morning I went to 

 examine it. On removing the earth we found that the 



