362 THE DRIVERS. 
sternation, and seek safety in flight. Centipedes, Cock- 
roaches, scorpions, etc., etc., leave their hiding-places, and 
are seen seeking places of greater security, only to fall at 
last into the clutches of their relentless foe, from whom 
there is no escape. 
An invading army could not exhibit a higher state of dis- 
cipline than is seen in the movements of these insects. 
They enter a house usually at one point, where a strong 
guard is stationed to defend the pass; they then branch off 
right and left, and again divide, and subdivide, till the 
whole ground is completely covered; not an inch is left 
unexplored, and every crack. and cranny is entered, giving 
but little hope of escape to any creature that may be found 
secreted there. Attacking their prey they plunge their for- 
ceps into it, regardless of the size or strength of their an- 
tagonist. Nothing will cause them to relax their hold. The 
animal or insect writhes and twists under the pain, but his 
case is rendered more hopeless every moment by additions 
to the number of his assailants; at length, when com- 
pletely exhausted by struggling, he yields to his fate, and 
is dispatched at the victors’ leisure. 
he attack goes on simultaneously, in different parts of 
the house. Animal substance being almost exclusively the 
food of the Drivers an immense number of the smaller ver- 
min that infest our dwellings are consumed by them, and 
some of the larger animals when confined are also destroyed 
by them. They have been known to attack a human being, 
when rendered helpless by disease, and cause his death in à 
few hours. It is interesting to see a band of these midnight 
marauders returning home from the scene of plunder on the 
approach of day. Issuing from the same place they ente 
. they are each seen bearing away some trophy with them; à 
. joint of a cockroach’s leg, the body of a spider, or the larv® 
Of some insects, etc., are the various spoils. As the labor- 
ers pass on with their loads they are guarded by a large 
. body of soldiers which are stationed along the sides of their 




