ANTS AND THEIR HELPLESS CHILDREN. 275 
ous observations show that it is by touching their an- 
tennae that they make these communications. Now, 
though at first this may appear almost incredible, yet, 
if we think for a moment, we shall acknowledge that 
it would seem still more strange to a being who 
knew nothing about speech, to see two men stand 
at a distance from each other, and only move their 
mouths, and then go and do something which showed 
that one knew what the other wanted, so that it may 
after all be only our ignorance of ant-language which 
puzzles us. 
Next to the antennae, the most useful implements 
of an ant are her mandibles (in m\ which do the 
greater part of the work, to which the antennae guide 
them. Looking in the face of an ant, you see these 
two outer jaws, with their toothed edges resting against 
each other ; but if you make her angry, she will open 
them wide to seize you with all her tiny might. 
Does she want to excavate a gallery ? Then she 
will tear out the earth with these toothed spades, and 
carry it in pellets above ground. Is she cleaning a 
cocoon ? She will then use her mandibles, tenderly 
and neatly, to pick out morsels of dirt, and afterwards 
will lift the tiny bail with them, and carry it without 
injury up or down the nest. Or she may perhaps be 
cutting a blade of grass to lay as a rafter in the roof 
of a chamber ; again she saws off the leaf with her 
mandibles, while she holds it with her front legs. Or, 
lastly, if she is fighting to the death in a pitched 
battle, she will fix these strong pincers so firmly in 
the throat of her enemy, that even if she is killed, 
her head will often remain for days hanging on to 
the conqueror's body. 
