3 o 4 THE HUMAN SPECIES 



are hatched, while the other robber-ants do nothing but permit 

 themselves to be fed. As may readily be imagined these slave 

 raids are not effected without serious bloodshed and loss of 

 life, for the ants are a fierce race. So we see that slave-owning 

 is not merely a human social contrivance. 



A characteristic which must be described as peculiar to man 

 is the slavery which exists in times of peace as the result of 

 industrial subordination : it is caused by the unequal distribution 

 of property and the accumulation of wealth into a few hands 

 at the expense of the remaining surplus population. 



Community of possessions and right to such sustenance as 

 there is, and to defence from all outside oppression even at the 

 hands of their own species, is the feature of every hymenoptera 

 state ; among the honey-bees, however, the lazy, non-working 

 drones after they have done their duty, are, at the end of July, 

 or the beginning of August, either closed in and abandoned to 

 death by starvation, or driven out of the hive, or else simply 

 stung to death in a so-called "drone fight". 



Communism in its broadest sense is based on blood kinship, 

 and may be assumed with almost absolute certainty to have 

 been the rule among the primitive family, communities and 

 tribes. Indirectly we may arrive at this conclusion from the 

 customs of the simple savages as described to us by trustworthy 

 travellers. 



Among the red-skins, for instance, so long as they were 

 masters of their own land, there prevailed not only common 

 possession of land, food-material and the necessary implements 

 for hunting and fishing, but even common hearths and homes, 

 and a most lavish hospitality, at least towards members of 

 friendly tribes. 1 



The rudiments of other social qualities, such as sympathy 

 and pity, we should not look for only among the higher animals 

 and man, but also among those social animals which though 

 low down in the scale of structure yet must be classed high 

 in the psychical scale. At any rate, scientists like Forel, 

 Huber and Lubbock have observed that ants lick one of their 

 own species when injured or wounded in a fight, take hold of 

 it carefully and drag it to the nest, but only if they have 



1 Kohler, loc. cit., p. 146. 



