80 WAYS OF THE SIX-FOOTED 



selves upon it with great fury. Their object, how- 

 ever, is robbery and not murder. They never attempt 

 to enslave the mature ants but take the young grubs 

 to be brought up in future slavery. They have no 

 intention of exterminating the slave colonies, and thus 

 shut off future supplies ; therefore they do not kill 

 any more of the defenders than is necessary in order 

 to capture the larvae. These young ones carried to 

 the nests of their captors are there cared for as ten- 

 derly as their masters' own, and when they reach the 

 adult age they work as cheerfully as they would have 

 done in their own nests. They share the esprit de 

 corps of their adopted country, as is shown by the 

 fact that when their masters return from a marauding 

 expedition laden with live booty the slaves rush out 

 to meet them joyfully and help them bring in the 

 stolen larvas ; but when the masters come home empty- 

 handed, the slaves are surly and sometimes even 

 refuse for a time to let them come back into the 

 nests. 



That the object of slave-makers in carrying off the 

 young of the slave species is to get workers for their 

 own colony is clearly evinced by the modifications of 

 the habits of the masters made by the presence of 

 slaves in their nests. All the slave-making species 

 become more or less dependent upon their slaves. 



