The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-09-01
ANTS AS FIGHTERS
TINY WARRIORS WHOM LARGE AMI.
MAILS DARE NOT MEETIN COMBAT


From Their Camp in Venezuela by
an Ant Army-The Insects Drive
Coolie Crazy.
Il was one of the six American
miners who were routed from their
camp by Venezuelan ant army" said
mining expert who lately arrived in
New York from Venezuela. I'VE re-
treated before the invaders without
making fight, and for two good rea-
sons. In the first place we would have
gotten the worst of the encounter. and,
secondly, we knew that if we let them
alone they would do us good service.
Shortly after dawn one Sunday,
while we were still snoozing away in
our hammocks, our native cook burst
IN upon us with the news that we were
ABOUT to be attacked by an army OF
ants. We had heard enough about
ant armies to know what to do. We
arose hastily, and every ounce of pro-
Visions that was not sealed in cans OF
In Jars was hurriedly piled on a table,
the four legs of which were immersed
In as many basins of water. Every
manoeuvre that is known to the
armies of civilized humans you may
safely expect from an ant army, but
the little black warriors have never
learned to swim. Our provisions thus
protected, we left the camp to itself
and went out to reconnoltre for the
invaders and to watch their assault
from distance. The army was max
ing fair time. An irregular patch Of
black ten feet wide and double as long
or
camp. AS the army was in no way
disturbed by our presence it was pos
sible to approach its lines closely.
There must have been millions upon
millions Of little soldiers marching
hip to hip. At the head marched the
leader. On went the army, up the
posts that supported the camp and
then within. The patter of their
countless little feet was audible like
the rustling of grass in a light breeze.
Once within, the army spread itself
In all directions, forming hundreds of
little attacking parties. The camp was
an old palm-thatched affair and so in
tested with scorpions, centipides and
spiders that we had been on the point
of destroying it. Now, however, the
ants had come and would clean house
for us, and therefore they were well
come. The ants swarmed up the
joists and the dry leafy walls, and
wherever there was a spider or a bug
there was a brief tussle and a dead
foe. But there was bigger game in
store for the invaders.
The star battle was with an i'm
mense centipede, one of the BLUSH
gray kind, about seven inches long,
and about as big around as your mid
die finger. He darted out of a hole
like a blue streak, evidently trusting
TO his speed and superior strength to
run through the enemys ranks. But
ne didn't go three feet before he was
stopped. Ants literally covered him.
he turned on himself and swept them
from his back, but before he had gone
another three feet he was buried be-
meath another swarm of his plucky as
sailants. And then began a fight to
the death. Again and again he swept
his tormentors from his back while
from all sides hurried streams of ants
to take the place of fallen comrades.
The wriggling of the big fellow be-
came less violent as the fight progress
ed, and finally, after an effort, which
he remained quiet while what little life
was left in him was bitten out of him.
Later when the army had retreated
and when we had swept up the cent?
pedes and scorpions and lizards and a
tarantula which the ant army had van
pushed, we put the hero of the star
battle under quartz magnifying
glass. The bodies of the dead ants
Stall chung to their foe. From his
back, from his legs, from wherever
there was chance for a hold the
bodies Of ants dangled, holding on,
suppose, by their teeth.
Perhaps you wonder what would
happen to man who would undertake
to fight an army Of ants, assuming Of
course that the man relies on his
natural means of defence-his hands
and feet. l can best illustrate that by
the rare story of an unfortunate who
was brought to a hospital in Caracas
shortly before my return home. The
man was a coolie who had worked on
a cocoa plantation in a creek not far
from Caracas. Following a habit OF
some Of his countrymen, the coolie,
owing to the heat, had left his camp
and stretched himself on the ground to
sleep outdoors. Exactly what followed
no one can say with certainty. Pre-
sumably he was surrounded and cover
ed by an army Of ants before he
awakened. At dawn the shrieks and
cries of man in agony aroused the
inmates of the camp, who ran out to
learn the cause.
The man was gesticulating wildly
and calling for help, while he squirmed
and writhed and slapped his face and
neck and chest and legs in a mad eff
fort to slap himself all over at once.
He was standing in the midst of an
army of ants and was Too distracted
with pain to run away. Then he did
exactly what panther or a leopard
does when he is being overcome The
man threw himself to the ground to
roll his tormentor to death. single
active white man could have saved the
poor wretch, but the stupefied bare
legged coolies, dared not, or thought
not of rescue. while the victim himself
was too crazed with agony to seek
other than instant relief From a
slight personal experience, | know the
poor fellow was burning in a fire
which would take hours to kill him.
Finally bystander regained his
wits and rushed into the midst of the
army and dragged the man after him
and threw him into the creek. The
rescue came too late. The victim be-
came unconscious His velvety brown
skin was a pink mass of raw bites.
When he came to the hospital he was
bound hand and foot, a maniac, whose
continuous notion was that he was be-
ing eaten by ants"
Whence the Kicking Comes.