Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-06-30
ANTS AS FIGHTERS.
THE TINY WARRIORS ARE FERocIoUs
IN BATTLE

So Vicious Are They That Even the
Largest Animals Dare Not Meet
| Them In Combat A Man Whom
| Their Bites Made n Raying Maniac.
Il was one of six American miners
who were routed from their camp by g
Venezuelan ant army" said a mining
expert who lately arrived from Vene-
zuela. I'VE retreated before the in
vaders without making fight. and for
two good reasons. In the first place
we would have got the worst of the
encounter. and. secondly, we knew
that if we let them alone they would
do us a good service.
shortly after dawn one Sunday our
native cook burst in upon us with the
news that We We're about to be attack
ed by an army of ants. We had heard
enough about ant armies TO know
cry ounce of provisions that was not
sealed in cans or in jars was hurriedly
piled on q table, the four legs of which
were Immersed in as many basins Of
water. Every maneuver 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 reconnoiter for the in
vaders and to watch their assault
from a distance. The army was max
ing fair time. An irregular patch of
black 10 feet wide and double as long
was swarming steadily toward our
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 lead
er. On went the army, up the posts
of the camp and then within.
"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, centipeds and
spiders that we had been on the point
of destroying it. Now, however, the
anus udu NULuC anu Noulu HOuSG
for us, and therefore they We're well
come The ants swarmed up the joists
and the dry leafy walls, and wherever
there was a spider or 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 centiped, one of the blush
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 buried beneath another
swarm of his plucky assailants. And
then began 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 wrig-
Cling of the big fellow became less vio-
lent as the fight progressed, and final
ly, after an effort. which / well knew
was a desperate last one, 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 centipeds and scor
pions and lizards and a tarantula
which the ant army had vanquished.
we put the hero of the star battle un-
der a quartz magnifying glass. The
bodies of dead ants still clung to their
foe. From mis- back, from his legs,
from wherever there was n chance for
a hold, the bodies of ants dangled, hold
ing on, suppose by their teeth.
Perhaps you wonder what would
happen to man who would under
take to fight an army of ants, assum-
ing, of course. that the man relies on
his natural means of defense-his
hands and feet. | cap best illustrate
that by the rare story of an unfortu-
nate who was brought to hospital in
Caracas shortly before my return
home. The man was coolie who had |
worked on a cocoa plantation in creek |
not far from Caracas. Following q |
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 enc can say with cer-
tainty. Presumably he was surrounded |
aud covered by an army of ants be-
fore he awakened. At dawn the shrieks |
and cries of a man In agony aroused |
the inmates of the camp. who ran out |
to learn the cause.
.The man WIS gesticulating wildly |
and calling for help. whiled he sQuirm- |
ed and writ!icd and slapped his face |
and neck and chest and legs In a mad |
effort to slap himself all ever at once. |
lie was standing in the midst of an |
army of ants and was too distracted |
with pain to run away. Then he did |
exactly what Il panther or leopard does
wien he is being overcome. The man
threw himself to the ground to roll his /
tcrmentor to death. \ single active
W hite man could have saved the poor |
wretch. but the stupefied. barelegged |
coolies dared not. or thought not, of |
rescue. while the victim himself was
tco crazed with agony to seek other |