THEIR COMMUNICATIONS. 349 



ance of reason. For the cultivation of such intercourse there 

 exists scarce a doubt of their being provided with means of 

 communicating their wants and wishes a sort of dumb lan- 

 guage (dumb, at least, to our perception) of which their an- 

 tennas are supposed to be the principal organs. 



It is not ours to boast ourselves of any talismanic gift, 

 enabling us to "understand the Steven" of parleying insects, 

 as the lady Canace of birds, through the fabled virtue of her 

 faery ring ; but we never watch the busy workers of the ant- 

 hill, coming and going, stopping as they encounter, and laying 

 their heads together, without being pretty certain that they 

 are saying to each other a something quite as full, perhaps, of 

 informing or of friendly significance as the " Fine day," or 

 the " How do you do ?" which forms the usual salutation of 



meeting men. 



We may often, too, perceive an ardent little labourer of the 

 same race toiling at a burden may be, a great dead blue- 

 bottle may be, a fragment of wood five times bigger than 

 herself. After repeated efforts, she finds her strength unequal 

 to remove it, and then bethinks herself (for think she must) 

 that two or three united forces, and several pairs of forceps, 

 are better than one, and, acting on the thought, we see her 

 approach another, or, perhaps a group of her comrades, con- 

 duct them to the spot where she left her load, and succeed by 

 their assistance in its transport. 



Similar instances of mutual assistance occasionally, not uni- 



