THE ATTAS AT HOME 179 



army ants. The Eciton soldier with his long, 

 curved scimitars and his swift, nervous move- 

 ments, was to one of these great insects as a 

 fighting d'Artagnan would be to an armored 

 tank. The results were much the same however, 

 ; perfect efficiency. 



I now dug swiftly and crashed with pick down 

 through three feet of soil. The great entrance 

 arteries of the nest branched and bifurcated, sep- 

 arated and anastomosed, while here and there 

 were chambers varying in size from a cocoanut 

 to a football. These were filled with what looked 

 like soft grayish sponge covered with whitish 

 mold, and these somber affairs were the raison 

 d'etre for all the leaf -cutting, the trails, the strug- 

 gles through jungles, the constant battling 

 against wind and rain and sun. 



But the labors of the Attas are only renewed 

 when a worker disappears down a hole with his 

 hard-earned bit of leaf. He drops it and goes 

 on his way. We do not know what this way is, 

 but my guess is that he turns around and goes 

 after another leaf. Whatever the nests of At- 

 tas possess, they are without recreation rooms. 

 These sluggard-instructors do not know enough 

 to take a vacation; their faces are fashioned for 



