88 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
The sights I saw in this second day’s acces- 
sible nest-swarm would warrant a season’s medi- 
tation and study, but one thing impressed me 
above all others. Sometimes, when I carefully 
pried open one section and looked deep within, 
I could see large chambers with the larve in 
piles, besides being held in the mandibles of the 
components of the walls and ceilings. Now and 
then a curious little ghost-like form would flit 
across the chamber, coming to rest, gnome-like, 
on larva or ant. Again and again I saw these 
little springtails skip through the very scimitar 
mandibles of a soldier, while the workers paid 
no attention to them. I wondered if they were 
not quite odorless, intangible to the ants, in- 
visible guests which lived close to them, going 
where, doing what they willed, yet never per- 
ceived by the thousands of inhabitants. They 
seemed to live in a kind of fourth dimensional 
state, a realm comparable to that which we peo- 
ple with ghosts and spirits. It was a most un- 
canny, altogether absorbing, intensely interesting 
relationship; and sometimes, when I ponder on 
some general aspect of the great jungle,—a for- 
est of greenheart, a mighty rushing river, a crash- 
ing, blasting thunderstorm,—my mind suddenly 
