or four hours before sunrise, by calling out that the rats were
robbing the farinha baskets--the article at that time being
scarce and dear. I got up, listened, and found the noise was very
unlike that made by rats. So, I took the light and went into the
storeroom, which was close to my sleeping-place. I there found a
broad column of Sauba ants, consisting of thousands of
individuals, as busy as possible, passing to and fro between the
door and my precious baskets. Most of those passing outwards were
laden each with a grain of farinha, which was, in some cases,
larger and many times heavier than the bodies of the carriers.
Farinha consists of grains of similar size and appearance to the
tapioca of our shops; both are products of the same root, tapioca
being the pure starch, and farinha the starch mixed with woody
fibre, the latter ingredient giving it a yellowish colour. It was
amusing to see some of the dwarfs, the smallest members of their
family, staggering along, completely hidden under their load. The
baskets, which were on a high table, were entirely covered with
ants, many hundreds of whom were employed in snipping the dry
leaves which served as lining. This produced the rustling sound
which had at first disturbed us. My servant told me that they
would carry off the whole contents of the two baskets (about two
bushels) in the course of the night, if they were not driven off;
so we tried to exterminate them by killing them with our wooden
clogs. It was impossible, however, to prevent fresh hosts coming
in as fast as we killed their companions. They returned the next
night; and I was then obliged to lay trains of gunpowder along
their line, and blow them up. This, repeated many times, at last
seemed to intimidate them, for we were free from their visits
during the remainder of my residence at the place. What they did
with the hard dry grains of mandioca I was never able to