Just before you woke up, we saw that very butterfly come out of the hole
again, and flutter over your face as before. And then it suddenly
disappeared: we do not know where it went."


"Perhaps it was Akinosuke's soul," the other goshi said;-- "certainly I
thought I saw it fly into his mouth... But, even if that butterfly was
Akinosuke's soul, the fact would not explain his dream."


"The ants might explain it," returned the first speaker. "Ants are queer
beings -- possibly goblins... Anyhow, there is a big ant's nest under that
cedar-tree."...


"Let us look!" cried Akinosuke, greatly moved by this suggestion. And he
went for a spade.





The ground about and beneath the cedar-tree proved to have been excavated,
in a most surprising way, by a prodigious colony of ants. The ants had
furthermore built inside their excavations; and their tiny constructions of
straw, clay, and stems bore an odd resemblance to miniature towns. In the
middle of a structure considerably larger than the rest there was a
marvelous swarming of small ants around the body of one very big ant, which
had yellowish wings and a long black head.