The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-07

walls and now and then carrying off
one of the children to be devoured at
horrid banquets behind the plastering.
but if we begin calling hard names
we might as well keep it up and adj
NIT first as last that all ants are can
nibals and feed not only on other kinds
of ants. but even upon their own spe-
cies, when they are not of the same
household. They capture and carry off
the eggs larvae and pupae of other
nests. and what they do not have for
dinner to- day they fatten for to-mor
row 1t is supposed that in this way
they got into the habit of keeping
slaves. The young captive ants came
out of their cocoons, and, being natur-
ally industrious, they hustled about
and gave the babies their nimmy MINI
my When they cried for 1t, swept the
floor and carried in the coal till the
approving workers of the captors be-
gan to talk to each other like this:
That fusca is "a handy little thing
about the house. Seems kind of pity
to kill her when we got so much fresh
meat on hand, and right in the busy
season when help is hard to get. She's
so good to the childreni too. Let's keep
her a while. What do you say?' And
then when it was decided to put off
butchering' day they went to fusca and
VI. II
kill you for spell yet. You can stay
around and do up the work. but mind,
If there are any complaints about you,
or the children are neglected, or you
give any of your back talk Well,
thcrell be fresh meat for supper, do
you understand
''And fusea dropped a curtesy and
made answer: 'Yaiss, missy. Tank 20,
missy. Ah'll do de bes' All kim CIT is
% so lo
is n black ant,) ~
IF. sanguineas can do their own
work, and often. do not keep slaves at
all, but they are little thought of in
ant circles. The real nobility and gen.
try are Polyergus rufescens and Poly
ergus lucidus. Work? They work ?
No, indeed! You don't see them de-
meaning themselves building and
minding the children, collecting food,
or even feeding themselves. If you
please. When the nest is changed they
do not set foot to the ground; they are
carried by. slaves. They have always
been accustomed to having help about
the house. But they can fight. Their
mandibles are fit only to crush other
ants heads. Huber put thirty of them
in box with honey and lot of their
larvae and pupae. What followed re-
minds one of the stories of the South
in the Reconstruction period. They
walked around, picked up the children
in an awkward way as if they knew
something ought to be done, they
couldn't just remember what, and laid
them down again. There was honey
over there that ought to be served
You, Pomp! Where is that black ras-
cal at? But there was no Pompey, and
they fell to pining for the days befo
the waw. They made them no dwell
ing. Half of them died of starvation
Then Huber put in single black ant
Dinah think her name was, or Aunt
Debby, won't be sure which; and she
began to do about. She built a house
and attended to the children, helped
the young ants out of their cocoons
and fed and groomed the old ones til
they were once more able to go about
discoursing on the eentellaictual cen
feio'ity of the niggro, sah!'
"Ants have cemeteries, and 1t is char
acteristic of them that the slaves are
not buried with their masters, but In
another place, over by the back fence
among the ragweeds, and burdocks.