That ants should use their own larvæ like a shuttle, and for the same purpose, seems as strange a thing as one can well imagine, but there is no doubt at all about it, the act having been witnessed on various occasions by competent observers, whose evidence is mutually corroborated. The species in question is common in Eastern Asia, and is accustomed to make little houses or arbours for itself by bending leaves round so that the edges meet, and then fixing them together, as some caterpillars do. Now the larva can do something which the grown ant cannot, which is to spin a cocoon from a sort of gummy, thread-like substance which issues from the mouth. Whilst one group of ants therefore join to keep the leaf bent in the proper position, another take each a larva in their jaws, and pass it from edge to edge of the leaf, applying its mouth to each edge, until the two are bound firmly together.[76] Whether this is a more or less remarkable habit than growing mushrooms it would be difficult, perhaps, to decide, nor is there any need to try, since such questions are more interesting left uncertain. It is well known, or at least credibly asserted, that ants cross rivers by clinging one to another from the branch of a tree overhanging the water, till the end of this living chain, as it becomes longer and longer, is carried by the force of the current to the opposite bank, where a bridge is formed, over which the main body marches.[77] According to Du Chaillu the ants in Africa make, not only a bridge, but a tunnel—“a high, safe tubular bridge through which the whole vast regiment marches in regular order.”[78] These are the celebrated driver or bashikouay ants, who, when upon their terrible marauding marches, put every living creature, including man, to flight, though for many flight is in vain. Size and strength are here no protection. “The elephant and gorilla fly before them; the black men run for their lives.” So says Du Chaillu, and, sure enough, when the skins of some of the poor gorillas he shot arrived in England, several of these ants were found amongst the hair.[79] In the forests of equatorial Africa, abounding—if they have not all been shot by this time—with large animals, these hunting-raids must give rise to some stirring scenes. What crashings through the trees and undergrowth! What uncouth sounds, perhaps, of mingled pain and rage! How a bitten gorilla would express himself! What a subject for a picture if a herd of elephants, a few families of gorillas, a score or so of lions, with a few leopards, and baboons, perhaps a rhinoceros, and any number of antelopes, were all to come rushing down together to where an artist stood ready for them! I should like to see the picture he would draw. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: PURSUED BY DRIVER ANTS] [Illustration]