270 LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
Now Gulliver was a man made in the same 
fashion as the Brobdingnagian king, only in smaller 
proportions, and therefore it was not so wonderful 
that the king should suppose him to be living a life 
like his own. But the little ant, which we may take 
in like manner on our hand, is fashioned quite differ- 
ently from ourselves, and is only an insect ; and yet, 
strange to say, almost all the things asserted of Gul- 
liver, and many more which seem almost human, 
may be said with truth about these tiny creatures. 
For ants make nests and burrows which are real 
houses and cities, and even clear roadways to and 
from their settlements. If they do not dress in 
equipage, they perform their toilet with the greatest 
care, as vvell as that of their friends and of the help- 
less infants of their city. They can dispute and 
hold communication with their fellows ; they fight, 
both singly and in well-disciplined armies ; they 
betray in some cases their fellow -ants, and carry 
them into slavery ; they keep domestic animals, 
having beetles and other insects living in their nests, 
as we have dogs and cats in our houses, and some 
of them provide food for their community by keeping 
herds of Aphides as we keep cows. Moreover, they 
form very large societies, such as can only succeed 
by all the members working together in harmony. 
In one ants' nest, made up of several separate homes, 
there maybe from 50,000 to 200,000 ants, and though 
each ant is free to build, or hunt, or milk, or fight, 
or go where she will, it seems to create no confusion. 
In this way they are much more independent than 
bees and wasps, whose combs are all built mechani- 
cally, one exactly like the other ; whereas any ant 
