laces, so that in a
short time the tree was denuded of leaves. These leaves were used, we
discovered, to thatch the domes of their galleries and halls to keep
them dry, and protect the young broods in the nests beneath them. One
body of workers was employed in bringing the leaves which they cast down
on the hillock, while another placed them so as to form the roof,
covering them with a layer of earth brought up in single grains with
prodigious labour from the soil below. There appeared to be three
different classes of workers--some employed entirely below, others
acting as masons or tilers, and others entirely engaged in bringing the
materials from a distance. There were, besides, soldiers armed with
powerful mandibles, who accompanied the workers for defence, and walked
backwards and forwards near them without doing anything. They have also
a queen-ant, who dwells in the centre of their castle, and is engaged in
laying the eggs, not only to furnish broods for the colony, but to send
forth vast numbers of winged ants to form new ones. At the commencement
of the year the workers can be seen clearing the galleries, and
evidently preparing for some important event. Soon afterwards a vast
number of winged males and females issue forth, the females measuring
two and a quarter inches in expanse of wing, though the males are much
smaller. Few of them, however, escape to enjoy existence, for they are
immediately set upon by numbers of insectivorous animals and devoured.
The few females who escape become the mothers of new colonies.

While digging, we came upon a snake-like creature about a foot long.
Directly Duppo saw it he entreated us not to touch it, as it was
fearfully poisonous, and called it the mother of the saubas. We,
however, knew it to be perfectly harmless. He declared that it had a
head at each end of its body. We convinced him, however, that he was
wrong, by showing him the head and tail. The body was covered with
small scales, the eyes were scarcely perceptible, and the mouth was like
that of a lizard. He asserted that the sauba-ants are very much
attached to the snake, and that, if we took it away, they would all
desert the spot. In reality, the snake found a convenient hiding-place
in the galleries of the ants, while, when in want of food, it could at
all times make a substantial meal off them. When the ant-eater opens
one of these galleries, the workers immediately run off and hide
themselves,