Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-13

L
~ at night he sets the
am pail in cool place un-
til his supper is ready,
then brings it forth,
and, while helping himself to pork and
beans, helps himself also to ants. There is
no accounting for tastes, and he esteems Q
handful of ants very choice morsel. The
animal called the ant eater is by no means
the only one entitled to the name, for the
Yankee woodchopper is an ant eater and 80
is the black bear, the skunk and other deni-
zens of the wilds. This statement is made,
not with the intention Of CHASING together
all the animals which have liking for this
particular species of food, but merely to
point out one trait which they possess in
common. 1t must not be inferred that all
lumbermen eat ants; the taste is one which
must be acquired, as few men are naturally
insectivorous.
Ants are said by those who have tasted
them to have a peculiarly agreeable,
strongly acid flavor. The woodsmen, whose
food consists largely of salted meat, baked
beans and similar hearty victuals, naturally
have craving for something sour. "Ants
are the very best of pickles." said an old
"logger," who confessed to having devoured
thousands of them. "They are cleanly in
secss, and there is no reason why they
| should not be eaten, if one can get over a
little squeamishneSs caused by the thought
of taking such crawling things into his
stomach. There is nothing repulsive about
them, and when man has once learned to
eat the creatures as pickles he prefers them
to any other kind"
ANTS AS LARGE AS FOXES.
| Ants have at various times and in differ
ent countries been quite extensively used in
medicine, and fOrmic acid, which was first
obtained by distilling the bodies of these in
sects, but is now artifcially prepared, is q
well known and useful chemical product.
Herodotus tells of ants that live in the
deserts of India which are in size "some-
what less than dogs, but larger than foxes"
These creatures, in heaping up the earth
after the manner of common ants, were q
very efficient aid to the Indian gold hunt
ers. The sand which they threw up being
largely mixed with gold, the Indians were
] accustomed to 90 to the desert in the heat Of
| the day, when the ants were under ground,
load the sandinto sacks, pile the sacks upon
their camels and hasten from the spot as
rapidly as possible. The ants, according to
the historian, were not only the swiftest Of
animals, but were gifted with such sense
| of smell that they Immediately became
aware of the presence of men in their terri
tory, and unless the Indians got away while
the ants were assembling to attack them not
a man could escape. The strangest thing
| about this remarkable statement by the
''father of history" is the fact that he
seemed to believe it. and Strabo, Pliny and
other writer's of later period inserted it,
together with other marvellous stories, in
their works.
The wisdom and the industry of the ant
have furnished texts for moralists and
philosophers from Solomon's time to the
present day. One writer speaks of the
creatures as exemplary for their great
piety, prudence, justice, valor, temperance,
modesty, charity, friendship, frugality, per-
severance, industry and art"
INSECT LANGUAGE.
"It is no wonder that Plato, in Phedone.
hath determined that they who without the
help of philosophy have led a civil life by
custom or from their own diligence thew
had their souls from ants, and when they
die they are turned to ants again. To this
may be added the fable of the Myrmidons,
people of Egina, who applied themselves
to diligent labor in tilling the ground, con-
tinued digging, hard toiling and constant
sparing, Joined with virtue, and they grew
thereby so rich that they passed the COM
aapIifinu oud ipOopnitu nf
Theogonis knew not how to compare them
better than to pismires, that they were
originally descended from them, or were
transformed into them, and, as Strabo re-
ports, they were therefore called Myr-
midons."
Franklin believed that ants had the
faculty of communicating their thoughts to
one another, and the observations which he
made of the creatures habits only strength
ened this opinion. Having noted that when
an ant discovers any delicacy, such, for in
stance as lump of sugar, it at once runs
into its hole and presently returns with a
sufficient number of companions to carry ID
away, he concluded the insects must have
some kind of language. He made very
interesting experiment to test their cunning.
Putting a small earthen pot containing
treacle into closet he found that the vessel
was soon alive with ants. Shaking them
all out Of the pot except a single ant, he
suspended the vessel to nail in the ceiling
by small string. When the ant had ate
its fill of the molasses it of course began to
try TO find some way out of the pot
FACTS AND sUPERsTITIoNs.
After running about on the bottom and
sides of the vessel for some time it finally
found its way to the top, espied the string,
ran up to the ceiling, and thence along the
wall and descended to the floor. 1t had not
been gone half an hour when a whole army
of ants came marching in, climbed the
wall, ran along the ceiling to the string and
down into the pot. How did the ants find
where the treaele was, and how to get at it,
unless their comrade informed them?
There are perhaps as many superstitions
regarding ants as about any living creatures.
They were used in divination by the Greeks,
and it was thought that battles between
them presaged conflicts of human armies.
The English north country people have
belief that it is sign of coming good for
tune to dream of ants. In some of the
Southern States ants are said to be fairies,
and SuperstitiOus people say they must never
be killed, for if they are, the cows
will be bewitched and give no
milk. The Hindoos believe that good luck
comes to the house where ants gather, and
it is said they have a custom of depositing
each morning small portions Of sugar near
the ants nests.
Ants have been sacrificed on heather
affairs, and savages have belief that they
furnish food to spirits dwelling upon the
earth. In Germany and other parts of Eu-
rope the wood ants and their pupe ara
gathered and dried and sold as food for
birds. In several parts OF the world the
pupe of the ants are regarded as a choice
edible by man, if the testimony of travellers
and naturalists is true. BARNEY.