168 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
from leaf to leaf, when a swifter carrier passed 
by, as a circus bareback rider changes steeds at. 
full gallop. 
Once I saw enacted above ground, and in the 
light of day, something which may have had its 
roots in an anlage of divine discontent. If I 
were describing the episode half a century ago, 
I should entitle it, “The Battle of the Giants, 
or Emotion Enthroned.” A quadruple line of 
leaf-carriers was disappearing down a hole in 
front of the laboratory, bumped and pushed by 
an out-pouring, empty-jawed mass of workers. 
As I watched them, I became aware of an area 
of great excitement beyond the hole. Getting 
down as nearly as possible to ant height, I wit- 
nessed a terrible struggle. Two giants—of the 
largest soldier Maxim caste—were locked in each 
other’s jaws, and to my horror, I saw that each 
had lost his abdomen. The antenne and the 
abdomen petiole are the only vulnerable portions 
of an Atta, and long after he has lost these ap- 
parently dispensable portions of his anatomy, he 
is able to walk, fight, and continue an active but 
erratic life. These mighty-jawed fellows seem 
never to come to the surface unless danger 
threatens; and my mind went down into the 
