The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1884-08-23

! Live HONEY Botties.
TRUSTING his hand into a desk, the
: fruit-dealer brought small box, UNI
covered it and brought out an insect OF
such curious shape that 1t seemed i'm
I possible. that 1t could be living reality.
Putting his finger under it, the dealer
/ lifted out an ant with small, black
head and an amber-hued abdomen,
perfectly round and as large as two peas.
''She's rouser, amt shep and as full
as lord said the fruit importer,
gazing at the creature with the eye OF
an expert.
Yes, it's real ant, !" he continued,
''and this isn't the first one that ever
came here. l imported FIVE hundred
three years ago for big dinner of some
Mexican swell uptown. Do they eat
them? Well, / should smile. You have
never been in Mexico, take it? Well,
this is fair specimen of the honey ant
OF Mexico, and there they are considered
great delicacies, and are always served
as dessert, just as you serve shrimps
here, only these are put on alive and
kicking. My brother has one of the
biggest collection of ants in the country
nuo blohhhb bll lOl hllhs anu
they're fixing some way to preserve it
without putting it in alcohol, Ireckon
they'll put it in Canada balsam. You
see those ants live in big families, and
most of them don't look like this; but
at certain time of the year certain
ones are selected by the others to act as
bottles or storehouses for the rest. This
being done, the other ants bring all the
honey they can collect and give it to
the ones selected, and they take. 1t In
until each one is as full as it can hold
and looks like this. AS fast as they are
filed they are taken by the other ants
to a dark room made for the purpose,
where they cling to the wall. In fact,
they are living bottles In which the ants
store away their honey, and whenever
they want it they go to the storeholse
and take down bottle, brush off the
cobwebs, and make the ant give out
supply.
Eyes, it is wonderful, but not half so
wonderful rs some things ants do. One
of the best authorities on ants, Sir
John Lubbock, who has started dog
school in London, says ants stand next
to man in point of intelligence, and |
reckon they do. For instance, | have
lived nearly all my life in the south,
where the ants tackled everything.
Beds, tables, cupboards-in fact, every
article tlat yeu wanted to keep ants
out of-had to be stood in water-that
Is, in peach cans cut off and filled. But
even this wouldn't do; the ants would
find some little floating matter on the
surface, and bridge the mote with their
bodies and so get over. Then we tried
tar water, and suspended it from pals
from the ceiling. For time this nom
plussed them; but, attrcted by the smell,
they gathered on the safe under it. and
after while we found them coming
down the rope. They had gone up the
ceiling. and so on down. A friend of
mine in the African fruit trade told me
that one night when up river near the
Congo country, he was awakened by a
yell, and tumbling out of his hammock,
found himself standing foot deep in
solid ants. He ran for his life. covered
with them, and finally got beyond their
line Of march and stayed in tree all
night. I he next morning, when he
returned, the whole house had been
cleaned out. A dog that was tied to a
tree was represented only by a lot OF
clean-picked bones. When they come
there is no way to do but surround the
place with fire. Animals run from
them.
This sounds like yarn" said the
ant authority, but the story told by
Jaegar, the naturalist, is bigger one.
He stated that Catholic missionary
was sick in Congo when one of these
armies came along, and it was by sheer
luck that the natives got him up. As
they carried HIM out OF the house the
floor was over foot deep with the ill.,
sects, and of COW they forgot in the
stable the bones alone told the story