len them. They examined it in every position, some
burrowing inside and arriving at the top of the glove through a small
hole between the thumb and the forefinger; others, apparently chemists,
clustering round the button at the wrist, and testing its properties.
Gathering in groups, they appeared to consult whether such a peculiar
substance could be converted into use, or whether the glove should be
drawn by main force, and precipitated to the sow-thistle below. Unlike
any large assemblage of men that I have ever seen, they wasted no time
in long speeches, but speedily came to a decision; and approaching the
thumb of my glove, some thirty or forty stalwart artificers took hold of
the seam that passes inside, and pulled stoutly. The glove moved. This
was not lost on the congregated thousands; for their motions appeared to
be in approval of their countrymen; and I am convinced did they wear
hats, they would have flourished them in the air, or owned voices, would
have cheered vociferously. The whole community now took part in the
removal of my glove, and in a few seconds it began to crawl pretty
evidently towards the edge of the mound.

Busily engaged as all the ants were, they did not pay much attention to
the proximity of danger, and, I am sure, even with their sagacity, did
not think of it; but bearing the common nuisance towards the boundary of
their country, they were only bent upon ejecting it summarily. The
little finger of my glove first reached the side of the ant-hill, and
falling, like a paralyzed limb, suddenly over the brink, cast some forty
excellent folks, head over heels, with rapidity and great force to the
long grass beneath. Unconscious of this accident at the other extremity,
the ants who laboured at the thumb and its environs, continued with
violent jerks to draw the glove towards its destination; and when it had
come so near the sloping edge, that the locomotive power became its own,
it slid, like an avalanche, to the bottom of the mound, drawing nearly
the entire population along with it. Never were pismires so terrified
before; nor did arrow ever swifter cleave the air, as these insects
scrambled over the blades of grass and chips of wood. The agility with
which they climbed up their pyramidical nest was perfectly astonishing;
and when the nimblest of them arrived at the top, the perfect state of
confusion which seemed to pervade the whole community, and the
continuance and fervour with which they we