while the soldier-ants rush forth to attack the intruder,
and, of course, immediately fall victims; thus preserving, by the
sacrifice of their own lives, the rest of the community. The peculiar
motion of the snake we found, scientifically called _amphisbaenae_,
wriggling as it does backwards and forwards, has given rise to the idea
of its having two heads. Duppo told us many other stories about it,
which I have no space to mention. These ants sometimes form mounds from
thirty to forty yards in circumference, and have been known to burrow
even under rivers. As they attack fruit-trees, they are a great pest to
the inhabitants of the settled parts of the country, and are sometimes
destroyed by forcing fumes of sulphur through their galleries. Their
chief use in the economy of Nature seems to be the consumption of
decayed vegetable matter, as they are exclusively vegetarians.

While the Indians were getting the boat down to the water, and Ellen and
her attendants, assisted by Domingos, were packing up, John, Duppo, and
I took a ramble into the woods to kill some more game, as we were not
likely to have anything but fish for some time to come. As we were
going along, I heard the twittering of some dull-plumaged birds in the
bushes, and was trying to get a shot at them, when I saw John, who was a
little way ahead, jumping about in the most extraordinary manner. Duppo
cried out, on seeing him, "Tauoca!" and made a sign to us to run off,
himself setting the example. John followed. "I have been attacked by
an army of ants," he exclaimed. "See, here are hundreds sticking to
me." Duppo and I went to his assistance, and we found his legs covered
with ants with enormous jaws, holding on so tight to the flesh that, in
pulling them off, the heads of many were left sticking in the wounds
they had made. We caught sight of the column which was advancing, about
six deep, with thinner columns foraging on either side of the main army.
Creatures of all sorts were getting out of their way with good cause,
for whenever they came upon a maggot, caterpillar, or any larvae, they
instantly set upon it and tore it to pieces, each ant loading itself
with as much as it could carry. A little in front of them was a wasp's
nest, on a low shrub. They mounted the twigs, and, gnawing away at the
papery covering, quickly got at the larvae and the newly-hatched wasps.
These they carried off in spite of the efforts of the enraged parents,
who kep