Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1888-03-08

their stables. Strange as it may APP
pear, many of them own cows that
they tend and milk, herds that they
keep in special stables, that they con-
slider as their property. that they de-
fend against enemies and carry with
them when they move from place to
place. These herds are composed of
vine-fretters and gall insects. They
bring them home and milkthem by
sucking their abdomen, many being
nourished exclusively upon this sweet
liquid. They win them over by feed
ing them upon sprigs or roots, as their
manner of life may be, and lodging
them in airy pavilions or underground
passages, according to their taste.
These little insects constitute their
principal wealth, and as farm with
its cattle, so an ant-hill with its plant
lice is considered more OF less rich,
according to the number in possession.
With what passion they wage war for
the possession Of a vine-fretter tree,
and with what ludicrous tenacity they
extricate these insects, larger than
themselves. when they are embedded
in the bark. They persevere in pull
ing them out, but as they are careful
not to wound they do not hurt them.
All this, together with the evident sat
isfaction the fretters show at being
MIXED, proves them to be an impor-
tant elem ent in the domestic economy
Their wars are too well known for
us to enlarge upon them. Often fero-
cious and merciless, they are waged
for the possession Of the fretters and
the Larvae destined to yield slaves.
Their military procedures vary with
different tribes. The jaw Of the great
slave, or Amazon ant is very strong,
and armed with sharp-pointed saw
teeth. They attack their enemy by
inclosing his head in their wide-open
jaws and then wrenching it of. A
smaller variety fall upon their adversar-
les legs and pull them out. Again
the modus operandi of the formica
excesta is 70 spring upon his enemy
back and in dead earnest perform the
quick job Of saving off his head.
Military tactics, with sentinels and
reconnoisances. sieges according to
rule, cities pillaged, children carried
away, prisoners executed; all that
ancient human warfare portrays we
see repeated to an exaggerated de-
gree among ants. Some Of them have
so abused authority and CARED tyranny
to that extent that they have them
selves become the slaves of their vas
sails and can not exist without them.
Such is the case with the Amazon
ants. These warriors in brown attir,
are puissant and redoubted knight,
whose aristocratic hands have never
touched either wood or hammer
who contemn the art of building ant
the responsibility of domestic life
whose implements of toll, the chisel
the saw and the trowel, from long dis
use have disappeared from their jaw:
to be replaced by two terrible cine
tiers fit only for works of muir
der and rapine. There lives are spen
carrying war and devastation among
their peaceful neighbors for the poses
sion of their valuable slaves, which
to them are as indispensable as TIL
newly born, for being without TIL
faculty of feeding themselves thes
effeminate nabobs would perish witt
hunger beside the daintiest viands di'
not their devoted servitors place thei
food Immediately within their mouths
This varied social organization, witt
! its castles and division of labor, it
towns as popnious as London or Paris
in which all the inhabitants recogniz
each other, its feuds between neighbor
: ing cities, its territories organized an,
defended, its wars, its combats, al
show an intellectual state but slightl
, inferior to that of the savage huma1
, tribes in the heart of Africa or the isl
ands of Oceanica. Ants even hav
! their graveyards. Yes, real grave
yards, placed at some distance fror
, their cities, to which they carry thei
dead. Some tribes Of ants have first
I class tombs for their citizens of dis
, tinction and head masters and pits fo
, the common herd. The first are place
!, side BY side with great care, and tn
others heaped pell nell and withor
order. gain l repeat all this ha
been proven. together with many othe
| facts too numerous to recall, notwitl
, standing the interest attaching
) them.
! Here we see wonderful creation
/ worthy of the students attention;
creation different. certainly, from m
own, but one in which analysis has r,
vealed intellectual workings which W
would not dare to put forward had W
not scrupulously studied the subjec
! Here is little being that thinks. LIZ
. us not go beyond this fact. An ant
brain thinks, and holds within its lin
$ a world of ideas. impressions, decision
| and reasonings. IT'S this fact abov
: all others that l wish for the presei
to impress upon the thinking being
Q man..
: Twas curious to know what such
e brain weighed. To ascertain this.
weighed neuter ants (the others nj
? counting) of different species, in groul
\ Of one hundred each. and l four
E among other results for the brown an
$ the one most common in our countr
e that they weighed fifteen centigramm
0 hundred. One ant weighed one mi
a igramme and a half The same proce
{ showed that the head weighed abo
: one-third'that Of the body, and disse
r ton has proved the cerebral nervo