THE WAYS OF THE ANT 



of the ants was as incessant as the patter of rain ; 

 a barefooted insedt host, a rabble of sans culottes^ 

 and the sound of their marching feet reached my 

 listening ears, as it were in the clouds above them. 



On the fourth day the slavers began kidnapping 

 the blacks themselves and carrying them unharmed 

 to the nest. Quite often I found them carrying 

 individuals of their own species. These may have 

 been deserters or they may have been ants from 

 some other community, who, learning of the raid, 

 thought to be present at the final sack and perhaps 

 share in the spoils. A still more puzzling thing 

 was the fad: that some few red ants bore negroes 

 in the wrong direction, that is, from the red 

 back to the black colony. I have noticed on 

 former occasions that the raid may become thus 

 complicated toward its close as if the ants, drunk 

 with vidlory, were beside themselves. 



On the yth of August the raid was dire&ed 

 against a new negro colony some distance further 

 down the road. It was carried on with something 

 like the usual vigor until the 25th of the month, 

 when it apparently ceased. The first nests of 

 blacks, in which some few ants remained, were 

 no longer molested, though the besieging army 



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