“They seem to travel night and day. Many a time have I been awakened out of a sleep, and obliged to rush from the hut and into the water to save my life, and after all suffered intolerable agony from the bites of the advance-guard, who had got into my clothes. When they enter a house they clear it of all living things. Roaches are devoured in an instant. Rats and mice spring round the room in vain. An overwhelming force of ants kills a strong rat in less than a minute, in spite of the most frantic struggles, and in less than another minute its bones are stripped. Every living thing in the house is devoured. They will not touch vegetable matter. Thus they are in reality very useful (as well as dangerous) to the negroes, who have their huts cleaned of all the abounding vermin, such as immense roaches and centipedes at least several times a year. “When on their march the insect world flies before them, and I have often had the approach of a bashikouay army heralded to me by this means. Wherever they go they make a clean sweep, even ascending to the tops of the highest trees in pursuit of their prey. Their manner of attack is an impetuous _leap_. Instantly the strong pincers are fastened, and they only let go when the piece gives away. At such times this little animal seems animated by a kind of fury which causes it to disregard entirely its own safety and to seek only the conquest of its prey. The bite is very painful. “The negroes relate that criminals were in former times exposed in the path of the bashikouay ants, as the most cruel manner of putting to death. “Two very remarkable practices of theirs remain to be related. When, on their line of march, they must cross a stream, they throw themselves across and form a tunnel--a living tunnel--connecting two trees or high bushes on opposite sides of the little stream. This is done with great speed, and is effected by a great number of ants, each of which clings with its fore claws to its next neighbor’s body or hind claws. Thus they form a high, safe tubular bridge, _through_ which the whole vast regiment marches in regular order. If disturbed, or if the arch is broken by the violence of some animal, they instantly attack the offender with the greatest animosity. [Illustration: A TERROR OF THE INSECT KINGDOM.] “The bashikouay have the sense of smell finely developed, as indeed have all the ants I know of, and they are guided very much by it. They are larger than any ant we have in America, being at least half an inch long, and are armed with very powerful fore legs and sharp jaws, with which they bite. They are red or dark-brown in color. Their numbers are so great that one does not like to enter into calculations; but I have seen one continual line passing at good speed a particular place for _twelve hours_. The reader may imagine for himself how many millions on millions there may have been contained here.”