They Were Working From Above, And Had Already Bared Some
Inches Of The Stump, Which Was Four Feet Six Inches In Diameter.
As the
small morsels fell among the myriads of ants which swarmed round the
base they were broken up, three or four ants sometimes working at one
bit till they had reduced it into manageable portions.
It was a
splendid sight to see this vast and busy crowd inspired by a common
purpose, and with the true instinct of discipline, forever forming into
column at the foot of the stump.
Toward dusk the reddish ants, which may be termed quarriers, gave up
work, and this was the signal for the workers below to return home. The
quarriers came down the stump pushing the laborers, rather rudely as I
thought, out of their way; and then forming in what might be called
"light skirmishing order," they marched to the lower entrance of the
town, meeting as they went the column of workers going up to the stump.
They met it of course at once, and a minute of great helter-skelter
followed, this column falling back on itself as if assailed, in great
confusion. If this be the ordinary day's routine, why does that column
fall into confusion, and why, after throwing it into disorder, do the
reddish ants close their ranks and march into the town in compact
order, parallel with the working column going the other way, and which
they seemed to terrorize? Is it possible that the smaller ants are only
slaves of the larger? Inscrutable are the ways of ants! However, when
the advancing column had recovered from its confusion it formed up,
and, wheeling round in most regular order, fell behind the rear-guard
of the working column, and before dark not an ant remained outside
except a dead body.
Soon after the last of its living comrades had disappeared, six ants,
with a red one (dare I say?) "in command," came out and seemed to hold
a somewhat fussy consultation round the corpse which had fallen on the
line of march to the stump. After a minute or two, three of them got
hold of it, and with the other four as spectators or mourners, they
dragged it for about six feet and concealed it under a leaf, after
which they returned home; all this was most fascinating. A little later
Captain Murray destroyed both entrances to the town, but before
daylight, by dint of extraordinary labor, they were reconstructed lower
down the slope, and the work at the stump was going on as if nothing so
unprecedented had happened.
I should have liked also to study the ways of the white ant, the great
timber-destroying pest of this country, which abounds on this hill. He
is a large ant of a pale buff color. Up the trunk of a tree he builds
a tunnel of sand, held together by a viscid secretion, and under this
he works, cutting a deep groove in the wood, and always extending the
tunnel upward. I broke away two inches of such a tunnel in the
afternoon, and by the next morning it was restored. Among many other
varieties of ants, there is one found by the natives, which people call
the "soldier ant." I saw many of these big fellows, more than an inch
long, with great mandibles. Their works must be on a gigantic scale,
and their bite or grip very painful; but being with a party, I was not
able to make their acquaintance.
When it grew dark, tiny lamps began to move in all directions. Some
came from on high, like falling stars, but most moved among the trees a
few feet from the ground with a slow undulatory motion, the fire having
a pale blue tinge, as one imagines an incandescent sapphire might have.
The great tree-crickets kept up for a time the most ludicrous sound I
ever heard - one sitting in a tree and calling to another. From the
deafening noise, which at times drowned our voices, one would suppose
the creature making it to be at least as large as an eagle.
The accommodation of the "Sanitarium" is most limited. The two
gentlemen, well armed, slept in the veranda, the Misses Shaw in camp
beds in the inner cabin, and I in a swinging cot in the outer, the
table being removed to make room for it. The bull-dog mounted guard
over all, and showed his vigilance by an occasional growl. The eleven
attendants stowed themselves away under the cabin, except a garrulous
couple, who kept the fire blazing till daylight. My cot was most
comfortable, but I failed to sleep. The forest was full of quaint, busy
noises, broken in upon occasionally by the hoot of the "spectre bird,"
and the long, low, plaintive cry of some animal.
All the white residents in the Malacca Settlements have been greatly
excited about a tragedy which has just occurred at the Dindings, off
this coast, in which Mr. Lloyd, the British superintendent, was
horribly murdered by the Chinese; his wife, and Mrs. Innes, who was on
a visit to her, narrowly escaping the same fate. Lying awake I could
not help thinking of this, and of the ease with which the Resident
could be overpowered and murdered by any of our followers who might
have a grudge against him, when, as I thought, the door behind my head
from the back ladder was burst open, and my cot and I came down on the
floor at the head, the simple fact being, that the head-rope, not
having been properly secured, gave way with a run. An hour afterward
the foot-ropes gave way, and I was deposited on the floor altogether,
and was soon covered with small ants.
Early in the morning the apes began to call to each other with a
plaintive "Hoo-houey," and in the gray dawn I saw an iguana fully four
feet long glide silently down the trunk of a tree, the branches of
which were loaded with epiphytes.
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