e upon one Tree,
insomuch that the people are afraid to go up to gather the Fruits
lest they should be stung by them.

A fourth sort of Ants are those they call Coura-atch. They are great
and black, living in the ground. Their daily practice is to bring
up dirt out of the ground, making great hollow holes in the Earth,
somewhat resembling Cony-Burrows; onely these are less, and run
strait downwards for some way, and then turn away into divers paths
under ground. In many places of the Land there are so many of these
holes, that Cattle are ready to break their Legs as they go. These
do not sting.

A fifth is the Coddia. This Ant is of an excellent bright black,
and as large as any of the former. They dwell always in the ground;
and their usual practice is, to be travelling in great multitudes,
but I do not know where they are going, nor what their business is;
but they pass and repass some forwards and some backwards in great
hast, seemingly as full of employment as People that pass along
the Streets. These Ants will bite desperately, as bad as if a man
were burnt with a coal of fire. But they are of a noble nature: for
they will not begin; and you may stand by them, if you do not tread
upon them nor disturb them. [How these Coddia's come to sting so
terribly.] The reason their bite is thus terribly painful is this;
Formerly these Ants went to ask a Wife of the Noya, a venomous and
noble kind of Snake; and because they had such an high spirit to
dare to offer to be related to such a generous creature, they had
this vertue bestowed upon them, that they should sting after this
manner. And if they had obtained a Wife of the Noya, they should have
had the priviledg to have stung full as bad as he. This is a currant
Fable among the Chingulays. Tho undoubtedly they chiefly regard the
wisedom that is concealed under this, and the rest of their Fables.

[These Ants a very mischievous sort.] There is a sixth sort called
Vaeos. These are more numerous than any of the former. All the whole
Earth doth swarm with them. They are of a middle size between the
greatest and the least, the hinder part white, and the head red. They
eat and devour all that they can come at; as besides food, Cloth,
Wood, Thatch of Houses and every thing excepting Iron and Stone. So
that the people cannot set any thing upon the ground within their
houses for them. They creep up the walls of their houses, and build
an Arch made of dirt over themselves all th