168 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



from leaf to leaf, when a swifter carrier passed 

 by, as a circus bareback rider changes steeds at 

 full gallop. 



Once I saw enacted above ground, and in the 

 light of day, something which may have had its 

 roots in an anlage of divine discontent. If I 

 were describing the episode half a century ago, 

 I should entitle it, "The Battle of the Giants, 

 or Emotion Enthroned." A quadruple line of 

 leaf-carriers was disappearing down a hole in 

 front of the laboratory, bumped and pushed by 

 an out-pouring, empty- jawed mass of workers. 

 As I watched them, I became aware of an area 

 of great excitement beyond the hole. Getting 

 down as nearly as possible to ant height, I wit- 

 nessed a terrible struggle. Two giants of the 

 largest soldier Maxim caste were locked in each 

 other's jaws, and to my horror, I saw that each 

 had lost his abdomen. The antenna? and the 

 abdomen petiole are the only vulnerable portions 

 of an Atta, and long after he has lost these ap- 

 parently dispensable portions of his anatomy, he 

 is able to walk, fight, and continue an active but 

 erratic life. These mighty- jawed fellows seem 

 never to come to the surface unless danger 

 threatens; and my mind went down into the 



