The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1901-1903, 1902-12-14
In AN ANT ARMY'S TRACK

! cecded about its business. Outside OF
| the provisions rescued on the fortified
table everything was cleared out of
1.-THE camp rs clean rs whistle A
great bunch Of hananas that had hung
in corner had disappeared, all but the
bare stumps But within the building
there was not thing Of life left
Not fly. not 4 spider. not even a
rival ant was to be found in the place,
ana the door was eaten clean ana as
clear as il il had been swept and
scrubbed.
but the army was not finished With
its destruction in our immediate neigh
| borhood. y huge tree-larger than the
biggest oak l have ever seen anywhere
was stripped Of its foliage in less
than an hour The tree was i've feet
in diameter, ana the way the little ones
tackled it showed both sense and
system. Up enc side they went. crawl
ing ana pushing, and presently down
! the other side OF the trunk came down
the vanguard, while the army stood
| backed 10 a standstill to give the lead
ers Il chance to mount the space TOO
narrow to accommodate the entire
number at once 1t was rs il a, human
army had suddenly come 10 4 halt al
a bridge TO give those ahead a chance
to cross.
CAS- each ant eamc down from above
he carried Il small triangular piece OF
leaf, hair as large as a thumb nail.
Each laborer held The leaf on his back
with two tiny forefeet and plodded
along with Incredible swiftness into
the jungle. We never found what they
did with the leaves.
"The stories that some of the natives
tell of the strength of an ant army
would put the best old-fashioned in
rn.on-;here is-strength-fable' TO blush.
a leopard or 4 panther is hopelessly
LOST WHOM surrounded in his sleep by
an ant army The death OF the animal
Is dreadful one Ants got into his
hide and they bite deep til the leopard,
or whatever Il happens to pe rolls
himself on the ground in the hope Of
! escaping his pursuers II the animal
| could stand the torture long enough
to clear the army in a few bounds he
would be saved but no animal, save
the monkey or the ape seems TO have
sense enough fof that Instead, the
one overcome begins 10 fight The
more lie fights the more he is beset
by the little pests, and the more lie is
bcset the more lie rolls and screams in
pain Exhaustion comes after d time.
The struggles become weaker and
weaker until finally they cease aud
the unfortunate brute lies still, unable
TO moyc. with no help except to be
eaten alive by inches.
Nothing on the face Of the earth is
dreaded by the little ones. The largest
boa constructor is tackled with the
same furious persistence that the
smallest spider Is overcome and de-
voured, and the poisonous snakes are
no more dreaded than the smallest
tarantula or centlpede
IN a village Of bush negroes on
the Saramacca they showed a half
! wittcd man who had been MANNED into
his condition by being car hit In the
midst of an army Of ants. Tho story is
that the man was suffering from an at
tack of jungle fever, and had been left
in n hut, bound hand and foot, for he
was in delirium and smashing things
There he was left by the half savages
IMMERSED in medicines and human feel
ings, and when his friends returned at
night they found him in the midst of
an ant army, fighting for his life. Some
one rushed in and cut the thongs bind
ing the unfortunate victim, and he
rose to his feet, and, amid shrieks of
anguish, dove into the river, from
where he was rescued.
THE man never regained his reason.
He was originally a coal-blacl bush
negro, the lineal descendant Of African
slaves. and in patches his skin still
showed ebony blaclsness. But he was
covered with red and pink scars where
he had been bitten by The ants At
times the scars would break open. and
then The fever Of the ants came back to
him. He would become violent until
ii was necessary to tie him, and in his
delirium lie saw the army Of ants de-
youring him alive, as 1t had begun on
him years before. The mere sight Of
an ant was enough to unnerve the
idiot, and no white man who ever saw
the victim doubted the story as told by
the artless saFages Of the Saramacca
, tribe.
up north here people may credit
the kingship Of the jungle to the lien
or to the tiger, or any ore Of these
species, but the real jungle man-the
/ man who ought to know-fears most
l Of all fha army of ants -