It Soon Became Obvious That They Were Under Regular
Discipline, And Even Attempting To Carry Out The Skilful Plans And
Stratagems Of Some Eminent Leader.
Our hands and necks were the
first objects of attack.
Large bodies of these little pests were
massed in silence round the point to be assaulted. We could hear the
sharp shrill word of command two or three times repeated, though
until then we had not believed in the vocal power of an ant; the
instant after we felt the storming hosts range over head and neck,
biting the tender skin, clinging with a death-grip to the hair, and
parting with their jaws rather than quit their hold. On our lying
down again in the hope of their having been driven off, no sooner was
the light out, and all still, than the manoeuvre was repeated. Clear
and audible orders were issued, and the assault renewed. It was as
hard to sleep in that hut as in the trenches before Sebastopol. The
white ant, being a vegetable feeder, devours articles of vegetable
origin only, and leather, which, by tanning, is imbued with a
vegetable flavour. "A man may be rich to-day and poor to-morrow,
from the ravages of white ants," said a Portuguese merchant. "If he
gets sick, and unable to look after his goods, his slaves neglect
them, and they are soon destroyed by these insects." The reddish
ant, in the west called drivers, crossed our path daily, in solid
columns an inch wide, and never did the pugnacity of either man or
beast exceed theirs.
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