16 TWO CHAPTERS ON ANTS. 



utmost difficulty that he could free himself 

 from his death-grip. 



The sun went down, and the gathering 

 darkness compelled me to leave my post of 

 observation ; but as long as I could see, the 

 conflict was as fierce as when I first beheld 

 it. I now picked up several of the war- 

 riors, but so intent were they in their ter- 

 rible struggle that my handling did not di- 

 vert them in the least. I carried several 

 pairs into the house, placed them under a 

 large oval glass (the cover of a fernery) on 

 a marble-topped table, and watched the con- 

 flict. 



I found I had ten black and ten red war- 

 riors, not engaged in a general me!6e, but 

 each intent upon killing his own adversary. 

 It was fully an hour before the first warrior 

 was killed a red has at last dispatched his 

 black antagonist, and not satisfied with kill- 

 ing him, he tears his legs from his body and 

 severs his antenna. After convincing him- 

 self that he is really dead, he looks around 

 at the other warriors which are still closely 

 locked in their dreadful embrace, and now 

 he hurries from one couple to another, as if 

 to see where his services are most needed. 

 He finds a couple whose struggles are near- 

 ly over a black is fastened with a death- 



