The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-10-20
ANTS AS FIGHTERS.
THE TINY WARRIORS IRE ZERO
COUSIN Battle.

who were routed from their camp by
Venezuelan ant army" said mining
expert who lately arrived from Vene-
zuela. We retreated before the in
vaders without making a fight. and for
two good reasons. In the first place,
We would have got the worst of the en-
counter, 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 were about to be attack
ed 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 in as many basins of
water. Every maneuver that is known
to the armies of civilized humans you
may safety expect iIOtt oil eiI amy
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
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 it was possible to ap-
proach it's lines closely. There must
have been millions upon millions of lit
tie soldiers marching hip by hip. At
the head marched the leader. 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 matched affair and so in
Tested with scorpions, centipeds 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 spider or bug there was
brief tussle and 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 hole like a 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,
feet he was buried beneath another
swarm of his plucky assailants. 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 wrig-
CLING of the big fellow became less vio-
lent as the fight progressed, and finally,
after an effort, which l we'll knew was
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 scorpions
and lizards and a tarantula which the
ant army had vanquished, we put the
hero of the star battle under quartz
magnifying glass. The bodies of dead
ants still chung to their foe. From his
back, from his legs from wherever
there was a chance for hold, the bod
les of ants dangled, holding on, sup
pose. by their teeth.
perhaps you wonder what would
happen to a 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 ! can 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 q coolie who had
worked on cocoa plantation in creek
not far from Caracas. Following a
habit of some of his countrymen, the
coole 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 GER
tainty Presumably he was surrounded
and covered by an army of ants before
he awakened. At dawn the shrieks and
cries of a man in agony aroused the in
mates of the camp. who ran out to learn
the cause.
THE man was gesticulating wildly
and calling for help, while he squirlned
and writhed and slapped his face and
neck and chest and legs in g. mad effort
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 exact
ly what a panther or leopard does when
he is being overcome. The man threw
himself to the ground to roll his tor
mentor to death. A 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 expert
ence I know the poor fellow was burn
ing in fire which would take hours to
kill him.
Finally a 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 res
cue came too late The victim became
unconscious. His velvety. brown skin
,;oIz nf HI