92 Life and Immortality. 
The unfortunate ant that ventures too close to the margin 
sets the sand off rolling, and it immediately begins to strug- 
gle against falling down, but the Ant-lion throws a few 
shovelfuls of sand against it, and it soon comes tumbling 
down to the bottom of the funnel, when it is instantly seized 
between the sharp mandibles in waiting, which, being per- 
forated by slender tubes, enable their blood-thirsty owner 
to suck out its juices. 
Country children, and adults as well, manifest a deep in- 
terest in these strange beings. They call them, as has been 
intimated before, You-ee-ups. How the name originated, and 
when, I do not pretend to know, nor have I been able upon 
inquiry to find out from the oldest inhabitants of the regions 
they affect. Old men and old women in the seventies and 
eighties knew these insects by this name when they were 
children, and I have been informed that they were always so 
spoken of by ¢heir fathers and mothers. 
Even the insects themselves are believed to know the odd 
name by which they are designated. So fixed is the belief 
in the minds of the many that, to contradict it, is sure to 
subject the person so rash and presumptuous to the grossest 
abuse from the friends of the strange little creature. They 
have seen him in his sandy retreat, and have called him by 
name, and he has never been known to decline a response. 
“You-ee-up, you-ee-up,” cries one, with his mouth just over 
the opening, and up comes the strange “crittur” as obedient 
asa lackey. “ You-ee-down, you-ee-down,” says the same 
childish voice, and down he goes to his den to await, as is 
thought, the giving of further orders. 
That the Ant-lion does seem to respond when called, 
cannot be denied, for I have tried the experiment myself, 
and others have tried it in my presence, and always with the 
same successful results. But people go through the world 
not only with their eyes closed and their ears sealed, but also 
with their minds forever locked against thinking, lest, by 
thinking, they might do themselves serious injury. Had but 
