PYGMY WORKERS AND BUILDERS. 105 



lavish the most attentive care upon them ; they give them 

 food, cleanse them, and warm their chilled bodies. 



10. In the slave-making republics conquerors and slaves 

 finish by changing places. The warrior-robbers only dis- 

 play courage in fighting. The instant they have stowed 

 away their booty in the nest, the Amazons refresh them- 

 selves after battle by the pleasures of laziness. But they 

 soon become enervated, and the spoilers pass under the 

 yoke of those they have conquered. This dependence is so 

 great that, if they were deprived of their slaves, privations 

 and inaction would speedily destroy the tribe. 



11. The warrior ants, ardent in battle and the chase, 

 revolt against all domestic work, for they only understand 

 fighting. Incapable of building their own abodes, or nour- 

 ishing their young, they leave these duties to their slaves. 

 When the tribe is forced to abandon a nest on account of 

 its being too old or too small, the slaves decide the question 

 of emigration. They do not, however, run off and leave 

 their helpless tyrants, but each one takes one of its degen- 

 erate masters in its mandibles and bears it to the new 

 dwelling, just as a cat carries its kitten in its mouth. 



THE APHIDES AND THEIR KEEPERS. 



1. The aphides are the small green insects, generally 

 known as plant-lice, which infest our gardens. Insignifi- 

 cant as may be a single aphis, these insects are most for- 

 midable from their numbers, as all gardeners know to their 

 cost. Roses are often so thickly covered with these pesti- 

 lential insects that the leaves and buds are completely 

 hidden, the latter never being permitted to develop them- 

 selves into flowers. 



2. These insects are prolific almost beyond belief. As 



