ANTS AND ANT LIKE. 101 



mark that something is amiss, they pick up their eggs, larvae, 

 and pupffi and try to escape. But when they find that all 

 the outlets have been stopped, they at once change their 

 plan, lay down their burdens, and begin to dig new ways 

 out. These also are stopped, and they try again and again 

 until all are killed. 



McCook saw near Austin (Texas) a hole of the Sa-uba 

 twelve feet in diameter -and fifteen feet deep, from which 

 more than a hundred subterranean passages, hundreds of 

 feet in length and from two to six feet deep, ran to the 

 nearest trees. 



In addition to the destruction wrought by the Sa-uba on 

 the trees and in the ground, the natives suffer by the plun- 

 dering at night of their corn and flour stores. Bates was at 

 first inclined to lend no credence to current tales of this 

 nature, but he was soon convinced by his own suffering 

 therefrom. While he was living in an Indian town on the 

 Tapajoz, his servant awaked him many hours before sunrise 

 with the cry that the rats were plundering his baskets filled 

 with fariuha or mandioca-meal.* As the article was then 

 rare and very dear he got up, and found that the noise 

 arising from the robbery bore very little resemblance to that 

 made by rats. He struck a light, and saw a broad column 

 of thousands of Sa-uba ants, which were carrying the con- 

 tents of his baskets out through the doors as quickly as 

 possible. Each one carried a grain of farinha, which was 

 often larger and heavier than its bearer, and it was amusing 

 to see the smaller ones regularly tumbling over with their 

 load. The baskets were quite covered with them, and 

 hundreds were busy cutting out the dried leaves which 

 served as lining to the baskets. It was this that made the 

 noise that had been heard. The servant declared that they 

 would quite empty the two baskets during the night, if they 

 were not driven away. They therefore tried to kill them 

 with wooden clogs, but new hosts took the places of the 

 slain. At last Bates drove them away with gunpowder, 

 which he scattered on the ground and fired. McCook also 

 saw the Texan cutting-ants plunder a wheat-store and cariy 

 the grains to their nest. 



* [Farinha, or mandioca meal, consists of grains resembling tapioca, 

 and is obtained from the same root. Tapioca is pure starch, while 

 farinha is starch mixed with woody fibres. TR.] 



