190 BITING ANTS. Chap. IX. 



in a native hut, but could not because of attacks by the 

 fighting battalions of a very small species of formica, not 

 more than one-sixteenth of an inch in length. It soon 

 became obvious that they were under regular discipline, 

 and even attempting to carry out the skilful plans and 

 stratagems of some eminent leader. Our hands and necks 

 were the first objects of attack. Large bodies of these little 

 pests were massed in silence round the point to be assaulted. 

 We could hear the sharp shrill word of command two or three 

 times repeated, though, until then, we had not believed in 

 the vocal power of an ant ; the instant after we felt the storm- 

 ing hosts range over head and neck, biting the tender skin, 

 clinging with a death-grip to the hair, and parting with their 

 jaws, rather than quit their hold. On our lying down again in 

 the hope of their having been driven off, no sooner was the 

 light out, and all still, than the manoeuvre was repeated. 

 Clear and audible orders were issued, and the assault 

 renewed. It was as hard to sleep in that hut, as in the 

 trenches before Sebastopol. The white ant, being a vege- 

 table feeder, devours articles of vegetable origin only, 

 and leather, which, by tanning, is imbued with a vegetable 

 flavour. " A man may be rich to-day and poor to- 

 morrow, from the ravages of white ants," said a Portuguese 

 merchant. "If he gets sick, and unable to look after his 

 goods, his slaves neglect them, and they are soon destroyed 

 by these insects." The reddish ant, in the west called drivers, 

 crossed our path daily, in solid columns an inch wide, and 

 never did the pugnacity of either man or beast exceed theirs. 

 It is a sufficient cause of war if you only approach them, 

 even by accident. Some turn out of the ranks and stand 

 with open mandibles, or, charging with extended jaws, bite 

 with savage ferocity. When hunting, we lighted among them 



