Arizona republican., 1899-06-28
ANTS AS FIGHTERS

who were routed from their camp by Venezuelan ant army" said min ing expert who lately arrived in New York from Venezuela. We retreated before the invaders without making a fight, and for two good reasons. In the first place we would have gotten the worst of the encounter, and, sec ondly, we knew that if we let them alone they would do us a good service.
 Shortly after dawn one Sunday, wLile we were still snoozing away in our hammocks, our native cook burst In upon us with the newe 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 provisions that was not sealed in cans or in jars
 was hurriedly piled on a table, the four legs of which were immersed jn as many basins of water. Every ma | neuver that is known to the armies of civilized humans you may safely ex- pect from an ant army but the little black warriors have never learned to swim. Our provisions thus protected, we left the camp 10 itself and went out to recOnnoiter for the invaders and to watch their assault from distance
 The army was making fair time An irregular patch of black ten feet wide and double as long was swarming steadily toward our camp. As the army was in no way disturbed by our presence 1t was possible to approach It's lines closely. There musa 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 l 0or mn nd fha-, their countless little feet was audi ble like the rustling of grass in a light l breeze
 Once within, the army spread it. self in all directions, forming hund- reds of little attacking parties. The camp was an old palm matched af- fair and SO infested with scorpions. centipedes 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 there fore they were welcome The ants swarmed up the joists and the dry leaf walls, and wherever there was d spider or bug there was brief tus- 1 sle and dead foe. But there was big ger game in store for the invaders,
 The star battle was with an im- mensa centipede, one of the bluish. gray kind, about seven inches long. and as big around as your middle finger. He darted out of a hole like blue streak, evidently trusting to his speed and superior strength to run through the enemy's ranks. But he 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 bur.ed be- heath another swarm of his plucky as- sailants. And then began a fight to the death. Again and again he swept his tormentOTs from his ba.-k while from all sides hurIied streams of ants to take the place of fallen comrades The wriggling of the big fellow be- came less violent as the fight pro- gressed. and finally, after an effort. | which 1 well knew was a desperate last one, he remained quiet while what little life was left in him was titten out of him. Later when the army had retreated and when we had swept 1 up the centipedes and st orpions and lizards and a tarantula W hch the ant | army had vanqu.sked, we put the hero of the star battle under a quartz mag nifying glass. The bodies Of dead 1 ants still clung to their foe. From his | back, from his legs. from wherover there was a chance for a hold the bod | ies of ants dangled, holding on, I sup pose, by their teeth.
 Perhaps you wonder what would | happen to a man who would undertake | to fight an army of ants, assuming ot course that the man relies on his | natural means of defense-h:s hands | and feet. | can best illustrate that by | a rare story Of an unfortunate who 1 was brought to hospital in Caracas l shortly before my return home. The | man was a cOolie who had worked on | 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 fol- | lowed no one can say with certainty. | presumably he was surrounded and | covered by an army of ants before he | was 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 ef- fort to slap himself all over at once, He was standing in the midst of an army of ants and was too distracted | "IlH pdln 10 run away. Then he did | exactly what a panther or a leopard | does when he is being overcome. The | man threw himself to the ground to roll his tormentors to death A single | active white man would have saved | the poor wretch but the stupefied | bare-legged coolies dared not, or thought not of rescue, while the vic tim himself was too crazed with az. ony to seek other than instant relief. From a slight personal experience 1 know the poor fellow was burning in a fire which would take hours to kill him.
 Finally a bystander regained his wits and rushed into the midst of the