ants work in common, like bees; but while the latter make their food, the former only store it away. if a person compares the burdens which the ants carry with the size of their bodies, he must confess that there is no animal which, in proportion, is possessed of a greater degree of strength. they carry these burdens with the mouth, or, when it is too large to admit of that, they turn their backs to it, and push it onwards with their feet, while they use their utmost energies with their shoulders. these insects have a political community among themselves, and are possessed of both memory and foresight. they gnaw each grain before they lay it by, for fear lest it should shoot while under ground; they divide those grains which are too large for admission, at the entrance of their holes; and those which have become soaked by the rain, they bring out and dry.[198] they work, too, by night, during the full moon. what ardor they display in their labors, what wondrous carefulness! because they collect their stores from different quarters, in ignorance of the proceedings of one another, they have certain days set apart for holding a 251 kind of market, on which they meet together and take stock. what vast throngs are then to be seen hurrying together, what anxious enquiries appear to be made, and what earnest parleys are going on among them as they meet! we see even the very stones worn away by their footsteps, and roads beaten down by being the scene of their labors. let no one fail to see how much can be effected by assiduity and application, even in the very humblest of objects! ants are the only living beings, besides man, that bestow burial on the dead.
merian’s opossum.—philander dorsigerus.
the horns of an indian ant, suspended in the temple of hercules, at erythr?, have been looked upon as quite miraculous for their size. this ant excavates gold from holes, in a country in the north of india, the inhabitants of which are known as the dard?. it has the color of a cat, and is in size as large as an egyptian wolf.[199] this gold, which it extracts in the winter, is taken by the indians during the heats of summer, while the ants are compelled, by the excessive warmth, to hide themselves in their holes. still, however, aroused by the scent of the indians, they will sally forth, and frequently tear them to pieces, though the indians may be provided with the swiftest camels for the purpose of flight; so great is their fleetness, combined with their ferocity and their passion for gold!
