single ant here and there forcing its way
against the stream. Unlike penguins and human beings, army ants have
no rule of the road as to right and left, and there is no lessening of
pace or turning aside for a heavily laden drogher. Their blindness
caused them to bump squarely into every individual, often sending load
and carrier tumbling to the bottom of a vertical path. Another
constant loss of energy was a large cockroach leg, or scorpion
segment, carried by several ants. Their insistence on trying to carry
everything beneath their bodies caused all sorts of comical mishaps.
When such a large piece of booty appeared, it was too much of a
temptation, and a dozen outgoing ants would rush up and seize hold for
a moment, the consequent pulling in all directions reducing progress
at once to zero.

Until late afternoon few ants returned without carrying their bit. The
exceptions were the cripples, which were numerous and very pitiful.
From such fierce strenuousness, such virile activity, as unending as
elemental processes, it seemed a very terrible drop to disability, to
the utilizing of every atom of remaining strength to return to the
temporary home nest--that instinct which drives so many creatures to
the same homing, at the approach of death.

Even in their helplessness they were wonderful. To see a big
black-headed worker struggling up a post with five short stumps and
only one good hind leg, was a lesson in achieving the impossible. I
have never seen even a suspicion of aid given to any cripple, no
matter how slight or how complete the disability; but frequently a
strange thing occurred, which I have often noticed but can never
explain. One army ant would carry another, perhaps of its own size and
caste, just as if it were a bit of dead provender; and I always
wondered if cannibalism was to be added to their habits. I would
capture both, and the minute they were in the vial, the dead ant would
come to life, and with equal vigor and fury both would rush about
their prison, seeking to escape, becoming indistinguishable in the
twinkling of an eye.

Very rarely an ant stopped and attempted to clean another which had
become partly disabled through an accumulation of gummy sap or other
encumbering substance. But when a leg or other organ was broken or
missing, the odor of the ant-blood seemed to arouse only suspicion
and to banish sympathy, and after a few casual wavings of antennae,
all passed by on the other side. N