Peter Huber, the son of the noted observer of the ways and habits of bees, was walking one day in a field near Geneva, Switzerland, when he saw on the ground an army of reddish- coloured ants on the march. He decided to follow them and to find out, if possible, the object of their journey.
On the sides of the column, as if to keep it in order, a few of the insects sped to and fro. After marching for about a quarter of an hour, the army halted before an ant-hill, the home of a colony of small black ants. These swarmed out to meet the red ones, and, to Huber"s surprise, a combat, short but fierce, took place at the foot of the hill.
A small number of the blacks fought bravely to the last, but the rest soon fled, panic-stricken, through the gates farthest from the battle-field, carrying away some of their young. They seemed to know it was the young ants that the invaders were seeking. The red warriors quickly forced their way into the tiny city and returned, loaded with children of the blacks.
Carrying their living booty, the kidnappers left the pillaged town and started towards their home, whither Huber followedthem. Great was his astonishment when, at the threshold of the red ants" dwelling, he saw numbers of black ants come forward to receive the young captives and to welcome them- children of their own race, doomed to be bond-servants in a strange land.
Here, then, was a miniature city, in which strong red ants lived in peace with small black ones. But what was the province of the latter? Huber soon discovered that, in fact, these did all the work. They alone were able to build the houses in which both races lived; they alone brought up the young red ants and the captives of their own species; they alone gathered the supplies of food, and waited upon and fed their big masters, who were glad to have their little waiters feed them so attentively.
The masters themselves had no occupation except that of war. When not raiding some village of the blacks, the red soldiers did nothing but wander lazily about.
Huber wanted to learn what would be the result if the red ants found themselves without servants. Would the big creatures know how to supply their own needs? He put a few of the red insects in a glass, having some honey in a corner. They did not go near it. They did not know enough to feed themselves. Some of them died of starvation, with food before them. Then he put into the case one black ant. It went straight to the honey, and with it fed its big, starving, silly masters. Here was a wonder, truly!
The little blacks exert in many things a moral force whose signs are plainly visible. For example, those tiny, wise creatures will not give permission to any of the great red ones to go out alone. Nor are these at liberty to go out even in a body, if their small helpers fear a storm, or if the day is far advanced. When a raid proves fruitless, the soldiers coming back without any living booty are forbidden by the blacks to enter the city, and are ordered to attack some other village.
Not wishing to rely entirely on his own conclusions, Huber asked one of the great naturalists of Switzerland, Jurine, to decide whether or not mistakes had been made regarding these customs of the ants. This witness, and indeed others, found that Huber"s reports were true.
"Yet, after all," says Huber,"I still doubted. But on a later day I again saw in the park of Fontainebleau, near Paris, the same workings of ant life and wisdom. A well-known naturalist was with me then, and his conclusions were the same as mine.
"It was half-past four in the afternoon of a very warm day. From a pile of stones there came forth a column of about five hundred reddish ants. They marched rapidly towards a field of turf, order in their ranks being kept by their sergeants. These watched the flanks, and would not permit any to straggle.
"Suddenly the army disappeared. There was no sign of an ant-hill in the turf, but, after a while, we detected a little hole.
Through this the ants had vanished. We supposed it was an entrance to their home. In a minute they showed us that our supposition was incorrect. They issued in a throng, nearly every one of them carrying a small black captive.
"From the short time they had taken, it was plain that they knew the place and the weakness of its citizens. Perhaps it was not the reds" first attack on this city of the little blacks. These swarmed out in great numbers; and, truly, I pitied them. They did not attempt to fight. They seemed terror- stricken, and made no attempt to oppose the warrior ants, except by clinging to them. One of the marauders was stopped thus, but a comrade that was free relieved him of his burden, and thereupon the black ant let go his grasp.
"It was in face a painful sight. The soldiers succeeded in carrying off nearly five hundred children. About three feet from the entrance to the ant-hill, the plundered black parents ceased to follow the red robbers and resigned themselves to the loss of their young. The whole raid did not occupy more than ten minutes.
"The parties were, as we have seen, very unequal in strength, and the attack was clearly an outrage-an outrage no doubt often repeated. The big red ants, knowing their power, played the part of tyrants; and, whenever they wanted more slaves, despoiled the small, weak blacks of their greatest treasures-their children."Jules Michelet.
Author.-Jules Michelet (zhul-meesh-lay"), born 1798, died 1874, was a great French historian, famous for his monumental Histoire de France (19 volumes), and many other historical and general writings.
General Notes.-Animals generally fight for their food or their mates. Why do human beings fight? Ants not only keep slaves, but keep "cows" (plant-lice) and milk them. Write an account of the battle as described by an ant.