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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/25888-8.txt b/25888-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd0b608 --- /dev/null +++ b/25888-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6998 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Edge of the Jungle, by William Beebe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Edge of the Jungle + +Author: William Beebe + +Release Date: June 24, 2008 [EBook #25888] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDGE OF THE JUNGLE *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Mark C. Orton, Linda +McKeown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: WILLIAM BEEBE + Author of Edge of the Jungle, Jungle Days, Gallapagos, World's End, + The Arcturus Adventure, etc.] + + + + BY THE AUTHOR OF "JUNGLE DAYS," + "THE LOG OF THE SUN," ETC. + + + + EDGE OF THE + + JUNGLE + + + + By WILLIAM BEEBE + + _Honorary Curator of Birds and Director of the Tropical + Research Station of the New York Zoological Society._ + + + + GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK + + GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING CO., INC. + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1921 + + BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + + * * * * * + + + + +TO +THE BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES, +THE ANTS AND TREE-FROGS +WHO HAVE TOLERATED ME IN +THEIR JUNGLE ANTE-CHAMBERS +I OFFER THIS VOLUME OF +FRIENDLY WORDS + + * * * * * + + + + +NOTE + + +This second series of essays, following those in _Jungle Peace_, are +republished by the kindness of the Editors of _The Atlantic Monthly_, +_Harper's Magazine_ and _House and Garden_. + +With the exception of _A Tropic Garden_ which refers to the Botanical +Gardens of Georgetown, all deal with the jungle immediately about the +Tropical Research Station of the New York Zoological Society, situated +at Kartabo, at the junction of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni Rivers, in +British Guiana. + +For the accurate identification of the more important organisms +mentioned, a brief appendix of scientific names has been prepared. + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I THE LURE OF KARTABO 3 + +II A JUNGLE CLEARING 34 + +III THE HOME TOWN OF THE ARMY ANTS 58 + +IV A JUNGLE BEACH 90 + +V A BIT OF USELESSNESS 112 + +VI GUINEVERE THE MYSTERIOUS 123 + +VII A JUNGLE LABOR UNION 149 + +VIII THE ATTAS AT HOME 172 + +IX HAMMOCK NIGHTS 195 + +X A TROPIC GARDEN 230 + +XI THE BAY OF BUTTERFLIES 252 + +XII SEQUELS 274 + + APPENDIX OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES 295 + + INDEX 299 + + * * * * * + + + + +EDGE OF THE JUNGLE + + +"For the true scientific method is this: +To trust no statements without verification, +to test all things as rigorously as possible, +to keep no secrets, to attempt no monopolies, +to give out one's best modestly and plainly, +serving no other end but knowledge." + +H. G. WELLS. + + + + +I + +THE LURE OF KARTABO + + +A house may be inherited, as when a wren rears its brood in turn +within its own natal hollow; or one may build a new home such as is +fashioned from year to year by gaunt and shadowy herons; or we may +have it built to order, as do the drones of the wild jungle bees. In +my case, I flitted like a hermit crab from one used shell to another. +This little crustacean, living his oblique life in the shallows, +changes doorways when his home becomes too small or hinders him in +searching for the things which he covets in life. The difference +between our estates was that the hermit crab sought only for food, I +chiefly for strange new facts--which was a distinction as trivial as +that he achieved his desires sideways and on eight legs, while I +traversed my environment usually forward and generally on two. + +The word of finance went forth and demanded the felling of the second +growth around Kalacoon, and for the second time the land was given +over to cutlass and fire. But again there was a halting in the affairs +of man, and the rubber saplings were not planted or were smothered; +and again the jungle smiled patiently through a knee-tangle of thorns +and blossoms, and the charred clumps of razor-grass sent forth skeins +of saws and hanks of living barbs. + +I stood beneath the familiar cashew trees, which had yielded for me so +bountifully of their crops of blossoms and hummingbirds, of fruit and +of tanagers, and looked out toward the distant jungle, which trembled +through the expanse of palpitating heat-waves; and I knew how a hermit +crab feels when its home pinches, or is out of gear with the world. +And, too, Nupee was dead, and the jungle to the south seemed to call +less strongly. So I wandered through the old house for the last time, +sniffing the agreeable odor of aged hypo still permeating the dark +room, re-covering the empty stains of skins and traces of maps on the +walls, and re-filling in my mind the vacant shelves. The vampires had +returned to their chosen roost, the martins still swept through the +corridors, and as I went down the hill, a moriche oriole sent a silver +shaft of song after me from the sentinel palm, just as he had greeted +me four years ago. + +Then I gathered about me all the strange and unnameable possessions of +a tropical laboratory--and moved. A wren reaches its home after +hundreds of miles of fast aerial travel; a hermit crab achieves a new +lease with a flip of his tail. Between these extremes, and in no less +strange a fashion, I moved. A great barge pushed off from the Penal +Settlement, piled high with my zoölogical Lares and Penates, and along +each side squatted a line of paddlers,--white-garbed burglars and +murderers, forgers and fighters,--while seated aloft on one of my +ammunition trunks, with a microscope case and a camera close under his +watchful eye, sat Case, King of the Warders, the biggest, blackest, +and kindest-hearted man in the world. + +Three miles up river swept my moving-van; and from the distance I +could hear the half-whisper--which was yet a roar--of Case as he +admonished his children. "Mon," he would say to a shirking, shrinking +coolie second-story man, "mon, do you t'ink dis the time to sleep? +What toughts have you in your bosom, dat you delay de Professor's +household?" And then a chanty would rise, the voice of the leader +quavering with that wild rhythm which had come down to him, a vocal +heritage, through centuries of tom-toms and generations of savages +striving for emotional expression. But the words were laughable or +pathetic. I was adjured to + + "Blow de mon down with a bottle of rum, + Oh, de mon--mon--blow de mon down." + +Or the jungle reëchoed the edifying reiteration of + + "Sardines--and bread--OH! + Sardines--and bread, + Sardines--and bread--AND! + Sardines--and bread." + +The thrill that a whole-lunged chanty gives is difficult to describe. +It arouses some deep emotional response, as surely as a military band, +or the reverberating cadence of an organ, or a suddenly remembered +theme of opera. + +As my aquatic van drew up to the sandy landing-beach, I looked at the +motley array of paddlers, and my mind went back hundreds of years to +the first Spanish crew which landed here, and I wondered whether these +pirates of early days had any fewer sins to their credit than Case's +convicts--and I doubted it. + +Across my doorstep a line of leaf-cutting ants was passing, each +bearing aloft a huge bit of green leaf, or a long yellow petal, or a +halberd of a stamen. A shadow fell over the line, and I looked up to +see an anthropomorphic enlargement of the ants,--the convicts winding +up the steep bank, each with cot, lamp, table, pitcher, trunk, or +aquarium balanced on his head,--all my possessions suspended between +earth and sky by the neck-muscles of worthy sinners. The first thing +to be brought in was a great war-bag packed to bursting, and Number +214, with eight more years to serve, let it slide down his shoulder +with a grunt--the self-same sound that I have heard from a Tibetan +woman carrier, and a Mexican peon, and a Japanese porter, all of whom +had in past years toted this very bag. + +I led the way up the steps, and there in the doorway was a tenant, one +who had already taken possession, and who now faced me and the +trailing line of convicts with that dignity, poise, and perfect +self-possession which only a toad, a giant grandmother of a toad, can +exhibit. I, and all the law-breakers who followed, recognized the +nine tenths involved in this instance and carefully stepped around. +When the heavy things began to arrive, I approached diffidently, and +half suggested, half directed her deliberate hops toward a safer +corner. My feelings toward her were mingled, but altogether +kindly,--as guest in her home, I could not but treat her with +respect,--while my scientific soul revelled in the addition of _Bufo +guttatus_ to the fauna of this part of British Guiana. Whether +flashing gold of oriole, or the blinking solemnity of a great toad, it +mattered little--Kartabo had welcomed me with as propitious an omen as +had Kalacoon. + + * * * * * + +Houses have distinct personalities, either bequeathed to them by their +builders or tenants, absorbed from their materials, or emanating from +the general environment. Neither the mind which had planned our +Kartabo bungalow, nor the hands which fashioned it; neither the +mahogany walls hewn from the adjoining jungle, nor the white-pine +beams which had known many decades of snowy winters--none of these +were obtrusive. The first had passed into oblivion, the second had +been seasoned by sun and rain, papered by lichens, and gnawed and +bored by tiny wood-folk into a neutral inconspicuousness as complete +as an Indian's deserted _benab_. The wide verandah was open on all +sides, and from the bamboos of the front compound one looked straight +through the central hall-way to bamboos at the back. It seemed like a +happy accident of the natural surroundings, a jungle-bound cave, or +the low rambling chambers of a mighty hollow tree. + +No thought of who had been here last came to us that first evening. We +unlimbered the creaky-legged cots, stiff and complaining after their +three years' rest, and the air was filled with the clean odor of +micaceous showers of naphthalene from long-packed pillows and sheets. +From the rear came the clatter of plates, the scent of ripe papaws and +bananas, mingled with the smell of the first fire in a new stove. Then +I went out and sat on my own twelve-foot bank, looking down on the +sandy beach and out and over to the most beautiful view in the +Guianas. Down from the right swept slowly the Mazaruni, and from the +left the Cuyuni, mingling with one wide expanse like a great rounded +lake, bounded by solid jungle, with only Kalacoon and the Penal +Settlement as tiny breaks in the wall of green. + +The tide was falling, and as I sat watching the light grow dim, the +water receded slowly, and strange little things floated past +downstream. And I thought of the no less real human tide which long +years ago had flowed to my very feet and then ebbed, leaving, as drift +is left upon the sand, the convicts, a few scattered Indians, and +myself. In the peace and quiet of this evening, time seemed a thing of +no especial account. The great jungle trees might always have been +lifeless emerald water-barriers, rather than things of a few +centuries' growth; the ripple-less water bore with equal disregard the +last mora seed which floated past, as it had held aloft the keel of an +unknown Spanish ship three centuries before. These men came up-river +and landed on a little island a few hundred yards from Kartabo. Here +they built a low stone wall, lost a few buttons, coins, and bullets, +and vanished. Then came the Dutch in sturdy ships, cleared the islet +of everything except the Spanish wall, and built them a jolly little +fort intended to command all the rivers, naming it Kyk-over-al. +To-day the name and a strong archway of flat Holland bricks survive. + +In this wilderness, so wild and so quiet to-day, it was amazing to +think of Dutch soldiers doing sentry duty and practising with their +little bell-mouthed cannon on the islet, and of scores of negro and +Indian slaves working in cassava fields all about where I sat. And +this not fifty or a hundred or two hundred years ago, but about the +year 1613, before John Smith had named New England, while the Hudson +was still known as the Maurice, before the Mayflower landed with all +our ancestors on board. For many years the story of this settlement +and of the handful of neighboring sugar-plantations is one of +privateer raids, capture, torture, slave-revolts, disease, bad +government, and small profits, until we marvel at the perseverance of +these sturdy Hollanders. From the records still extant, we glean here +and there amusing details of the life which was so soon to falter and +perish before the onpressing jungle. Exactly two hundred and fifty +years ago one Hendrik Rol was appointed commander of Kyk-over-al. He +was governor, captain, store-keeper and Indian trader, and his salary +was thirty guilders, or about twelve dollars, a month--about what I +paid my cook-boy. + +The high tide of development at Kartabo came two hundred and three +years ago, when, as we read in the old records, a Colony House was +erected here. It went by the name of Huis Naby (the house nearby), +from its situation near the fort. Kyk-over-al was now left to the +garrison, while the commander and the civil servants lived in the new +building. One of its rooms was used as a council chamber and church, +while the lower floor was occupied by the company's store. The land in +the neighborhood was laid out in building lots, with a view to +establishing a town; it even went by the name of Stad Cartabo and had +a tavern and two or three small houses, but never contained enough +dwellings to entitle it to the name of town, or even village. + +The ebb-tide soon began, and in 1739 Kartabo was deserted, and thirty +years before the United States became a nation, the old fort on +Kyk-over-al was demolished. The rivers and rolling jungle were +attractive, but the soil was poor, while the noisome mud-swamps of the +coast proved to be fertile and profitable. + +Some fatality seemed to attach to all future attempts in this region. +Gold was discovered, and diamonds, and to-day the wilderness here and +there is powdering with rust and wreathing with creeping tendrils +great piles of machinery. Pounds of gold have been taken out and +hundreds of diamonds, but thus far the negro pork-knocker, with his +pack and washing-pan, is the only really successful miner. + +The jungle sends forth healthy trees two hundred feet in height, +thriving for centuries, but it reaches out and blights the attempts of +man, whether sisal, rubber, cocoa, or coffee. So far the ebb-tide has +left but two successful crops to those of us whose kismet has led us +hither--crime and science. The concentration of negroes, coolies, +Chinese and Portuguese on the coast furnishes an unfailing supply of +convicts to the settlement, while the great world of life all about +affords to the naturalist a bounty rich beyond all conception. + +So here was I, a grateful legatee of past failures, shaded by +magnificent clumps of bamboo, brought from Java and planted two or +three hundred years ago by the Dutch, and sheltered by a bungalow +which had played its part in the development and relinquishment of a +great gold mine. + + * * * * * + +For a time we arranged and adjusted and shifted our +equipment,--tables, books, vials, guns, nets, cameras and +microscopes,--as a dog turns round and round before it composes itself +to rest. And then one day I drew a long breath and looked about, and +realized that I was at home. The newness began to pass from my little +shelves and niches and blotters; in the darkness I could put my hand +on flash or watch or gun; and in the morning I settled snugly into my +woolen shirt, khakis, and sneakers, as if they were merely accessory +skin. + +In the beginning we were three white men and four servants--the latter +all young, all individual, all picked up by instinct, except Sam, who +was as inevitable as the tides. Our cook was too good-looking and too +athletic to last. He had the reputation of being the fastest sprinter +in Guiana, with a record, so we were solemnly told, of 9-1/5 seconds +for the hundred--a veritable Mercury, as the last world's record of +which I knew was 9-3/5. His stay with us was like the orbit of some +comets, which make a single lap around the sun never to return, and +his successor Edward, with unbelievably large and graceful hands and +feet, was a better cook, with the softest voice and gentlest manner in +the world. + +But Bertie was our joy and delight. He too may be compared to a +star--one which, originally bright, becomes temporarily dim, and +finally attains to greater magnitude than before. Ultimately he became +a fixed ornament of our culinary and taxidermic cosmic system, and +whatever he did was accomplished with the most remarkable contortions +of limbs and body. To watch him rake was to learn new anatomical +possibilities; when he paddled, a surgeon would be moved to +astonishment; when he caught butterflies, a teacher of physical +culture would not have believed his eyes. + +At night, when our servants had sealed themselves hermetically in +their room in the neighboring thatched quarters, and the last squeak +from our cots had passed out on its journey to the far distant goal of +all nocturnal sounds, we began to realize that our new home held many +more occupants than our three selves. Stealthy rustlings, indistinct +scrapings, and low murmurs kept us interested for as long as ten +minutes; and in the morning we would remember and wonder who our +fellow tenants could be. Some nights the bungalow seemed as full of +life as the tiny French homes labeled, "_Hommes 40: Chevaux 8_," when +the hastily estimated billeting possibilities were actually achieved, +and one wondered whether it were not better to be the _cheval +premier_, than the _homme quarantième_. + +For years the bungalow had stood in sun and rain unoccupied, with a +watchman and his wife, named Hope, who lived close by. The aptness of +his name was that of the little Barbadian mule-tram which creeps +through the coral-white streets, striving forever to divorce motion +from progress and bearing the name Alert. Hope had done his duty and +watched the bungalow. It was undoubtedly still there and nothing had +been taken from it; but he had received no orders as to accretions, +and so, to our infinite joy and entertainment, we found that in many +ways it was not only near jungle, it _was_ jungle. I have compared it +with a natural cave. It was also like a fallen jungle-log, and we some +of the small folk who shared its dark recesses with hosts of others. +Through the air, on wings of skin or feathers or tissue membrane; +crawling or leaping by night; burrowing underground; gnawing up +through the great supporting posts; swarming up the bamboos and along +the pliant curving stems to drop quietly on the shingled roof;--thus +had the jungle-life come past Hope's unseeing eyes and found the +bungalow worthy residence. + +The bats were with us from first to last. We exterminated one colony +which spent its inverted days clustered over the center of our supply +chamber, but others came immediately and disputed the ownership of the +dark room. Little chaps with great ears and nose-tissue of sensitive +skin, spent the night beneath my shelves and chairs, and even my cot. +They hunted at dusk and again at dawn, slept in my room and vanished +in the day. Even for bats they were ferocious, and whenever I caught +one in a butterfly-net, he went into paroxysms of rage, squealing in +angry passion, striving to bite my hand and, failing that, chewing +vainly on his own long fingers and arms. Their teeth were wonderfully +intricate and seemed adapted for some very special diet, although +beetles seemed to satisfy those which I caught. For once, the +systematist had labeled them opportunely, and we never called them +anything but _Furipterus horrens_. + +In the evening, great bats as large as small herons swept down the +long front gallery where we worked, gleaning as they went; but the +vampires were long in coming, and for months we neither saw nor heard +of one. Then they attacked our servants, and we took heart, and night +after night exposed our toes, as conventionally accepted vampire-bait. +When at last they found that the color of our skins was no criterion +of dilution of blood, they came in crowds. For three nights they swept +about us with hardly a whisper of wings, and accepted either toe or +elbow or finger, or all three, and the cots and floor in the morning +looked like an emergency hospital behind an active front. In spite of +every attempt at keeping awake, we dropped off to sleep before the +bats had begun, and did not waken until they left. We ascertained, +however, that there was no truth in the belief that they hovered or +kept fanning with their wings. Instead, they settled on the person +with an appreciable flop and then crawled to the desired spot. + +One night I made a special effort and, with bared arm, prepared for a +long vigil. In a few minutes bats began to fan my face, the wings +almost brushing, but never quite touching my skin. I could distinguish +the difference between the smaller and the larger, the latter having a +deeper swish, deeper and longer drawn-out. Their voices were so high +and shrill that the singing of the jungle crickets seemed almost +contralto in comparison. Finally, I began to feel myself the focus of +one or more of these winged weasels. The swishes became more frequent, +the returnings almost doubling on their track. Now and then a small +body touched the sheet for an instant, and then, with a soft little +tap, a vampire alighted on my chest. I was half sitting up, yet I +could not see him, for I had found that the least hint of light ended +any possibility of a visit. I breathed as quietly as I could, and made +sure that both hands were clear. For a long time there was no +movement, and the renewed swishes made me suspect that the bat had +again taken flight. Not until I felt a tickling on my wrist did I know +that my visitor had shifted and, unerringly, was making for the arm +which I had exposed. Slowly it crept forward, but I hardly felt the +pushing of the feet and pulling of the thumbs as it crawled along. If +I had been asleep, I should not have awakened. It continued up my +forearm and came to rest at my elbow. Here another long period of +rest, and then several short, quick shifts of body. With my whole +attention concentrated on my elbow, I began to imagine various +sensations as my mind pictured the long, lancet tooth sinking deep +into the skin, and the blood pumping up. I even began to feel the hot +rush of my vital fluid over my arm, and then found that I had dozed +for a moment and that all my sensations were imaginary. But soon a +gentle tickling became apparent, and, in spite of putting this out of +my mind and with increasing doubts as to the bat being still there, +the tickling continued. It changed to a tingling, rather pleasant than +otherwise, like the first stage of having one's hand asleep. + +It really seemed as if this were the critical time. Somehow or other +the vampire was at work with no pain or even inconvenience to me, and +now was the moment to seize him, call for a lantern, and solve his +supersurgical skill, the exact method of this vespertilial +anæsthetist. Slowly, very slowly, I lifted the other hand, always +thinking of my elbow, so that I might keep all the muscles relaxed. +Very slowly it approached, and with as swift a motion as I could +achieve, I grasped at the vampire. I felt a touch of fur and I gripped +a struggling, skinny wing; there came a single nip of teeth, and the +wing-tip slipped through my fingers. I could detect no trace of blood +by feeling, so turned over and went to sleep. In the morning I found a +tiny scratch, with the skin barely broken; and, heartily disappointed, +I realized that my tickling and tingling had been the preliminary +symptoms of the operation. + +Marvelous moths which slipped into the bungalow like shadows; pet +tarantulas; golden-eyed gongasocka geckos; automatic, house-cleaning +ants; opossums large and small; tiny lizards who had tongues in place +of eyelids; wasps who had doorsteps and watched the passing from their +windows;--all these were intimates of my laboratory table, whose +riches must be spread elsewhere; but the sounds of the bungalow were +common to the whole structure. + +One of the first things I noticed, as I lay on my cot, was the new +voice of the wind at night. Now and then I caught a familiar +sound,--faint, but not to be forgotten,--the clattering of palm +fronds. But this came from Boom-boom Point, fifty yards away (an out +jutting of rocks where we had secured our first giant catfish of that +name). The steady rhythm of sound which rose and fell with the breeze +and sifted into my window with the moonbeams, was the gentlest +_shussssss_ing, a fine whispering, a veritable fern of a sound, high +and crisp and wholly apart from the moaning around the eaves which +arose at stronger gusts. It brought to mind the steep mountain-sides +of Pahang, and windy nights which presaged great storms in high passes +of Yunnan. + +But these wonder times lived only through memory and were misted with +intervening years, while it came upon me during early nights, again +and again, that this was Now, and that into the hour-glass neck of Now +was headed a maelstrom of untold riches of the Future--minutes and +hours and sapphire days ahead---a Now which was wholly unconcerned +with leagues and liquor, with strikes and salaries. So I turned over +with the peace which passes all telling--the forecast of delving into +the private affairs of birds and monkeys, of great butterflies and +strange frogs and flowers. The seeping wind had led my mind on and on +from memory and distant sorrows to thoughts of the joy of labor and +life. + +At half-past five a kiskadee shouted at the top of his lungs from the +bamboos, but he probably had a nightmare, for he went to sleep and did +not wake again for half-an-hour. The final swish of a bat's wing came +to my ear, and the light of a fog-dimmed day slowly tempered the +darkness among the dusty beams and rafters. From high overhead a +sprawling tarantula tossed aside the shriveled remains of his night's +banquet, the emerald cuirass and empty mahogany helmet of a +long-horned beetle, which eddied downward and landed upon my sheet. + +Immediately around the bungalow the bamboos held absolute sway, and +while forming a very tangible link between the roof and the outliers +of the jungle, yet no plant could obtain foothold beneath their shade. +They withheld light, and the mat of myriads of slender leaves killed +off every sprouting thing. This was of the utmost value to us, +providing shade, clear passage to every breeze, and an absolute dearth +of flies and mosquitoes. We found that the clumps needed clearing of +old stems, and for two days we indulged in the strangest of weedings. +The dead stems were as hard as stone outside, but the ax bit through +easily, and they were so light that we could easily carry enormous +ones, which made us feel like giants, though, when I thought of them +in their true botanical relationship, I dwarfed in imagination as +quickly as Alice, to a pigmy tottering under a blade of grass. It was +like a Brobdingnagian game of jack-straws, as the cutting or prying +loose of a single stem often brought several others crashing to earth +in unexpected places, keeping us running and dodging to avoid their +terrific impact. The fall of these great masts awakened a roaring +swish ending in a hollow rattling, wholly unlike the crash and dull +boom of a solid trunk. When we finished with each clump, it stood as a +perfect giant bouquet, looking, at a distance, like a tuft of green +feathery plumes, with the bungalow snuggled beneath as a toadstool is +overshadowed by ferns. + +Scores of the homes of small folk were uncovered by our weeding +out--wasps, termites, ants, bees, wood-roaches, centipedes; and +occasionally a small snake or great solemn toad came out from the +débris at the roots, the latter blinking and swelling indignantly at +this sudden interruption of his siesta. In a strong wind the stems +bent and swayed, thrashing off every imperfect leaf and sweeping low +across the roof, with strange scrapings and bamboo mutterings. But +they hardly ever broke and fell. In the evening, however, and in the +night, after a terrific storm, a sharp, unexpected _rat-tat-tat-tat_, +exactly like a machine-gun, would smash in on the silence, and two or +three of the great grasses, which perhaps sheltered Dutchmen +generations ago, would snap and fall. But the Indians and Bovianders +who lived nearby, knew this was no wind, nor yet weakness of stem, but +Sinclair, who was abroad and who was cutting down the bamboos for his +own secret reasons. He was evil, and it was well to be indoors with +all windows closed; but further details were lacking, and we were +driven to clothe this imperfect ghost with history and habits of our +own devising. + +The birds and other inhabitants of the bamboos, were those of the more +open jungle,--flocks drifting through the clumps, monkeys occasionally +swinging from one to another of the elastic tips, while toucans came +and went. At evening, flocks of parrakeets and great black orioles +came to roost, courting the safety which they had come to associate +with the clearings of human pioneers in the jungle. A box on a bamboo +stalk drew forth joyous hymns of praise from a pair of little +God-birds, as the natives call the house-wrens, who straightway +collected all the grass and feathers in the world, stuffed them into +the tiny chamber, and after a time performed the ever-marvelous feat +of producing three replicas of themselves from this trash-filled box. +The father-parent was one concentrated mite of song, with just enough +feathers for wings to enable him to pursue caterpillars and +grasshoppers as raw material for the production of more song. He sang +at the prospect of a home; then he sang to attract and win a mate; +more song at the joy of finding wonderful grass and feathers; again +melody to beguile his mate, patiently giving the hours and days of her +body-warmth in instinct-compelled belief in the future. He sang while +he took his turn at sitting; then he nearly choked to death trying to +sing while stuffing a bug down a nestling's throat; finally, he sang +at the end of a perfect nesting season; again, in hopes of persuading +his mate to repeat it all, and this failing, sang in chorus in the +wren quintette--I hoped, in gratitude to us. At least from April to +September he sang every day, and if my interpretation be +anthropomorphic, why, so much the better for anthropomorphism. At any +rate, before we left, all five wrens sat on a little shrub and +imitated the morning stars, and our hearts went out to the little +virile featherlings, who had lost none of their enthusiasm for life in +this tropical jungle. Their one demand in this great wilderness was +man's presence, being never found in the jungle except in an inhabited +clearing, or, as I have found them, clinging hopefully to the +vanishing ruins of a dead Indian's _benab_, waiting and singing in +perfect faith, until the jungle had crept over it all and they were +compelled to give up and set out in search of another home, within +sound of human voices. + +Bare as our leaf-carpeted bamboo-glade appeared, yet a select little +company found life worth living there. The dry sand beneath the house +was covered with the pits of ant-lions, and as we watched them month +after month, they seemed to have more in common with the grains of +quartz which composed their cosmos than with the organic world. By day +or night no ant or other edible thing seemed ever to approach or be +entrapped; and month after month there was no sign of change to imago. +Yet each pit held a fat, enthusiastic inmate, ready at a touch to turn +steam-shovel, battering-ram, bayonet, and gourmand. Among the first +thousand-and-one mysteries of Kartabo I give a place to the source of +nourishment of the sub-bungalow ant-lions. + +Walking one day back of the house, I observed a number of small holes, +with a little shining head just visible in each, which vanished at my +approach. Looking closer, I was surprised to find a colony of tropical +doodle-bugs. Straightway I chose a grass-stem and squatting, began +fishing as I had fished many years ago in the southern states. Soon a +nibble and then an angry pull, and I jerked out the irate little chap. +He had the same naked bumpy body and the fierce head, and when two or +three were put together, they fought blindly and with the ferocity of +bulldogs. + + * * * * * + +To write of pets is as bad taste as to write in diary form, and, +besides, I had made up my mind to have no pets on this expedition. +They were a great deal of trouble and a source of distraction from +work while they were alive; and one's heart was wrung and one's +concentration disturbed at their death. But Kib came one day, brought +by a tiny copper-bronze Indian. He looked at me, touched me +tentatively with a mobile little paw, and my firm resolution melted +away. A young coati-mundi cannot sit man-fashion like a bear-cub, nor +is he as fuzzy as a kitten or as helpless as a puppy, but he has ways +of winning to the human heart, past all obstacles. + +The small Indian thought that three shillings would be a fair +exchange; but I knew the par value of such stock, and Kib changed +hands for three bits. A week later a thousand shillings would have +seemed cheap to his new master. A coati-mundi is a tropical, arboreal +raccoon of sorts, with a long, ever-wriggling snout, sharp teeth, eyes +that twinkle with humor, and clawed paws which are more skilful than +many a fingered hand. By the scientists of the world he is addressed +as _Nasua nasua nasua_--which lays itself open to the twin ambiguity +of stuttering Latin, or the echoes of a Princetonian football yell. +The natural histories call him coati-mundi, while the Indian has by +far the best of it, with the ringing, climactic syllables, _Kibihée!_ +And so, in the case of a being who has received much more than his +share of vitality, it was altogether fitting to shorten this to +Kib--Dunsany's giver of life upon the earth. + +My heart's desire is to run on and tell many paragraphs of Kib; but +that, as I have said, would be bad taste, which is one form of +immorality. For in such things sentiment runs too closely parallel to +sentimentality,--moderation becomes maudlinism,--and one enters the +caste of those who tell anecdotes of children, and the latest symptoms +of their physical ills. And the deeper one feels the joys of +friendship with individual small folk of the jungle, the more +difficult it is to convey them to others. And so it is not of the +tropical mammal coati-mundi, nor even of the humorous Kib that I +think, but of the soul of him galloping up and down his slanting log, +of his little inner ego, which changed from a wild thing to one who +would hurl himself from any height or distance into a lap, confident +that we would save his neck, welcome him, and waste good time playing +the game which he invented, of seeing whether we could touch his +little cold snout before he hid it beneath his curved arms. + +So, in spite of my resolves, our bamboo groves became the homes of +numerous little souls of wild folk, whose individuality shone out and +dominated the less important incidental casement, whether it happened +to be feathers, or fur, or scales. It is interesting to observe how +the Adam in one comes to the surface in the matter of names for pets. +I know exactly the uncomfortable feeling which must have perturbed the +heart of that pioneer of nomenclaturists, to be plumped down in the +midst of "the greatest aggregation of animals ever assembled" before +the time of Noah, and to be able to speak of them only as _this_ or +_that_, _he_ or _she_. So we felt when inundated by a host of pets. It +is easy to speak of the species by the lawful Latin or Greek name; we +mention the specimen on our laboratory table by its common +natural-history appellation. But the individual who touches our pity, +or concern, or affection, demands a special title--usually absurdly +inapt. + +Soon, in the bamboo glade about our bungalow, ten little jungle +friends came to live; and to us they will always be Kib and Gawain, +George and Gregory, Robert and Grandmother, Raoul and Pansy, Jennie +and Jellicoe. + +Gawain was not a double personality--he was an intermittent +reincarnation, vibrating between the inorganic and the essence of +vitality. In a reasonable scheme of earthly things he filled the +niche of a giant green tree-frog, and one of us seemed to remember +that the Knight Gawain was enamored of green, and so we dubbed him. +For the hours of daylight Gawain preferred the role of a hunched-up +pebble of malachite; or if he could find a leaf, he drew eighteen +purple vacuum toes beneath him, veiled his eyes with opalescent lids, +and slipped from the mineral to the vegetable kingdom, flattened by +masterly shading which filled the hollows and leveled the bumps; and +the leaf became more of a leaf than it had been before Gawain was +merged with it. + +Night, or hunger, or the merciless tearing of sleep from his soul +wrought magic and transformed him into a glowing, jeweled specter. He +sprouted toes and long legs; he rose and inflated his sleek emerald +frog-form; his sides blazed forth a mother-of-pearl waist-coat--a +myriad mosaics of pink and blue and salmon and mauve; and from nowhere +if not from the very depths of his throat, there slowly rose twin +globes,--great eyes,--which stood above the flatness of his head, as +mosques above an oriental city. Gone were the neutralizing lids, and +in their place, strange upright pupils surrounded with vermilion lines +and curves and dots, like characters of ancient illuminated Persian +script. And with these appalling eyes Gawain looked at us, with these +unreal, crimson-flecked globes staring absurdly from an expressionless +emerald mask, he contemplated roaches and small grasshoppers, and +correctly estimated their distance and activity. We never thought of +demanding friendship, or a hint of his voice, or common froggish +activities from Gawain. We were content to visit him now and then, to +arouse him, and then leave him to disincarnate his vertebral outward +phase into chlorophyll or lifeless stone. To muse upon his courtship +or emotions was impossible. His life had a feeling of sphinx-like +duration--Gawain as a tadpole was unthinkable. He seemed ageless, +unreal, wonderfully beautiful, and wholly inexplicable. + + + + +II + +A JUNGLE CLEARING + + +Within six degrees of the Equator, shut in by jungle, on a cloudless +day in mid-August, I found a comfortable seat on a slope of sandy soil +sown with grass and weeds in the clearing back of Kartabo laboratory. +I was shaded only by a few leaves of a low walnut-like sapling, yet +there was not the slightest hint of oppressive heat. It might have +been a warm August day in New England or Canada, except for the +softness of the air. + +In my little cleared glade there was no plant which would be wholly +out of place on a New England country hillside. With debotanized +vision I saw foliage of sumach, elm, hickory, peach, and alder, and +the weeds all about were as familiar as those of any New Jersey +meadow. The most abundant flowers were Mazaruni daisies, cheerful +little pale primroses, and close to me, fairly overhanging the paper +as I wrote, was the spindling button-weed, a wanderer from the +States, with its clusters of tiny white blossoms bouqueted in the +bracts of its leaves. + +A few yards down the hillside was a clump of real friends--the rich +green leaves of vervain, that humble little weed, sacred in turn to +the Druids, the Romans, and the early Christians, and now brought +inadvertently in some long-past time, in an overseas shipment, and +holding its own in this breathing-space of the jungle. I was so +interested by this discovery of a superficial northern flora, that I +began to watch for other forms of temperate-appearing life, and for a +long time my ear found nothing out of harmony with the plants. The low +steady hum of abundant insects was so constant that it required +conscious effort to disentangle it from silence. Every few seconds +there arose the cadence of a passing bee or fly, the one low and deep, +the other shrill and penetrating. And now, just as I had become wholly +absorbed in this fascinating game,--the kind of game which may at any +moment take a worth-while scientific turn,--it all dimmed and the +entire picture shifted and changed. I doubt if any one who has been at +a modern battle-front can long sit with closed eyes in a midsummer +meadow and not have his blood leap as scene after scene is brought +back to him. Three bees and a fly winging their way past, with the +rise and fall of their varied hums, were sufficient to renew vividly +for me the blackness of night over the sticky mud of Souville, and to +cloud for a moment the scent of clover and dying grass, with that +terrible sickly sweet odor of human flesh in an old shell-hole. In +such unexpected ways do we link peace and war--suspending the greatest +weights of memory, imagination, and visualization on the slenderest +cobwebs of sound, odor, and color. + +But again my bees became but bees--great, jolly, busy yellow-and-black +fellows, who blundered about and squeezed into blossoms many sizes too +small for them. Cicadas tuned up, clearing their drum-heads, +tightening their keys, and at last rousing into the full swing of +their ecstatic theme. And my relaxed, uncritical mind at present +recorded no difference between the sound and that which was vibrated +from northern maples. The tamest bird about me was a big +yellow-breasted white-throated flycatcher, and I had seen this +Melancholy Tyrant, as his technical name describes him, in such +distant lands that he fitted into the picture without effort. + +White butterflies flitted past, then a yellow one, and finally a real +Monarch. In my boy-land, smudgy specimens of this were pinned, +earnestly but asymetrically, in cigar-boxes, under the title of +_Danais archippus_. At present no reputable entomologist would think +of calling it other than _Anosia plexippus_, nor should I; but the +particular thrill which it gave to-day was that this self-same species +should wander along at this moment to mosaic into my boreal muse. + +After a little time, with only the hum of the bees and the staccato +cicadas, a double deceit was perpetrated, one which my sentiment of +the moment seized upon and rejoiced in, but at which my mind had to +conceal a smile and turn its consciousness quickly elsewhere, to +prevent an obtrusive reality from dimming this last addition to the +picture. The gentle, unmistakable, velvet warble of a bluebird came +over the hillside, again and again; and so completely absorbed and +lulled was I by the gradual obsession of being in the midst of a +northern scene, that the sound caused not the slightest excitement, +even internally and mentally. But the sympathetic spirit who was +directing this geographic burlesque overplayed, and followed the soft +curve of audible wistfulness with an actual bluebird which looped +across the open space in front. The spell was broken for a moment, and +my subconscious autocrat thrust into realization the instantaneous +report--apparent bluebird call is the note of a small flycatcher and +the momentary vision was not even a mountain bluebird but a +red-breasted blue chatterer! So I shut my eyes very quickly and +listened to the soft calls, which alone would have deceived the +closest analyzer of bird songs. And so for a little while longer I +still held my picture intact, a magic scape, a hundred yards square +and an hour long, set in the heart of the Guiana jungle. + +And when at last I had to desert Canada, and relinquish New Jersey, I +slipped only a few hundred miles southward. For another twenty minutes +I clung to Virginia, for the enforced shift was due to a great Papilio +butterfly which stopped nearby and which I captured with a lucky sweep +of my net. My first thought was of the Orange-tree Swallow-tail, _née_ +_Papilio cresphontes_. Then the first lizards appeared, and by no +stretch of my willing imagination could I pretend that they were +newts, or fit the little emerald scales into a New England pasture. +And so I chose for a time to live again among the Virginian +butterflies and mockingbirds, the wild roses and the jasmine, and the +other splendors of memory which a single butterfly had unloosed. + +As I looked about me, I saw the flowers and detected their fragrance; +I heard the hum of bees and the contented chirp of well-fed birds; I +marveled at great butterflies flapping so slowly that it seemed as if +they must have cheated gravitation in some subtle way to win such +lightness and disregard of earth-pull. I heard no ugly murmur of long +hours and low wages; the closest scrutiny revealed no strikes or +internal clamorings about wrongs; and I unconsciously relaxed and +breathed more deeply at the thought of this nature world, moving so +smoothly, with directness and simplicity as apparently achieved +ideals. + + * * * * * + +Then I ceased this superficial glance and looked deeper, and without +moralizing or dragging in far-fetched similes or warnings, tried to +comprehend one fundamental reality in wild nature--the universal +acceptance of opportunity. From this angle it is quite unimportant +whether one believes in vitalism (which is vitiating to our "will to +prove"), or in mechanism (whose name itself is a symbol of ignorance, +or deficient vocabulary, or both). Evolution has left no chink or +crevice unfilled, unoccupied, no probability untried, no possibility +unachieved. + +The nearest weed suggested this trend of thought and provided all I +could desire of examples; but the thrill of discovery and the artistic +delight threatened to disturb for the time my solemn application of +these ponderous truisms. The weed alongside had had a prosperous life, +and its leaves were fortunate in the unadulterated sun and rain to +which they had access. At the summit all was focusing for the +consummation of existence: the little blossoms would soon open and +have their one chance. To all the winds of heaven they would fling out +wave upon wave of delicate odor, besides enlisting a subtle form of +vibration and refusing to absorb the pink light--thereby enhancing the +prospects of insect visitors, on whose coming the very existence of +this race of weeds depended. + +Every leaf showed signs of attack: scallops cut out, holes bored, +stains of fungi, wreaths of moss, and the insidious mazes of +leaf-miners. But, like an old-fashioned ship of the line which wins to +port with the remnants of shot-ridden sails, the plant had paid toll +bravely, although unable to defend itself or protect its tissues; and +if I did not now destroy it, which I should assuredly not do, this +weed would justify its place as a worthy link in the chain of +numberless generations, past and to come. + +More complex, clever, subtle methods of attack transcended those of +the mere devourer of leaf-tissue, as radically as an inventor of most +intricate instruments differs from the plodding tiller of the soil. In +the center of one leaf, less disfigured than some of its fellows, I +perceived four tiny ivory spheres, a dozen of which might rest +comfortably within the length of an inch. To my eye they looked quite +smooth, although a steady oblique gaze revealed hints of concentric +lines. Before the times of Leeuwenhoek I should perhaps have been +unable to see more than this, although, as a matter of fact, in those +happy-go-lucky days my ancestors would doubtless have trounced me +soundly for wasting my time on such useless and ungodly things as +butterfly eggs. I thought of the coming night when I should sit and +strain with all my might, striving, without the use of my powerful +stereos, to separate from translucent mist of gases the denser nucleus +of the mighty cosmos in Andromeda. And I alternately bemoaned my +human limitation of vision, and rejoiced that I could focus clearly, +both upon my butterfly eggs a foot away, and upon the spiral nebula +swinging through the ether perhaps four hundred and fifty light-years +from the earth. + +I unswung my pocket-lens,--the infant of the microscope,--and my whole +being followed my eyes; the trees and sky were eclipsed, and I hovered +in mid-air over four glistening Mars-like planets--seamed with +radiating canals, half in shadow from the slanting sunlight, and +silhouetted against pure emerald. The sculpturing was exquisite. Near +the north poles which pointed obliquely in my direction, the lines +broke up into beads, and the edges of these were frilled and +scalloped; and here again my vision failed and demanded still stronger +binoculars. Here was indeed complexity: a butterfly, one of those +black beauties, splashed with jasper and beryl, hovering nearby, with +taste only for liquid nectar, yet choosing a little weed devoid of +flower or fruit on which to deposit her quota of eggs. She neither +turned to look at their beauties nor trusted another batch to this +plant. Somehow, someway, her caterpillar wormhood had carried, through +the mummified chrysalid and the reincarnation of her present form, +knowledge of an earlier, infinitely coarser diet. + +Together with the pure artistic joy which was stirred at the sight of +these tiny ornate globes, there was aroused a realization of +complexity, of helpless, ignorant achievement; the butterfly blindly +pausing in her flower-to-flower fluttering--a pause as momentous to +her race as that of the slow daily and monthly progress of the weed's +struggle to fruition. + +I took a final glance at the eggs before returning to my own larger +world, and I detected a new complication, one which left me with +feelings too involved for calm scientific contemplation. As if a +Martian should suddenly become visible to an astronomer, I found that +one of the egg planets was inhabited. Perched upon the summit--quite +near the north pole--was an insect, a wasp, much smaller than the egg +itself. And as I looked, I saw it at the climax of its diminutive +life; for it reared up, resting on the tips of two legs and the +iridescent wings, and sunk its ovipositor deep into the crystalline +surface. As I watched, an egg was deposited, about the latitude of New +York, and with a tremor the tiny wasp withdrew its instrument and +rested. + +On the same leaf were casually blown specks of dust, larger than the +quartette of eggs. To the plant the cluster weighed nothing, meant +nothing more than the dust. Yet a moment before they contained the +latent power of great harm to the future growth of the weed--four +lusty caterpillars would work from leaf to leaf with a rapidity and +destructiveness which might, even at the last, have sapped the +maturing seeds. Now, on a smaller scale, but still within the realm of +insect life, all was changed--the plant was safe once more and no +caterpillars would emerge. For the wasp went from sphere to sphere and +inoculated every one with the promise of its kind. The plant bent +slightly in a breath of wind, and knew nothing; the butterfly was far +away to my left, deep-drinking in a cluster of yellow cassia; the wasp +had already forgotten its achievement, and I alone--an outsider, an +interloper--observed, correlated, realized, appreciated, and--at the +last--remained as completely ignorant as the actors themselves of the +real driving force, of the certain beginning, of the inevitable end. +Only a momentary cross-section was vouchsafed, and a wonder and a +desire to know fanned a little hotter. + +I had far from finished with my weed: for besides the cuts and tears +and disfigurements of the leaves, I saw a score or more of curious +berry-like or acorn-like growths, springing from both leaf and stem. I +knew, of course, that they were insect-galls, but never before had +they meant quite so much, or fitted in so well as a significant +phenomenon in the nexus of entangling relationships between the weed +and its environment. This visitor, also a minute wasp of sorts, +neither bit nor cut the leaves, but quietly slipped a tiny egg here +and there into the leaf-tissue. + +And this was only the beginning of complexity. For with the quickening +of the larva came a reaction on the part of the plant, which, in +defense, set up a greatly accelerated growth about the young insect. +This might have taken the form of some distorted or deformed plant +organ--a cluster of leaves, a fruit or berry or tuft of hairs, wholly +unlike the characters of the plant itself. My weed was studded with +what might well have been normal seed-fruits, were they not proved +nightmares of berries, awful pseudo-fruits sprouting from horridly +impossible places. And this excess of energy, expressed in tumorous +outgrowths, was all vitally useful to the grub--just as the skilful +jiu-jitsu wrestler accomplishes his purpose with the aid of his +opponent's strength. The insect and plant were, however, far more +intricately related than any two human competitors: for the grub in +turn required the continued health and strength of the plant for its +existence; and when I plucked a leaf, I knew I had doomed all the +hidden insects living within its substance. + +The galls at my hand simulated little acorns, dull greenish in color, +matching the leaf-surface on which they rested, and rising in a sharp +point. I cut one through and, when wearied and fretted with the +responsibilities of independent existence, I know I shall often recall +and envy my grub in his palatial parasitic home. Outside came a rather +hard, brown protective sheath; then the main body of the gall, of firm +and dense tissue; and finally, at the heart, like the Queen's chamber +in Cheops, the irregular little dwelling-place of the grub. This was +not empty and barren; but the blackness and silence of this vegetable +chamber, this architecture fashioned by the strangest of builders for +the most remarkable of tenants, was filled with a nap of long, +crystalline hairs or threads like the spun-glass candy in our +Christmas sweetshops--white at the base and shading from pale salmon +to the deepest of pinks. This exquisite tapestry, whose beauties were +normally forever hidden as well from the blind grub as from the +outside world, was the ambrosia all unwittingly provided by the +antagonism of the plant; the nutrition of resentment, the food of +defiance; and day by day the grub gradually ate his way from one end +to the other of his suite, laying a normal, healthful physical +foundation for his future aerial activities. + +The natural history of galls is full of romance and strange +unrealities, but to-day it meant to me only a renewed instance of an +opportunity seized and made the most of; the success of the indirect, +the unreasonable--the long chance which so few of us humans are +willing to take, although the reward is a perpetual enthusiasm for the +happening of the moment, and the honest gambler's joy for the future. +How much more desirable to acquire merit as a footless grub in the +heart of a home, erected and precariously nourished by a worthy +opponent, with a future of unnumbered possibilities, than to be a +queen-mother in nest or hive--cared-for, fed, and cleansed by a host +of slaves, but with less prospect of change or of adventure than an +average toadstool. + + * * * * * + +Thus I sat for a long time, lulled by similitudes of northern plants +and bees and birds, and then gently shifted southward a few hundred +miles, the transition being smooth and unabrupt. With equal gentleness +the dead calm stirred slightly and exhaled the merest ghost of a +breeze; it seemed as if the air was hardly in motion, but only +restless: the wings of the bees and the flycatcher might well have +caused it. But, judged by the sequence of events, it was the almost +imperceptible signal given by some great Jungle Spirit, who had tired +of playing with my dreams and pleasant fancies of northern life, and +now called upon her legions to disillusion me. And the response was +immediate. Three great shells burst at my very feet,--one of sound, +one of color, and the third of both plus numbers,--and from that time +on, tropical life was dominant whichever way I looked. That is the way +with the wilderness, and especially the tropical wilderness--to +surprise one in the very field with which one is most familiar. While +in my own estimation my chief profession is ignorance, yet I sign my +passport applications and my jury evasions as Ornithologist. And now +this playful Spirit of the Jungle permitted me to meditate cheerfully +on my ability to compare the faunas of New York and Guiana, and then +proceeded to startle me with three salvos of birds, first physically +and then emotionally. + +From the monotone of under-world sounds a strange little rasping +detached itself, a reiterated, subdued scraping or picking. It carried +my mind instantly to the throbbing theme of the Niebelungs, +onomatopoetic of the little hammers forever busy in their underground +work. I circled a small bush at my side, and found that the sound came +from one of the branches near the top; so with my glasses I began a +systematic search. It was at this propitious moment, when I was +relaxed in every muscle, steeped in the quiet of this hillside, and +keen on discovering the beetle, that the first shell arrived. If I had +been less absorbed I might have heard some distant chattering or +calling, but this time it was as if a Spad had shut off its power, +volplaned, kept ahead of its own sound waves, and bombed me. All that +actually happened was that a band of little parrakeets flew down and +alighted nearby. When I discovered this, it seemed a disconcerting +anti-climax, just as one can make the bravest man who has been under +rifle-fire flinch by spinning a match swiftly past his ear. + +I have heard this sound of parrakeet's wings, when the birds were +alighting nearby, half a dozen times; but after half a hundred I shall +duck just as spontaneously, and for a few seconds stand just as +immobile with astonishment. From a volcano I expect deep and sinister +sounds; when I watch great breakers I would marvel only if the +accompanying roar were absent; but on a calm sunny August day I do not +expect a noise which, for suddenness and startling character, can be +compared only with a tremendous flash of lightning. Imagine a +wonderful tapestry of strong ancient stuff, which had only been woven, +never torn, and think of this suddenly ripped from top to bottom by +some sinister, irresistible force. + +In the instant that the sound began, it ceased; there was no echo, no +bell-like sustained overtones; both ends were buried in silence. As it +came to-day it was a high tearing crash which shattered silence as a +Very light destroys darkness; and at its cessation I looked up and +saw twenty little green figures gazing intently down at me, from so +small a sapling that their addition almost doubled the foliage. That +their small wings could wring such a sound from the fabric of the air +was unbelievable. At my first movement, the flock leaped forth, and if +their wings made even a rustle, it was wholly drowned in the chorus of +chattering cries which poured forth unceasingly as the little band +swept up and around the sky circle. As an alighting morpho butterfly +dazzles the eyes with a final flash of his blazing azure before +vanishing behind the leaves and fungi of his lower surface, so +parrakeets change from screaming motes in the heavens to silence, and +then to a hurtling, roaring boomerang, whose amazing unexpectedness +would distract the most dangerous eyes from the little motionless +leaf-figures in a neighboring treetop. + +When I sat down again, the whole feeling of the hillside was changed. +I was aware that my weed was a northern weed only in appearance, and I +should not have been surprised to see my bees change to flies or my +lizards to snakes--tropical beings have a way of doing such things. + +The next phenomenon was color,--unreal, living pigment,--which seemed +to appeal to more than one sense, and which satisfied, as a cooling +drink or a rare, delicious fragrance satisfies. A medium-sized, stocky +bird flew with steady wing-beats over the jungle, in black silhouette +against the sky, and swung up to an outstanding giant tree which +partly overhung the edge of my clearing. The instant it passed the +zone of green, it flashed out brilliant turquoise, and in the same +instant I recognized it and reached for my gun. Before I retrieved the +bird, a second, dull and dark-feathered, flew from the tree. I had +watched it for some time, but now, as it passed over, I saw no yellow +and knew it too was of real scientific interest to me; and with the +second barrel I secured it. Picking up my first bird, I found that it +was not turquoise, but beryl; and a few minutes later I was certain +that it was aquamarine; on my way home another glance showed the color +of forget-me-nots on its plumage, and as I looked at it on my table, +it was Nile green. Yet the feathers were painted in flat color, +without especial sheen or iridescence, and when I finally analyzed it, +I found it to be a delicate calamine blue. It actually had the +appearance of a too strong color, as when a glistening surface +reflects the sun. From beak to tail it threw off this glowing hue, +except for its chin and throat, which were a limpid amaranth purple; +and the effect on the excited rods and cones in one's eyes was like +the power of great music or some majestic passage in the Bible. You, +who think my similes are overdone, search out in the nearest museum +the dustiest of purple-throated cotingas,--_Cotinga cayana,_--and +then, instead, berate me for inadequacy. + +Sheer color alone is powerful enough, but when heightened by contrast, +it becomes still more effective, and I seemed to have secured, with +two barrels, a cotinga and its shadow. The latter was also a +full-grown male cotinga, known to a few people in this world as the +dark-breasted mourner (_Lipaugus simplex_). In general shape and form +it was not unlike its cousin, but in color it was its shadow, its +silhouette. Not a feather upon head or body, wings or tail showed a +hint of warmth, only a dull uniform gray; an ash of a bird, living in +the same warm sunlight, wet by the same rain, feeding on much the same +food, and claiming relationship with a blazing-feathered turquoise. +There is some very exact and very absorbing reason for all this, and +for it I search with fervor, but with little success. But we may be +certain that the causes of this and of the host of other unreasonable +realities which fill the path of the evolutionist with never-quenched +enthusiasm, will extend far beyond the colors of two tropical birds. +They will have something to do with flowers and with bright +butterflies, and we shall know why our "favorite color" is more than a +whim, and why the Greeks may not have been able to distinguish the +full gamut of our spectrum, and why rainbows are so narrow to our eyes +in comparison to what they might be. + +Finally, there was thrown aside all finesse, all delicacy of +presentation, and the last lingering feeling of temperate life and +nature was erased. From now on there was no confusion of zones, no +concessions, no mental palimpsest of resolving images. The spatial, +the temporal,--the hillside, the passing seconds,--the vibrations and +material atoms stimulating my five senses, all were tropical, +quickened with the unbelievable vitality of equatorial life. A +rustling came to my ears, although the breeze was still little more +than a sensation of coolness. Then a deep whirr sounded overhead, and +another, and another, and with a rush a dozen great toucans were all +about me. Monstrous beaks, parodies in pastels of unheard-of blues +and greens, breasts which glowed like mirrored suns,--orange overlaid +upon blinding yellow,--and at every flick of the tail a trenchant +flash of intense scarlet. All these colors set in frames of jet-black +plumage, and suddenly hurled through blue sky and green foliage, made +the hillside a brilliant moving kaleidoscope. + +Some flew straight over, with several quick flaps, then a smooth +glide, flaps and glide. A few banked sharply at sight of me, and +wheeled to right or left. Others alighted and craned their necks in +suspicion; but all sooner or later disappeared eastward in the +direction of a mighty jungle tree just bursting into a myriad of +berries. They were sulphur-breasted toucans, and they were silent, +heralded only by the sound of their wings and the crash of their +pigments. I can think of no other assemblage of jungle creatures more +fitted to impress one with the prodigality of tropical nature. Four +years before, we set ourselves to work to discover the first eggs and +young of toucans, and after weeks of heartbreaking labor and +disappointments we succeeded. Out of the five species of toucans +living in this part of Guiana we found the nests of four, and the one +which eluded us was the big sulphur-breasted fellow. I remembered so +vividly the painstaking care with which, week after week, we and our +Indians tramped the jungle for miles,--through swamps and over rolling +hills,--at last having to admit failure; and now I sat and watched +thirty, forty, fifty of the splendid birds whirr past. As the last of +the fifty-four flew on to their feast of berries, I recalled with +difficulty my faded visions of northern birds. + +And so ended, as in the great finale of a pyrotechnic display, my two +hours on a hillside clearing. I can neither enliven it with a +startling escape, nor add a thrill of danger, without using as many +"ifs" as would be needed to make a Jersey meadow untenable. For +example, _if_ I had fallen over backwards and been powerless to rise +or move, I should have been killed within half an hour, for a stray +column of army ants was passing within a yard of me, and death would +await any helpless being falling across their path. But by searching +out a copperhead and imitating Cleopatra, or with patience and +persistence devouring every toadstool, the same result could be +achieved in our home-town orchard. When on the march, the army ants +are as innocuous at two inches as at two miles. Had I sat where I was +for days and for nights, my chief danger would have been demise from +sheer chagrin at my inability to grasp the deeper significance of life +and its earthly activities. + + + + +III + +THE HOME TOWN OF THE ARMY ANTS + + +From uniform to civilian clothes is a change transcending mere +alteration of stuffs and buttons. It is scarcely less sweeping than +the shift from civilian clothes to bathing-suit, which so often +compels us to concentrate on remembered mental attributes, to avoid +demanding a renewed introduction to estranged personality. In the home +life of the average soldier, the relaxation from sustained tension and +conscious routine results in a gentleness and quietness of mood for +which warrior nations are especially remembered. + +Army ants have no insignia to lay aside, and their swords are too +firmly hafted in their own beings to be hung up as post-bellum mural +decorations, or--as is done only in poster-land--metamorphosed into +pruning-hooks and plowshares. + +I sat at my laboratory table at Kartabo, and looked down river to the +pink roof of Kalacoon, and my mind went back to the shambles of Pit +Number Five.[1] I was wondering whether I should ever see the army +ants in any guise other than that of scouting, battling searchers for +living prey, when a voice of the jungle seemed to hear my unexpressed +wish. The sharp, high notes of white-fronted antbirds--those +white-crested watchers of the ants--came to my ears, and I left my +table and followed up the sound. Physically, I merely walked around +the bungalow and approached the edge of the jungle at a point where we +had erected a small outhouse a day or two before. But this two hundred +feet might just as well have been a single step through quicksilver, +hand in hand with Alice, for it took me from a world of hyoids and +syrinxes, of vials and lenses and clean-smelling xylol, to the home of +the army ants. + +[Footnote 1: See _Jungle Peace_, p. 211.] + +The antbirds were chirping and hopping about on the very edge of the +jungle, but I did not have to go that far. As I passed the doorless +entrance of the outhouse I looked up, and there was an immense mass of +some strange material suspended in the upper corner. It looked like +stringy, chocolate-colored tow, studded with hundreds of tiny ivory +buttons. I came closer and looked carefully at this mushroom growth +which had appeared in a single night, and it was then that my eyes +began to perceive and my mind to record, things that my reason +besought me to reject. Such phenomena were all right in a dream, or +one might imagine them and tell them to children on one's knee, with +wind in the eaves--wild tales to be laughed at and forgotten. But this +was daylight and I was a scientist; my eyes were in excellent order, +and my mind rested after a dreamless sleep; so I had to record what I +saw in that little outhouse. + +This chocolate-colored mass with its myriad ivory dots was the home, +the nest, the hearth, the nursery, the bridal suite, the kitchen, the +bed and board of the army ants. It was the focus of all the lines and +files which ravaged the jungle for food, of the battalions which +attacked every living creature in their path, of the unnumbered rank +and file which made them known to every Indian, to every inhabitant of +these vast jungles. + +Louis Quatorze once said, "_L'Etat, c'est moi!_" but this figure of +speech becomes an empty, meaningless phrase beside what an army ant +could boast,--"_La maison, c'est moi!_" Every rafter, beam, stringer, +window-frame and door-frame, hall-way, room, ceiling, wall and floor, +foundation, superstructure and roof, all were ants--living ants, +distorted by stress, crowded into the dense walls, spread out to +widest stretch across tie-spaces. I had thought it marvelous when I +saw them arrange themselves as bridges, walks, handrails, buttresses, +and sign-boards along the columns; but this new absorption of +environment, this usurpation of wood and stone, this insinuation of +themselves into the province of the inorganic world, was almost too +astounding to credit. + +All along the upper rim the sustaining structure was more distinctly +visible than elsewhere. Here was a maze of taut brown threads +stretching in places across a span of six inches, with here and there +a tiny knot. These were actually tie-strings of living ants, their +legs stretched almost to the breaking-point, their bodies the +inconspicuous knots or nodes. Even at rest and at home, the army ants +are always prepared, for every quiescent individual in the swarm was +standing as erect as possible, with jaws widespread and ready, whether +the great curved mahogany scimitars of the soldiers, or the little +black daggers of the smaller workers. And with no eyelids to close, +and eyes which were themselves a mockery, the nerve shriveling and +never reaching the brain, what could sleep mean to them? Wrapped ever +in an impenetrable cloak of darkness and silence, life was yet one +great activity, directed, ordered, commanded by scent and odor alone. +Hour after hour, as I sat close to the nest, I was aware of this odor, +sometimes subtle, again wafted in strong successive waves. It was +musty, like something sweet which had begun to mold; not unpleasant, +but very difficult to describe; and in vain I strove to realize the +importance of this faint essence--taking the place of sound, of +language, of color, of motion, of form. + +I recovered quickly from my first rapt realization, for a dozen ants +had lost no time in ascending my shoes, and, as if at a preconcerted +signal, all simultaneously sank their jaws into my person. Thus +strongly recalled to the realities of life, I realized the opportunity +that was offered and planned for my observation. No living thing could +long remain motionless within the sphere of influence of these +six-legged Boches, and yet I intended to spend days in close +proximity. There was no place to hang a hammock, no overhanging tree +from which I might suspend myself spider-wise. So I sent Sam for an +ordinary chair, four tin cans, and a bottle of disinfectant. I filled +the tins with the tarry fluid, and in four carefully timed rushes I +placed the tins in a chair-leg square. The fifth time I put the chair +in place beneath the nest, but I had misjudged my distances and had to +retreat with only two tins in place. Another effort, with Spartan-like +disregard of the fiery bites, and my haven was ready. I hung a bag of +vials, notebook, and lens on the chairback, and, with a final rush, +climbed on the seat and curled up as comfortably as possible. + +All around the tins, swarming to the very edge of the liquid, were the +angry hosts. Close to my face were the lines ascending and descending, +while just above me were hundreds of thousands, a bushel-basket of +army ants, with only the strength of their threadlike legs as +suspension cables. It took some time to get used to my environment, +and from first to last I was never wholly relaxed, or quite +unconscious of what would happen if a chair-leg broke, or a bamboo +fell across the outhouse. + +I swiveled round on the chair-seat and counted eight lines of army +ants on the ground, converging to the post at my elbow. Each was four +or five ranks wide, and the eight lines occasionally divided or +coalesced, like a nexus of capillaries. There was a wide expanse of +sand and clay, and no apparent reason why the various lines of +foragers should not approach the nest in a single large column. The +dividing and redividing showed well how completely free were the +columns from any individual dominance. There was no control by +specific individuals or soldiers, but, the general route once +established, the governing factor was the odor of contact. + +The law to pass where others have passed is immutable, but freedom of +action or individual desire dies with the malleable, plastic ends of +the foraging columns. Again and again came to mind the comparison of +the entire colony or army with a single organism; and now the home, +the nesting swarm, the focus of central control, seemed like the body +of this strange amorphous organism--housing the spirit of the army. +One thinks of a column of foragers as a tendril with only the tip +sensitive and growing and moving, while the corpuscle-like individual +ants are driven in the current of blind instinct to and fro, on their +chemical errands. And then this whole theory, this most vivid simile, +is quite upset by the sights that I watch in the suburbs of this ant +home! + +The columns were most excellent barometers, and their reaction to +passing showers was invariable. The clay surface held water, and after +each downfall the pools would be higher, and the contour of the little +region altered. At the first few drops, all the ants would hasten, the +throbbing corpuscles speeding up. Then, as the rain came down heavier, +the column melted away, those near each end hurrying to shelter and +those in the center crawling beneath fallen leaves and bits of clod +and sticks. A moment before, hundreds of ants were trudging around a +tiny pool, the water lined with ant handrails, and in shallow places, +veritable formicine pontoons,--large ants which stood up to their +bodies in water, with the booty-laden host passing over them. Now, all +had vanished, leaving only a bare expanse of splashing drops and wet +clay. The sun broke through and the residue rain tinkled from the +bamboos. + +As gradually as the growth of the rainbow above the jungle, the lines +reformed themselves. Scouts crept from the jungle-edge at one side, +and from the post at my end, and felt their way, fan-wise, over the +rain-scoured surface; for the odor, which was both sight and sound to +these ants, had been washed away--a more serious handicap than mere +change in contour. Swiftly the wandering individuals found their +bearings again. There was deep water where dry land had been, but, as +if by long-planned study of the work of sappers and engineers, new +pontoon bridges were thrown across, washouts filled in, new cliffs +explored, and easy grades established; and by the time the bamboos +ceased their own private after-shower, the columns were again running +smoothly, battalions of eager light infantry hastening out to battle, +and equal hosts of loot-laden warriors hurrying toward the home nest. +Four minutes was the average time taken to reform a column across the +ten feet of open clay, with all the road-making and engineering feats +which I have mentioned, on the part of ants who had never been over +this new route before. + +Leaning forward within a few inches of the post, I lost all sense of +proportion, forgot my awkward human size, and with a new perspective +became an equal of the ants, looking on, watching every passer-by +with interest, straining with the bearers of the heavy loads, and +breathing more easily when the last obstacle was overcome and home +attained. For a period I plucked out every bit of good-sized booty and +found that almost all were portions of scorpions from far-distant dead +logs in the jungle, creatures whose strength and poisonous stings +availed nothing against the attacks of these fierce ants. The loads +were adjusted equably, the larger pieces carried by the big, +white-headed workers, while the smaller ants transported small eggs +and larvæ. Often, when a great mandibled soldier had hold of some +insect, he would have five or six tiny workers surrounding him, each +grasping any projecting part of the loot, as if they did not trust him +in this menial capacity,--as an anxious mother would watch with +doubtful confidence a big policeman wheeling her baby across a crowded +street. These workers were often diminutive Marcelines, hindering +rather than aiding in the progress. But in every phase of activity of +these ants there was not an ounce of intentionally lost power, or a +moment of time wilfully gone to waste. What a commentary on +Bolshevism! + +Now that I had the opportunity of quietly watching the long, hurrying +columns, I came hour by hour to feel a greater intimacy, a deeper +enthusiasm for their vigor of existence, their unfailing life at the +highest point of possibility of achievement. In every direction my +former desultory observations were discounted by still greater +accomplishments. Elsewhere I have recorded the average speed as two +and a half feet in ten seconds, estimating this as a mile in three and +a half hours. An observant colonel in the American army has laid bare +my congenitally hopeless mathematical inaccuracy, and corrected this +to five hours and fifty-two seconds. Now, however, I established a +wholly new record for the straight-away dash for home of the army +ants. With the handicap of gravity pulling them down, the ants, both +laden and unburdened, averaged ten feet in twenty seconds, as they +raced up the post. I have now called in an artist and an astronomer to +verify my results, these two being the only living beings within +hailing distance as I write, except a baby red howling monkey curled +up in my lap, and a toucan, sloth, and green boa, beyond my laboratory +table. Our results are identical, and I can safely announce that the +amateur record for speed of army ants is equivalent to a mile in two +hours and fifty-six seconds; and this when handicapped by gravity and +burdens of food, but with the incentive of approaching the end of +their long journey. + +As once before, I accidentally disabled a big worker that I was +robbing of his load, and his entire abdomen rolled down a slope and +disappeared. Hours later in the afternoon, I was summoned to view the +same soldier, unconcernedly making his way along an outward-bound +column, guarding it as carefully as if he had not lost the major part +of his anatomy. His mandibles were ready, and the only difference that +I could see was that he could make better speed than others of his +caste. That night he joined the general assemblage of cripples quietly +awaiting death, halfway up to the nest. + +I know of no highway in the world which surpasses that of a big column +of army ants in exciting happenings, although I usually had the +feeling which inspired Kim as he watched the Great White Road, of +understanding so little of all that was going on. Early in the morning +there were only outgoing hosts; but soon eddies were seen in the swift +current, vortexes made by a single ant here and there forcing its way +against the stream. Unlike penguins and human beings, army ants have +no rule of the road as to right and left, and there is no lessening of +pace or turning aside for a heavily laden drogher. Their blindness +caused them to bump squarely into every individual, often sending load +and carrier tumbling to the bottom of a vertical path. Another +constant loss of energy was a large cockroach leg, or scorpion +segment, carried by several ants. Their insistence on trying to carry +everything beneath their bodies caused all sorts of comical mishaps. +When such a large piece of booty appeared, it was too much of a +temptation, and a dozen outgoing ants would rush up and seize hold for +a moment, the consequent pulling in all directions reducing progress +at once to zero. + +Until late afternoon few ants returned without carrying their bit. The +exceptions were the cripples, which were numerous and very pitiful. +From such fierce strenuousness, such virile activity, as unending as +elemental processes, it seemed a very terrible drop to disability, to +the utilizing of every atom of remaining strength to return to the +temporary home nest--that instinct which drives so many creatures to +the same homing, at the approach of death. + +Even in their helplessness they were wonderful. To see a big +black-headed worker struggling up a post with five short stumps and +only one good hind leg, was a lesson in achieving the impossible. I +have never seen even a suspicion of aid given to any cripple, no +matter how slight or how complete the disability; but frequently a +strange thing occurred, which I have often noticed but can never +explain. One army ant would carry another, perhaps of its own size and +caste, just as if it were a bit of dead provender; and I always +wondered if cannibalism was to be added to their habits. I would +capture both, and the minute they were in the vial, the dead ant would +come to life, and with equal vigor and fury both would rush about +their prison, seeking to escape, becoming indistinguishable in the +twinkling of an eye. + +Very rarely an ant stopped and attempted to clean another which had +become partly disabled through an accumulation of gummy sap or other +encumbering substance. But when a leg or other organ was broken or +missing, the odor of the ant-blood seemed to arouse only suspicion +and to banish sympathy, and after a few casual wavings of antennæ, +all passed by on the other side. Not only this, but the unfortunates +were actually in danger of attack within the very lines of traffic of +the legionaries. Several times I noticed small rove-beetles +accompanying the ants, who paid little attention to them. Whenever an +ant became suspicious and approached with a raised-eyebrow gesture of +antennæ, the beetles turned their backs quickly and raised threatening +tails. But I did not suspect the vampire or thug-like character of +these guests--tolerated where any other insect would have been torn to +pieces at once. A large crippled worker, hobbling along, had slipped a +little away from the main line, when I was astonished to see two +rove-beetles rush at him and bite him viciously, a third coming up at +once and joining in. The poor worker had no possible chance against +this combination, and he went down after a short, futile struggle. Two +small army ants now happened to pass, and after a preliminary whiffing +with waving antennæ, rushed joyously into the _mêlée_. The beetles had +a cowardly weapon, and raising their tails, ejected a drop or two of +liquid, utterly confusing the ants, which turned and hastened back to +the column. For the next few minutes, until the scent wore off, they +aroused suspicion wherever they went. Meanwhile, the hyena-like +rove-beetles, having hedged themselves within a barricade of their +malodor, proceeded to feast, quarreling with one another as such +cowards are wont to do. + +Thus I thought, having identified myself with the army ants. From a +broader, less biased point of view, I realized that credit should be +given to the rove-beetles for having established themselves in a zone +of such constant danger, and for being able to live and thrive in it. + +The columns converged at the foot of the post, and up its surface ran +the main artery of the nest. Halfway up, a flat board projected, and +here the column divided for the last time, half going on directly into +the nest, and the other half turning aside, skirting the board, +ascending a bit of perpendicular canvas, and entering the nest from +the rear. The entrance was well guarded by a veritable moat and +drawbridge of living ants. A foot away, a flat mat of ants, mandibles +outward, was spread, over which every passing individual stepped. Six +inches farther, and the sides of the mat thickened, and in the last +three inches these sides met overhead, forming a short tunnel at the +end of which the nest began. + +And here I noticed an interesting thing. Into this organic moat or +tunnel, this living mouth of an inferno, passed all the booty-laden +foragers, or those who for some reason had returned empty-mouthed. But +the outgoing host seeped gradually from the outermost nest-layer--a +gradual but fundamental circulation, like that of ocean currents. +Scorpions, eggs, caterpillars, glass-like wasp pupæ, roaches, spiders, +crickets,--all were drawn into the nest by a maelstrom of hunger, +funneling into the narrow tunnel; while from over all the surface of +the swarm there crept forth layer after layer of invigorated, +implacable seekers after food. + +The mass of ants composing the nest appeared so loosely connected that +it seemed as if a touch would tear a hole, a light wind rend the +supports. It was suspended in the upper corner of the doorway, rounded +on the free sides, and measured roughly two feet in diameter--an +unnumbered host of ants. Those on the surface were in very slow but +constant motion, with legs shifting and antennæ waving continually. +This quivering on the surface of the swarm gave it the appearance of +the fur of some terrible animal--fur blowing in the wind from some +unknown, deadly desert. Yet so cohesive was the entire mass, that I +sat close beneath it for the best part of two days and not more than a +dozen ants fell upon me. There was, however, a constant rain of +egg-cases and pupa-skins and the remains of scorpions and +grasshoppers, the residue of the booty which was being poured in. +These wrappings and inedible casing were all brought to the surface +and dropped. This was reasonable, but what I could not comprehend was +a constant falling of small living larvæ. How anything except army +ants could emerge alive from such a sinister swarm was inconceivable. +It took some resolution to stand up under the nest, with my face only +a foot away from this slowly seething mass of widespread jaws. But I +had to discover where the falling larvæ came from, and after a time I +found that they were immature army ants. Here and there a small worker +would appear, carrying in its mandibles a young larva; and while most +made their way through the maze of mural legs and bodies and +ultimately disappeared again, once in a while the burden was dropped +and fell to the floor of the outhouse. I can account for this only by +presuming that a certain percentage of the nurses were very young and +inexperienced workers and dropped their burdens inadvertently. There +was certainly no intentional casting out of these offspring, as was so +obviously the case with the débris from the food of the colony. The +eleven or twelve ants which fell upon me during my watch were all +smaller workers, no larger ones losing their grip. + +While recording some of these facts, I dropped my pencil, and it was +fully ten minutes before the black mass of enraged insects cleared +away, and I could pick it up. Leaning far over to secure it, I was +surprised by the cleanliness of the floor around my chair. My clothes +and note-paper had been covered with loose wings, dry skeletons of +insects and the other débris, while hundreds of other fragments had +sifted down past me. Yet now that I looked seeingly, the whole area +was perfectly clean. I had to assume a perfect jack-knife pose to get +my face near enough to the floor; but, achieving it, I found about +five hundred ants serving as a street-cleaning squad. They roamed +aimlessly about over the whole floor, ready at once to attack +anything of mine, or any part of my anatomy which might come close +enough, but otherwise stimulated to activity only when they came +across a bit of rubbish from the nest high overhead. This was at once +seized and carried off to one of two neat piles in far corners. Before +night these kitchen middens were an inch or two deep and nearly a foot +in length, composed, literally, of thousands of skins, wings, and +insect armor. There was not a scrap of dirt of any kind which had not +been gathered into one of the two piles. The nest was nine feet above +the floor, a distance (magnifying ant height to our own) of nearly a +mile, and yet the care lavished on the cleanliness of the earth so far +below was as thorough and well done as the actual provisioning of the +colony. + +As I watched the columns and the swarm-nest hour after hour, several +things impressed me;--the absolute silence in which the ants +worked;--such ceaseless activity without sound one associates only +with a cinema film; all around me was tremendous energy, marvelous +feats of achievement, super-human instincts, the ceaseless movement of +tens of thousands of legionaries; yet no tramp of feet, no shouts, no +curses, no welcomes, no chanties. It was uncanny to think of a race +of creatures such as these, dreaded by every living being, wholly +dominant in their continent-wide sphere of action, yet born, living +out their lives, and dying, dumb and blind, with no possibility of +comment on life and its fullness, of censure or of applause. + +The sweeping squad on the floor was interesting because of its limited +field of work at such a distance from the nest; but close to my chair +were a number of other specialized zones of activity, any one of which +would have afforded a fertile field for concentrated study. Beneath +the swarm on the white canvas, I noticed two large spots of dirt and +moisture, where very small flies were collected. An examination showed +that this was a second, nearer dumping-ground for all the garbage and +refuse of the swarm which could not be thrown down on the kitchen +middens far below. And here were tiny flies and other insects acting +as scavengers, just as the hosts of vultures gather about the +slaughter-house of Georgetown. + +The most interesting of all the phases of life of the ants' home town, +were those on the horizontal board which projected from the beam and +stretched for several feet to one side of the swarm. This platform +was almost on a level with my eyes, and by leaning slightly forward on +the chair, I was as close as I dared go. Here many ants came from the +incoming columns, and others were constantly arriving from the nest +itself. It was here that I realized my good fortune and the +achievement of my desires, when I first saw an army ant at rest. One +of the first arrivals after I had squatted to my post, was a big +soldier with a heavy load of roach meat. Instead of keeping on +straight up the post, he turned abruptly and dropped his load. It was +instantly picked up by two smaller workers and carried on and upward +toward the nest. Two other big fellows arrived in quick succession, +one with a load which he relinquished to a drogher-in-waiting. Then +the three weary warriors stretched their legs one after another and +commenced to clean their antennæ. This lasted only for a moment, for +three or four tiny ants rushed at each of the larger ones and began as +thorough a cleaning as masseurs or Turkish-bath attendants. The three +arrivals were at once hustled away to a distant part of the board and +there cleaned from end to end. I found that the focal length of my +8-diameter lens was just out of reach of the ants, so I focused +carefully on one of the soldiers and watched the entire process. The +small ants scrubbed and scraped him with their jaws, licking him and +removing every particle of dirt. One even crawled under him and worked +away at his upper leg-joints, for all the world as a mechanic will +creep under a car. Finally, I was delighted to see him do what no car +ever does, turn completely over and lie quietly on his back with his +legs in air, while his diminutive helpers overran him and gradually +got him into shape for future battles and foraging expeditions. + +On this resting-stage, within well-defined limits, were dozens of +groups of two cleaning one another, and less numerous parties of the +tiny professionals working their hearts out on battle-worn soldiers. +It became more and more apparent that in the creed of the army ants, +cleanliness comes next to military effectiveness. + +Here and there I saw independent individuals cleaning themselves and +going through the most un-ant-like movements. They scraped their jaws +along the board, pushing forward like a dog trying to get rid of his +muzzle; then they turned on one side and passed the opposite legs +again and again through the mandibles; while the last performance was +to turn over on their backs and roll from side to side, exactly as a +horse or donkey loves to do. + +One ant, I remember, seemed to have something seriously wrong. It sat +up on its bent-under abdomen in a most comical fashion, and was the +object of solicitude of every passing ant. Sometimes there were thirty +in a dense group, pushing and jostling; and, like most of our city +crowds, many seemed to stop only long enough to have a moment's morbid +sight, or to ask some silly question as to the trouble, then to hurry +on. Others remained, and licked and twiddled him with their antennæ +for a long time. He was in this position for at least twenty minutes. +My curiosity was so aroused that I gathered him up in a vial, whereat +he became wildly excited and promptly regained full use of his legs +and faculties. Later, when I examined him under the lens, I could find +nothing whatever wrong. + +Off at one side of the general cleaning and reconstruction areas was a +pitiful assemblage of cripples which had had enough energy to crawl +back, but which did not attempt, or were not allowed, to enter the +nest proper. Some had one or two legs gone, others had lost an +antenna or had an injured body. They seemed not to know what to +do--wandering around, now and then giving one another a half-hearted +lick. In the midst was one which had died, and two others, each badly +injured, were trying to tug the body along to the edge of the board. +This they succeeded in doing after a long series of efforts, and down +and down fell the dead ant. It was promptly picked up by several +kitchen-middenites and unceremoniously thrown on the pile of +nest-débris. A load of booty had been dumped among the cripples, and +as each wandered close to it, he seemed to regain strength for a +moment, picked up the load, and then dropped it. The sight of that +which symbolized almost all their life-activity aroused them to a +momentary forgetfulness of their disabilities. There was no longer any +place for them in the home or in the columns of the legionaries. They +had been court-martialed under the most implacable, the most impartial +law in the world--the survival of the fit, the elimination of the +unfit. + +The time came when we had to get at our stored supplies, over which +the army ants were such an effective guard. I experimented on a +running column with a spray of ammonia and found that it created +merely temporary inconvenience, the ants running back and forming a +new trail. Formaline was more effective, so I sprayed the nest-swarm +with a fifty-per-cent solution, strong enough, one would think, to +harden the very boards. It certainly created a terrible commotion, and +strings of the ants, two feet long, hung dangling from the nest. The +heart of the colony came into view, with thousands of eggs and larvæ, +looking like heaps of white rice-grains. Every ant seized one or the +other and sought escape by the nearest way, while the soldiers still +defied the world. The gradual disintegration revealed an interior +meshed like a wasp's nest, chambered and honeycombed with living tubes +and walls. Little by little the taut guy-ropes, lathes, braces, +joists, all sagged and melted together, each cell-wall becoming +dynamic, now expanding, now contracting; the ceilings vibrant with +waving legs, the floors a seething mass of jaws and antennæ. By the +time it was dark, the swarm was dropping in sections to the floor. + +On the following morning new surprises awaited me. The great mass of +the ants had moved in the night, vanishing with every egg and +immature larva; but there was left in the corner of the flat board a +swarm of about one-quarter of the entire number, enshrouding a host of +older larvæ. The cleaning zones, the cripples' gathering-room, all had +given way to new activities, on the flat board, down near the kitchen +middens, and in every horizontal crack. + +The cause of all this strange excitement, this braving of the terrible +dangers of fumes which had threatened to destroy the entire colony the +night before, suddenly was made plain as I watched. A critical time +was at hand in the lives of the all-precious larvæ, when they could +not be moved--the period of spinning, of beginning the transformation +from larvæ to pupæ. This evidently was an operation which had to take +place outside the nest and demanded some sort of light covering. On +the flat board were several thousand ants and a dozen or more groups +of full-grown larvæ. Workers of all sizes were searching everywhere +for some covering for the tender immature creatures. They had chewed +up all available loose splinters of wood, and near the rotten, +termite-eaten ends, the sound of dozens of jaws gnawing all at once +was plainly audible. This unaccustomed, unmilitary labor produced a +quantity of fine sawdust, which was sprinkled over the larvæ. I had +made a partition of a bit of a British officer's tent which I had used +in India and China, made of several layers of colored canvas and +cloth. The ants found a loose end of this, teased it out and unraveled +it, so that all the larvæ near by were blanketed with a gay, +parti-colored covering of fuzz. + +All this strange work was hurried and carried on under great +excitement. The scores of big soldiers on guard appeared rather ill at +ease, as if they had wandered by mistake into the wrong department. +They sauntered about, bumped into larvæ, turned and fled. A constant +stream of workers from the nest brought hundreds more larvæ; and no +sooner had they been planted and débris of sorts sifted over them, +than they began spinning. A few had already swathed themselves in +cocoons--exceedingly thin coverings of pinkish silk. As this took +place out of the nest,--in the jungle they must be covered with wood +and leaves. The vital necessity for this was not apparent, for none of +this débris was incorporated into the silk of the cocoons, which were +clean and homogeneous. Yet the hundreds of ants gnawed and tore and +labored to gather this little dust, as if their very lives depended +upon it. + +With my hand-lens focused just beyond mandible reach of the biggest +soldier, I leaned forward from my insulated chair, hovering like a +great astral eye looking down at this marvelously important business +of little lives. Here were thousands of army ants, not killing, not +carrying booty, nor even suspended quiescent as organic molecules in +the structure of the home, yet in feverish activity equaled only by +battle, making ready for the great change of their foster offspring. I +watched the very first thread of silk drawn between the larva and the +outside world, and in an incredibly short time the cocoon was outlined +in a tissue-thin, transparent aura, within which the tenant could be +seen skilfully weaving its own shroud. + +When first brought from the nest, the larvæ lay quite straight and +still; but almost at once they bent far over in the spinning position. +Then some officious worker would come along, and the unfortunate larva +would be snatched up, carried off, and jammed down in some neighboring +empty space, like a bolt of cloth rearranged upon a shelf. Then +another ant would approach, antennæ the larva, disapprove, and again +shift its position. It was a real survival of the lucky, as to who +should avoid being exhausted by kindness and over-solicitude. I +uttered many a chuckle at the half-ensilked unfortunates being toted +about like mummies, and occasionally giving a sturdy, impatient kick +which upset their tormentors and for a moment created a little swirl +of mild excitement. + +There was no order of packing. The larvæ were fitted together anyway, +and meagerly covered with dust of wood and shreds of cloth. One big +tissue of wood nearly an inch square was too great a temptation to be +let alone, and during the course of my observation it covered in turn +almost every group of larvæ in sight, ending by being accidentally +shunted over the edge and killing a worker near the kitchen middens. +There was only a single layer of larvæ; in no case were they piled up, +and when the platform became crowded, a new column was formed and +hundreds taken outside. To the casual eye there was no difference +between these legionaries and a column bringing in booty of insects, +eggs, and pupæ; yet here all was solicitude, never a bite too severe, +or a blunder of undue force. + +The sights I saw in this second day's accessible nest-swarm would +warrant a season's meditation and study, but one thing impressed me +above all others. Sometimes, when I carefully pried open one section +and looked deep within, I could see large chambers with the larvæ in +piles, besides being held in the mandibles of the components of the +walls and ceilings. Now and then a curious little ghost-like form +would flit across the chamber, coming to rest, gnome-like, on larva or +ant. Again and again I saw these little springtails skip through the +very scimitar mandibles of a soldier, while the workers paid no +attention to them. I wondered if they were not quite odorless, +intangible to the ants, invisible guests which lived close to them, +going where, doing what they willed, yet never perceived by the +thousands of inhabitants. They seemed to live in a kind of fourth +dimensional state, a realm comparable to that which we people with +ghosts and spirits. It was a most uncanny, altogether absorbing, +intensely interesting relationship; and sometimes, when I ponder on +some general aspect of the great jungle,--a forest of greenheart, a +mighty rushing river, a crashing, blasting thunderstorm,--my mind +suddenly reverts by way of contrast to the tiny ghosts of springtails +flitting silently among the terrible living chambers of the army ants. + +On the following morning I expected to achieve still greater intimacy +in the lives of the mummy soldier embryos; but at dawn every trace of +nesting swarm, larvæ, pupæ and soldiers was gone. A few dead workers +were being already carried off by small ants which never would have +dared approach them in life. A big blue morpho butterfly flapped +slowly past out of the jungle, and in its wake came the distant +notes--high and sharp--of the white-fronted antbirds; and I knew that +the legionaries were again abroad, radiating on their silent, dynamic +paths of life from some new temporary nest deep in the jungle. + + + + +IV + +A JUNGLE BEACH + + +A jungle moon first showed me my beach. For a week I had looked at it +in blazing sunlight, walked across it, even sat on it in the intervals +of getting wonted to the new laboratory; yet I had not perceived it. +Colonel Roosevelt once said to me that he would rather perceive things +from the point of view of a field-mouse, than be a human being and +merely see them. And in my case it was when I could no longer see the +beach that I began to discern its significance. + +This British Guiana beach, just in front of my Kartabo bungalow, was +remarkably diversified, and in a few steps, or strokes of a paddle, I +could pass from clean sand to mangroves and muckamucka swamp, thence +to out-jutting rocks, and on to the Edge of the World, all within a +distance of a hundred yards. For a time my beach walks resulted in +inarticulate reaction. After months in the blindfolded canyons of New +York's streets, a hemicircle of horizon, a hemisphere of sky, and a +vast expanse of open water lent itself neither to calm appraisal nor +to impromptu cuff-notes. + +It was recalled to my mind that the miracle of sunrise occurred every +morning, and was not a rather belated alternation of illumination, +following the quenching of Broadway's lights. And the moon I found was +as dependable as when I timed my Himalayan expeditions by her +shadowings. To these phenomena I soon became re-accustomed, and could +watch a bird or outwit an insect in the face of a foreglow and silent +burst of flame that shamed all the barrages ever laid down. But cosmic +happenings kept drawing my attention and paralyzing my activities for +long afterward. With a double rainbow and four storms in action at +once; or a wall of rain like sawn steel slowly drawing up one river +while the Mazaruni remains in full sunlight; with Pegasus galloping +toward the zenith at midnight and the Pleiades just clearing the Penal +Settlement, I could not always keep on dissecting, or recording, or +verifying the erroneousness of one of my recently formed theories. + +There was Thuban, gazing steadily upon my little mahogany bungalow, +as, six millenniums ago, he had shone unfalteringly down the little +stone tube that led his rays into the Queen's Chamber, in the very +heart of great Cheops. Just clearing a low palm was the present North +Star, while, high above, Vega shone, patiently waiting to take her +place half a million years hence. When beginning her nightly climb, +Vega drew a thin, trembling thread of argent over the still water, +just as in other years she had laid for me a slender silver strand of +wire across frozen snow, and on one memorable night traced the ghost +of a reflection over damp sand near the Nile--pale as the wraiths of +the early Pharaohs. + +Low on the eastern horizon, straight outward from my beach, was the +beginning and end of the great zodiac band--the golden Hamal of Aries +and the paired stars of Pisces; and behind, over the black jungle, +glowed the Southern Cross. But night after night, as I watched on the +beach, the sight which moved me most was the dull speck of emerald +mist, a merest smudge on the slate of the heavens,--the spiral nebula +in Andromeda,--a universe in the making, of a size unthinkable to +human minds. + +The power of my jungle beach to attract and hold attention was not +only direct and sensory,--through sight and sound and scent,--but +often indirect, seemingly by occult means. Time after time, on an +impulse, I followed some casual line of thought and action, and found +myself at last on or near the beach, on a lead that eventually would +take me to the verge or into the water. + +Once I did what for me was a most unusual thing. I woke in the middle +of the night without apparent reason. The moonlight was pouring in a +white flood through the bamboos, and the jungle was breathless and +silent. Through my window I could see Jennie, our pet monkey, lying +aloft, asleep on her little verandah, head cushioned on both hands, +tail curled around her dangling chain, as a spider guards her +web-strands for hint of disturbing vibrations. I knew that the +slightest touch on that chain would awaken her, and indeed it seemed +as if the very thought of it had been enough; for she opened her eyes, +sent me the highest of insect-like notes and turned over, pushing her +head within the shadow of her little house. I wondered if animals, +too, were, like the Malays and so many savage tribes, afraid of the +moonlight--the "luna-cy" danger in those strange color-strained rays, +whose power must be greater than we realize. Beyond the monkey roosted +Robert, the great macaw, wide-awake, watching me with all that +broadside of intensive gaze of which only a parrot is capable. + +The three of us seemed to be the only living things in the world, and +for a long time we--monkey, macaw, and man--listened. Then all but the +man became uneasy. The monkey raised herself and listened, uncurled +her tail, shifted, and listened. The macaw drew himself up, feathers +close, forgot me, and listened. They, unlike me, were not merely +listening--they were hearing something. Then there came, very slowly +and deliberately, as if reluctant to break through the silent +moonlight, a sound, low and constant, impossible to identify, but +clearly audible even to my ears. For just an instant longer it held, +sustained and quivering, then swiftly rose into a crashing roar--the +sound of a great tree falling. I sat up and heard the whole long +descent; but at the end, after the moment of silence, there was no +deep boom--the sound of the mighty bole striking and rebounding from +the earth itself. I wondered about this for a while; then the monkey +and I went to sleep, leaving the macaw alone conscious in the +moonlight, watching through the night with his great round, yellow +orbs, and thinking the thoughts that macaws always think in the +moonlight. + +The next day the macaw and the monkey had forgotten all about the +midnight sound, but I searched and found why there was no final boom. +And my search ended at my beach. A bit of overhanging bank had given +way and a tall tree had fallen headlong into the water, its roots +sprawling helplessly in mid-air. Like rats deserting a sinking ship, a +whole Noah's ark of tree-living creatures was hastening along a single +cable shorewards: tree-crickets; ants laden with eggs and larvæ; +mantids gesticulating as they walked, like old men who mumble to +themselves; wood-roaches, some green and leaf-like, others, facsimiles +of trilobites--but fleet of foot and with one goal. + +What was a catastrophe for a tree and a shift of home for the tenants +was good fortune for me, and I walked easily out along the trunk and +branches and examined the strange parasitic growths and the homes +which were being so rapidly deserted. The tide came up and covered the +lower half of the prostrate tree, drowning what creatures had not +made their escape and quickening the air-plants with a false rain, +which in course of time would rot their very hearts. + +But the first few days were only the overture of changes in this shift +of conditions. Tropic vegetation is so tenacious of life that it +struggles and adapts itself with all the cunning of a Japanese +wrestler. We cut saplings and thrust them into mud or the crevices of +rocks at low tide far from shore, to mark our channel, and before long +we have buoys of foliage banners waving from the bare poles above +water. We erect a tall bamboo flagpole on the bank, and before long +our flag is almost hidden by the sprouting leaves, and the pulley so +blocked that we have occasionally to lower and lop it. + +So the fallen tree, still gripping the nutritious bank with a moiety +of roots, turned slowly in its fibrous stiffness and directed its life +and sap and hopes upward. During the succeeding weeks I watched trunk +and branches swell and bud out new trunks, new branches, guided, +controlled, by gravity, light, and warmth; and just beyond the reach +of the tides, leaves sprouted, flowers opened and fruit ripened. Weeks +after the last slow invertebrate plodder had made his escape +shorewards, the taut liana strand was again crowded with a mass of +passing life--a maze of vines and creepers, whose tendrils and suckers +reached and curled and pressed onward, fighting for gangway to shore, +through days and weeks, as the animal life which preceded them had +made the most of seconds and minutes. + +The half-circle of exposed raw bank became in its turn the center of a +myriad activities. Great green kingfishers began at once to burrow; +tiny emerald ones chose softer places up among the wreckage of +wrenched roots; wasps came and chopped out bits for the walls and +partitions of their cells; spiders hung their cobwebs between ratlines +of rootlets; and hummingbirds promptly followed and plucked them from +their silken nets, and then took the nets to bind their own tiny +air-castles. Finally, other interests intervened, and like Jennie and +Robert, I gradually forgot the tree that fell without an echo. + +In the jungle no action or organism is separate, or quite apart, and +this thing which came to the three of us suddenly at midnight led by +devious means to another magic phase of the shore. + +A little to the south along my beach is the Edge of the World. At +least, it looks very much as I have always imagined that place must +look, and I have never been beyond it; so that, after listening to +many arguments in courts of law, and hearing the reasoning of +bolsheviki, teetotalers, and pacifists, I feel that I am quite +reasonable as human beings go. And best of all, it hurts no one, and +annoys only a few of my scientific friends, who feel that one cannot +indulge in such ideas at the wonderful hour of twilight, and yet at +eight o'clock the following morning describe with impeccable accuracy +the bronchial semi-rings, and the intricate mosaic of cartilage which +characterizes and supports the _membranis tympaniformis_ of _Attila +thamnophiloides_; a dogma which halves life and its interests. + +The Edge of the World has always meant a place where usual things are +different; and my southern stretch of beach was that, because of +roots. Whenever in digging I have come across a root and seen its +living flesh, perhaps pink or rose or pale green, so far underground, +I have desired to know roots better; and now I found my opportunity. I +walked along the proper trail, through right and usual trees, with +reasonable foliage and normal trunks, and suddenly I stepped down over +the Edge. Overhead and all around there was still the foliage. It shut +out the sun except for greenish, moderated spots and beams. The +branches dipped low in front over the water, shutting out the sky +except along the tops of the cross-river jungle. Thus a great +green-roofed chamber was formed; and here, between jungle and the +water-level of the world, was the Kingdom of the Roots. + +Great trees had in their youth fallen far forward, undermined by the +water, then slowly taken a new reach upward and stretched forth great +feet and hands of roots, palms pressing against the mud, curved backs +and thews of shoulders braced against one another and the drag of the +tides. Little by little the old prostrate trunks were entirely +obliterated by this fantastic network. There were no fine fibers or +rootlets here; only great beams and buttresses, bridges and up-ended +spirals, grown together or spreading wide apart. Root merged with +trunk, and great boles became roots and then boles again in this +unreasonable land. For here, in place of damp, black mold and soil, +water alternated with dark-shadowed air; and so I was able for a time +to live the life of a root, resting quietly among them, watching and +feeling them, and moving very slowly, with no thought of time, as +roots must. + +I liked to wait until the last ripple had lapped against the sand +beneath, and then slip quietly in from the margin of the jungle and +perch--like a great tree-frog--on some convenient shelf. Seumas and +Brigid would have enjoyed it, in spite of the fact that the +Leprechauns seemed to have just gone. I found myself usually in a +little room, walled with high-arched, thin sheets of living roots, +some of which would form solid planks three feet wide and twelve long, +and only an inch or two in thickness. These were always on edge, and +might be smooth and sheer, or suddenly sprout five stubby, mittened +fingers, or pairs of curved and galloping legs--and this thought gave +substance to the simile which had occurred again and again: these +trees reminded me of centaurs with proud, upright man torsos, and +great curved backs. In one, a root dropped down and rested on the +back, as a centaur who turns might rest his hand on his withers. + +When I chanced upon an easy perch, and a stray idea came to mind, I +squatted or sat or sprawled, and wrote, and strange things often +happened to me. Once, while writing rapidly on a small sheet of paper, +I found my lines growing closer and closer together until my fingers +cramped, and the consciousness of the change overlaid the thoughts +that were driving hand and pen. I then realized that, without +thinking, I had been following a succession of faint lines, +cross-ruled on my white paper, and looking up, I saw that a +leaf-filtered opening had reflected strands of a spider-web just above +my head, and I had been adapting my lines to the narrow spaces, my +chirography controlled by cobweb shadows. + +The first unreality of the roots was their rigidity. I stepped from +one slender tendon of wood to the next, expecting a bending which +never occurred. They might have been turned to stone, and even little +twigs resting on the bark often proved to have grown fast. And this +was the more unexpected because of the grace of curve and line, fold +upon fold, with no sharp angles, but as full of charm of contour as +their grays and olives were harmonious in color. Photographs showed a +little of this; sketches revealed more; but the great splendid things +themselves, devoid of similes and human imagination, were +soul-satisfying in their simplicity. + +I seldom sat in one spot more than a few minutes, but climbed and +shifted, tried new seats, couches, perches, grips, sprawling out along +the tops of two parallel monsters, or slipping under their bellies, +always finding some easy way to swing up again. Two openings just +permitted me to squeeze through, and I wondered whether, in another +year, or ten, or fifty, the holes would have grown smaller. I became +imbued with the quiet joy of these roots, so that I hated to touch the +ground. Once I stepped down on the beach after something I had +dropped, and the soft yielding of the sand was so unpleasant that I +did not afterwards leave this strange mid-zone until I had to return. +Unlike Antæus, I seemed to gain strength and poise by disassociation +with the earth. + +Here and there were pockets in the folds of the sweeping draperies, +and each pocket was worth picking. When one tried to paint the roots, +these pockets seemed made expressly to take the place of palette cups, +except that now and then a crab resented the infusion of Hooker's +green with his Vandyke brown puddle, and seized the end of the brush. +The crabs were worthy tenants of such strange architecture, with +comical eyes twiddling on the end of their stalks, and their +white-mittened fists feinting and threatening as I looked into their +little dark rain or tide-pools. + +I found three pockets on one wall, which seemed as if they must have +been "salted" for my benefit; and in them, as elsewhere on my beach, +the two extremes of life met. The topmost one, curiously enough, +contained a small crab, together with a large water-beetle at the +farther end. Both seemed rather self-conscious, and there was no hint +of fraternizing. The beetle seemed to be merely existing until +darkness, when he could fly to more water and better company; and the +crab appeared to be waiting for the beetle to go. + +The next pocket was a long, narrow, horizontal fold, and I hoped to +find real excitement among its aquatic folk; but to my surprise it had +no bottom, but was a deep chute or socket, opening far below to the +sand. However, this was not my discovery, and I saw dimly a weird +little head looking up at me--a gecko lizard, which called this +crevice home and the crabs neighbors. I hailed him as the only other +backboned friend who shared the root-world with me, and then listened +to a high, sweet tone, which came forth in swinging rhythm. It took +some time for my eyes to become accustomed to the semi-darkness, and +then I saw what the gecko saw--a big yellow-bodied fly humming in this +cavern, and swinging in a small orbit as she sang. Now and then she +dashed out past me and hovered in mid-air, when her note sank to a +low, dull hum. Back again, and the sound rose and fell, and gained ten +times in volume from the echo or reverberations. Each time she passed, +the little lizard licked his chops and swallowed--a sort of vicarious +expression of faith or desire; or was he in a Christian Science frame +of mind, saying, "My, how good that fly tasted!" each time the +dipteron passed? The fly was just as inexplicable, braving danger and +darkness time after time, to leave the sunshine and vibrate in the +dusk to the enormously magnified song of its wings. + +With eyes that had forgotten the outside light, I leaned close to the +opening and rested my forehead against the lichens of the wall of +wood. The fly was frightened away, the gecko slipped lower, seemingly +without effort, and in a hollowed side of the cavernous root I saw a +mist, a quivering, so tenuous and indistinct that at first it might +have been the dancing of motes. I saw that they were living +creatures--the most delicate of tiny crane-flies--at rest looking like +long-legged mosquitoes. Deep within this root, farther from the light +than even the singing fly had ventured, these tiny beings whirled +madly in mid-air--subterranean dervishes, using up energy for their +own inexplicable ends, of which one very interested naturalist could +make nothing. + +Three weeks afterward I happened to pass at high tide in the canoe and +peered into this pocket. The gecko was where geckos go in the space of +three weeks, and the fly also had vanished, either within or without +the gecko. But the crane-flies were still there: to my roughly +appraising eyes the same flies, doing the same dance in exactly the +same place. Three weeks later, and again I returned, this time +intentionally, to see whether the dance still continued; and it was in +full swing. That same night at midnight I climbed down, flashed a +light upon them, and there they whirled and vibrated, silently, +incredibly rapid, unceasingly. + +After a thousand hours all the surroundings had changed. New leaves +had sprouted, flowers faded and turned to fruit, the moon had twice +attained her full brightness, our earth and sun and the whole solar +system had swept headlong a full two-score million miles on the +endless swing toward Vega. Only the roots and the crane-flies +remained. A thousand hours had apparently made no difference to them. +The roots might have been the granite near by, fashioned by primeval +earth-flame, and the flies but vibrating atoms within the granite, +made visible by some alchemy of elements in this weird Rim of the +World. + +And so a new memory is mine; and when one of these insects comes to my +lamp in whatever part of the world, fluttering weakly, legs breaking +off at the slightest touch, I shall cease to worry about the +scientific problems that loom too great for my brain, or about the +imperfection of whatever I am doing, and shall welcome the crane-fly +and strive to free him from this fatal passion for flame, directing +him again into the night; for he may be looking for a dark pocket in a +root, a pocket on the Edge of the World, where crane-flies may vibrate +with their fellows in an eternal dance. And so, in some ordained way, +he will fulfil his destiny and I acquire merit. + + * * * * * + +To write of sunrises and moonlight is to commit literary harikiri; but +as that terminates life, so may I end this. And I choose the morning +and the midnight of the sixth of August, for reasons both greater and +less than cosmic. Early that morning, looking out from the beach over +the Mazacuni, as we called the union of the two great rivers, there +was wind, yet no wind, as the sun prepared to lift above the horizon. +The great soft-walled jungle was clear and distinct. Every reed at the +landing had its unbroken counterpart in the still surface. But at the +apex of the waters, the smoke of all the battles in the world had +gathered, and upon this the sun slowly concentrated his powers, until +he tore apart the cloak of mist, turning the dark surface, first to +oxidized, and then to shining quicksilver. Instantaneously the same +shaft of light touched the tips of the highest trees, and as if in +response to a poised bâton, there broke forth that wonder of the +world--the Zoroastrian chorus of tens of thousands of jungle +creatures. + +Over the quicksilver surface little individual breezes wandered here +and there. I could clearly see the beginning and the end of them, and +one that drifted ashore and passed me felt like the lightest touch of +a breath. One saw only the ripple on the water; one thought of +invisible wings and trailing unseen robes. + +With the increasing warmth the water-mist rose slowly, like a last +quiet breath of night; and as it ascended,--the edges changing from +silvery gray to grayish white,--it gathered close its shredded +margins, grew smaller as it rose higher, and finally became a cloud. I +watched it and wondered about its fate. Before the day was past, it +might darken in its might, hurl forth thunders and jagged light, and +lose its very substance in down-poured liquid. Or, after drifting idly +high in air, the still-born cloud might garb itself in rich purple and +gold for the pageant of the west, and again descend to brood over the +coming marvel of another sunrise. + +The tallest of bamboos lean over our low, lazy spread of bungalow; and +late this very night, in the full moonlight, I leave my cot and walk +down to the beach over a shadow carpet of Japanese filigree. The air +over the white sand is as quiet and feelingless to my skin as +complete, comfortable clothing. On one side is the dark river; on the +other, the darker jungle full of gentle rustlings, low, velvety +breaths of sound; and I slip into the water and swim out, out, out. +Then I turn over and float along with the almost tangible moonlight +flooding down on face and water. Suddenly the whole air is broken by +the chorus of big red baboons, which rolls and tumbles toward me in +masses of sound along the surface and goes trembling, echoing on over +shore and jungle, till hurled back by the answering chorus of another +clan. It stirs one to the marrow, for there is far more in it than the +mere roaring of monkeys; and I turn uneasily, and slowly surge back +toward the sand, overhand now, making companionable splashes. + +And then again I stop, treading water softly, with face alone between +river and sky; for the monkeys have ceased, and very faint and low, +but blended in wonderful minor harmony, comes another chorus--from +three miles down the river: the convicts singing hymns in their cells +at midnight. And I ground gently and sit in the silvered shadows with +little bewildered shrimps flicking against me, and unlanguaged +thoughts come and go--impossible similes, too poignant phrases to be +stopped and fettered with words, and I am neither scientist nor man +nor naked organism, but just mind. With the coming of silence I look +around and again consciously take in the scene. I am very glad to be +alive, and to know that the possible dangers of jungle and water have +not kept me armed and indoors. I feel, somehow, as if my very daring +and gentle slipping-off of all signs of dominance and protection on +entering into this realm had made friends of all the rare but possible +serpents and scorpions, sting-rays and perai, vampires and electric +eels. For a while I know the happiness of Mowgli. + +And I think of people who would live more joyful lives in dense +communities, who would be more tolerant, and more certain of +straightforward friendship, if they could have as a background a +fundamental hour of living such as this, a leaven for the rest of +what, in comparison, seems mere existence. + +At last I go back between the bamboos and their shadows, from unreal +reality into a definiteness of cot and pajamas and electric torch. But +wild nature still keeps touch with me; for as I write these lines, +curled up on the edge of the cot, two vampires hawk back and forth so +close that the wind from their wings dries my ink. And the soundness +of my sleep is such that time does not exist between their last +crepuscular squeak and the first wiry twittering of a blue tanager, in +full sunshine, from a palm overhanging my beach. + + + + +V + +A BIT OF USELESSNESS + + +A most admirable servant of mine once risked his life to reach a +magnificent Bornean orchid, and tried to poison me an hour later when +he thought I was going to take the plant away from him. This does not +mean necessarily that we should look with suspicion upon all gardeners +and lovers of flowers. It emphasizes, rather, the fact of the +universal and deep-rooted appreciation of the glories of the vegetable +kingdom. Long before the fatal harvest time, I am certain that Eve +must have plucked a spray of apple blossoms with perfect impunity. + +A vast amount of bad poetry and a much less quantity of excellent +verse has been written about flowers, much of which follows to the +letter Mark Twain's injunction about Truth. It must be admitted that +the relations existing between the honeysuckle and the bee are basely +practical and wholly selfish. A butterfly's admiration of a flower is +no whit less than the blossom's conscious appreciation of its own +beauties. There are ants which spend most of their life making +gardens, knowing the uses of fertilizers, mulching, planting seeds, +exercising patience, recognizing the time of ripeness, and gathering +the edible fruit. But this is underground, and the ants are blind. + +There is a bird, however--the bower bird of Australia--which appears +to take real delight in bright things, especially pebbles and flowers +for their own sake. Its little lean-to, or bower of sticks, which has +been built in our own Zoological Park in New York City, is fronted by +a cleared space, which is usually mossy. To this it brings its +colorful treasures, sometimes a score of bright star blossoms, which +are renewed when faded and replaced by others. All this has, probably, +something to do with courtship, which should inspire a sonnet. + +From the first pre-Egyptian who crudely scratched a lotus on his dish +of clay, down to the jolly Feckenham men, the human race has given to +flowers something more than idle curiosity, something less than mere +earnest of fruit or berry. + +At twelve thousand feet I have seen one of my Tibetans with nothing +but a few shreds of straw between his bare feet and the snow, probe +around the south edge of melting drifts until he found brilliant +little primroses to stick behind his ears. I have been ushered into +the little-used, musty best-parlor of a New England farmhouse, and +seen fresh vases of homely, old-fashioned flowers--so recently placed +for my edification, that drops of water still glistened like dewdrops +on the dusty plush mat beneath. I have sat in the seat of honor of a +Dyak communal house, looked up at the circle of all too recent heads, +and seen a gay flower in each hollow eye socket, placed there for my +approval. With a cluster of colored petals swaying in the breeze, one +may at times bridge centuries or span the earth. + +And now as I sit writing these words in my jungle laboratory, a small +dusky hand steals around an aquarium and deposits a beautiful spray of +orchids on my table. The little face appears, and I can distinguish +the high cheek bones of Indian blood, the flattened nose and slight +kink of negro, and the faint trace of white--probably of some long +forgotten Dutch sailor, who came and went to Guiana, while New York +City was still a browsing ground for moose. + +So neither race nor age nor mélange of blood can eradicate the love +of flowers. It would be a wonderful thing to know about the first +garden that ever was, and I wish that "Best Beloved" had demanded +this. I am sure it was long before the day of dog, or cow, or horse, +or even she who walked alone. The only way we can imagine it, is to go +to some wild part of the earth, where are fortunate people who have +never heard of seed catalogs or lawn mowers. + +Here in British Guiana I can run the whole gamut of gardens, within a +few miles of where I am writing. A mile above my laboratory up-river, +is the thatched _benab_ of an Akawai Indian--whose house is a roof, +whose rooms are hammocks, whose estate is the jungle. Degas can speak +English, and knows the use of my 28-gauge double barrel well enough to +bring us a constant supply of delicious bushmeat--peccary, deer, +monkey, bush turkeys and agoutis. But Grandmother has no language but +her native Akawai. She is a good friend of mine, and we hold long +conversations, neither of us bothering with the letter, but only the +spirit of communication. She is a tiny person, bowed and wrinkled as +only an old Indian squaw can be, always jolly and chuckling to +herself, although Degas tells me that the world is gradually +darkening for her. And she vainly begs me to clear the film which is +slowly closing over her eyes. She labors in a true landscape +garden--the small circle wrested with cutlass and fire from the great +jungle, and kept free only by constant cutting of the vines and lianas +which creep out almost in a night, like sinister octopus tentacles, to +strangle the strange upstarts and rejungle the bit of sunlit glade. + +Although to the eye a mass of tangled vegetation, an Indian's garden +may be resolved into several phases--all utterly practical, with color +and flowers as mere by-products. First come the provisions, for if +Degas were not hunting for me, and eating my rations, he would be out +with bow and blowpipe, or fish-hooks, while the women worked all day +in the cassava field. It is his part to clear and burn the forest, it +is hers to grub up the rich mold, to plant and to weed. Plots and beds +are unknown, for in every direction are fallen trees, too large to +burn or be chopped up, and great sprawling roots. Between these, +sprouts of cassava and banana are stuck, and the yams and melons which +form the food of these primitive people. Cassava is as vital to these +Indians as the air they breathe. It is their wheat and corn and rice, +their soup and salad and dessert, their ice and their wine, for +besides being their staple food, it provides _casareep_ which +preserves their meat, and _piwarie_ which, like excellent wine, +brightens life for them occasionally, or dims it if overindulged +in--which is equally true of food, or companionship, or the oxygen in +the air we breathe. + +Besides this cultivation, Grandmother has a small group of plants +which are only indirectly concerned with food. One is _kunami_, whose +leaves are pounded into pulp, and used for poisoning the water of +jungle streams, with the surprising result that the fish all leap out +on the bank and can be gathered as one picks up nuts. When I first +visited Grandmother's garden, she had a few pitiful little cotton +plants from whose stunted bolls she extracted every fiber and made a +most excellent thread. In fact, when she made some bead aprons for me, +she rejected my spool of cotton and chose her own, twisted between +thumb and finger. I sent for seed of the big Sea Island cotton, and +her face almost unwrinkled with delight when she saw the packets with +seed larger than she had ever known. + +Far off in one corner I make certain I have found beauty for beauty's +sake, a group of exquisite caladiums and amaryllis, beautiful flowers +and rich green leaves with spots and slashes of white and crimson. But +this is the hunter's garden, and Grandmother has no part in it, +perhaps is not even allowed to approach it. It is the _beena_ +garden--the charms for good luck in hunting. The similarity of the +leaves to the head or other parts of deer or peccary or red-gilled +fish, decides the most favorable choice, and the acrid, smarting juice +of the tuber rubbed into the skin, or the hooks and arrows anointed, +is considered sufficient to produce the desired result. Long ago I +discovered that this demand for immediate physical sensation was a +necessary corollary of doctoring, so I always give two medicines--one +for its curative properties, and the other, bitter, sour, acid or +anything disagreeable, for arousing and sustaining faith in my +ability. + +The Indian's medicine plants, like his true name, he keeps to himself, +and although I feel certain that Grandmother had somewhere a toothache +bush, or pain leaves--yarbs and simples for various miseries--I could +never discover them. Half a dozen tall tobacco plants brought from +the far interior, eked out the occasional tins of cigarettes in which +Degas indulged, and always the flame-colored little buck-peppers +lightened up the shadows of the _benab_, as hot to the palate as their +color to the eye. + +One day just as I was leaving, Grandmother led me to a palm nearby, +and to one of its ancient frond-sheaths was fastened a small brown +branch to which a few blue-green leaves were attached. I had never +seen anything like it. She mumbled and touched it with her shriveled, +bent fingers. I could understand nothing, and sent for Degas, who came +and explained grudgingly, "Me no know what for--_toko-nook_ just +name--have got smell when yellow." And so at last I found the bit of +uselessness, which, carried onward and developed in ages to come, as +it had been elsewhere in ages past, was to evolve into botany, and +back-yard gardens, and greenhouses, and wars of roses, and beautiful +paintings, and music with a soul of its own, and verse more than +human. To Degas the _toko-nook_ was "just name," "and it was nothing +more." But he was forgiven, for he had all unwittingly sowed the seeds +of religion, through faith in his glowing caladiums. But Grandmother, +though all the sunlight seemed dusk, and the dawn but as night, yet +clung to her little plant, whose glory was that it was of no use +whatsoever, but in months to come would be yellow, and would smell. + +Farther down river, in the small hamlets of the bovianders--the people +of mixed blood--the practical was still necessity, but almost every +thatched and wattled hut had its swinging orchid branch, and perhaps a +hideous painted tub with picketed rim, in which grew a golden splash +of croton. This ostentatious floweritis might furnish a theme for a +wholly new phase of the subject--for in almost every respect these +people are less worthy human beings--physically, mentally and +morally--than the Indians. But one cannot shift literary overalls for +philosophical paragraphs in mid-article, so let us take the little +river steamer down stream for forty miles to the coast of British +Guiana, and there see what Nature herself does in the way of gardens. +We drive twenty miles or more before we reach Georgetown, and the +sides of the road are lined for most of the distance with huts and +hovels of East Indian coolies and native Guiana negroes. Some are made +of boxes, others of bark, more of thatch or rough-hewn boards and +barrel staves, and some of split bamboo. But they resemble one +another in several respects--all are ramshackle, all lean with the +grace of Pisa, all have shutters and doors, so that at night they may +be hermetically closed, and all are half-hidden in the folds of a +curtain of flowers. The most shiftless, unlovely hovel, poised ready +to return to its original chemical elements, is embowered in a mosaic +of color, which in a northern garden would be worth a king's +ransom--or to be strictly modern, should I not say a labor foreman's +or a comrade's ransom! + +The deep trench which extends along the front of these sad dwellings +is sometimes blue with water hyacinths; next the water disappears +beneath a maze of tall stalks, topped with a pink mist of lotus; then +come floating lilies and more hyacinths. Wherever there is sufficient +clear water, the wonderful curve of a cocoanut palm is etched upon it, +reflection meeting palm, to form a dendritic pattern unequaled in +human devising. + +Over a hut of rusty oil-cans, bougainvillia stretches its glowing +branches, sometimes cerise, sometimes purple, or allamanders fill the +air with a golden haze from their glowing search-lights, either hiding +the huts altogether, or softening their details into picturesque +ruins. I remember one coolie dwelling which was dirtier and less +habitable than the meanest stable, and all around it were hundreds +upon hundreds of frangipanni blooms--the white and gold temple flowers +of the East--giving forth of scent and color all that a flower is +capable, to alleviate the miserable blot of human construction. Now +and then a flamboyant tree comes into view, and as, at night, the +head-lights of an approaching car eclipse all else, so this tree of +burning scarlet draws eye and mind from adjacent human-made squalor. +In all the tropics of the world I scarcely remember to have seen more +magnificent color than in these unattended, wilful-grown gardens. + +In tropical cities such as Georgetown, there are very beautiful +private gardens, and the public one is second only to that of Java. +But for the most part one is as conscious of the very dreadful borders +of brick, or bottles, or conchs, as of the flowers themselves. Some +one who is a master gardener will some day write of the possibilities +of a tropical garden, which will hold the reader as does desire to +behold the gardens of Carcassonne itself. + + + + +VI + +GUINEVERE THE MYSTERIOUS + + +Again the Guiana jungle comes wonderfully to the eye and mysteriously +to the mind; again my khakis and sneakers are skin-comfortable; again +I am squatted on a pleasant mat of leaves in a miniature gorge, miles +back of my Kartabo bungalow. Life elsewhere has already become +unthinkable. I recall a place boiling with worried people, rent with +unpleasing sounds, and beset with unsatisfactory pleasures. In less +than a year I shall long for a sight of these worried people, my ears +will strain to catch the unpleasing sounds, and I shall plunge with +joy into the unsatisfactory pleasures. To-day, however, all these have +passed from mind, and I settle down another notch, head snuggled on +knees, and sway, elephant-fashion, with sheer joy, as a musky, +exciting odor comes drifting, apparently by its own volition, down +through the windless little gorge. + +If I permit a concrete, scientific reaction, I must acknowledge the +source to be a passing bug,--a giant bug,--related distantly to our +malodorous northern squash-bug, but emitting a scent as different as +orchids' breath from grocery garlic. But I accept this delicate +volatility as simply another pastel-soft sense-impression--as an +earnest of the worthy, smelly things of old jungles. There is no +breeze, no slightest shift of air-particles; yet down the gorge comes +this cloud,--a cloud unsensible except to nostrils,--eddying as if +swirling around the edges of leaves, riding on the air as gently as +the low, distant crooning of great, sleepy jungle doves. + +With two senses so perfectly occupied, sight becomes superfluous and I +close my eyes. And straightway the scent and the murmur usurp my whole +mind with a vivid memory. I am still squatting, but in a dark, +fragrant room; and the murmur is still of doves; but the room is in +the cool, still heart of the Queen's Golden Monastery in northern +Burma, within storm-sound of Tibet, and the doves are perched among +the glitter and tinkling bells of the pagoda roofs. I am squatting +very quietly, for I am tired, after photographing carved peacocks and +junglefowl in the marvelous fretwork of the outer balconies, There +are idols all about me--or so it would appear to a missionary; for my +part, I can think only of the wonderful face of the old Lama who sits +near me, a face peaceful with the something for which most of us would +desert what we are doing, if by that we could attain it. Near him are +two young priests, sitting as motionless as the Buddha in front of +them. + +After a half-hour of the strange thing that we call time, the Lama +speaks, very low and very; softly: + +"The surface of the mirror is clouded with a breath." + +Out of a long silence one of the neophytes replies, "The mirror can be +wiped clear." + +Again the world becomes incense and doves,--in the silence and peace +of that monastery, it may have been a few minutes or a decade,--and +the second Tibetan whispers, "There is no need to wipe the mirror." + +When I have left behind the world of inharmonious colors, of polluted +waters, of soot-stained walls and smoke-tinged air, the green of +jungle comes like a cooling bath of delicate tints and shades. I think +of all the green things I have loved--of malachite in matrix and +table-top; of jade, not factory-hewn baubles, but age-mellowed +signets, fashioned by lovers of their craft, and seasoned by the +toying yellow fingers of generations of forgotten Chinese +emperors--jade, as Dunsany would say, of the exact shade of the right +color. I think too, of dainty emerald scarves that are seen and lost +in a flash at a dance; of the air-cooled, living green of curling +breakers; of a lonely light that gleams to starboard of an unknown +passing vessel, and of the transparent green of northern lights that +flicker and play on winter nights high over the garish glare of +Broadway. + +Now, in late afternoon, when I opened my eyes in the little gorge, the +soft green vibrations merged insensibly with the longer waves of the +doves' voices and with the dying odor. Soon the green alone was +dominant; and when I had finished thinking of pleasant, far-off green +things, the wonderful emerald of my great tree-frog of last year came +to mind,--Gawain the mysterious,--and I wondered if I should ever +solve his life. + +In front of me was a little jungle rainpool. At the base of the +miniature precipice of the gorge, this pool was a thing of clay. It +was milky in consistence, from the roiling of suspended clay; and +when the surface caught a glint of light and reflected it, only the +clay and mud walls about came to the eye. It was a very regular pool, +a man's height in diameter, and, for all I knew, from two inches to +two miles deep. I became absorbed in a sort of subaquatic mirage, in +which I seemed to distinguish reflections beneath the surface. My eyes +refocused with a jerk, and I realized that something had unconsciously +been perceived by my rods and cones, and short-circuited to my duller +brain. Where a moment before was an unbroken translucent surface, were +now thirteen strange beings who had appeared from the depths, and were +mumbling oxygen with trembling lips. + +In days to come, through all the months, I should again and again be +surprised and cheated and puzzled--all phases of delight in the beings +who share the earth's life with me. This was one of the first of the +year, and I stiffened into one large eye. + +I did not know whether they were fish, fairy shrimps, or frogs; I had +never seen anything like them, and they were wholly unexpected. I so +much desired to know what they were, that I sat quietly--as I enjoy +keeping a treasured letter to the last, or reserving the frosting +until the cake is eaten. It occurred to me that, had it not been for +the Kaiser, I might have been forbidden this mystery; a chain of +occurrences: Kaiser--war--submarines--glass-shortage for +dreadnoughts--mica port-holes needed--Guiana prospector--abandoned +pits--rainy season--mysterious tenants--me! + +When I squatted by the side of the pool, no sign of life was visible. +Far up through the green foliage of the jungle I could see a solid +ceiling of cloud, while beneath me the liquid clay of the pool was +equally opaque and lifeless. As a seer watches the surface of his +crystal ball, so I gazed at my six-foot circle of milky water. My +shift forward was like the fall of a tree: it brought into existence +about it a temporary circle of silence and fear--a circle whose +periphery began at once to contract; and after a few minutes the gorge +again accepted me as a part of its harmless self. A huge bee zoomed +past, and just behind my head a hummingbird beat the air into a froth +of sound, as vibrant as the richest tones of a cello. My concentrated +interest seemed to become known to the life of the surrounding glade, +and I was bombarded with sight, sound, and odor, as if on purpose to +distract my attention. But I remained unmoved, and indications of rare +and desirable beings passed unheeded. + +A flotilla of little water-striders came rowing themselves along, +racing for a struggling ant which had fallen into the milky quicksand. +These were in my line of vision, so I watched them for a while, +letting the corner of my eye keep guard for the real aristocrats of +the milky sea--whoever they were. My eye was close enough, my +elevation sufficiently low to become one with the water-striders, and +to become excited over the adventures of these little petrels; and in +my absorption I almost forgot my chief quest. As soaring birds seem at +times to rest against the very substance of cloud, as if upheld by +some thin lift of air, so these insects glided as easily and skimmed +as swiftly upon the surface film of water. I did not know even the +genus of this tropical form; but insect taxonomists have been +particularly happy in their given names--I recalled _Hydrobates_, +_Aquarius_, and _remigis_. + +The spur-winged jacanas are very skilful in their dainty treading of +water-lily leaves; but here were good-sized insects rowing about on +the water itself. They supported themselves on the four hinder legs, +rowing with the middle pair, and steering with the hinder ones, while +the front limbs were held aloft ready for the seizing of prey. I +watched three of them approach the ant, which was struggling to reach +the shore, and the first to reach it hesitated not a moment, but +leaped into the air from a take-off of mere aqueous surface film, +landed full upon the drowning unfortunate, grasped it, and at the same +instant gave a mighty sweep with its oars, to escape from its +pursuing, envious companions. Off went the twelve dimples, marking the +aquatic footprints of the trio of striders; and as the bearer of the +ant dodged one of its own kind, it was suddenly threatened by a small, +jet submarine of a diving beetle. At the very moment when the pursuit +was hottest, and it seemed anybody's ant, I looked aside, and the +little water-bugs passed from my sight forever--for scattered over the +surface were seven strange, mumbling mouths. Close as I was, their +nature still eluded me. At my slightest movement all vanished, not +with the virile splash of a fish or the healthy roll and dip of a +porpoise, but with a weird, vertical withdrawing--the seven +dissolving into the milk to join their six fellows. + +This was sufficient to banish further meditative surmising, and I +crept swiftly to a point of vantage, and with sweep-net awaited their +reappearance. It was five minutes before faint, discolored spots +indicated their rising, and at least two minutes more before they +actually disturbed the surface. With eight or nine in view, I dipped +quickly and got nothing. Then I sank my net deeply and waited again. +This time ten minutes passed, and then I swept deep and swiftly, and +drew up the net with four flopping, struggling super-tadpoles. They +struggled for only a moment, and then lay quietly waiting for what +might be sent by the guardian of the fate of tadpoles--surely some +quaint little god-relation of Neptune, Pan, and St. Vitus. Gently +shunted into a glass jar, these surprising tads accepted the new +environment with quiet philosophy; and when I reached the laboratory +and transferred them again, they dignifiedly righted themselves in the +swirling current, and hung in mid-aquarium, waiting--forever waiting. + +It was difficult to think of them as tadpoles, when the word brought +to mind hosts of little black wrigglers filling puddles and swamps of +our northern country. These were slow-moving, graceful creatures, +partly transparent, partly reflecting every hue of the spectrum, with +broad, waving scarlet and hyaline fins, and strange, fish-like mouths +and eyes. Their habits were as unpollywoglike as their appearance. I +visited their micaceous pool again and again; and if I could have +spent days instead of hours with them, no moment of ennui would have +intervened. + +My acquaintanceship with tadpoles in the past had not aroused me to +enthusiasm in the matter of their mental ability; as, for example, the +inmates of the next aquarium to that of the Redfins, where I kept a +herd or brood or school of Short-tailed Blacks--pollywogs of the Giant +Toad (_Bufo marinus_). At earliest dawn they swam aimlessly about and +mumbled; at high noon they mumbled and still swam; at midnight they +refused to be otherwise occupied. It was possible to alarm them; but +even while they fled they mumbled. + +In bodily form my Redfins were fish, but mentally they had advanced a +little beyond the usual tadpole train of reactions, reaching forward +toward the varied activities of the future amphibian. One noticeable +thing was their segregation, whether in the mica pools, or in two +other smaller ones near by, in which I found them. Each held a pure +culture of Redfins, and I found that this was no accident, but aided +and enforced by the tads themselves. Twice, while I watched them, I +saw definite pursuit of an alien pollywog,--the larva of the +Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker (_Phyllobates inguinalis_),--which fled +headlong. The second time the attack was so persistent that the lesser +tadpole leaped from the water, wriggled its way to a damp heap of +leaves, and slipped down between them. For tadpoles to take such +action as this was as reasonable as for an orchid to push a fellow +blossom aside on the approach of a fertilizing hawk-moth. This +momentary co-operation, and the concerted elimination of the undesired +tadpole, affected me as the thought of the first consciousness of +power of synchronous rhythm coming to ape men: it seemed a spark of +tadpole genius--an adumbration of possibilities which now would end in +the dull consciousness of the future frog, but which might, in past +ages, have been a vital link in the development of an ancestral +Ereops. + +My Redfins were assuredly no common tadpoles, and an intolerant +pollywog offers worthy research for the naturalist. Straining their +medium of its opacity, I drew off the clayey liquid and replaced it +with the clearer brown, wallaba-stained water of the Mazaruni; and +thereafter all their doings, all their intimacies, were at my mercy. I +felt as must have felt the first aviator who flew unheralded over an +oriental city, with its patios and house-roofs spread naked beneath +him. + +It was on one of the early days of observation that an astounding +thought came to me--before I had lost perspective in intensive +watching, before familiarity had assuaged some of the marvel of these +super-tadpoles. Most of those in my jar were of a like size, just +short of an inch; but one was much larger, and correspondingly +gorgeous in color and graceful in movement. As she swept slowly past +my line of vision, she turned and looked, first at me, then up at the +limits of her world, with a slow deliberateness and a hint of +expression which struck deep into my memory. Green came to +mind,--something clad in a smock of emerald, with a waist-coat of +mother-of-pearl, and great sprawling arms,--and I found myself +thinking of Gawain, our mystery frog of a year ago, who came without +warning, and withheld all the secrets of his life. And I glanced again +at this super-tad,--as unlike her ultimate development as the grub is +unlike the beetle,--and one of us exclaimed, "It is the same, or +nearly, but more delicate, more beautiful; it must be Guinevere." And +so, probably for the first time in the world, there came to be a pet +tadpole, one with an absurd name which will forever be more +significant to us than the term applied by a forgotten herpetologist +many years ago. + +And Guinevere became known to all who had to do with the laboratory. +Her health and daily development and color-change were things to be +inquired after and discussed; one of us watched her closely and made +notes of her life, one painted every radical development of color and +pattern, another photographed her, and another brought her delectable +scum. She was waited upon as sedulously as a termite queen. And she +rewarded us by living, which was all we asked. + +It is difficult for a diver to express his emotions on paper, and +verbal arguments with a dentist are usually one-sided. So must the +spirit of a tadpole suffer greatly from handicaps of the flesh. A +mumbling mouth and an uncontrollable, flagellating tail, connected by +a pinwheel of intestine, are scant material wherewith to attempt new +experiments, whereon to nourish aspirations. Yet the Redfins, as +typified by Guinevere, have done both, and given time enough, they may +emulate or surpass the achievements of larval axolotls, or the +astounding egg-producing maggots of certain gnats, thus realizing all +the possibilities of froghood while yet cribbed within the lowly +casing of a pollywog. + +In the first place Guinevere had ceased being positively thigmotactic, +and, writing as a technical herpetologist, I need add no more. In +fact, all my readers, whether Batrachologists or Casuals, will agree +that this is an unheard-of achievement. But before I loosen the +technical etymology and become casually more explicit, let me hold +this term in suspense a moment, as I once did, fascinated by the sheer +sound of the syllables, as they first came to my ears years ago in a +university lecture. There is that of possibility in being positively +thigmotactic which makes one dread the necessity of exposing and +limiting its meaning, of digging down to its mathematically accurate +roots. It could never be called a flower of speech: it is an over-ripe +fruit rather: heavy-stoned, thin-fleshed--an essentially practical +term. It is eminently suited to its purpose, and so widely used that +my friend the editor must accept it; not looking askance as he did at +my definition of a vampire as a vespertilial anæsthetist, or breaking +into open but wholly ineffectual rebellion, at the past tense of the +verb to candelabra. I admit that the conjugation + + I candelabra + You candelabra + He candelabras + +arouses a ripple of confusion in the mind; but it is far more +important to use words than to parse them, anyway, so I acclaim +perfect clarity for "The fireflies candelabraed the trees!" + +Not to know the precise meaning of being positively thigmotactic is a +stimulant to the imagination, which opens the way to an entire essay +on the disadvantages of education--a thought once strongly aroused by +the glorious red-and-gold hieroglyphic signs of the Peking +merchants--signs which have always thrilled me more than the utmost +efforts of our modern psychological advertisers. + +Having crossed unconsciously by such a slender etymological bridge +from my jungle tadpole to China, it occurs to me that the Chinese are +the most positively thigmotactic people in the world. I have walked +through block after block of subterranean catacombs, beneath city +streets which were literally packed full of humanity, and I have seen +hot mud pondlets along the Min River wholly eclipsed by shivering +Chinamen packed sardinewise, twenty or thirty in layers, or radiating +like the spokes of a great wheel which has fallen into the mud. + +From my brood of Short-tailed Blacks, a half-dozen tadpoles wandered +off now and then, each scum-mumbling by himself. Shortly his +positivism asserted itself and back he wriggled, twisting in and out +of the mass of his fellows, or at the approach of danger nuzzling into +the dead leaves at the bottom, content only with the feeling of +something pressing against his sides and tail. His physical make-up, +simple as it is, has proved perfectly adapted to this touch system of +life: flat-bottomed, with rather narrow, paddle-shaped tail-fins +which, beginning well back of the body, interfere in no way with the +pollywog's instincts, he can thigmotact to his heart's content. His +eyes are also adapted to looking upward, discerning dimly dangers +from above, and whatever else catches the attention of a bottom-loving +pollywog. His mouth is well below, as best suits bottom mumbling. + +Compared with these _polloi_ pollywogs, Redfins were as hummingbirds +to quail. Their very origin was unique; for while the toad tadpoles +wriggled their way free from egg gelatine deposited in the water +itself, the Redfins were literally rained down. Within a folded leaf +the parents left the eggs--a leaf carefully chosen as overhanging a +suitable ditch, or pit, or puddle. If all signs of weather and season +failed and a sudden drought set in, sap would dry, leaf would shrivel, +and the pitiful gamble for life of the little jungle frogs would be +lost; the spoonful of froth would collapse bubble by bubble, and, +finally, a thin dry film on the brown leaf would in turn vanish, and +Guinevere and her companions would never have been. + +But untold centuries of unconscious necessity have made these +tree-frogs infallible weather prophets, and the liberating rain soon +sifted through the jungle foliage. In the streaming drops which +funneled from the curled leaf, tadpole after tadpole hurtled downward +and splashed headlong into the water; their parents and the rain and +gravitation had performed their part, and from now on fate lay with +the super-tads themselves--except when a passing naturalist brought +new complications, new demands of Karma, as strange and unpredictable +as if from another planet or universe. + +Only close examination showed that these were tadpoles, not fish, +judged by the staring eyes, and broad fins stained above and below +with orange-scarlet--colors doomed to oblivion in the native, milky +waters, but glowing brilliantly in my aquarium. Although they were +provided with such an expanse of fin, the only part used for ordinary +progression was the extreme tip, a mere threadlike streamer, which +whipped in never-ending spirals, lashing forward, backward, and +sideways. So rapid was this motion, and so short the flagellum, that +the tadpole did not even tremble or vibrate as it moved, but forged +steadily onward, without a tremor. + +The head was buffy yellow, changing to bittersweet orange back of the +eyes and on the gills. The body was dotted with a host of minute +specks of gold and silver. On the sides and below, this gave place to +a rich bronze, and then to a clear, iridescent silvery blue. The eye +proper was silvery white, but the upper part of the eyeball fairly +glowed with color. In front it was jet black flecked with gold, +merging behind into a brilliant blue. Yet this patch of jeweled tissue +was visible only rarely as the tadpole turned forward, and in the +opaque liquid of the mica pool must have ever been hidden. And even if +plainly seen, of what use was a shred of rainbow to a sexless tadpole +in the depths of a shady pool! + +With high-arched fins, beginning at neck and throat, body compressed +as in a racing yacht, there could be no bottom life for Guinevere. +Whenever she touched a horizontal surface,--whether leaf or twig,--she +careened; when she sculled through a narrow passage in the floating +algæ, her fins bent and rippled as they were pressed bodywards. So she +and her fellow brood lived in mid-aquarium, or at most rested lightly +against stem or glass, suspended by gentle suction of the complex +mouth. Once, when I inserted a long streamer of delicate water-weed, +it remained upright, like some strange tree of carboniferous memory. +After an hour I found this the perching-place of fourteen Redfin tads, +and at the very summit was Guinevere. The rest were arranged nearly +in altitudinal size--two large tadpoles being close below Guinevere, +and a bevy of six tiny chaps lowest down. All were lightly poised, +swaying in mid-water, at a gently sloping angle, like some unheard-of, +orange-stained, aquatic autumn foliage. + +For two weeks Guinevere remained almost as I have described her, +gaining slightly in size, but with little alteration of color or +pattern. Then came the time of the great change: we felt it to be +imminent before any outward signs indicated its approach. And for four +more days there was no hint except the sudden growth of the hind legs. +From tiny dangling appendages with minute toes and indefinite knees, +they enlarged and bent, and became miniature but perfect frog's limbs. + +She had now reached a length of two inches, and her delicate colors +and waving fins made her daily more marvelous. The strange thing about +the hind limbs was that, although so large and perfect, they were +quite useless. They could not even be unflexed; and other mere +pollywogs near by were wriggling toes, calves, and thighs while yet +these were but imperfect buds. When she dived suddenly, the toes +occasionally moved a little; but as a whole, they merely sagged and +drifted like some extraneous things entangled in the body. + +Smoothly and gracefully Guinevere moved about the aquarium. Her gills +lifted and closed rhythmically--twice as slowly as compared with the +three or four times every second of her breathless young tadpolehood. +Several times on the fourteenth day, she came quietly to the surface +for a gulp of air. + +Looking at her from above, two little bulges were visible on either +side of the body--the ensheathed elbows pressing outward. Twice, when +she lurched forward in alarm, I saw these front limbs jerk +spasmodically; and when she was resting quietly, they rubbed and +pushed impatiently against their mittened tissue. + +And now began a restless shifting, a slow, strange dance in mid-water, +wholly unlike any movement of her smaller companions; up and down, +slowly revolving on oblique planes, with rhythmical turns and +sinkings--this continued for an hour, when I was called for lunch. And +as if to punish me for this material digression and desertion, when I +returned, in half an hour, the miracle had happened. + +Guinevere still danced in stately cadence, with the other Redfins at a +distance going about their several businesses. She danced alone--a +dance of change, of happenings of tremendous import, of symbolism as +majestic as it was age-old. Here in this little glass aquarium the +tadpole Guinevere had just freed her arms--she, with waving scarlet +fins, watching me with lidless white and staring eyes, still with +fish-like, fin-bound body. She danced upright, with new-born arms +folded across her breast, tail-tip flagellating frenziedly, stretching +long fingers with disks like cymbals, reaching out for the land she +had never trod, limbs flexed for leaps she had never made. + +A few days before and Guinevere had been a fish, then a helpless +biped, and now suddenly, somewhere between my salad and coffee, she +became an aquatic quadruped. Strangest of all, her hands were mobile, +her feet useless; and when the dance was at an end, and she sank +slowly to the bottom, she came to rest on the very tips of her two +longest fingers; her legs and toes still drifting high and useless. +Just before she ceased, her arms stretched out right froggily, her +weird eyes rolled about, and she gulped a mighty gulp of the strange +thin medium that covered the surface of her liquid home. + +At midnight of this same day only three things existed in the +world--on my table I turned from the _Bhagavad-Gita_ to Drinkwater's +_Reverie_ and back again; then I looked up to the jar of clear water +and watched Guinevere hovering motionless. At six the next morning she +was crouched safely on a bit of paper a foot from the aquarium. She +had missed the open window, the four-foot drop to the floor, and a +neighboring aquarium stocked with voracious fish: surely the gods of +pollywogs were kind to me. The great fins were gone--dissolved into +blobs of dull pink; the tail was a mere stub, the feet drawn close, +and a glance at her head showed that Guinevere had become a frog +almost within an hour. Three things I hastened to observe: the pupils +of her eyes were vertical, revealing her genus _Phyllomedusa_ (making +apt our choice of the feminine); by a gentle urging I saw that the +first and second toes were equal in length; and a glance at her little +humped back showed a scattering of white calcareous spots, giving the +clue to her specific personality--_bicolor_: thus were we introduced +to _Phyllomedusa bicolor_, alias Guinevere, and thus was established +beyond doubt her close relationship to Gawain. + +During that first day, within three hours, during most of which I +watched her closely, Guinevere's change in color was beyond belief. +For an hour she leaped from time to time; but after that, and for the +rest of her life, she crept in strange unfroglike fashion, raised high +on all four limbs, with her stubby tail curled upward, and reaching +out one weird limb after another. If one's hand approached within a +foot, she saw it and stretched forth appealing, skinny fingers. + +At two o'clock she was clad in a general cinnamon buff; then a shade +of glaucous green began to creep over head and upper eyelids, onward +over her face, finally coloring body and limbs. Beneath, the little +pollyfrog fairly glowed with bright apricot orange, throat and tail +amparo purple, mouth green, and sides rich pale blue. To this maze of +color we must add a strange, new expression, born of the prominent +eyes, together with the line of the mouth extending straight back with +a final jeering, upward lift; in front, the lower lip thick and +protruding, which, with the slanting eyes, gave a leering, devilish +smirk, while her set, stiff, exact posture compelled a vivid thought +of the sphinx. Never have I seen such a remarkable combination. It +fascinated us. We looked at Guinevere, and then at the tadpoles +swimming quietly in their tank, and evolution in its wildest +conceptions appeared a tame truism. + +This was the acme of Guinevere's change, the pinnacle of her +development. Thereafter her transformations were rhythmical, +alternating with the day and night. Through the nights of activity she +was garbed in rich, warm brown. With the coming of dawn, as she +climbed slowly upward, her color shifted through chestnut to maroon; +this maroon then died out on the mid-back to a delicate, dull +violet-blue, which in turn became obscured in the sunlight by +turquoise, which crept slowly along the sides. Carefully and +laboriously she clambered up, up to the topmost frond, and there +performed her little toilet, scraping head and face with her hands, +passing the hinder limbs over her back to brush off every grain of +sand. The eyes had meanwhile lost their black-flecked, golden, +nocturnal iridescence, and had gradually paled to a clear silvery +blue, while the great pupil of darkness narrowed to a slit. + +Little by little her limbs and digits were drawn in out of sight, and +the tiny jeweled being crouched low, hoping for a day of comfortable +clouds, a little moisture, and a swift passage of time to the next +period of darkness, when it was fitting and right for Guineveres to +seek their small meed of sustenance, to grow to frog's full estate, +and to fulfil as well as might be what destiny the jungle offered. To +unravel the meaning of it all is beyond even attempting. The breath of +mist ever clouds the mirror, and only as regards a tiny segment of the +life-history of Guinevere can I say, "There is no need to wipe the +mirror." + + + + +VII + +A JUNGLE LABOR-UNION + + +Pterodactyl Pups led me to the wonderful Attas--the most astounding of +the jungle labor-unions. We were all sitting on the Mazaruni bank, the +night before the full moon, immediately in front of my British Guiana +laboratory. All the jungle was silent in the white light, with now and +then the splash of a big river fish. On the end of the bench was the +monosyllabic Scot, who ceased the exquisite painting of mora +buttresses and jungle shadows only for the equal fascination of +searching bats for parasites. Then the great physician, who had come +six thousand miles to peer into the eyes of birds and lizards in my +dark-room, working with a gentle hypnotic manner that made the little +beings seem to enjoy the experience. On my right sat an army captain, +who had given more thought to the possible secrets of French +chaffinches than to the approaching barrage. There was also the +artist, who could draw a lizard's head like a Japanese print, but +preferred to depict impressionistic Laocoön roots. + +These and others sat with me on the long bench and watched the +moonpath. The conversation had begun with possible former life on the +moon, then shifted to Conan Doyle's _The Lost World_, based on the +great Roraima plateau, a hundred and fifty miles west of where we were +sitting. Then we spoke of the amusing world-wide rumor, which had +started no one knows how, that I had recently discovered a +pterodactyl. One delightful result of this had been a letter from a +little English girl, which would have made a worthy chapter-subject +for _Dream Days_. For years she and her little sister had peopled a +wood near her home with pterodactyls, but had somehow never quite seen +one; and would I tell her a little about them--whether they had +scales, or made nests; so that those in the wood might be a little +easier to recognize. + +When strange things are discussed for a long time, in the light of a +tropical moon, at the edge of a dark, whispering jungle, the mind +becomes singularly imaginative and receptive; and, as I looked through +powerful binoculars at the great suspended globe, the dead craters and +precipices became very vivid and near. Suddenly, without warning, +there flapped into my field, a huge shapeless creature. It was no +bird, and there was nothing of the bat in its flight--the wings moved +with steady rhythmical beats, and drove it straight onward. The wings +were skinny, the body large and of a pale ashy hue. For a moment I was +shaken. One of the others had seen it, and he, too, did not speak, but +concentrated every sense into the end of the little tubes. By the time +I had begun to find words, I realized that a giant fruit bat had flown +from utter darkness across my line of sight; and by close watching we +soon saw others. But for a very few seconds these Pterodactyl Pups, as +I nicknamed them, gave me all the thrill of a sudden glimpse into the +life of past ages. The last time I had seen fruit bats was in the +gardens of Perideniya, Ceylon. I had forgotten that they occurred in +Guiana, and was wholly unprepared for the sight of bats a yard across, +with a heron's flight, passing high over the Mazaruni in the +moonlight. + +The talk ended on the misfortune of the configuration of human +anatomy, which makes sky-searching so uncomfortable a habit. This +outlook was probably developed to a greater extent during the war +than ever before; and I can remember many evenings in Paris and London +when a sinister half-moon kept the faces of millions turned +searchingly upward. But whether in city or jungle, sky-scanning is a +neck-aching affair. + +The following day my experience with the Pterodactyl Pups was not +forgotten, and as a direct result of looking out for soaring vultures +and eagles, with hopes of again seeing a white-plumaged King and the +regal Harpy, I caught sight of a tiny mote high up in mid-sky. I +thought at first it was a martin or swift; but it descended, slowly +spiraling, and became too small for any bird. With a final, long, +descending curve, it alighted in the compound of our bungalow +laboratory and rested quietly--a great queen of the leaf-cutting Attas +returning from her marriage flight. After a few minutes she stirred, +walked a few steps, cleaned her antennæ, and searched nervously about +on the sand. A foot away was a tiny sprig of indigo, the offspring of +some seed planted two or three centuries ago by a thrifty Dutchman. In +the shade of its three leaves the insect paused, and at once began +scraping at the sand with her jaws. She loosened grain after grain, +and as they came free they were moistened, agglutinated, and pressed +back against her forelegs. When at last a good-sized ball was formed, +she picked it up, turned around and, after some fussy indecision, +deposited it on the sand behind her. Then she returned to the very +shallow, round depression, and began to gather a second ball. + +I thought of the first handful of sand thrown out for the base of +Cheops, of the first brick placed in position for the Great Wall, of a +fresh-cut trunk, rough-hewn and squared for a log-cabin on Manhattan; +of the first shovelful of earth flung out of the line of the Panama +Canal. Yet none seemed worthy of comparison with even what little I +knew of the significance of this ant's labor, for this was earnest of +what would make trivial the engineering skill of Egyptians, of Chinese +patience, of municipal pride and continental schism. + +Imagine sawing off a barn-door at the top of a giant sequoia, growing +at the bottom of the Grand Cañon, and then, with five or six children +clinging to it, descending the tree, and carrying it up the cañon +walls against a subway rush of rude people, who elbowed and pushed +blindly against you. This is what hundreds of leaf-cutting ants +accomplish daily, when cutting leaves from a tall bush, at the foot of +the bank near the laboratory. + +There are three dominant labor-unions in the jungle, all social +insects, two of them ants, never interfering with each other's field +of action, and all supremely illustrative of conditions resulting from +absolute equality, free-and-equalness, communalism, socialism carried +to the (forgive me!) anth power. The Army Ants are carnivorous, +predatory, militant nomads; the Termites are vegetarian scavengers, +sedentary, negative and provincial; the Attas, or leaf-cutting ants, +are vegetarians, active and dominant, and in many ways the most +interesting of all. + +The casual observer becomes aware of them through their raids upon +gardens; and indeed the Attas are a very serious menace to agriculture +in many parts of the tropics, where their nests, although underground, +may be as large as a house and contain millions of individuals. While +their choice among wild plants is exceedingly varied, it seems that +there are certain things they will not touch; but when any +human-reared flower, vegetable, shrub, vine, or tree is planted, the +Attas rejoice, and straightway desert the native vegetation to fall +upon the newcomers. Their whims and irregular feeding habits make it +difficult to guard against them. They will work all round a garden for +weeks, perhaps pass through it _en route_ to some tree that they are +defoliating, and then suddenly, one night, every Atta in the world +seems possessed with a desire to work havoc, and at daylight the next +morning, the garden looks like winter stubble--a vast expanse of stems +and twigs, without a single remaining leaf. Volumes have been written, +and a whole chemist's shop of deadly concoctions devised, for +combating these ants, and still they go steadily on, gathering leaves +which, as we shall see, they do not even use for food. + +Although essentially a tropical family, Attas have pushed as far north +as New Jersey, where they make a tiny nest, a few inches across, and +bring to it bits of pine needles. + +In a jungle Baedeker, we should double-star these insects, and paragraph +them as "_Atta_, named by Fabricius in 1804; the Kartabo species, +_cephalotes_; Leaf-cutting or Cushie or Parasol Ants; very abundant. +_Atta_, a subgenus of _Atta_, which is a genus of _Attii_, +which is a tribe of _Myrmicinæ_, which is a subfamily of +_Formicidæ_," etc. + +With a feeling of slightly greater intimacy, of mental possession, we +set out, armed with a name of one hundred and seventeen years' +standing, and find a big Atta worker carving away at a bit of leaf, +exactly as his ancestors had done for probably one hundred and +seventeen thousand years. + +We gently lift him from his labor, and a drop of chloroform banishes +from his ganglia all memory of the hundred thousand years of pruning. +Under the lens his strange personality becomes manifest, and we wonder +whether the old Danish zoölogist had in mind the slender toe-tips +which support him, or in a chuckling mood made him a namesake of C. +Quintius Atta. A close-up shows a very comic little being, encased in +a prickly, chestnut-colored armor, which should make him fearless in a +den of a hundred anteaters. The front view of his head is a bit +mephistophelian, for it is drawn upward into two horny spines; but the +side view recalls a little girl with her hair brushed very tightly up +and back from her face. + +The connection between Atta and the world about him is furnished by +this same head: two huge, flail-shaped antennæ arching up like aerial, +detached eyebrows--vehicles, through their golden pile, of senses +which foil our most delicate tests. Outside of these are two little +shoe-button eyes; and we are not certain whether they reflect to the +head ganglion two or three hundred bits of leaf, or one large mosaic +leaf. Below all is swung the pair of great scythes, so edged and hung +that they can function as jaws, rip-saws, scissors, forceps, and +clamps. The thorax, like the head of a titanothere, bears three pairs +of horns--a great irregular expanse of tumbled, rock-like skin and +thorn, a foundation for three pairs of long legs, and sheltering +somewhere in its heart a thread of ant-life; finally, two little +pedicels lead to a rounded abdomen, smaller than the head. This +Third-of-an-inch is a worker Atta to the physical eye; and if we catch +another, or ten, or ten million, we find that some are small, others +much larger, but that all are cast in the same mold, all +indistinguishable except, perhaps, to the shoe-button eyes. + +When a worker has traveled along the Atta trails, and has followed the +temporary mob-instinct and climbed bush or tree, the same +irresistible force drives him out upon a leaf. Here, apparently, +instinct slightly loosens its hold, and he seems to become individual +for a moment, to look about, and to decide upon a suitable edge or +corner of green leaf. But even in this he probably has no choice. At +any rate, he secures a good hold and sinks his jaws into the tissue. +Standing firmly on the leaf, he measures his distance by cutting +across a segment of a circle, with one of his hind feet as a center. +This gives a very true curve, and provides a leaf-load of suitable +size. He does not scissor his way across, but bit by bit sinks the tip +of one jaw, hook-like, into the surface, and brings the other up to +it, slicing through the tissue with surprising ease. He stands upon +the leaf, and I always expect to see him cut himself and his load +free, Irishman-wise. But one or two of his feet have invariably +secured a grip on the plant, sufficient to hold him safely. Even if +one or two of his fellows are at work farther down the leaf, he has +power enough in his slight grip to suspend all until they have +finished and clambered up over him with their loads. + +Holding his bit of leaf edge-wise, he bends his head down as far as +possible, and secures a strong purchase along the very rim. Then, as +he raises his head, the leaf rises with it, suspended high over his +back, out of the way. Down the stem or tree-trunk he trudges, head +first, fighting with gravitation, until he reaches the ground. After a +few feet, or, measured by his stature, several hundred yards, his +infallible instinct guides him around pebble boulders, mossy orchards, +and grass jungles to a specially prepared path. + +Thus in words, in sentences, we may describe the cutting of a single +leaf; but only in the imagination can we visualize the cell-like or +crystal-like duplication of this throughout all the great forests of +Guiana and of South America. As I write, a million jaws snip through +their stint; as you read, ten million Attas begin on new bits of leaf. +And all in silence and in dim light, legions passing along the little +jungle roads, unending lines of trembling banners, a political parade +of ultra socialism, a procession of chlorophyll floats illustrating +unreasoning unmorality, a fairy replica of "Birnam Forest come to +Dunsinane." + +In their leaf-cutting, Attas have mastered mass, but not form. I have +never seen one cut off a piece too heavy to carry, but many a +hard-sliced bit has had to be deserted because of the configuration +of the upper edge. On almost any trail, an ant can be found with a +two-inch stem of grass, attempting to pass under a twig an inch +overhead. After five or ten minutes of pushing, backing, and pulling, +he may accidentally march off to one side, or reach up and climb over; +but usually he drops his burden. His little works have been wound up, +and set at the mark "home"; and though he has now dropped the prize +for which he walked a dozen ant-miles, yet any idea of cutting another +stem, or of picking up a slice of leaf from those lying along the +trail, never occurs to him. He sets off homeward, and if any emotion +of sorrow, regret, disappointment, or secret relief troubles his +ganglia, no trace of it appears in antennæ, carriage, or speed. I can +very readily conceive of his trudging sturdily all the way back to the +nest, entering it, and going to the place where he would have dumped +his load, having fulfilled his duty in the spirit at least. Then, if +there comes a click in his internal time-clock, he may set out upon +another quest--more cabined, cribbed, and confined than any member of +a Cook's tourist party. + +I once watched an ant with a piece of leaf which had a regular +shepherd's crook at the top, and if his adventures of fifty feet could +have been caught on a moving-picture film, Charlie Chaplin would have +had an arthropod rival. It hooked on stems and pulled its bearer off +his feet, it careened and ensnared the leaves of other ants, at one +place mixing up with half a dozen. A big thistledown became tangled in +it, and well-nigh blew away with leaf and all; hardly a foot of his +path was smooth-going. But he persisted, and I watched him reach the +nest, after two hours of tugging and falling and interference with +traffic. + +Occasionally an ant will slip in crossing a twiggy crevasse, and his +leaf become tightly wedged. After sprawling on his back and vainly +clawing at the air for a while, he gets up, brushes off his antennæ, +and sets to work. For fifteen minutes I have watched an Atta in this +predicament, stodgily endeavoring to lift his leaf while standing on +it at the same time. The equation of push equaling pull is fourth +dimensional to the Attas. + +With all this terrible expenditure of energy, the activities of these +ants are functional within very narrow limits. The blazing sun causes +them to drop their burdens and flee for home; a heavy wind frustrates +them, for they cannot reef. When a gale arises and sweeps an exposed +portion of the trail, their only resource is to cut away all sail and +heave it overboard. A sudden downpour reduces a thousand banners and +waving, bright-colored petals to débris, to be trodden under foot. +Sometimes, after a ten-minute storm, the trails will be carpeted with +thousands of bits of green mosaic, which the outgoing hordes will +trample in their search for more leaves. On a dark night little seems +to be done; but at dawn and dusk, and in the moonlight or clear +starlight, the greatest activity is manifest. + +Attas are such unpalatable creatures that they are singularly free +from dangers. There is a tacit armistice between them and the other +labor-unions. The army ants occasionally make use of their trails when +they are deserted; but when the two great races of ants meet, each +antennæs the aura of the other, and turns respectfully aside. When +termites wish to traverse an Atta trail, they burrow beneath it, or +build a covered causeway across, through which they pass and repass at +will, and over which the Attas trudge, uncaring and unconscious of its +significance. + +Only creatures with the toughest of digestions would dare to include +these prickly, strong-jawed, meatless insects in a bill of fare. Now +and then I have found an ani, or black cuckoo, with a few in its +stomach: but an ani can swallow a stinging-haired caterpillar and +enjoy it. The most consistent feeder upon Attas is the giant marine +toad. Two hundred Attas in a night is not an uncommon meal, the exact +number being verifiable by a count of the undigested remains of heads +and abdomens. _Bufo marinus_ is the gardener's best friend in this +tropic land, and besides, he is a gentleman and a philosopher, if ever +an amphibian was one. + +While the cutting of living foliage is the chief aim in life of these +ants, yet they take advantage of the flotsam and jetsam along the +shore, and each low tide finds a column from some nearby nest +salvaging flowerets, leaves, and even tiny berries. A sudden wash of +tide lifts a hundred ants with their burdens and then sets them down +again, when they start off as if nothing had happened. + +The paths or trails of the Attas represent very remarkable feats of +engineering, and wind about through jungle and glade for surprising +distances. I once traced a very old and wide trail for well over two +hundred yards. Taking little Third-of-an-inch for a type (although he +would rank as a rather large Atta), and comparing him with a six-foot +man, we reckon this trail, ant-ratio, as a full twenty-five miles. +Belt records a leaf-cutter's trail half a mile long, which would mean +that every ant that went out, cut his tiny bit of leaf, and returned, +would traverse a distance of a hundred and sixteen miles. This was an +extreme; but our Atta may take it for granted, speaking antly, that +once on the home trail, he has, at the least, four or five miles ahead +of him. + +The Atta roads are clean swept, as straight as possible, and very +conspicuous in the jungle. The chief high-roads leading from very +large nests are a good foot across, and the white sand of their beds +is visible a long distance away. I once knew a family of opossums +living in a stump in the center of a dense thicket. When they left at +evening, they always climbed along as far as an Atta trail, dropped +down to it, and followed it for twenty or thirty yards. During the +rains I have occasionally found tracks of agoutis and deer in these +roads. So it would be very possible for the Attas to lay the +foundation for an animal trail, and this, _à la_ calf-path, for the +street of a future city. + +The part that scent plays in the trails is evidenced if we scatter an +inch or two of fresh sand across the road. A mass of ants banks +against the strange obstruction on both sides, on the one hand a solid +phalanx of waving green banners, and on the other a mob of empty-jawed +workers with wildly waving antennæ. Scouts from both sides slowly +wander forward, and finally reach one another and pass across. But not +for ten minutes does anything like regular traffic begin again. + +When carrying a large piece of leaf, and traveling at a fair rate of +speed, the ants average about a foot in ten seconds, although many go +the same distance in five. I tested the speed of an Atta, and then I +saw that its leaf seemed to have a peculiar-shaped bug upon it, and +picked it up with its bearer. Finding the blemish to be only a bit of +fungus, I replaced it. Half an hour later I was seated by a trail far +away, when suddenly my ant with the blemished spot appeared. It was +unmistakable, for I had noticed that the spot was exactly that of the +Egyptian symbol of life. I paced the trail, and found that seventy +yards away it joined the spot where I had first seen my friend. So, +with occasional spurts, he had done two hundred and ten feet in thirty +minutes, and this in spite of the fact that he had picked up a +supercargo. + +Two parts of hydrogen and one of oxygen, under the proper stimulus, +invariably result in water; two and two, considered calmly and without +passion, combine into four; the workings of instinct, especially in +social insects, is so mechanical that its results can almost be +demonstrated in formula; and yet here was my Atta leaf-carrier +burdened with a minim. The worker Attas vary greatly in size, as a +glance at a populous trail will show. They have been christened +_macrergates, desmergates_ and _micrergates_; or we may call the +largest Maxims, the average middle class Mediums, and the tiny chaps +Minims, and all have more or less separate functions in the ecology of +the colony. The Minims are replicas in miniature of the big chaps, +except that their armor is pale cinnamon rather than chestnut. +Although they can bite ferociously, they are too small to cut through +leaves, and they have very definite duties in the nest; yet they are +found with every leaf-cutting gang, hastening along with their larger +brethren, but never doing anything, that I could detect, at their +journey's end. I have a suspicion that the little Minims, who are very +numerous, function as light cavalry; for in case of danger they are as +eager at attack as the great soldiers, and the leaf-cutters, absorbed +in their arduous labor, would benefit greatly from the immunity +ensured by a flying corps of their little bulldog comrades. + +I can readily imagine that these nestling Minims become weary and +foot-sore (like bank-clerks guarding a reservoir), and if instinct +allows such abominable individuality, they must often wish themselves +back at the nest, for every mile of a Medium is three miles to them. + +Here is where our mechanical formula breaks down; for, often, as many +as one in every five leaves that pass bears aloft a Minim or two, +clinging desperately to the waving leaf and getting a free ride at the +expense of the already overburdened Medium. Ten is the extreme number +seen, but six to eight Minims collected on a single leaf is not +uncommon. Several times I have seen one of these little banner-riders +shift deftly from leaf to leaf, when a swifter carrier passed by, as +a circus bareback rider changes steeds at full gallop. + +Once I saw enacted above ground, and in the light of day, something +which may have had its roots in an _anlage_ of divine discontent. If I +were describing the episode half a century ago, I should entitle it, +"The Battle of the Giants, or Emotion Enthroned." A quadruple line of +leaf-carriers was disappearing down a hole in front of the laboratory, +bumped and pushed by an out-pouring, empty-jawed mass of workers. As I +watched them, I became aware of an area of great excitement beyond the +hole. Getting down as nearly as possible to ant height, I witnessed a +terrible struggle. Two giants--of the largest soldier Maxim +caste--were locked in each other's jaws, and to my horror, I saw that +each had lost his abdomen. The antennæ and the abdomen petiole are the +only vulnerable portions of an Atta, and long after he has lost these +apparently dispensable portions of his anatomy, he is able to walk, +fight, and continue an active but erratic life. These mighty-jawed +fellows seem never to come to the surface unless danger threatens; and +my mind went down into the black, musty depths, where it is the duty +of these soldiers to walk about and wait for trouble. What could have +raised the ire of such stolid neuters against one another? Was it +sheer lack of something to do? or was there a cell or two of the +winged caste lying fallow within their bodies, which, stirring at +last, inspired a will to battle, a passing echo of romance, of the +activities of the male Atta? + +Their unnatural combat had stirred scores of smaller workers to the +highest pitch of excitement. Now and then, out of the mêlée, a Medium +would emerge, with a tiny Minim in his jaws. One of these carried his +still living burden many feet away, along an unused trail, and dropped +it. I examined the small ant, and found that it had lost an antenna, +and its body was crushed. When the ball of fighters cleared, twelve +small ants were seen clinging to the legs and heads of the mutilated +giants, and now and then these would loosen their hold on each other, +turn, and crush one of their small tormenters. Several times I saw a +Medium rush up and tear a small ant away, apparently quite insane with +excitement. + +Occasionally the least exhausted giant would stagger to his four and +a half remaining legs, hoist his assailant, together with a mass of +the midgets, high in air, and stagger for a few steps, before falling +beneath the onrush of new attackers. It made me wish to help the great +insect, who, for aught I knew, was doomed because he was +different--because he had dared to be an individual. + +I left them struggling there, and half an hour later, when I returned, +the episode was just coming to a climax. My Atta hero was exerting his +last strength, flinging off the pile that assaulted him, fighting all +the easier because of the loss of his heavy body. He lurched forward, +dragging the second giant, now dead, not toward the deserted trail or +the world of jungle around him, but headlong into the lines of stupid +leaf-carriers, scattering green leaves and flower-petals in all +directions. Only when dozens of ants threw themselves upon him, many +of them biting each other in their wild confusion, did he rear up for +the last time, and, with the whole mob, rolled down into the yawning +mouth of the Atta nesting-hole, disappearing from view, and carrying +with him all those hurrying up the steep sides. It was a great battle. +I was breathing fast with sympathy, and whatever his cause, I was on +his side. + +The next day both giants were lying on the old, disused trail; the +revolt against absolute democracy was over; ten thousand ants passed +to and fro without a dissenting thought, or any thought, and the +Spirit of the Attas was content. + + + + +VIII + +THE ATTAS AT HOME + + +Clambering through white, pasty mud which stuck to our boots by the +pound, peering through bitter cold mist which seemed but a thinner +skim of mud, drenched by flurries of icy drops shaken from the +atmosphere by a passing moan and a crash, breathing air heavy with a +sweet, horrible, penetrating odor--such was the world as it existed +for an hour one night, while I and the Commandant of _Douaumont_ +wandered about completely lost, on the top of his own fort. We finally +stumbled on the little grated opening through which the lookout peered +unceasingly over the landscape of mud. The mist lifted and we +rediscovered the cave-like entrance, watched for a moment the ominous +golden dumb-bells rising from the premier ligne, scraped our boots on +a German helmet and went down again into the strangest sanctuary in +the world. + +This was the vision which flashed through my mind as I began vigil at +an enormous nest of Attas--the leaf-cutting ants of the British +Guiana jungle. In front of me was a glade, about thirty feet across, +devoid of green growth, and filled with a great irregular expanse of +earth and mud. Relative to the height of the Attas, my six feet must +seem a good half mile, and from this height I looked down and saw +again the same inconceivably sticky clay of France. There were the +rain-washed gullies, the half-roofed entrances to the vast underground +fortresses, clean-swept, perfect roads, as efficient as the arteries +of Verdun, flapping dead leaves like the omnipresent, worn-out +scare-crows of camouflage, and over in one corner, to complete the +simile, were a dozen shell-holes, the homes of voracious ant-lions, +which, for passing insects, were unexploded mines, set at hair +trigger. + +My Atta city was only two hundred feet away from the laboratory, in +fairly high jungle, within sound of the dinner triangle, and of the +lapping waves on the Mazaruni shore. To sit near by and concentrate +solely upon the doings of these ant people, was as easy as watching a +single circus ring of performing elephants, while two more rings, a +maze of trapezes, a race track and side-shows were in full swing. The +jungle around me teemed with interesting happenings and distracting +sights and sounds. The very last time I visited the nest and became +absorbed in a line of incoming ants, I heard the shrill squeaking of +an angry hummingbird overhead. I looked up, and there, ten feet above, +was a furry tamandua anteater slowly climbing a straight purpleheart +trunk, while around and around his head buzzed and swore the little +fury--a pinch of cinnamon feathers, ablaze with rage. The curved claws +of the unheeding anteater fitted around the trunk and the strong +prehensile tail flattened against the bark, so that the creature +seemed to put forth no more exertion than if walking along a fallen +log. Now and then it stopped and daintily picked at a bit of termite +nest. + +With such side-shows it was sometimes difficult to concentrate on the +Attas. Yet they offered problems for years of study. The glade was a +little world in itself, with visitors and tenants, comedy and tragedy, +sounds and silences. It was an ant-made glade, with all new growths +either choked by upflung, earthen hillocks, or leaves bitten off as +soon as they appeared. The casual visitors were the most conspicuous, +an occasional trogon swooping across--a glowing, feathered comet of +emerald, azurite and gold; or, slowly drifting in and out among the +vines and coming to rest with waving wings, a yellow and red spotted +Ithomiid,--or was it a Heliconiid or a Danaiid?--with such bewildering +models and marvelous mimics it was impossible to tell without capture +and close examination. Giant, purple tarantula-hawks hummed past, +scanning the leaves for their prey. + +Another class of glade haunters were those who came strictly on +business,--plasterers and sculptors, who found wet clay ready to their +needs. Great golden and rufous bees blundered down and gouged out +bucketsful of mud; while slender-bodied, dainty, ebony wasps, after +much fastidious picking of place, would detach a tiny bit of the +whitest clay, place it in their snuff-box holder, clean their feet and +antennæ, run their rapier in and out and delicately take to wing. + +Little black trigonid bees had their special quarry, a small deep +valley in the midst of a waste of interlacing Bad Lands, on the side +of a precipitous butte. Here they picked and shoveled to their hearts' +content, plastering their thighs until their wings would hardly lift +them. They braced their feet, whirred, lifted unevenly, and sank back +with a jar. Then turning, they bit off a piece of ballast, and heaving +it over the precipice, swung off on an even keel. + +Close examination of some of the craters and volcanic-like cones +revealed many species of ants, beetles and roaches searching for bits +of food--the scavengers of this small world. But the most interesting +were the actual parasites, flies of many colors and sizes, humming +past like little planes and zeppelins over this hidden city, ready to +drop a bomb in the form of an egg deposited on the refuse heaps or on +the ants themselves. The explosion might come slowly, but it would be +none the less deadly. Once I detected a hint of the complexity of the +glade life--beautiful metallic green flies walking swiftly about on +long legs, searching nervously, whose eggs would be deposited near +those of other flies, their larvæ to feed upon the others--parasites +upon parasites. + +As I had resolutely put the doings of the treetops away from my +consciousness, so now I forgot visitors and parasites, and armed +myself for the excavation of this buried metropolis. I rubbed +vaseline on my high boots, and about the tops bound a band of +teased-out absorbent cotton. My pick and shovel I treated likewise, +and thus I was comparatively insulated. Without precautions no living +being could withstand the slow, implacable attack of disturbed Attas. +At present I walked unmolested across the glade. The millions beneath +my feet were as unconscious of my presence as they were of the breeze +in the palm fronds overhead. + +At the first deep shovel thrust, a slow-moving flood of reddish-brown +began to pour forth from the crumbled earth--the outposts of the Atta +Maxims moving upward to the attack. For a few seconds only workers of +various sizes appeared, then an enormous head heaved upward and there +came into the light of day the first Atta soldier. He was twice as +large as a large worker and heavy in proportion. Instead of being +drawn up into two spines, the top of his head was rounded, bald and +shiny, and only at the back were the two spines visible, shifted +downward. The front of the head was thickly clothed with golden hair, +which hung down bang-like over a round, glistening, single, median +eye. One by one, and then shoulder to shoulder, these Cyclopean +Maxims lumbered forth to battle, and soon my boots were covered in +spite of the grease, all sinking their mandibles deep into the +leather. + +When I unpacked these boots this year I found the heads and jaws of +two Attas still firmly attached, relics of some forgotten foray of the +preceding year. This mechanical, vise-like grip, wholly independent of +life or death, is utilized by the Guiana Indians. In place of +stitching up extensive wounds, a number of these giant Atta Maxims are +collected, and their jaws applied to the edges of the skin, which are +drawn together. The ants take hold, their bodies are snipped off, and +the row of jaws remains until the wound is healed. + +Over and around the out-pouring soldiers, the tiny workers ran and bit +and chewed away at whatever they could reach. Dozens of ants made +their way up to the cotton, but found the utmost difficulty in +clambering over the loose fluff. Now and then, however, a needle-like +nip at the back of my neck, showed that some pioneer of these shock +troops had broken through, when I was thankful that Attas could only +bite and not sting as well. At such a time as this, the greatest +difference is apparent between these and the Eciton army ants. The +Eciton soldier with his long, curved scimitars and his swift, nervous +movements, was to one of these great insects as a fighting d'Artagnan +would be to an armored tank. The results were much the same +however,--perfect efficiency. + +I now dug swiftly and crashed with pick down through three feet of +soil. The great entrance arteries of the nest branched and bifurcated, +separated and anastomosed, while here and there were chambers varying +in size from a cocoanut to a football. These were filled with what +looked like soft grayish sponge covered with whitish mold, and these +somber affairs were the _raison d'être_ for all the leaf-cutting, the +trails, the struggles through jungles, the constant battling against +wind and rain and sun. + +But the labors of the Attas are only renewed when a worker disappears +down a hole with his hard-earned bit of leaf. He drops it and goes on +his way. We do not know what this way is, but my guess is that he +turns around and goes after another leaf. Whatever the nests of Attas +possess, they are without recreation rooms. These sluggard-instructors +do not know enough to take a vacation; their faces are fashioned for +biting, but not for laughing or yawning. I once dabbed fifteen Mediums +with a touch of white paint as they approached the nest, and within +five minutes thirteen of them had emerged and started on the back +track again. + +The leaf is taken in charge by another Medium, hosts of whom are +everywhere. Once after a spadeful, I placed my eye as close as +possible to a small heap of green leaves, and around one oblong bit +were five Mediums, each with a considerable amount of chewed and +mumbled tissue in front of him. This is the only time I have ever +succeeded in finding these ants actually at this work. The leaves are +chewed thoroughly and built up into the sponge gardens, being used +neither for thatch nor for food, but as fertilizer. And not for any +strange subterranean berry or kernel or fruit, but for a fungus or +mushroom. The spores sprout and proliferate rapidly, the gray mycelia +covering the garden, and at the end of each thread is a little knobbed +body filled with liquid. This forms the sole food of the ants in the +nest, but a drop of honey placed by a busy trail will draw a circle of +workers at any time--both Mediums and Minims, who surround it and +drink their fill. + +When the fungus garden is in full growth, the nest labors of the +Minims begin, and until the knobbed bodies are actually ripe, they +never cease to weed and to prune, thus killing off the multitude of +other fungi and foreign organisms, and by pruning they keep their +particular fungus growing, and prevent it from fructifying. The fungus +of the Attas is a particular species with the resonant, Dunsanyesque +name of _Rozites gongylophora_. It is quite unknown outside of the +nests of these ants, and is as artificial as a banana. + +Only in Calcutta bazaars at night, and in underground streets of +Pekin, have I seen stranger beings than I unearthed in my Atta nest. +Now and then there rolled out of a shovelful of earth, an unbelievably +big and rotund Cicada larva--which in the course of time, whether in +one or in seventeen years, would emerge as the great marbled winged +_Cicada gigas_, spreading five inches from tip to tip. Small +tarantulas, with beautiful wine-colored cephalothorax, made their home +deep in the nest, guarded, perhaps, by their dense covering of hair; +slender scorpions sidled out from the ruins. They were bare, with +vulnerable joints, but they had the advantage of a pair of hands, and +long, mobile arms, which could quickly and skilfully pluck an +attacking ant from any part of their anatomy. + +The strangest of all the tenants were the tiny, amber-colored roaches +which clung frantically to the heads of the great soldier ants, or +scurried over the tumultuous mounds, searching for a crevice +sanctuary. They were funny, fat little beings, wholly blind, yet +supremely conscious of the danger that threatened, and with only the +single thought of getting below the surface as quickly as possible. +The Attas had very few insect guests, but this cockroach is one which +had made himself perfectly at home. Through century upon century he +had become more and more specialized and adapted to Atta life, eyes +slipping until they were no more than faint specks, legs and antennæ +changing, gait becoming altered to whatever speed and carriage best +suited little guests in big underground halls and galleries. He and +his race had evolved unseen and unnoticed even by the Maxim policemen. +But when nineteen hundred humanly historical years had passed, a man +with a keen sense of fitness named him Little Friend of the Attas; and +so for a few more years, until scientists give place to the next +caste, _Attaphila_ will, all unconsciously, bear a name. + +Attaphilas have staked their whole gamble of existence on the +continued possibility of guest-ship with the Attas. Although they +lived near the fungus gardens they did not feed upon them, but +gathered secretions from the armored skin of the giant soldiers, who +apparently did not object, and showed no hostility to their diminutive +masseurs. A summer boarder may be quite at home on a farm, and safe +from all ordinary dangers, but he must keep out of the way of scythes +and sickles if he chooses to haunt the hay-fields. And so Attaphila, +snug and safe, deep in the heart of the nest, had to keep on the qui +vive when the ant harvesters came to glean in the fungus gardens. +Snip, snip, snip, on all sides in the musty darkness, the keen +mandibles sheared the edible heads, and though the little Attaphilas +dodged and ran, yet most of them, in course of time, lost part of an +antenna or even a whole one. + +Thus the Little Friend of the Leaf-cutters lives easily through his +term of weeks or months, or perhaps even a year, and has nothing to +fear for food or mate, or from enemies. But Attaphilas cannot all +live in a single nest, and we realize that there must come a crisis, +when they pass out into a strange world of terrible light and +multitudes of foes. For these pampered, degenerate roaches to find +another Atta nest unaided, would be inconceivable. In the big nest +which I excavated I observed them on the back and heads not only of +the large soldiers, but also of the queens which swarmed in one +portion of the galleries; and indeed, of twelve queens, seven had +roaches clinging to them. This has been noted also of a Brazilian +species, and we suddenly realize what splendid sports these humble +insects are. They resolutely prepare for their gamble--_l'aventure +magnifique_--the slenderest fighting chance, and we are almost +inclined to forget the irresponsible implacability of instinct, and +cheer the little fellows for lining up on this forlorn hope. When the +time comes, the queens leave, and are off up into the unheard-of sky, +as if an earthworm should soar with eagle's feathers; past the +gauntlet of voracious flycatchers and hawks, to the millionth chance +of meeting an acceptable male of the same species. After the mating, +comes the solitary search for a suitable site, and only when the +pitifully unfair gamble has been won by a single fortunate queen, +does the Attaphila climb tremblingly down and accept what fate has +sent. His ninety and nine fellows have met death in almost as many +ways. + +With the exception of these strange inmates there are very few tenants +or guests in the nests of the Attas. Unlike the termites and Ecitons, +who harbor a host of weird boarders, the leaf-cutters are able to keep +their nest free from undesirables. + +Once, far down in the nest, I came upon three young queens, recently +emerged, slow and stupid, with wings dull and glazed, who crawled with +awkward haste back into darkness. And again twelve winged females were +grouped in one small chamber, restless and confused. This was the only +glimpse I ever had of Atta royalty at home. + +Good fortune was with me, however, on a memorable fifth of May, when +returning from a monkey hunt in high jungle. As I came out into the +edge of a clearing, a low humming attracted my attention. It was +ventriloquial, and my ear refused to trace it. It sounded exactly like +a great aerodrome far in the distance, with a score or more of planes +tuning up. I chanced to see a large bee-like insect rising through +the branches, and following back along its path, I suddenly perceived +the rarest of sights--an Atta nest entrance boiling with the +excitement of a flight of winged kings and queens. So engrossed were +the ants that they paid no attention to me, and I was able to creep up +close and kneel within two feet of the hole. The main nest was twenty +feet away, and this was a special exit made for the occasion--a +triumphal gateway erected far away from the humdrum leaf traffic. + +The two-inch, arched hole led obliquely down into darkness, while +brilliant sunshine illumined the earthen take-off and the surrounding +mass of pink Mazaruni primroses. Up this corridor was coming, slowly, +with dignity, as befitted the occasion, a pageant of royalty. The king +males were more active, as they were smaller in size than the females, +but they were veritable giants in comparison with the workers. The +queens seemed like beings of another race, with their great bowed +thorax supporting the folded wings, heads correspondingly large, with +less jaw development, but greatly increased keenness of vision. In +comparison with the Minims, these queens were as a human being one +hundred feet in height. + +I selected one large queen as she appeared and watched her closely. +Slowly and with great effort she climbed the steep ascent into the +blazing sunlight. Five tiny Minims were clinging to her body and +wings, all scrubbing and cleaning as hard as they could. She chose a +clear space, spread her wings, wide and flat, stood high upon her six +legs and waited. I fairly shouted at this change, for slight though it +was, it worked magic, and the queen Atta was a queen no more, but a +miniature, straddle-legged aeroplane, pushed into position, and +overrun by a crowd of mechanics, putting the finishing touches, +tightening the wires, oiling every pliable crevice. A Medium came +along, tugged at a leg and the obliging little plane lifted it for +inspection. For three minutes this kept up, and then the plane became +a queen and moved restlessly. Without warning, as if some +irresponsible mechanic had turned the primed propellers, the four +mighty wings whirred--and four Minims were hurled head over heels a +foot away, snapped from their positions. The sound of the wings was +almost too exact an imitation of the snarl of a starting plane--the +comparison was absurd in its exactness of timbre and resonance. It was +only a test, however, and the moment the queen became quiet the upset +mechanics clambered back. They crawled beneath her, scraped her feet +and antennæ, licked her eyes and jaws, and went over every shred of +wing tissue. Then again she buzzed, this time sending only a single +Minim sprawling. Again she stopped after lifting herself an inch, but +immediately started up, and now rose rather unsteadily, but without +pause, and slowly ascended above the nest and the primroses. Circling +once, she passed through green leaves and glowing balls of fruit, into +the blue sky. + +Thus I followed the passing of one queen Atta into the jungle world, +as far as human eyes would permit, and my mind returned to the mote +which I had detected at an equally great height--the queen descending +after her marriage--as isolated as she had started. + +We have seen how the little blind roaches occasionally cling to an +emerging queen and so are transplanted to a new nest. But the queen +bears something far more valuable. More faithfully than ever virgin +tended temple fires, each departing queen fills a little pouch in the +lower part of her mouth with a pellet of the precious fungus, and +here it is carefully guarded until the time comes for its propagation +in the new nest. + +When she has descended to earth and excavated a little chamber, she +closes the entrance, and for forty days and nights labors at the +founding of a new colony. She plants the little fungus cutting and +tends it with the utmost solicitude. The care and feeding in her past +life have stored within her the substance for vast numbers of eggs. +Nine out of ten which she lays she eats to give her the strength to go +on with her labors, and when the first larvæ emerge, they, too, are +fed with surplus eggs. In time they pupate and at the end of six weeks +the first workers--all tiny Minims--hatch. Small as they are, born in +darkness, yet no education is needed. The Spirit of the Attas infuses +them. Play and rest are the only things incomprehensible to them, and +they take charge at once, of fungus, of excavation, of the care of the +queen and eggs, the feeding of the larvæ, and as soon as the huskier +Mediums appear, they break through into the upper world and one day +the first bit of green leaf is carried down into the nest. + +The queen rests. Henceforth, as far as we know, she becomes a mere +egg-producing machine, fed mechanically by mechanical workers, the +food transformed by physiological mechanics into yolk and then +deposited. The aeroplane has become transformed into an incubator. + +One wonders whether, throughout the long hours, weeks and months, in +darkness which renders her eyes a mockery, there ever comes to her +dull ganglion a flash of memory of The Day, of the rushing wind, the +escape from pursuing puff-birds, the jungle stretching away for miles +beneath, her mate, the cool tap of drops from a passing shower, the +volplane to earth, and the obliteration of all save labor. Did she +once look behind her, did she turn aside for a second, just to feel +the cool silk of petals? + +As we have seen, an Atta worker is a member of the most implacable +labor-union in the world: he believes in a twenty-four hour day, no pay, no +play, no rest--he is a cog in a machine-driven +Good-for-the-greatest-number. After studying these beings for a week, one +longs to go out and shout for kaisers and tsars, for selfishness and +crime--anything as a relief from such terrible unthinking altruism. All +Atta workers are born free and equal--which is well; and they remain +so--which is what a Buddhist priest once called "gashang"--or so it +sounded, and which he explained as a state where plants and animals and men +were crystal-like in growth and existence. What a welcome sight it would be +to see a Medium mount a bit of twig, antennæ a crowd of Minims about him, +and start off on a foray of his own! + +We may jeer or condemn the Attas for their hard-shell existence, but +there comes to mind again and again, the wonder of it all. Are the +hosts of little beings really responsible; have they not evolved into +a pocket, a mental cul-de-sac, a swamping of individuality, pooling +their personalities? And what is it they have gained--what pledge of +success in food, in safety, in propagation? They are not separate +entities, they have none of the freedom of action, of choice, of +individuality of the solitary wasps. They are the somatic cells of the +body politic, while deep within the nest are the guarded sexual +cells--the winged kings and queens, which from time to time, exactly +as in isolated organisms, are thrown off to propagate, and to found +new nests. They, no less than the workers, are parts of something +more subtle than the visible Attas and their material nest. Whether I +go to the ant as sluggard, or myrmocologist, or accidentally, via +Pterodactyl Pups, a day spent with them invariably leaves me with my +whole being concentrated on this mysterious Atta Ego. Call it +Vibration, Aura, Spirit of the nest, clothe ignorance in whatever term +seems appropriate, we cannot deny its existence and power. + +As with the Army ants, the flowing lines of leaf-cutters always +brought to mind great arteries, filled with pulsating, tumbling +corpuscles. When an obstruction appeared, as a fallen leaf, across the +great sandy track, a dozen, or twenty or a hundred workers +gathered--like leucocytes--and removed the interfering object. If I +injured a worker who was about to enter the nest, I inoculated the +Atta organism with a pernicious, foreign body. Even the victim himself +was dimly aware of the law of fitness. Again and again he yielded to +the call of the nest, only to turn aside at the last moment. From a +normal link in the endless Atta chain, he had become an +outcast--snapped at by every passing ant, self-banished, wandering off +at nightfall to die somewhere in the wilderness of grass. When well, +an Atta has relations but no friends, when ill, every jaw is against +him. + +As I write this seated at my laboratory table, by turning down my lamp +and looking out, I can see the star dust of Orion's nebula, and +without moving from my chair, Rigel, Sirius, Capella and +Betelgeuze--the blue, white, yellow and red evolution of so-called +lifeless cosmic matter. A few slides from the aquarium at my side +reveal an evolutionary sequence to the heavenly host--the simplest of +earthly organisms playing fast and loose with the borderland, not only +of plants and animals, but of the one and of the many-celled. First a +swimming lily, Stentor, a solitary animal bloom, twenty-five to the +inch; Cothurnia, a double lily, and Gonium, with a quartet of cells +clinging tremulously together, progressing unsteadily--materially +toward the rim of my field of vision--in the evolution of earthly life +toward sponges, peripatus, ants and man. + +I was interrupted in my microcosmus just as it occurred to me that +Chesterton would heartily approve of my approximation of Sirius and +Stentor, of Capella and Cothurnia--the universe balanced. My attention +was drawn from the atom Gonium--whose brave little spirit was striving +to keep his foursome one--a primordial struggle toward unity of self +and division of labor; my consciousness climbed the microscope tube +and came to rest upon a slim glass of amber liquid on my laboratory +table: a servant had brought a cocktail, for it was New Year's Eve. +(Now the thought came that there were a number of worthy people who +would also approve of this approximation!) I looked at the small +spirituous luxury, and I thought of my friends in New York, and then +of the Attas in front of the laboratory. With my electric flash I went +out into the starlight, and found the usual hosts struggling nestward +with their chlorophyll burdens, and rushing frantically out into the +black jungle for more and yet more leaves. My mind swept back over +evolution from star-dust to Kartabo compound, from Gonium to man, and +to these leaf-cutting ants. And I wondered whether the Attas were any +the better for being denied the stimulus of temptation, or whether I +was any the worse for the opportunity of refusing a second glass. I +went back into the house, and voiced a toast to tolerance, to +temperance, and--to pterodactyls--and drank my cocktail. + + + + +IX + +HAMMOCK NIGHTS + + +There is a great gulf between pancakes and truffles: an eternal, +fixed, abysmal cañon. It is like the chasm between beds and hammocks. +It is not to be denied and not to be traversed; for if pancakes with +syrup are a necessary of life, then truffles with anything must be, by +the very nature of things, a supreme and undisputed luxury, a regal +food for royalty and the chosen of the earth. There cannot be a shadow +of a doubt that these two are divided; and it is not alone a mere +arbitrary division of poverty and riches as it would appear on the +surface. It is an alienation brought about by profound and fundamental +differences; for the gulf between them is that gulf which separates +the prosaic, the ordinary, the commonplace, from all that is colored +and enlivened by romance. + +The romance of truffles endows the very word itself with a halo, an +aristocratic halo full of mystery and suggestion. One remembers the +hunters who must track their quarry through marshy and treacherous +lands, and one cannot forget their confiding catspaw, that desolated +pig, created only to be betrayed and robbed of the fungi of his +labors. He is one of the pathetic characters of history, born to +secret sorrow, victimized by those superior tastes which do not become +his lowly station. Born to labor and to suffer, but not to eat. To +this day he commands my sympathy; his ghost--lean, bourgeois, +reproachful--looks out at me from every market-place in the world +where the truffle proclaims his faithful service. + +But the pancake is a pancake, nothing more. It is without inherent or +artificial glamour; and this unfortunately, when you come right down +to it, is true of food in general. For food, after all, is one of the +lesser considerations; the connoisseur, the gourmet, even the +gourmand, spends no more than four hours out of the day at his table. +From the cycle, he may select four in which to eat; but whether he +will or not, he must set aside seven of the twenty-four in which to +sleep. + +Sleeping, then, as opposed to eating, is of almost double importance, +since it consumes nearly twice as much time--and time, in itself, is +the most valuable thing in the world. Considered from this angle, it +seems incredible that we have no connoisseurs of sleep. For we have +none. Therefore it is with some temerity that I declare sleep to be +one of the romances of existence, and not by any chance the simple +necessary it is reputed to be. + +However, this romance, in company with whatever is worthy, is not to +be discovered without the proper labor. Life is not all truffles. +Neither do they grow in modest back-yards to be picked of mornings by +the maid-of-all-work. A mere bed, notwithstanding its magic camouflage +of coverings, of canopy, of disguised pillows, of shining brass or +fluted carven posts, is, pancake like, never surrounded by this aura +of romance. No, it is hammock sleep which is the sweetest of all +slumber. Not in the hideous, dyed affairs of our summer porches, with +their miserable curved sticks to keep the strands apart, and their +maddening creaks which grow in length and discord the higher one +swings--but in a hammock woven by Carib Indians. An Indian hammock +selected at random will not suffice; it must be a Carib and none +other. For they, themselves, are part and parcel of the romance, +since they are not alone a quaint and poetic people, but the direct +descendants of those remote Americans who were the first to see the +caravels of Columbus. Indeed, he paid the initial tribute to their +skill, for in the diary of his first voyage he writes,-- + +"A great many Indians in canoes came to the ship to-day for the +purpose of bartering their cotton, and _hamacas_ or nets in which they +sleep." + +It is supposed that this name owes its being to the hamack tree, from +the bark of which they were woven. However that may be, the modern +hammock of these tropical Red Men is so light and so delicate in +texture that during the day one may wear it as a sash, while at night +it forms an incomparable couch. + +But one does not drop off to sleep in this before a just and proper +preparation. This presents complexities. First, the hammock must be +slung with just the right amount of tautness; then, the novice must +master the knack of winding himself in his blanket that he may slide +gently into his aerial bed and rest at right angles to the tied ends, +thus permitting the free side-meshes to curl up naturally over his +feet and head. This cannot be taught. It is an art; and any art is +one-tenth technique, and nine-tenths natural talent. However, it is +possible to acquire a certain virtuosity, which, after all is said, is +but pure mechanical skill as opposed to sheer genius. One might, +perhaps, get a hint by watching the living chrysalid of a potential +moon-moth wriggle back into its cocoon--but little is to be learned +from human teaching. However, if, night after night, one observes his +Indians, a certain instinctive knowledge will arise to aid and abet +him in his task. Then, after his patient apprenticeship, he may reap +as he has sowed. If it is to be disaster, it is as immediate as it is +ignominious; but if success is to be his portion, then he is destined +to rest, wholly relaxed, upon a couch encushioned and resilient beyond +belief. He finds himself exalted and supreme above all mundane +disturbances, with the treetops and the stars for his canopy, and the +earth a shadowy floor far beneath. This gentle aerial support is +distributed throughout hundreds of fine meshes, and the sole contact +with the earth is through twin living boles, pulsing with swift +running sap, whose lichened bark and moonlit foliage excel any +tapestry of man's devising. + +Perhaps it is atavistic--this desire to rest and swing in a hamaca. +For these are not unlike the treetop couches of our arboreal +ancestors, such a one as I have seen an orang-utan weave in a few +minutes in the swaying crotch of a tree. At any rate, the hammock is +not dependent upon four walls, upon rooms and houses, and it partakes +altogether of the wilderness. Its movement is æolian--yielding to +every breath of air. It has even its own weird harmony--for I have +often heard a low, whistling hum as the air rushed through the cordage +mesh. In a sudden tropical gale every taut strand of my hamaca has +seemed a separate, melodious, orchestral note, while I was buffeted to +and fro, marking time to some rhythmic and reckless tune of the wind +playing fortissimo on the woven strings about me. The climax of this +musical outburst was not without a mild element of danger--sufficient +to create that enviable state of mind wherein the sense of security +and the knowledge that a minor catastrophe may perhaps be brought +about are weighed one against the other. + +Special, unexpected, and interesting minor dangers are also the +province of the hamaca. Once, in the tropics, a great fruit fell on +the elastic strands and bounced upon my body. There was an ominous +swish of the air in the sweeping arc which this missile described, +also a goodly shower of leaves; and since the fusillade took place at +midnight, it was, all in all, a somewhat alarming visitation. However, +there were no honorable scars to mark its advent; and what is more +important, from all my hundreds of hammock nights, I have no other +memory of any actual or threatened danger which was not due to human +carelessness or stupidity. It is true that once, in another continent, +by the light of a campfire, I saw the long, liana-like body of a +harmless tree-snake wind down from one of my fronded bed-posts and, +like a living woof following its shuttle, weave a passing pattern of +emerald through the pale meshes. But this heralded no harm, for the +poisonous reptiles of that region never climb; and so, since I was +worn out by a hard day, I shut my eyes and slept neither better nor +worse because of the transient confidence of a neighborly serpent. + +As a matter of fact, the wilderness provides but few real perils, and +in a hammock one is safely removed from these. One lies in a stratum +above all damp and chill of the ground, beyond the reach of crawling +tick and looping leech; and with an enveloping _mosquitaro_, or +mosquito shirt, as the Venezuelans call it, one is fortified even in +the worst haunts of these most disturbing of all pests. + +Once my ring rope slipped and the hammock settled, but not enough to +wake me up and force me to set it to rights. I was aware that +something had gone wrong, but, half asleep, I preferred to leave the +matter in the lap of the gods. Later, as a result, I was awakened +several times by the patting of tiny paws against my body, as small +jungle-folk, standing on their hind-legs, essayed to solve the mystery +of the swaying, silent, bulging affair directly overhead. I was unlike +any tree or branch or liana which had come their way before; I do not +doubt that they thought me some new kind of ant-nest, since these +structures are alike only as their purpose in life is identical--for +they express every possible variation in shape, size, color, design, +and position. As for their curiosity, I could make no complaint, for, +at best, my visitors could not be so inquisitive as I, inasmuch as I +had crossed one ocean and two continents with no greater object than +to pry into their personal and civic affairs as well as those of +their neighbors. To say nothing of their environment and other +matters. + +That my rope slipped was the direct result of my own inefficiency. The +hammock protects one from the dangers of the outside world, but like +any man-made structure, it shows evidences of those imperfections +which are part and parcel of human nature, and serve, no doubt, to +make it interesting. But one may at least strive for perfection by +being careful. Therefore tie the ropes of your hammock yourself, or +examine and test the job done for you. The master of hammocks makes a +knot the name of which I do not know--I cannot so much as describe it. +But I would like to twist it again--two quick turns, a push and a +pull; then, the greater the strain put upon it, the greater its +resistance. + +This trustworthiness commands respect and admiration, but it is in the +morning that one feels the glow of real gratitude; for, in striking +camp at dawn, one has but to give a single jerk and the rope is +straightened out, without so much as a second's delay. It is the +tying, however, which must be well done--this I learned from bitter +experience. + +It was one morning, years ago, but the memory of it is with me still, +vivid and painful. One of the party had left her hammock, which was +tied securely since she was skilful in such matters, to sit down and +rest in another, belonging to a servant. This was slung at one end of +a high, tropical porch, which was without the railing that surrounds +the more pretentious verandahs of civilization, so that the hammock +swung free, first over the rough flooring, then a little out over the +yard itself. A rope slipped, the faulty knot gave way, and she fell +backward--a seven-foot fall with no support of any kind by which she +might save herself. A broken wrist was the price she had to pay for +another's carelessness--a broken wrist which, in civilization, is +perhaps, one of the lesser tragedies; but this was in the very heart +of the Guiana wilderness. Many hours from ether and surgical skill, +such an accident assumes alarming proportions. Therefore, I repeat my +warning: tie your knots or examine them. + +It is true, that, when all is said and done, a dweller in hammocks may +bring upon himself any number of diverse dangers of a character never +described in books or imagined in fiction. A fellow naturalist of +mine never lost an opportunity to set innumerable traps for the lesser +jungle-folk, such as mice and opossums, all of which he religiously +measured and skinned, so that each, in its death, should add its mite +to human knowledge. As a fisherman runs out set lines, so would he +place his traps in a circle under his hammock, using a cord to tie +each and every one to the meshes. This done, it was his custom to lie +at ease and wait for the click below which would usher in a new +specimen,--perhaps a new species,--to be lifted up, removed, and +safely cached until morning. This strategic method served a double +purpose: it conserved natural energy, and it protected the catch. For +if the traps were set in the jungle and trustfully confided to its +care until the break of day, the ants would leave a beautifully +cleaned skeleton, intact, all unnecessarily entrapped. + +Now it happened that once, when he had set his nocturnal traps, he +straightway went to sleep in the midst of all the small jungle people who +were calling for mates and new life, so that he did not hear the click +which was to warn him that another little beast of fur had come unawares +upon his death. But he heard, suddenly, a disturbance in the low ferns +beneath his hammock. He reached over and caught hold of one of the cords, +finding the attendant trap heavy with prey. He was on the point of feeling +his way to the trap itself, when instead, by some subconscious prompting, +he reached over and snapped on his flashlight. And there before him, +hanging in mid-air, striking viciously at his fingers which were just +beyond its reach, was a young fer-de-lance--one of the deadliest of +tropical serpents. His nerves gave way, and with a crash the trap fell to +the ground where he could hear it stirring and thrashing about among the +dead leaves. This ominous rustling did not encourage sleep; he lay there +for a long time listening,--and every minute is longer in the +darkness,--while his hammock quivered and trembled with the reaction. + +Guided by this, I might enter into a new field of naturalizing and say +to those who might, in excitement, be tempted to do otherwise, "Look +at your traps before lifting them." But my audience would be too +limited; I will refrain from so doing. + +It is true that this brief experience might be looked upon as one +illustration of the perils of the wilderness, since it is not +customary for the fer-de-lance to frequent the city and the town. But +this would give rise to a footless argument, leading nowhere. For +danger is everywhere--it lurks in every shadow and is hidden in the +bright sunlight, it is the uninvited guest, the invisible pedestrian +who walks beside you in the crowded street ceaselessly, without +tiring. But even a fer-de-lance should rather add to the number of +hammock devotees than diminish them; for the three feet or more of +elevation is as good as so many miles between the two of you. And +three miles from any serpent is sufficient. + +It may be that the very word danger is subjected to a different +interpretation in each one of our mental dictionaries. It is elastic, +comprehensive. To some it may include whatever is terrible, +terrifying; to others it may symbolize a worthy antagonist, one who +throws down the gauntlet and asks no questions, but who will make a +good and fair fight wherein advantage is neither taken nor given. I +suppose, to be bitten by vampires would be thought a danger by many +who have not graduated from the mattress of civilization to this +cubiculum of the wilderness. This is due, in part, to an ignorance, +which is to be condoned; and this ignorance, in turn, is due to that +lack of desire for a knowledge of new countries and new experiences, +which lack is to be deplored and openly mourned. Many years ago, in +Mexico, when I first entered the vampire zone, I was apprised of the +fact by the clotted blood on my horse's neck in the early morning. In +actually seeing this evidence, I experienced the diverse emotions of +the discoverer, although as a matter of fact I had discovered nothing +more than the verification of a scientific commonplace. It so happened +that I had read, at one time, many conflicting statements of the +workings of this aerial leech; therefore, finding myself in his native +habitat, I went to all sorts of trouble to become a victim to his +sorceries. The great toe is the favorite and stereotyped point of +attack, we are told; so, in my hammock, my great toes were +conscientiously exposed night after night, but not until a decade +later was my curiosity satisfied. + +I presume that this was a matter of ill luck, rather than a personal +matter between the vampire and me. Therefore, as a direct result of +this and like experiences, I have learned to make proper allowances +for the whims of the Fates. I have learned that it is their pleasure +to deluge me with rainstorms at unpropitious moments, also to send me, +with my hammock, to eminently desirable countries, which, however, are +barren of trees and scourged of every respectable shrub. That the +showers may not find me unprepared, I pack with my hamaca an extra +length of rope, to be stretched taut from foot-post to head-post, that +a tarpaulin or canvas may be slung over it. When a treeless country is +presented to me in prospect, I have two stout stakes prepared, and I +do not move forward without them. + +It is a wonderful thing to see an experienced hammocker take his +stakes, first one, then the other, and plunge them into the ground +three or four times, measuring at one glance the exact distance and +angle, and securing magically that mysterious "give" so essential to +well-being and comfort. Any one can sink them like fence-posts, so +that they stand deep and rigid, a reproach and an accusation; but it +requires a particular skill to judge by the pull whether or not they +will hold through the night and at the same time yield with gentle and +supple swing to the least movement of the sleeper. A Carib knows, +instantly, worthy and unworthy ground. I have seen an Indian sink his +hamaca posts into sand with one swift, concentrated motion, +mathematical in its precision and surety, so that he might enter at +once into a peaceful night of tranquil and unbroken slumber, while I, +a tenderfoot then, must needs beat my stakes down into the ground with +tremendous energy, only to come to earth with a resounding thwack the +moment I mounted my couch. + +The Red Man made his comment, smiling: "Yellow earth, much squeeze." +Which, being translated, informed me that the clayey ground I had +chosen, hard though it seemed, was more like putty in that it would +slip and slip with the prolonged pressure until the post fell inward +and catastrophe crowned my endeavor. + +So it follows that the hammock, in company with an adequate tarpaulin +and two trustworthy stakes, will survive the heaviest downpour as well +as the most arid and uncompromising desert. But since it is man-made, +with finite limitations, nature is not without means to defeat its +purpose. The hammock cannot cope with the cold--real cold, that is, +not the sudden chill of tropical night which a blanket resists, but +the cold of the north or of high altitudes. This is the realm of the +sleeping-bag, the joy of which is another story. More than once I have +had to use a hammock at high levels, since there was nothing else at +hand; and the numbness of the Arctic was mine. Every mesh seemed to +invite a separate draught. The winds of heaven--all four--played +unceasingly upon me, and I became in due time a swaying mummy of ice. +It was my delusion that I was a dead Indian cached aloft upon my +arboreal bier--which is not a normal state of mind for the sleeping +explorer. + +Anything rather than this helpless surrender to the elements. Better +the lowlands and that fantastic shroud, the mosquitaro. For even to +wind one's self into this is an experience of note. It is ingenious, +and called the mosquito shirt because of its general shape, which is +as much like a shirt as anything else. A large round center covers the +hammock, and two sleeves extend up the supporting strands and inclose +the ends, being tied to the ring-ropes. If at sundown swarms of +mosquitoes become unbearable, one retires into his netting funnel, and +there disrobes. Clothes are rolled into a bundle and tied to the +hammock, that one may close one's eyes reasonably confident that the +supply will not be diminished by some small marauder. It is then that +a miracle is enacted. For one is at last enabled, under these +propitious circumstances, to achieve the impossible, to control and +manipulate the void and the invisible, to obey that unforgotten advice +of one's youth, "Oh, g'wan--crawl into a hole and pull the hole in +after you!" At an early age, this unnatural advice held my mind, so +that I devised innumerable means of verifying it; I was filled with a +despair and longing whenever I met it anew. But it was an ambition +appeased only in maturity. And this is the miracle of the tropics: +climb up into the hamaca, and, at this altitude, draw in the hole of +the mosquitaro funnel, making it fast with a single knot. It is done. +One is at rest, and lying back, listens to the humming of all the +mosquitoes in the world, to be lulled to sleep by the sad, minor +singing of their myriad wings. But though I have slung my hammock in +many lands, on all the continents, I have few memories of netting +nights. Usually, both in tropics and in tempered climes, one may +boldly lie with face uncovered to the night. + +And this brings us to the greatest joy of hammock life, admission to +the secrets of the wilderness, initiation to new intimacies and +subtleties of this kingdom, at once welcomed and delicately ignored +as any honored guest should be. For this one must make unwonted +demands upon one's nocturnal senses. From habit, perhaps, it is +natural to lie with the eyes wide open, but with all the faculties +concentrated on the two senses which bring impressions from the world +of darkness--hearing and smell. In a jungle hut a loud cry from out of +the black treetops now and then reaches the ear; in a tent the faint +noises of the night outside are borne on the wind, and at times the +silhouette of a passing animal moves slowly across the heavy cloth; +but in a hamaca one is not thus set apart to be baffled by hidden +mysteries--one is given the very point of view of the creatures who +live and die in the open. + +Through the meshes which press gently against one's face comes every +sound which our human ears can distinguish and set apart from the +silence--a silence which in itself is only a mirage of apparent +soundlessness, a testimonial to the imperfection of our senses. The +moaning and whining of some distant beast of prey is brought on the +breeze to mingle with the silken swishing of the palm fronds overhead +and the insistent chirping of many insects--a chirping so fine and +shrill that it verges upon the very limits of our hearing. And these, +combined, unified, are no more than the ground surge beneath the +countless waves of sound. For the voice of the jungle is the voice of +love, of hatred, of hope, of despair--and in the night-time, when the +dominance of sense-activity shifts from eye to ear, from retina to +nostril, it cries aloud its confidences to all the world. But the +human mind is not equal to a true understanding of these; for in a +tropical jungle the birds and the frogs, the beasts and the insects +are sending out their messages so swiftly one upon the other, that the +senses fail of their mission and only chaos and a great confusion are +carried to the brain. The whirring of invisible wings and the movement +of the wind in the low branches become one and the same: it is an +epic, told in some strange tongue, an epic filled to overflowing with +tragedy, with poetry and mystery. The cloth of this drama is woven +from many-colored threads, for Nature is lavish with her pigment, +reckless with life and death. She is generous because there is no need +for her to be miserly. And in the darkness, I have heard the working +of her will, translating as best I could. + +In the darkness, I have at times heard the tramping of many feet; in +a land traversed only by Indian trails I have listened to an +overloaded freight train toiling up a steep grade; I have heard the +noise of distant battle and the cries of the victor and the +vanquished. Hard by, among the trees, I have heard a woman seized, +have heard her crying, pleading for mercy, have heard her choking and +sobbing till the end came in a terrible, gasping sigh; and then, in +the sudden silence, there was a movement and thrashing about in the +topmost branches, and the flutter and whirr of great wings moving +swiftly away from me into the heart of the jungle--the only clue to +the author of this vocal tragedy. Once, a Pan of the woods tuned up +his pipes--striking a false note now and then, as if it were his whim +to appear no more than the veriest amateur; then suddenly, with the +full liquid sweetness of his reeds, bursting into a strain so +wonderful, so silvery clear, that I lay with mouth open to still the +beating of blood in my ears, hardly breathing, that I might catch +every vibration of his song. When the last note died away, there was +utter stillness about me for an instant--nothing stirred, nothing +moved; the wind seemed to have forsaken the leaves. From a great +distance, as if he were going deeper into the woods, I heard him once +more tuning up his pipes; but he did not play again. + +Beside me, I heard the low voice of one of my natives murmuring, +"_Muerte ha pasado_." My mind took up this phrase, repeating it, +giving it the rhythm of Pan's song--a rhythm delicate, sustained, full +of color and meaning in itself. I was ashamed that one of my kind +could translate such sweet and poignant music into a superstition, +could believe that it was the song of death,--the death that +passes,--and not the voice of life. But it may have been that he was +wiser in such matters than I; superstitions are many times no more +than truth in masquerade. For I could call it by no name--whether bird +or beast, creature of fur or feather or scale. And not for one, but +for a thousand creatures within my hearing, any obscure nocturnal +sound may have heralded the end of life. Song and death may go hand in +hand, and such a song may be a beautiful one, unsung, unuttered until +this moment when Nature demands the final payment for what she has +given so lavishly. In the open, the dominant note is the call to a +mate, and with it, that there may be color and form and contrast, +there is that note of pure vocal exuberance which is beauty for beauty +and for nothing else; but in this harmony there is sometimes the cry +of a creature who has come upon death unawares, a creature who has +perhaps been dumb all the days of his life, only to cry aloud this +once for pity, for mercy, or for faith, in this hour of his extremity. +Of all, the most terrible is the death-scream of a horse,--a cry of +frightful timbre,--treasured, according to some secret law, until this +dire instant when for him death indeed passes. + +It was years ago that I heard the pipes of Pan; but one does not +forget these mysteries of the jungle night: the sounds and scents and +the dim, glimpsed ghosts which flit through the darkness and the +deepest shadow mark a place for themselves in one's memory, which is +not erased. I have lain in my hammock looking at a tapestry of green +draped over a half-fallen tree, and then for a few minutes have turned +to watch the bats flicker across a bit of sky visible through the dark +branches. When I looked back again at the tapestry, although the dusk +had only a moment before settled into the deeper blue of twilight, a +score of great lustrous stars were shining there, making new patterns +in the green drapery; for in this short time, the spectral blooms of +the night had awakened and flooded my resting-place with their +fragrance. + +And these were but the first of the flowers; for when the brief tropic +twilight is quenched, a new world is born. The leaves and blossoms of +the day are at rest, and the birds and insects sleep. New blooms open, +strange scents pour forth. Even our dull senses respond to these; for +just as the eye is dimmed, so are the other senses quickened in the +sudden night of the jungle. Nearby, so close that one can reach out +and touch them, the pale Cereus moons expand, exhaling their +sweetness, subtle breaths of fragrance calling for the very life of +their race to the whirring hawkmoths. The tiny miller who, through the +hours of glare has crouched beneath a leaf, flutters upward, and the +trail of her perfume summons her mate perhaps half a mile down wind. +The civet cat, stimulated by love or war, fills the glade with an odor +so pungent that it seems as if the other senses must mark it. + +Although there may seem not a breath of air in motion, yet the tide of +scent is never still. One's moistened finger may reveal no cool side, +since there is not the vestige of a breeze; but faint odors arrive, +become stronger, and die away, or are wholly dissipated by an onrush +of others, so musky or so sweet that one can almost taste them. These +have their secret purposes, since Nature is not wasteful. If she +creates beautiful things, it is to serve some ultimate end; it is her +whim to walk in obscure paths, but her goal is fixed and immutable. +However, her designs are hidden and not easy to decipher; at best, one +achieves, not knowledge, but a few isolated facts. + +Sport in a hammock might, by the casual thinker, be considered as +limited to dreams of the hunt and chase. Yet I have found at my +disposal a score of amusements. When the dusk has just settled down, +and the little bats fill every glade in the forest, a box of beetles +or grasshoppers--or even bits of chopped meat--offers the possibility +of a new and neglected sport, in effect the inversion of baiting a +school of fish. Toss a grasshopper into the air and he has only time +to spread his wings for a parachute to earth, when a bat swoops past +so quickly that the eyes refuse to see any single effort--but the +grasshopper has vanished. As for the piece of meat, it is drawn like +a magnet to the fierce little face. Once I tried the experiment of a +bit of blunted bent wire on a long piece of thread, and at the very +first cast I entangled a flutter-mouse and pulled him in. I was aghast +when I saw what I had captured. A body hardly as large as that of a +mouse was topped with the head of a fiend incarnate. Between his red +puffed lips his teeth showed needle-sharp and ivory-white; his eyes +were as evil as a caricature from _Simplicissimus_, and set deep in +his head, while his ears and nose were monstrous with fold upon fold +of skinny flaps. It was not a living face, but a mask of frightful +mobility. + +I set him free, deeming anything so ugly well worthy of life, if such +could find sustenance among his fellows and win a mate for himself +somewhere in this world. But he, for all his hideousness and unseemly +mien, is not the vampire; the blood-sucking bat has won a mantle of +deceit from the hands of Nature--a garb that gives him a modest and +not unpleasing appearance, and makes it a difficult matter to +distinguish him from his guileless confrères of our summer evenings. + +But in the tropics,--the native land of the hammock,--not only the +mysteries of the night, but the affairs of the day may be legitimately +investigated from this aerial point of view. It is a fetish of belief +in hot countries that every unacclimatized white man must, sooner or +later, succumb to that sacred custom, the siesta. In the cool of the +day he may work vigorously, but this hour of rest is indispensable. To +a healthful person, living a reasonable life, the siesta is sheer +luxury. However, in camp, when the sun nears the zenith and the hush +which settles over the jungle proclaims that most of the wild +creatures are resting, one may swing one's hammock in the very heart +of this primitive forest and straightway be admitted into a new +province, where rare and unsuspected experiences are open to the +wayfarer. This is not the province of sleep or dreams, where all +things are possible and preëminently reasonable; for one does not go +through sundry hardships and all manner of self-denial, only to be +blindfolded on the very threshold of his ambition. No naturalist of a +temperament which begrudges every unused hour will, for a moment, +think of sleep under such conditions. It is not true that the rest and +quiet are necessary to cool the Northern blood for active work in the +afternoon, but the eye and the brain can combine relaxation with +keenest attention. + +In the northlands the difference in the temperature of the early dawn +and high noon is so slight that the effect on birds and other +creatures, as well as plants of all kinds, is not profound. But in the +tropics a change takes place which is as pronounced as that brought +about by day and night. Above all, the volume of sound becomes no more +than a pianissimo melody; for the chorus of birds and insects dies +away little by little with the increase of heat. There is something +geometrical about this, something precise and fine in this working of +a natural law--a law from which no living being is immune, for at +length one unconsciously lies motionless, overcome by the warmth and +this illusion of silence. + +The swaying of the hammock sets in motion a cool breeze, and lying at +full length, one is admitted at high noon to a new domain which has no +other portal but this. At this hour, the jungle shows few evidences of +life, not a chirp of bird or song of insect, and no rustling of leaves +in the heat which has descended so surely and so inevitably. But from +hidden places and cool shadows come broken sounds and whisperings, +which cover the gamut from insects to mammals and unite to make a +drowsy and contented murmuring--a musical undertone of amity and +goodwill. For pursuit and killing are at the lowest ebb, the stifling +heat being the flag of truce in the world-wide struggle for life and +food and mate--a struggle which halts for naught else, day or night. + +Lying quietly, the confidence of every unconventional and adventurous +wanderer will include your couch, since courage is a natural virtue when +the spirit of friendliness is abroad in the land. I felt that I had +acquired merit that eventful day when a pair of hummingbirds--thimblefuls +of fluff with flaming breastplates and caps of gold--looked upon me with +such favor that they made the strands of my hamaca their boudoir. I was not +conscious of their designs upon me until I saw them whirring toward me, two +bright, swiftly moving atoms, glowing like tiny meteors, humming like a +very battalion of bees. They betook themselves to two chosen cords and, +close together, settled themselves with no further demands upon existence. +A hundred of them could have rested upon the pair of strands; even the +dragon-flies which dashed past had a wider spread of wing; but for these +two there were a myriad glistening featherlets to be oiled and arranged, +two pairs of slender wings to be whipped clean of every speck of dust, two +delicate, sharp bills to be wiped again and again and cleared of +microscopic drops of nectar. Then--like the great eagles roosting high +overhead in the clefts of the mountainside--these mites of birds must needs +tuck their heads beneath their wings for sleep; thus we three rested in the +violent heat. + +On other days, in Borneo, weaver birds have brought dried grasses and +woven them into the fabric of my hammock, making me indeed feel that +my couch was a part of the wilderness. At times, some of the larger +birds have crept close to my glade, to sleep in the shadows of the low +jungle-growth. But these were, one and all, timid folk, politely +incurious, with evident respect for the rights of the individual. But +once, some others of a ruder and more barbaric temperament advanced +upon me unawares, and found me unprepared for their coming. I was +dozing quietly, glad to escape for an instant the insistent screaming +of a cicada which seemed to have gone mad in the heat, when a low +rustling caught my ear--a sound of moving leaves without wind; the +voice of a breeze in the midst of breathless heat. There was in it +something sinister and foreboding. I leaned over the edge of my +hammock, and saw coming toward me, in a broad, irregular front, a +great army of ants, battalion after battalion of them flowing like a +sea of living motes over twigs and leaves and stems. I knew the danger +and I half sat up, prepared to roll out and walk to one side. Then I +gaged my supporting strands; tested them until they vibrated and +hummed, and lay back, watching, to see what would come about. I knew +that no creature in the world could stay in the path of this horde and +live. To kill an insect or a great bird would require only a few +minutes, and the death of a jaguar or a tapir would mean only a few +more. Against this attack, claws, teeth, poison-fangs would be idle +weapons. + +In the van fled a cloud of terrified insects--those gifted with flight +to wing their way far off, while the humbler ones went running +headlong, their legs, four, six, or a hundred, making the swiftest +pace vouchsafed them. There were foolish folk who climbed up low +ferns, achieving the swaying, topmost fronds only to be trailed by the +savage ants and brought down to instant death. + +Even the winged ones were not immune, for if they hesitated a second, +an ant would seize upon them, and, although carried into the air, +would not loosen his grip, but cling to them, obstruct their flight, +and perhaps bring them to earth in the heart of the jungle, where, cut +off from their kind, the single combat would be waged to the death. +From where I watched, I saw massacres innumerable; terrible battles in +which some creature--a giant beside an ant--fought for his life, +crushing to death scores of the enemy before giving up. + +They were a merciless army and their number was countless, with host +upon host following close on each other's heels. A horde of warriors +found a bird in my game-bag, and left of it hardly a feather. I +wondered whether they would discover me, and they did, though I think +it was more by accident than by intention. Nevertheless a half-dozen +ants appeared on the foot-strands, nervously twiddling their antennæ +in my direction. Their appraisal was brief; with no more than a +second's delay they started toward me. I waited until they were well +on their way, then vigorously twanged the cords under them harpwise, +sending all the scouts into mid-air and headlong down among their +fellows. So far as I know, this was a revolutionary maneuver in +military tactics, comparable only to the explosion of a set mine. But +even so, when the last of this brigade had gone on their menacing, +pitiless way, and the danger had passed to a new province, I could not +help thinking of the certain, inexorable fate of a man who, unable to +move from his hammock or to make any defense, should be thus exposed +to their attack. There could be no help for him if but one of this +great host should scent him out and carry the word back to the rank +and file. + +It was after this army had been lost in the black shadows of the +forest floor, that I remembered those others who had come with +them--those attendant birds of prey who profit by the evil work of +this legion. For, hovering over them, sometimes a little in advance, +there had been a flying squadron of antbirds and others which had come +to feed, not on the ants, but on the insects which had been +frightened into flight. At one time, three of these dropped down to +perch on my hammock, nervous, watchful, and alert, waiting but a +moment before darting after some ill-fated moth or grasshopper which, +in its great panic, had escaped one danger only to fall an easy victim +to another. For a little while, the twittering and chirping of these +camp-followers, these feathered profiteers, was brought back to me on +the wind; and when it had died away, I took up my work again in a +glade in which no voice of insect reached my ears. The hunting ants +had done their work thoroughly. + +And so it comes about that by day or by night the hammock carries with +it its own reward to those who have learned but one thing--that there +is a chasm between pancakes and truffles. It is an open door to a new +land which does not fail of its promise, a land in which the prosaic, +the ordinary, the everyday have no place, since they have been +shouldered out, dethroned, by a new and competent perspective. The god +of hammocks is unfailingly kind, just, and generous to those who have +found pancakes wanting and have discovered by inspiration, or +what-not, that truffles do not grow in back-yards to be served at +early breakfast by the maid-of-all-work. Which proves, I believe, that +a mere bed may be a block in the path of philosophy, a commonplace, +and that truffles and hammocks--hammocks unquestionably--are twin +doors to the land of romance. + +The swayer in hammocks may find amusement and may enrich science by +his record of observations; his memory will be more vivid, his caste +the worthier, for the intimacy with wild things achieved when swinging +between earth and sky, unfettered by mattress or roof. + + + + +X + +A TROPIC GARDEN + + +Take an automobile and into it pile a superman, a great evolutionist, +an artist, an ornithologist, a poet, a botanist, a photographer, a +musician, an author, adorable youngsters of fifteen, and a tired +business man, and within half an hour I shall have drawn from them +superlatives of appreciation, each after his own method of emotional +expression--whether a flood of exclamations, or silence. This is no +light boast, for at one time or another, I have done all this, but in +only one place--the Botanical Gardens of Georgetown, British Guiana. +As I hold it sacrilege to think of dying without again seeing the Taj +Mahal, or the Hills from Darjeeling, so something of ethics seems +involved in my soul's necessity of again watching the homing of the +herons in these tropic gardens at evening. + +In the busy, unlovely streets of the waterfront of Georgetown, one is +often jostled; in the markets, it is often difficult at times to make +one's way; but in the gardens a solitary laborer grubs among the +roots, a coolie woman swings by with a bundle of grass on her head, +or, in the late afternoon, an occasional motor whirrs past. Mankind +seems almost an interloper, rather than architect and owner of these +wonder-gardens. His presence is due far more often to business, his +transit marked by speed, than the slow walking or loitering which real +appreciation demands. + +A guide-book will doubtless give the exact acreage, tell the mileage +of excellent roads, record the date of establishment, and the number +of species of palms and orchids. But it will have nothing to say of +the marvels of the slow decay of a Victoria Regia leaf, or of the +spiral descent of a white egret, or of the feelings which Roosevelt +and I shared one evening, when four manatees rose beneath us. It was +from a little curved Japanese bridge, and the next morning we were to +start up-country to my jungle laboratory. There was not a ripple on +the water, but here I chose to stand still and wait. After ten minutes +of silence, I put a question and Roosevelt said, "I would willingly +stand for two days to catch a good glimpse of a wild manatee." And +St. Francis heard, and, one after another, four great backs slowly +heaved up; then an ill-formed head and an impossible mouth, with the +unbelievable harelip, and before our eyes the sea-cows snorted and +gamboled. + +Again, four years later, I put my whole soul into a prayer for +manatees, and again with success. During a few moments' interval of a +tropical downpour, I stood on the same little bridge with Henry +Fairfield Osborn. We had only half an hour left in the tropics; the +steamer was on the point of sailing; what, in ten minutes, could be +seen of tropical life! I stood helpless, waiting, hoping for anything +which might show itself in this magic garden, where to-day the foliage +was glistening malachite and the clouds a great flat bowl of oxidized +silver. + +The air brightened, and a tree leaning far across the water came into +view. On its under side was a long silhouetted line of one and twenty +little fish-eating bats, tiny spots of fur and skinny web, all so much +alike that they might well have been one bat and twenty shadows. + +A small crocodile broke water into air which for him held no moisture, +looked at the bats, then at us, and slipped back into the world of +crocodiles. A cackle arose, so shrill and sudden, that it seemed to +have been the cause of the shower of drops from the palm-fronds; and +then, on the great leaves of the Regia, which defy simile, we +perceived the first feathered folk of this single tropical +glimpse--spur-winged jacanas, whose rich rufus and cool lemon-yellow +no dampness could deaden. With them were gallinules and small green +herons, and across the pink mist of lotos blossoms just beyond, three +egrets drew three lines of purest white--and vanished. It was not at +all real, this onrush of bird and blossom revealed by the temporary +erasing of the driven lines of gray rain. + +Like a spendthrift in the midst of a winning game, I still watched +eagerly and ungratefully for manatees. Kiskadees splashed rather than +flew through the drenched air, an invisible black witch bubbled +somewhere to herself, and a wren sang three notes and a trill which +died out in a liquid gurgle. Then came another crocodile, and finally +the manatees. Not only did they rise and splash and roll and +indolently flick themselves with their great flippers, but they stood +upright on their tails, like Alice's carpenter's companion, and one +fondled its young as a water-mamma should. Then the largest stretched +up as far as any manatee can ever leave the water, and caught and +munched a drooping sprig of bamboo. Watching the great puffing lips, +we again thought of walruses; but only a caterpillar could emulate +that sideways mumbling--the strangest mouth of any mammal. But from +behind, the rounded head, the shapely neck, the little baby manatee +held carefully in the curve of a flipper, made legends of mermaids +seem very reasonable; and if I had been an early _voyageur_, I should +assuredly have had stories to tell of mer-kiddies as well. As we +watched, the young one played about, slowly and deliberately, without +frisk or gambol, but determinedly, intently, as if realizing its duty +to an abstract conception of youth and warm-blooded mammalness. + +The earth holds few breathing beings stranger than these manatees. +Their life is a slow progression through muddy water from one bed of +lilies or reeds to another. Every few minutes, day and night, year +after year, they come to the surface for a lungful of the air which +they must have, but in which they cannot live. In place of hands they +have flippers, which paddle them leisurely along, which also serve to +hold the infant manatee, and occasionally to scratch themselves when +leeches irritate. The courtship of sea-cows, the qualities which +appeal most to their dull minds, the way they protect the callow +youngsters from voracious crocodiles, how or where they sleep--of all +this we are ignorant. We belong to the same class, but the line +between water and air is a no man's land which neither of us can pass +for more than a few seconds. + +When their big black hulks heaved slowly upward, it brought to my mind +the huge glistening backs of elephants bathing in Indian streams; and +this resemblance is not wholly fantastic. Not far from the oldest +Egyptian ruins, excavations have brought to light ruins millions of +years more ancient--the fossil bones of great creatures as strange as +any that live in the realm of fairyland or fiction. Among them was +revealed the ancestry of elephants, which was also that of manatees. +Far back in geological times the tapir-like Moeritherium, which +wandered through Eocene swamps, had within itself the prophecy of two +diverse lines. One would gain great tusks and a long, mobile trunk and +live its life in distant tropical jungles; and another branch was to +sink still deeper into the swamp-water, where its hind-legs would +weaken and vanish as it touched dry land less and less. And here +to-day we watched a quartette of these manatees, living contented +lives and breeding in the gardens of Georgetown. + +The mist again drifted its skeins around leaf and branch, gray things +became grayer, drops formed in mid-air and slipped slowly through +other slower forming drops, and a moment later rain was falling +gently. We went away, and to our mind's eye the manatees behind that +gray curtain still munch bamboos, the spur-wings stretch their +colorful wings cloudward, and the bubble-eyed crocodiles float +intermittently between two watery zones. + +To say that these are beautiful botanical gardens is like the +statement that sunsets are admirable events. It is better to think of +them as a setting, focusing about the greatest water-lily in the +world, or, as we have seen, the strangest mammal; or as an exhibit of +roots--roots as varied and as exquisite as a hall of famous sculpture; +or as a wilderness of tapestry foliage, in texture from cobweb to +burlap; or as a heaven-roofed, sun-furnaced greenhouse of blossoms, +from the tiniest of dull-green orchids to the fifty-foot spike of +taliput bloom. With this foundation of vegetation recall that the +Demerara coast is a paradise for herons, egrets, bitterns, gallinules, +jacanas, and hawks, and think of these trees and foliage, islands and +marsh, as a nesting and roosting focus for hundreds of such birds. +Thus, considering the gardens indirectly, one comes gradually to the +realization of their wonderful character. + +The Victoria Regia has one thing in common with a volcano--no amount +of description or of colored plates prepares one for the plant itself. +In analysis we recall its dimensions, colors, and form. Standing by a +trench filled with its leaves and flowers, we discard the records of +memory, and cleansing the senses of pre-impressions, begin anew. The +marvel is for each of us, individually, an exception to evolution; it +is a special creation, like all the rainbows seen in one's life--a +thing to be reverently absorbed by sight, by scent, by touch, absorbed +and realized without precedent or limit. Only ultimately do we find it +necessary to adulterate this fine perception with definitive words and +phrases, and so attempt to register it for ourselves or others. + +I have seen many wonderful sights from an automobile,--such as my +first Boche barrage and the tree ferns of Martinique,--but none to +compare with the joys of vision from prehistoric _tikka gharries_, +ancient victorias, and aged hacks. It was from the low curves of these +equine rickshaws that I first learned to love Paris and Calcutta and +the water-lilies of Georgetown. One of the first rites which I perform +upon returning to New York is to go to the Lafayette and, after +dinner, brush aside the taxi men and hail a victoria. The last time I +did this, my driver was so old that two fellow drivers, younger than +he and yet grandfatherly, assisted him, one holding the horse and the +other helping him to his seat. Slowly ascending Fifth Avenue close to +the curb and on through Central Park is like no other experience. The +vehicle is so low and open that all resemblance to bus or taxi is +lost. Everything is seen from a new angle. One learns incidentally +that there is a guild of cab-drivers--proud, restrained, jealous. A +hundred cars rush by without notice. Suddenly we see the whip brought +up in salute to the dingy green top-hat, and across the avenue we +perceive another victoria. And we are thrilled at the discovery, as +if we had unearthed a new codex of some ancient ritual. + +And so, initiated by such precedent, I have found it a worthy thing to +spend hours in decrepit cabs loitering along side roads in the +Botanical Gardens, watching herons and crocodiles, lilies and +manatees, from the rusty leather seats. At first the driver looked at +me in astonishment as I photographed or watched or wrote; but later he +attended to his horse, whispering strange things into its ears, and +finally deserted me. My writing was punctuated by graceful flourishes, +resulting from an occasional lurch of the vehicle as the horse stepped +from one to another patch of luscious grass. + +Like Fujiyama, the Victoria Regia changes from hour to hour, +color-shifted, wind-swung, and the mechanism of the blossoms never +ceasing. In northern greenhouses it is nursed by skilled gardeners, +kept in indifferent vitality by artificial heat and ventilation, with +gaged light and selected water; here it was a rank growth, in its +natural home, and here we knew of its antiquity from birds whose toes +had been molded through scores of centuries to tread its great +leaves. + +In the cool fragrance of early morning, with the sun low across the +water, the leaves appeared like huge, milky-white platters, with now +and then little dancing silhouettes running over them. In another +slant of light they seemed atolls scattered thickly through a dark, +quiet sea, with new-blown flowers filling the whole air with +slow-drifting perfume. Best of all, in late afternoon, the true colors +came to the eye--six-foot circles of smooth emerald, with up-turned +hem of rich wine-color. Each had a tell-tale cable lying along the +surface, a score of leaves radiating from one deep hidden root. + +Up through mud and black trench-water came the leaf, like a tiny fist +of wrinkles, and day by day spread and uncurled, looking like the +unwieldy paw of a kitten or cub. The keels and ribs covering the +under-side increased in size and strength, and finally the great leaf +was ironed out by the warm sun into a mighty sheet of smooth, emerald +chlorophyll. Then, for a time,--no one has ever taken the trouble to +find out how long,--it was at its best, swinging back and forth at its +moorings with deep upright rim, a notch at one side revealing the +almost invisible seam of the great lobes, and serving, also, as +drainage outlet for excess of rain. + +A young leaf occasionally came to grief by reaching the surface amid +several large ones floating close together. Such a leaf expanded, as +usual, but, like a beached boat, was gradually forced high and dry, +hardening into a distorted shape and sinking only with the decay of +the underlying leaves. + +The deep crimson of the outside of the rim was merely a reflection +tint, and vanished when the sun shone directly through; but the masses +of sharp spines were very real, and quite efficient in repelling +boarders. The leaf offered safe haven to any creature that could leap +or fly to its surface; but its life would be short indeed if the +casual whim of every baby crocodile or flipper of a young manatee met +with no opposition. + +Insects came from water and from air and called the floating leaf +home, and, from now on, its surface was one of the most interesting +and busy arenas in this tropical landscape. + +In late September I spread my observation chair at the very edge of +one of the dark tarns and watched the life on the leaves. Out at the +center a fussy jacana was feeding with her two spindly-legged babies, +while, still nearer, three scarlet-helmeted gallinules lumbered about, +now and then tipping over a silvery and black infant which seemed +puzzled as to which it should call parent. Here was a clear example, +not only of the abundance of life in the tropics, but of the keen +competition. The jacana invariably lays four eggs, and the gallinule, +at this latitude, six or eight, yet only a fraction of the young had +survived even to this tender age. + +As I looked, a small crocodile rose, splashed, and sank, sending +terror among the gallinules, but arousing the spur-wing jacana to a +high pitch of anger. It left its young and flew directly to the +widening circles and hovered, cackling loudly. These birds have ample +ability to cope with the dangers which menace from beneath; but their +fear was from above, and every passing heron, egret, or harmless hawk +was given a quick scrutiny, with an instinctive crouch and half-spread +wings. + +But still the whole scene was peaceful; and as the sun grew warmer, +young herons and egrets crawled out of their nests on the island a few +yards away and preened their scanty plumage. Kiskadees splashed and +dipped along the margin of the water. Everywhere this species seems +seized with an aquatic fervor, and in localities hundreds of miles +apart I have seen them gradually desert their fly-catching for surface +feeding, or often plunging, kingfisher-like, bodily beneath, to emerge +with a small wriggling fish--another certain reflection of +overpopulation and competition. + +As I sat I heard a rustle behind me, and there, not eight feet away, +narrow snout held high, one tiny foot lifted, was that furry fiend, +Rikki-tikki. He was too quick for me, and dived into a small clump of +undergrowth and bamboos. But I wanted a specimen of mongoose, and the +artist offered to beat one end of the bush. Soon I saw the gray form +undulating along, and as the rustling came nearer, he shot forth, +moving in great bounds. I waited until he had covered half the +distance to the next clump and rolled him over. Going back to my +chair, I found that neither jacana, nor gallinules, nor herons had +been disturbed by my shot. + +While the introduction of the mongoose into Guiana was a very +reckless, foolish act, yet he seems to be having a rather hard time of +it, and with islands and lily-pads as havens, and waterways in every +direction, Rikki is reduced chiefly to grasshoppers and such small +game. He has spread along the entire coast, through the cane-fields +and around the rice-swamps, and it will not be his fault if he does +not eventually get a foothold in the jungle itself. + +No month or day or hour fails to bring vital changes--tragedies and +comedies--to the network of life of these tropical gardens; but as we +drive along the broad paths of an afternoon, the quiet vistas show +only waving palms, weaving vultures, and swooping kiskadees, with +bursts of color from bougainvillea, flamboyant, and queen of the +flowers. At certain times, however, the tide of visible change swelled +into a veritable bore of life, gently and gradually, as quiet waters +become troubled and then pass into the seething uproar of rapids. In +late afternoon, when the long shadows of palms stretched their +blue-black bars across the terra-cotta roads, the foliage of the green +bamboo islands was dotted here and there with a scattering of young +herons, white and blue and parti-colored. Idly watching them through +glasses, I saw them sleepily preening their sprouting feathers, making +ineffectual attempts at pecking one another, or else hunched in +silent heron-dream. They were scarcely more alive than the creeping, +hour-hand tendrils about them, mere double-stemmed, fluffy petaled +blossoms, no more strange than the nearest vegetable blooms--the +cannon-ball mystery, the sand-box puzzle, sinister orchids, and the +false color-alarms of the white-bracted silver-leaf. Compared with +these, perching herons are right and seemly fruit. + +As I watched them I suddenly stiffened in sympathy, as I saw all +vegetable sloth drop away and each bird become a detached individual, +plucked by an electric emotion from the appearance of a thing of sap +and fiber to a vital being of tingling nerves. I followed their united +glance, and overhead there vibrated, lightly as a thistledown, the +first incoming adult heron, swinging in from a day's fishing along the +coast. It went on and vanished among the fronds of a distant island; +but the calm had been broken, and through all the stems there ran a +restless sense of anticipation, a zeitgeist of prophetic import. One +felt that memory of past things was dimming, and content with present +comfort was no longer dominant. It was the future to which both the +baby herons and I were looking, and for them realization came quickly. +The sun had sunk still lower, and great clouds had begun to spread +their robes and choose their tints for the coming pageant. + +And now the vanguard of the homing host appeared,--black dots against +blue and white and salmon,--thin, gaunt forms with slow-moving wings +which cut the air through half the sky. The little herons and I +watched them come--first a single white egret, which spiralled down, +just as I had many times seen the first returning Spad eddy downward +to a cluster of great hump-backed hangars; then a trio of tricolored +herons, and six little blues, and after that I lost count. It seemed +as if these tiny islands were magnets drawing all the herons in the +world. + +Parrakeets whirl roostwards with machine-like synchronism of flight; +geese wheel down in more or less regular formation; but these herons +concentrated along straight lines, each describing its individual +radius from the spot where it caught its last fish or shrimp to its +nest or the particular branch on which it will spend the night. With a +hemicircle of sufficient size, one might plot all of the hundreds upon +hundreds of these radii, and each would represent a distinct line, if +only a heron's width apart. + +At the height of the evening's flight there were sometimes fifty +herons in sight at once, beating steadily onward until almost +overhead, when they put on brakes and dropped. Some, as the little +egrets, were rather awkward; while the tricolors were the most +skilful, sometimes nose-diving, with a sudden flattening out just in +time to reach out and grasp a branch. Once or twice, when a fitful +breeze blew at sunset, I had a magnificent exhibition of aeronautics. +The birds came upwind slowly, beating their way obliquely but +steadily, long legs stretched out far behind the tail and swinging +pendulum-like whenever a shift of ballast was needed. They apparently +did not realize the unevenness of the wind, for when they backed air, +ready to descend, a sudden gust would often undercut them and over +they would go, legs, wings, and neck sprawling in mid-air. After one +or two somersaults or a short, swift dive, they would right +themselves, feathers on end, and frantically grasp at the first leaf +or twig within reach. Panting, they looked helplessly around, +reorientation coming gradually. + +At each arrival, a hoarse chorus went up from hungry throats, and +every youngster within reach scrambled wildly forward, hopeful of a +fish course. They received but scant courtesy and usually a vicious +peck tumbled them off the branch. I saw a young bird fall to the +water, and this mishap was from no attack, but due to his tripping +over his own feet, the claws of one foot gripping those of the other +in an insane clasp, which overbalanced him. He fell through a thin +screen of vines and splashed half onto a small Regia leaf. With neck +and wings he struggled to pull himself up, and had almost succeeded +when heron and leaf sank slowly, and only the bare stem swung up +again. A few bubbles led off in a silvery path toward deeper water, +showing where a crocodile swam slowly off with his prey. + +For a time the birds remained still, and then crept within the +tangles, to their mates or nests, or quieted the clamor of the young +with warm-storage fish. How each one knew its own offspring was beyond +my ken, but on three separate evenings scattered through one week, I +observed an individual, marked by a wing-gap of two lost feathers, +come, within a quarter-hour of six o'clock, and feed a great awkward +youngster which had lost a single feather from each wing. So there +was no hit-or-miss method--no luck in the strongest birds taking toll +from more than two of the returning parents. + +Observing this vesper migration in different places, I began to see +orderly segregation on a large scale. All the smaller herons dwelt +together on certain islands in more or less social tolerance; and on +adjoining trees, separated by only a few yards, scores of hawks +concentrated and roosted, content with their snail diet, and wholly +ignoring their neighbors. On the other side of the gardens, in +aristocratic isolation, was a colony of stately American egrets, +dainty and graceful. Their circumference of radiation was almost or +quite a circle, for they preferred the ricefields for their daily +hunting. Here the great birds, snowy white, with flowing aigrettes, +and long, curving necks, settled with dignity, and here they slept and +sat on their rough nests of sticks. + +When the height of homing flight of the host of herons had passed, I +noticed a new element of restlessness, and here and there among the +foliage appeared dull-brown figures. There occurred the comic +explanation of white herons who had crept deep among the branches, +again emerging in house coat of drab! These were not the same, +however, and the first glance through binoculars showed the thick-set, +humped figures and huge, staring eyes of night herons. + +As the last rays of the sun left the summit of the royal palms, +something like the shadow of a heron flashed out and away, and then +the import of these facts was impressed upon me. The egret, the night +heron, the vampire--here were three types of organisms, characterizing +the actions and reactions in nature. The islands were receiving and +giving up. Their heart was becoming filled with the many day-feeding +birds, and now the night-shift was leaving, and the very branch on +which a night heron might have been dozing all day was now occupied, +perhaps, by a sleeping egret. With eyes enlarged to gather together +the scanty rays of light, the night herons were slipping away in the +path of the vampires--both nocturnal, but unlike in all other ways. +And I wondered if, in the very early morning, infant night herons +would greet their returning parents; and if their callow young ever +fell into the dark waters, what awful deathly alternates would night +reveal; or were the slow-living crocodiles sleepless, with cruel eyes +which never closed so soundly but that the splash of a young night +heron brought instant response? + + + + +XI + +THE BAY OF BUTTERFLIES + + +Butterflies doing strange things in very beautiful ways were in my +mind when I sat down, but by the time my pen was uncapped my thoughts +had shifted to rocks. The ink was refractory and a vigorous flick sent +a shower of green drops over the sand on which I was sitting, and as I +watched the ink settle into the absorbent quartz--the inversions of +our grandmothers' blotters--I thought of what jolly things the lost +ink might have been made to say about butterflies and rocks, if it +could have flowed out slowly in curves and angles and dots over +paper--for the things we might have done are always so much more +worthy than those which we actually accomplish. When at last I began +to write, a song came to my ears and my mind again looped backward. At +least, there came from the very deeps of the water beyond the +mangroves a low, metallic murmur; and my Stormouth says that in +Icelandic _sangra_ means to murmur. So what is a murmur in Iceland +may very well be a song in Guiana. At any rate, my pen would have to +do only with words of singing catfish; yet from butterflies to rock, +to fish, all was logical looping--mental giant-swings which came as +relaxation after hours of observation of unrelated sheer facts. + +The singing cats, so my pen consented to write, had serenaded me while +I crossed the Cuyuni in a canoe. There arose deep, liquid, vibrating +sounds, such as those I now heard, deep and penetrating, as if from +some submarine gong--a gong which could not be thought of as wet, for +it had never been dry. As I stopped paddling the sound became absolute +vibration, the canoe itself seemed to tremble, the paddle tingled in +my hands. It was wholly detached; it came from whatever direction the +ear sought it. Then, without dying out, it was reinforced by another +sound, rhythmical, abrupt, twanging, filling the water and air with a +slow measure on four notes. The water swirled beside the canoe, and a +face appeared--a monstrous, complacent face, such as Böcklin would +love--a face inhuman in possessing the quality of supreme contentment. +Framed in the brown waters, the head of the great, grinning catfish +rose, and slowly sank, leaving outlines discernible in ripples and +bubbles with almost Cheshire persistency. One of my Indians, passing +in his dugout, smiled at my peering down after the fish, and murmured, +"Boom-boom." + +Then came a day when one of these huge, amiable, living smiles +blundered into our net, a smile a foot wide and six feet long, and +even as he lay quietly awaiting what fate brought to great catfish, he +sang, both theme and accompaniment. His whole being throbbed with the +continuous deep drumming as the thin, silky walls of his swim-bladder +vibrated in the depths of his body. The oxygen in the air was slowly +killing him, and yet his swan song was possible because of an inner +atmosphere so rich in this gas that it would be unbreathable by a +creature of the land. Nerve and muscle, special expanse of circling +bones, swim-bladder and its tenuous gas--all these combined to produce +the aquatic harmony. But as if to load this contented being with +largesse of apparently useless abilities, the two widespreading fin +spines--the fins which correspond to our arms--were swiveled in +rough-ridged cups at what might have been shoulders, and when moved +back and forth the stridulation troubled all the water, and the air, +too, with the muffled, twanging, _rip_, _rip_, _rip_, _rip_. The two +spines were tuned separately, the right being a full tone lower, and +the backward drawing of the bow gave a higher note than its forward +reach. So, alternately, at a full second tempo, the four tones rose +and fell, carrying out some strange Silurian theme: a muffled cadence +of undertones, which, thrilled with the mystery of their author and +cause, yet merged smoothly with the cosmic orchestra of wind and +ripples and distant rain. + +So the great, smooth, arching lift of granite rocks at our bungalow's +shore, where the giant catfish sang, was ever afterward Boom-boom +Point. And now I sat close by on the sand and strove to think anew of +my butterflies, for they were the reason of my being there that +brilliant October afternoon. But still my pen refused, hovering about +the thing of ultimate interest as one leaves the most desired book to +the last. For again the ear claimed dominance, and I listened to a new +little refrain over my shoulder. I pictured a tiny sawhorse, and a +midget who labored with might and main to cut through a never-ending +stint of twigs. I chose to keep my image to the last, and did not +move or look around, until there came the slightest of tugs at my +knee, and into view clambered one of those beings who are so beautiful +and bizarre that one almost thinks they should not be. My second +singer was a beetle--an awkward, enormous, serious, brilliant beetle, +with six-inch antennæ and great wing covers, which combined the hues +of the royal robes of Queen Thi, tempered by thousands of years of +silent darkness in the underground tombs at Sakhara, with the grace of +curve and angle of equally ancient characters on the hill tombs of +Fokien. On a background of olive ochre there blazed great splashes and +characters of the red of jasper framed in black. Toward the front +Nature had tried heavy black stippling, but it clouded the pattern and +she had given it up in order that I might think of Egypt and Cathay. + +But the thing which took the beetle quite out of a world of reasonable +things was his forelegs. They were outrageous, and he seemed to think +so, too, for they got in his way, and caught in wrong things and +pulled him to one side. They were three times the length of his other +limbs, spreading sideways a full thirteen inches, long, slender, +beautifully sculptured, and forever reaching out in front for +whatever long-armed beetles most desire. And his song, as he climbed +over me, was squeaky and sawlike, and as he walked he doddered, head +trembling as an old man's shakes in final acquiescence in the futility +of life. + +But in this great-armed beetle it was a nodding of necessity, a +doddering of desire, the drawing of the bow across the strings in a +hymn of hope which had begun in past time with the first stridulation +of ancient insects. To-day the fiddling vibrations, the Song of the +Beetle, reached out in all directions. To the majority of jungle ears +it was only another note in the day's chorus: I saw it attract a +flycatcher's attention, hold it a moment, and then lose it. To me it +came as a vitally interesting tone of deep significance, for whatever +emotions it might arouse in casual ears, its goal was another +Great-armed Beetle, who might or might not come within its radius. +With unquestioning search the fiddler clambered on and on, over me and +over flowers and rocks, skirting the ripples and vanishing into a +maelstrom of waving grass. Long after the last awkward lurch, there +came back zizzing squeaks of perfect faith, and I hoped, as I passed +beyond the periphery of sound, that instinct and desire might direct +their rolling ball of vibrations toward the one whose ear, whether in +antenna, or thorax or femoral tympanum had, through untold numbers of +past lives, been attuned to its rhythm. + +Two thousand miles north of where I sat, or ten million, five hundred +and sixty thousand feet (for, like Bunker Bean's book-keeper, I +sometimes like to think of things that way), I would look out of the +window one morning in days to come, and thrill at the sight of falling +flakes. The emotion would very probably be sentiment--the memory of +wonderful northland snowstorms, of huge fires, of evenings with +Roosevelt, when discussions always led to unknowable fields, when book +after book yielded its phrase or sentence of pure gold thought. On one +of the last of such evenings I found a forgotten joy-of-battle-speech +of Huxley's, which stimulated two full days and four books +re-read--while flakes swirled and invisible winds came swiftly around +the eaves over the great trophies--_poussant des soupirs_,--we longing +with our whole souls for an hour of talk with that splendid old +fighting scientist. + +These are thoughts which come at first-snow, thoughts humanly narrow +and personal compared to the later delights of snow itself--crystals +and tracks, the strangeness of freezing and the mystery of melting. +And they recurred now because for days past I had idly watched +scattered flurries of lemon-yellow and of orange butterflies drift +past Kartabo. Down the two great Guiana rivers they came, steadily +progressing, yet never hurrying; with zigzag flickering flight they +barely cleared the trees and shrubs, and then skimmed the surface, +vanishing when ripples caught the light, redoubled by reflection when +the water lay quiet and polished. For month after month they passed, +sometimes absent for days or weeks, but soon to be counted at earliest +sunup, always arousing renewed curiosity, always bringing to mind the +first flurry of winter. + +We watch the autumn passing of birds with regret, but when the +bluebirds warble their way southward we are cheered with the hope and +the knowledge that some, at least, will return. Here, vast stretches +of country, perhaps all Guiana, and how much of Brazil and Venezuela +no one knows, poured forth a steady stream of yellow and orange +butterflies. They were very beautiful and they danced and flickered +in the sunlight, but this was no temporary shifting to a pleasanter +clime or a land of more abundant flowers, but a migration in the grim +old sense which Cicero loved, _non dubitat_ ... _migrare de vita_. No +butterfly ever turned back, or circled again to the glade, with its +yellow cassia blooms where he had spent his caterpillarhood. Nor did +he fly toward the north star or the sunset, but between the two. +Twelve years before, as I passed up the Essequibo and the Cuyuni, I +noticed hundreds of yellow butterflies each true to his little compass +variation of NNW. + +There are times and places in Guiana where emigrating butterflies turn +to the north or the south; sometimes for days at a time, but sooner or +later the eddies straighten out, their little flotillas cease tacking, +and all swing again NNW. + +To-day the last of the migration stragglers of the year--perhaps the +fiftieth great-grandsons of those others--held true to the Catopsilian +lodestone. + +My masculine pronouns are intentional, for of all the thousands and +tens of thousands of migrants, all, as far as I know, were males. +Catch a dozen yellows in a jungle glade and the sexes may be equal. +But the irresistible maelstrom impels only the males. Whence they come +or why they go is as utterly unknown to us as why the females are +immune. + +Once, from the deck of a steamer, far off the Guiana coast, I saw +hosts of these same great saffron-wings flying well above the water, +headed for the open sea. Behind them were sheltering fronds, nectar, +soft winds, mates; before were corroding salt, rising waves, lowering +clouds, a storm imminent. Their course was NNW, they sailed under +sealed orders, their port was Death. + +Looking out over the great expanse of the Mazaruni, the fluttering +insects were usually rather evenly distributed, each with a few yards +of clear space about it, but very rarely--I have seen it only twice--a +new force became operative. Not only were the little volant beings +siphoned up in untold numbers from their normal life of sleeping, +feeding, dancing about their mates, but they were blindly poured into +an invisible artery, down which they flowed in close association, +_véritables corpuscules de papillons_, almost touching, forming a +bending ribbon, winding its way seaward, with here and there a +temporary fraying out of eddying wings. It seemed like a wayward +cloud still stained with last night's sunset yellow, which had set out +on its own path over rivers and jungles to join the sea mists beyond +the uttermost trees. + +Such a swarm seemed imbued with an ecstasy of travel which surpassed +discomfort. Deep cloud shadows might settle down, but only dimmed the +painted wings; under raindrops the ribbon sagged, the insects flying +closer to the water. On the other hand, the scattered hosts of the +more ordinary migrations, while they turned neither to the north nor +to the west, yet fled at the advent of clouds and rain, seeking +shelter under the nearest foliage. So much loitering was permitted, +but with the coming of the sun again they must desert the pleasant +feel of velvet leaves, the rain-washed odors of streaming blossoms, +and set their antennæ unquestioningly upon the strange last turn of +their wheel of life. + +What crime of ancestors are they expiating? In some forgotten +caterpillardom was an act committed, so terrible that it can never be +known, except through the working out of the karma upon millions of +butterflies? Or does there linger in the innumerable little ganglion +minds a memory of long-lost Atlantis, so compelling to masculine +Catopsilias that the supreme effort of their lives is an attempt to +envisage it? "Absurd fancies, all," says our conscious entomological +sense, and we agree and sweep them aside. And then quite as readily, +more reasonable scientific theories fall asunder, and we are left at +last alone with the butterflies, a vast ignorance, and a great +unfulfilled desire to know what it all means. + +On this October day the migration of the year had ceased. To my coarse +senses the sunlight was of equal intensity, the breeze unchanged, the +whole aspect the same--and yet something as intangible as thought, as +impelling as gravitation, had ceased to operate. The tension once +slackened, the butterflies took up their more usual lives. But what +could I know of the meaning of "normal" in the life of a butterfly--I +who boasted a miserable single pair of eyes and no greater number of +legs, whose shoulders supported only shoulder blades, and whose youth +was barren of caterpillarian memories! + +As I have said, migration was at an end, yet here I had stumbled upon +a Bay of Butterflies. No matter whether one's interest in life lay +chiefly with ornithology, teetotalism, arrowheads, politics, botany, +or finance, in this bay one's thoughts would be sure to be +concentrated on butterflies. And no less interesting than the +butterflies were their immediate surroundings. The day before, I had +sat close by on a low boulder at the head of the tiny bay, with not a +butterfly in sight. It occurred to me that my ancestor, Eryops, would +have been perfectly at home, for in front of me were clumps of +strange, carboniferous rushes, lacking leaves and grace, and sedges +such as might be fashioned in an attempt to make plants out of green +straw. Here and there an ancient jointed stem was in blossom, a +pinnacle of white filaments, and hour after hour there came little +brown trigonid visitors, sting-less bees, whose nests were veritable +museums of flower extracts--tubs of honey, hampers of pollen, barrels +of ambrosia, hoarded in castles of wax. Scirpus-sedge or orchid, all +was the same to them. + +All odor evaded me until I had recourse to my usual olfactory crutch, +placing the flower in a vial in the sunlight. Delicate indeed was the +fragrance which did not yield itself to a few minutes of this +distillation. As I removed the cork there gently arose the scent of +thyme, and of rose petals long pressed between the leaves of old, old +books--a scent memorable of days ancient to us, which in past lives of +sedges would count but a moment. In an instant it passed, drowned in +the following smell of bruised stem. But I had surprised the odor of +this age-old growth, as evanescent as the faint sound of the breeze +sifting through the cluster of leafless stalks. I felt certain that +Eryops, although living among horserushes and ancient sedges, never +smelled or listened to them, and a glow of satisfaction came over me +at the thought that perhaps I represented an advance on this funny old +forebear of mine; but then I thought of the little bees, drawn from +afar by the scent, and I returned to my usual sense of human futility, +which is always dominant in the presence of insect activities. + +I leaned back, crowding into a crevice of rock, and strove to realize +more deeply the kinship of these fine earth neighbors. Bone of my bone +indeed they were, but their quiet dignity, their calmness in storm and +sun, their poise, their disregard of all small, petty things, whether +of mechanics, whether chemical or emotional--these were attributes to +which I could only aspire, being the prerogatives of superiors. + +These rocks, in particular, seemed of the very essence of earth. Three +elements fought over them. The sand and soil from which they lifted +their splendid heads sifted down, or was washed up, in vain effort to +cover them. More subtly dead tree trunks fell upon them, returned to +earth, and strove to encloak them. For six hours at a time the water +claimed them, enveloping them slowly in a mantle of quicksilver, or +surging over with rough waves. Algal spores took hold, desmids and +diatoms swam in and settled down, little fish wandered in and out of +the crevices, while large ones nosed at the entrances. + +Then Mother Earth turned slowly onward; the moon, reaching down, +beckoned with invisible fingers, and the air again entered this no +man's land. Breezes whispered where a few moments before ripples had +lapped; with the sun as ally, the last remaining pool vanished and +there began the hours of aerial dominion. The most envied character of +our lesser brethren is their faith. No matter how many hundreds of +thousands of tides had ebbed and flowed, yet to-day every pinch of +life which was blown or walked or fell or flew to the rocks during +their brief respite from the waves, accepted the good dry surface +without question. + +Seeds and berries fell, and rolled into hollows rich in mulcted earth; +parachutes, buoyed on thistle silk, sailed from distant jungle plants; +every swirl of breeze brought spores of lichens and moss, and even the +retreating water unwittingly aided, having transported hither and +dropped a cargo of living things, from tiniest plant to seeds of +mightiest mora. Though in the few allotted hours these might not +sprout, but only quicken in their heart, yet blue-winged wasps made +their faith more manifest, and worked with feverish haste to gather +pellets of clay and fashion cells. I once saw even the beginning of +storage--a green spider, which an hour later was swallowed by a +passing fish instead of nourishing an infant wasp. + +Spiders raised their meshes where shrimps had skipped, and flies +hummed and were caught by singing jungle vireos, where armored catfish +had passed an hour or two before. + +So the elements struggled and the creatures of each strove to fulfil +their destiny, and for a little time the rocks and I wondered at it +together. + +In this little arena, floored with sand, dotted with rushes and +balconied with boulders, many hundreds of butterflies were gathered. +There were five species, all of the genius _Catopsilia_, but only +three were easily distinguishable in life, the smaller, lemon yellow +_statira_, and the larger, orange _argente_ and _philea_. There was +also _eubele_, the migrant, keeping rather to itself. + +I took some pictures, then crept closer; more pictures and a nearer +approach. Then suddenly all rose, and I felt as if I had shattered a +wonderful painting. But the sand was a lodestone and drew them down. I +slipped within a yard, squatted, and mentally became one of them. +Silently, by dozens and scores, they flew around me, and soon they +eclipsed the sand. They were so closely packed that their outstretched +legs touched. There were two large patches, and a smaller area +outlined by no boundary that I could detect. Yet when these were +occupied the last comers alighted on top of the wings of their +comrades, who resented neither the disturbance nor the weight. Two +layers of butterflies crammed into small areas of sand in the midst +of more sand, bounded by walls of empty air--this was a strange thing. + +A little later, when I enthusiastically reported it to a professional +lepidopterist he brushed it aside. "A common occurrence the world +over, Rhopalocera gathered in damp places to drink." I, too, had +observed apparently similar phenomena along icy streams in Sikkim, and +around muddy buffalo-wallows in steaming Malay jungles. And I can +recall many years ago, leaning far out of a New England buggy to watch +clouds of little sulphurs flutter up from puddles beneath the creaking +wheels. + +The very fact that butterflies chose to drink in company is of intense +interest, and to be envied as well by us humans who are temporarily +denied that privilege. But in the Bay of Butterflies they were not +drinking, nor during the several days when I watched them. One of the +chosen patches of sand was close to the tide when I first saw them, +and damp enough to appease the thirst of any butterfly. The other two +were upon sand, parched by hours of direct tropical sun, and here the +two layers were massed. + +The insects alighted, facing in any direction, but veered at once, +heading upbreeze. Along the riverside of markets of tropical cities I +have seen fleets of fishing boats crowded close together, their gay +sails drying, while great ebony Neptunes brought ashore baskets of +angel fish. This came to mind as I watched my flotillas of +butterflies. + +I leaned forward until my face was hardly a foot from the outliers, +and these I learned to know as individuals. One sulphur had lost a bit +of hind wing, and three times he flew away and returned to the same +spot. Like most cripples, he was unamiable, and resented a close +approach, pushing at the trespasser with a foreleg in a most +unbutterfly-like way. Although I watched closely, I did not see a +single tongue uncoiled for drinking. Only when a dense group became +uneasy and pushed one another about were the tongue springs slightly +loosened. Even the nervous antennæ were quiet after the insects had +settled. They seemed to have achieved a Rhopaloceran Nirvana, content +to rest motionless until caught up in the temporary whirlwinds of +restlessness which now and then possessed them. + +They came from all directions, swirling over the rocks, twisting +through nearby brambles, and settling without a moment's hesitation. +It was as though they had all been here many times before, a +rendezvous which brooked not an instant's delay. From time to time +some mass spirit troubled them, and, as one butterfly, the whole +company took to wing. Close as they were when resting, they fairly +buffeted one another in mid-air. Their wings, striking one another and +my camera and face, made a strange little rustling, crisp and +crackling whispers of sounds. As if a pile of Northern autumn leaves, +fallen to earth, suddenly remembered days of greenness and humming +bees, and strove to raise themselves again to the bare branches +overhead. + +Down came the butterflies again, brushing against my clothes and eyes +and hands. All that I captured later were males, and most were fresh +and newly emerged, with a scattering of dimmed wings, frayed at edges, +who flew more slowly, with less vigor. Finally the lower patch was +washed out by the rising tide, but not until the water actually +reached them did the insects leave. I could trace with accuracy the +exact reach of the last ripple to roll over the flat sand by the +contour of the remaining outermost rank of insects. + +On and on came the water, and soon I was forced to move, and the +hundreds of butterflies in front of me. When the last one had left I +went away, returning two hours later. It was then that I witnessed the +most significant happening in the Bay of Butterflies--one which shook +to the bottom the theory of my lepidopterist friend, together with my +thoughtless use of the word normal. Over two feet of restless brown +water covered the sand patches and rocked the scouring rushes. A few +feet farther up the little bay the remaining sand was still exposed. +Here were damp sand, sand dotted with rushes, and sand dry and white +in the sun. About a hundred butterflies were in sight, some +continually leaving, and others arriving. Individuals still dashed +into sight and swooped downward. But not one attempted to alight on +the exposed sand. There was fine, dry sand, warm to a butterfly's +feet, or wet sand soaked with draughts of good Mazaruni water. But +they passed this unheeding, and circled and fluttered in two swarms, +as low as they dared, close to the surface of the water, exactly over +the two patches of sand which had so drawn and held them or their +brethren two hours before. Whatever the ultimate satisfaction may +have been, the attraction was something transcending humidity, +aridity, or immediate possibility of attainment. It was a definite +cosmic point, a geographical focus, which, to my eyes and +understanding, was unreasonable, unsuitable, and inexplicable. + +As I watched the restless water and the butterflies striving to find a +way down through it to the only desired patches of sand in the world, +there arose a fine, thin humming, seeping up through the very waves, +and I knew the singing catfish were following the tide shoreward. And +as I considered my vast ignorance of what it all meant, of how little +I could ever convey of the significance of the happenings in the Bay +of Butterflies, I felt that it would have been far better for all of +my green ink to have trickled down through the grains of sand. + + + + +XII + +SEQUELS + + +Tropical midges of sorts live less than a day--sequoias have felt +their sap quicken at the warmth of fifteen hundred springs. Somewhere +between these extremes, we open our eyes, look about us for a time and +close them again. Modern political geography and shifts of government +give us Methusalistic feelings--but a glance at rocks or stars sends +us shuddering among the other motes which glisten for a moment in the +sunlight and then vanish. + +We who strive for a little insight into evolution and the meaning of +things as they are, forever long for a glimpse of things as they were. +Here at my laboratory I wonder what the land was like before the dense +mat of vegetation came to cover every rock and grain of sand, or how +the rivers looked when first their waters trickled to the sea. + +All our stories are of the middles of things,--without beginning or +end; we scientists are plunged suddenly upon a cosmos in the full +uproar of eons of precedent, unable to look ahead, while to look +backward we must look down. + +Exactly a year ago I spent two hours in a clearing in the jungle back +of Kartabo laboratory, and let my eyes and ears have full swing.[2] +Now in August of the succeeding year I came again to this clearing, +and found it no more a clearing. Indeed so changed was it, that for +weeks I had passed close by without a thought of the jungle meadow of +the previous year, and now, what finally turned me aside from my usual +trail, was a sound. Twelve months ago I wrote, "From the monotone of +under-world sounds a strange little rasping detached itself, a +reiterated, subdued scraping or picking. It carried my mind instantly +to the throbbing theme of the Niebelungs, onomatopoetic of the little +hammers forever busy in their underground work. I circled a small bush +at my side, and found that the sound came from one of the branches +near the top; so with my glasses I began a systematic search." This +was as far as I ever got, for a flock of parrakeets exploded close at +hand and blew the lesser sound out of mind. If I had stopped to guess +I would probably have considered the author a longicorn beetle or some +fiddling orthopter. + +[Footnote 2: See page 34.] + +Now, a year later, I suddenly stopped twenty yards away, for at the +end of the silvery cadence of a woodhewer, I heard the low, measured, +toneless rhythm which instantly revived to mind every detail of the +clearing. I was headed toward a distant palm frond beneath whose tip +was a nest of Rufous Hermits, for I wished to see the two atoms of +hummingbirds at the moment when they rolled from their _petit pois_ +egg-shells. I gave this up for the day and turned up the hill, where +fifty feet away was the stump and bush near which I had sat and +watched. Three times I went past the place before I could be certain, +and even at the last I identified it only by the relative position of +the giant tauroneero tree, in which I had shot many cotingas. The +stump was there, a bit lower and more worn at the crevices, leaking +sawdust like an overloved doll--but the low shrub had become a tall +sapling, the weeds--vervain, boneset, velvet-leaf--all had been topped +and killed off by dense-foliaged bushes and shrubs, which a year +before had not raised a leaf above the meadow level. The old vistas +were gone, the landscape had closed in, the wilderness was shutting +down. Nature herself was "letting in the jungle." I felt like Rip Van +Winkle, or even more alien, as if the passing of time had been +accelerated and my longed-for leap had been accomplished, beyond the +usual ken of mankind's earthly lease of senses. + +All these astounding changes had come to pass through the heat and +moisture of a tropical year, and under deliberate scientific +calculation there was nothing unusual in the alteration. I remembered +the remarkable growth of one of the laboratory bamboo shoots during +the rainy season--twelve and a half feet in sixteen days, but that was +a single stem like a blade of grass, whereas here the whole landscape +was altered--new birds, new insects, branches, foliage, flowers, where +twelve short months past, was open sky above low weeds. + +In the hollow root on the beach, my band of crane-flies had danced for +a thousand hours, but here was a sound which had apparently never +ceased for more than a year--perhaps five thousand hours of daylight. +It was a low, penetrating, abruptly reiterated beat, occurring about +once every second and a half, and distinctly audible a hundred feet +away. The "low bush" from which it proceeded last year, was now a +respectable sapling, and the source far out of reach overhead. I +discovered a roundish mass among the leaves, and the first stroke of +the ax sent the rhythm up to once a second, but did not alter the +timbre. A few blows and the small trunk gave way and I fled for my +life. But there was no angry buzzing and I came close. After a +cessation of ten or fifteen seconds the sound began again, weaker but +steady. The foliage was alive with small Azteca ants, but these were +tenants of several small nests near by, and at the catastrophe overran +everything. + +The largest structure was the smooth carton nest of a wasp, a +beautiful species, pale yellowish-red with wine-colored wings. Only +once did an individual make an attempt to sting and even when my head +was within six inches, the wasps rested quietly on the broken combs. +By careful watching, I observed that many of the insects jerked the +abdomen sharply downward, butting the comb or shell of smooth paper a +forceful blow, and producing a very distinct noise. I could not at +first see the mass of wasps which were giving forth the major rhythm, +as they were hidden deep in the nest, but the fifty-odd wasps in +sight kept perfect time, or occasionally an individual skipped one or +two beats, coming in regularly on every alternate or every third beat. +Where they were two or three deep, the uppermost wasps struck the +insects below them with their abdomens in perfect rhythm with the nest +beat. For half an hour the sound continued, then died down and was not +heard again. The wasps dispersed during the night and the nest was +deserted. + +It reminded me of the telegraphing ants which I have often heard in +Borneo, a remarkable sweeping roll, caused by the host of insects +striking the leaves with their heads, and produced only when they are +disturbed. It appeared to be of the nature of a warning signal, giving +me opportunity to back away from the stinging legions which filled the +thicket against which I pushed. + +The rhythm of these wasps was very different. They were peaceable, not +even resenting the devastation of their home, but always and always +must the inexplicable beat, beat, beat, be kept up, serving some +purpose quite hidden from me. During succeeding months I found two +more nests, with similar fetish of sound vibrations, which led to +their discovery. From one small nest, which fairly shook with the +strength of their beats, I extracted a single wasp and placed him in a +glass-topped, metal box. For three minutes he kept up the rhythmic +beat. Then I began a more rapid tattoo on the bottom of the box, and +the changed tempo confused him, so that he stopped at once, and would +not tap again. + +A few little Mazaruni daisies survived here and there, blossoming +bravely, trying to believe that the shade was lessening, and not daily +becoming more dense. But their leaves were losing heart, and paling in +the scant light. Another six months and dead leaves and moss would +have obliterated them, and the zone of brilliant flowers and gorgeous +butterflies and birds would shift many feet into the air, with the +tops of the trees as a new level. + +As long as I remained by my stump my visitors were of the jungle. A +yellow-bellied trogon came quite close, and sat as trogons do, very +straight and stiff like a poorly mounted bird, watching passing +flycatchers and me and the glimpses of sky. At first he rolled his +little cuckoo-like notes, and his brown mate swooped up, saw me, +shifted a few feet farther off and perched full of curiosity, craning +her neck and looking first with one eye, then the other. Now the male +began a content song. With all possible variations of his few and +simple tones, on a low and very sweet timbre, he belied his unoscine +perch in the tree of bird life, and sang to himself. Now and then he +was drowned out by the shrilling of cicadas, but it was a delightful +serenade, and he seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. A few days +before, I had made a careful study of the syrinx of this bird, whom we +may call rather euphoniously _Trogonurus curucui_, and had been struck +by the simplicity both of muscles and bones. Now, having summoned his +mate in regular accents, there followed this unexpected whisper song. +It recalled similar melodies sung by pheasants and Himalayan +partridges, usually after they had gone to roost. + +Once the female swooped after an insect, and in the midst of one of +the sweetest passages of the male trogon, a green grasshopper shifted +his position. He was only two inches away from the singer, and all +this time had been hidden by his chlorophyll-hued veil. And now the +trogon fairly fell off the branch, seizing the insect almost before +the tone died away. Swallowing it with considerable difficulty, the +harmony was taken up again, a bit throaty for a few notes. Then the +pair talked together in the usual trogon fashion, and the sudden +shadow of a passing vulture, drew forth discordant cat calls, as both +birds swooped from sight to avoid the fancied hawk. + +A few minutes later the vocal seal of the jungle was uttered by a +quadrille bird. When the notes of this wren are heard, I can never +imagine open, blazing sunshine, or unobstructed blue sky. Like the +call of the wood pewee, the wren's radiates coolness and shadowy +quiet. No matter how tropic or breathless the jungle, when the +flute-like notes arise they bring a feeling of freshness, they arouse +a mental breeze, which cools one's thoughts, and, although there may +be no water for miles, yet we can fairly hear the drip of cool drops +falling from thick moss to pools below. First an octave of two notes +of purest silver, then a varying strain of eight or ten notes, so +sweet and powerful, so individual and meaningful that it might stand +for some wonderful motif in a great opera. I shut my eyes, and I was +deaf to all other sounds while the wren sang. And as it dwelt on the +last note of its phrase, a cicada took it up on the exact tone, and +blended the two final notes into a slow vibration, beginning gently +and rising with the crescendo of which only an insect, and especially +a cicada, is master. Here was the eternal, hypnotic tom-tom rhythm of +the East, grafted upon supreme Western opera. For a time my changed +clearing became merely a sounding box for the most thrilling of jungle +songs. I called the wren as well as I could, and he came nearer and +nearer. The music rang out only a few yards away. Then he became +suspicious, and after that each phrase was prefaced by typical wren +scolding. He could not help but voice his emotions, and the harsh +notes told plainly what he thought of my poor imitation. Then another +feeling would dominate, and out of the maelstrom of harshness, of +tumbled, volcanic vocalization would rise the pure silver stream of +single notes. + +The wren slipped away through the masses of fragrant Davilla blossoms, +but his songs remained and are with me to this moment. And now I +leaned back, lost my balance, and grasping the old stump for support, +loosened a big piece of soft, mealy wood. In the hollow beneath, I +saw a rainbow in the heart of the dead tree. + +This rainbow was caused by a bug, and when we stop to think of it, +this shows how little there is in a name. For when we say bug, or for +that matter bogy or bugbear, we are garbling the sound which our very, +very forefathers uttered when they saw a specter or hobgoblin. They +said it _bugge_ or even _bwg_, but then they were more afraid of +specters in those days than we, who imprison will-o'-the-wisps in Very +lights, and rub fox-fire on our watch faces. At any rate here was a +bug who seemed to ill-deserve his name, although if the Niblelungs +could fashion the Rheingold, why could not a bug conceive a rainbow? + +Whenever a human, and especially a house-human thinks of bugs, she +thinks unpleasantly and in superlatives. And it chances that +evolution, or natural selection, or life's mechanism, or fate or a +creator, has wrought them into form and function also in superlatives. +Cicadas are supreme in longevity and noise. One of our northern +species sucks in silent darkness for seventeen years, and then, for a +single summer, breaks all American long-distance records for insect +voices. To another group, known as Fulgorids, gigantic heads and +streamers of wax have been allotted. Those possessing the former +rejoice in the name of Lantern Flies, but they are at present +unfaithful vestal bugs, though it is extremely doubtful if their wicks +were ever trimmed or lighted. To see a big wax bug flying with +trailing ribbons slowly from tree to tree in the jungle is to recall +the streaming trains of a flock of peacocks on the wing. + +The membracids must of all deserve the name of "bugges" for no elf or +hobgoblin was ever more bizarre. Their legs and heads and bodies are +small and aphid-like, but aloft there spring minarets and handles and +towers and thorns and groups of hairy balls, out of all reason and +sense. Only Stegosaurus and Triceratops bear comparison. Another group +of five-sided bugs are the skunks and civet-cats among insects, +guarding themselves from danger by an aura of obnoxious scent. + +Not the least strange of this assemblage is the author of our rainbow +in the stump. My awkwardness had broken into a hollow which opened to +the light on the other side of the rotten bole. A vine had tendriled +its way into the crevice where the little weaver of rainbows had +found board and lodging. We may call him toad-hopper or spittle-bug, +or as Fabre says, "_Contentons-nous de Cicadelle, qui respecte le +tympan._" Like all of its kindred, the Bubble Bug finds Nirvana in a +sappy green stem. It has neither strong flight, nor sticky wax, thorny +armature nor gas barrage, so it proceeds to fashion an armor of +bubbles, a cuirass of liquid film. This, in brief, was the rainbow +which caught my eye when I broke open the stump. Up to that moment no +rainbow had existed, only a little light sifting through from the +vine-clad side. But now a ray of sun shattered itself on the pile of +bubbles, and sprayed itself out into a curved glory. + +Bubble Bugs blow their froth only when immature, and their bodies are +a distillery or home-brew of sorts. No matter what the color, or +viscosity or chemical properties of sap, regardless of whether it +flows in liana, shrub, or vine, yet the Bug's artesian product is +clear, tasteless and wholly without the possibility of being blown +into bubbles. When a large drop has collected, the tip of the abdomen +encloses a retort of air, inserts this in the drop and forces it out. +In some way an imponderable amount of oil or dissolved wax is +extruded and mixed with the drop, an invisible shellac which toughens +the bubble and gives it an astounding glutinous endurance. As long as +the abdominal air-pump can be extended into the atmosphere, so long +does the pile of bubbles grow until the insect is deep buried, and to +penetrate this is as unpleasant an achievement for small marauders as +to force a cobweb entanglement. I have draped a big pile of bubbles +around the beak of an insect-eating bird, and watched it shake its +head and wipe its beak in evident disgust at the clinging oily films. +In the north we have the bits of fine white foam which we +characteristically call frog-spittle, but these tropic relatives have +bigger bellows and their covering is like the interfering mass of +films which emerges from the soap-bubble bowl when a pipe is thrust +beneath the surface and that delicious gurgling sound produced. + +The most marvelous part of the whole thing is that the undistilled +well which the Bubble Bug taps would often overwhelm it in an instant, +either by the burning acidity of its composition, or the rubber +coating of death into which it hardens in the air. Yet with this +current of lava or vitriol, our Bug does three wonderful things, it +distills sweet water for its present protective cell of bubbles, it +draws purest nourishment for continual energy to run its bellows and +pump, and simultaneously it fills its blood and tissues with a pungent +flavor, which in the future will be a safeguard against the attacks of +birds and lizards. Little by little its wings swell to full spread and +strength, muscles are fashioned in its hind legs, which in time will +shoot it through great distances of space, and pigment of the most +brilliant yellow and black forms on its wing covers. When at last it +shuts down its little still and creeps forth through the filmy veil, +it is immature no longer, but a brilliant frog-hopper, sitting on the +most conspicuous leaves, trusting by pigmental warning to advertise +its inedibility, and watchful for a mate, so that the future may hold +no dearth of Bubble Bugs. + +On my first tramp each season in the tropical jungle, I see the +legionary army ants hastening on their way to battle, and the +leaf-cutters plodding along, with chlorophyll hods over their +shoulders, exactly as they did last year, and the year preceding, and +probably a hundred thousand years before that. The Colony Egos of +army and leaf-cutters may quite reasonably be classified according to +Kingdom. The former, with carnivorous, voracious, nervous, vitally +active members, seems an intangible, animal-like organism; while the +stolid, vegetarian, unemotional, weather-swung Attas, resemble the +flowing sap of the food on which they subsist--vegetable. + +Yet, whatever the simile, the net of unconscious precedent is too +closely drawn, the mesh of instinct is too fine to hope for any +initiative. This was manifested by the most significant and +spectacular occurrence I have ever observed in the world of insects. +One year and a half ago I studied and reported upon, a nest of Ecitons +or army ants.[3] Now, eighteen months later, apparently the same army +appeared and made a similar nest of their own bodies, in the identical +spot near the door of the outhouse, where I had found them before. +Again we had to break up the temporary colony, and killed about +three-quarters of the colony with various deadly chemicals. + +[Footnote 3: See page 58.] + +In spite of all the tremendous slaughter, the Ecitons, in late +afternoon, raided a small colony of Wasps-of-the-Painted-Nest. These +little chaps construct a round, sub-leaf carton-home, as large as a +golf ball, which carries out all the requirements of counter shading +and of ruptive markings. The flattened, shadowed under surface was +white, and most of the sloping walls dark brown, down which extended +eight white lines, following the veins of the leaf overhead. The side +close to the stem of the leaf, and consequently always in deep shadow, +was pure white. The eaves catching high lights were black. All this +marvelous merging with leaf tones went for naught when once an advance +Eciton scout located the nest. + +As the deadly mob approached, the wasplets themselves seemed to +realize the futility of offering battle, and the entire colony of +forty-four gathered in a forlorn group on a neighboring leaf, while +their little castle was rifled--larvæ and pupæ torn from their cells +and rushed down the stems to the chaos which was raging in Eciton's +own home. The wasps could guard against optical discovery, but the +blind Ecitons had senses which transcended vision, if not even scent. + +Late that night, our lanterns showed the remnants of the Eciton army +wandering aimlessly about, making near approach impossible, but +apparently lacking any definite concerted action. + +At six o'clock the following morning I started out for a swim, when at +the foot of the laboratory steps I saw a swiftly-moving, broad line of +army ants on safari, passing through the compound to the beach. I +traced them back under the servants' quarters, through two clumps of +bamboos to the outhouse. Later I followed along the column down to the +river sand, through a dense mass of underbrush, through a hollow log, +up the bank, back through light jungle--to the outhouse again, and on +a large fallen log, a few feet beyond the spot where their nest had +been, the ends of the circle _actually came together_! It was the most +astonishing thing, and I had to verify it again and again before I +could believe the evidence of my eyes. It was a strong column, six +lines wide in many places, and the ants fully believed that they were +on their way to a new home, for most were carrying eggs or larvæ, +although many had food, including the larvæ of the Painted Nest +Wasplets. For an hour at noon during heavy rain, the column weakened +and almost disappeared, but when the sun returned, the lines rejoined, +and the revolution of the vicious circle continued. + +There were several places which made excellent points of observation, +and here we watched and marveled. Careful measurement of the great +circle showed a circumference of twelve hundred feet. We timed the +laden Ecitons and found that they averaged two to two and +three-quarter inches a second. So a given individual would complete +the round in about two hours and a half. Many guests were plodding +along with the ants, mostly staphylinids of which we secured five +species, a brown histerid beetle, a tiny chalcid, and several Phorid +flies, one of which was winged. + +The fat Histerid beetle was most amusing, getting out of breath every +few feet, and abruptly stopping to rest, turning around in its tracks, +standing almost on its head, and allowing the swarm of ants to run up +over it and jump off. Then on it would go again, keeping up the +terrific speed of two and a half inches a second for another yard. Its +color was identical with the Ecitons' armor, and when it folded up, +nothing could harm it. Once a worker stopped and antennæd it +suspiciously, but aside from this, it was accepted as one of the line +of marchers. Along the same route came the tiny Phorid flies, wingless +but swift as shadows, rushing from side to side, over ants, leaves, +débris, impatient only at the slowness of the army. + +All the afternoon the insane circle revolved; at midnight the hosts +were still moving, the second morning many had weakened and dropped +their burdens, and the general pace had very appreciably slackened. +But still the blind grip of instinct held them. On, on, on they must +go! Always before in their nomadic life there had been a goal--a +sanctuary of hollow tree, snug heart of bamboos--surely this terrible +grind must end somehow. In this crisis, even the Spirit of the Army +was helpless. Along the normal paths of Eciton life he could inspire +endless enthusiasm, illimitable energy, but here his material units +were bound upon the wheel of their perfection of instinct. Through sun +and cloud, day and night, hour after hour there was found no Eciton +with individual initiative enough to turn aside an ant's breadth from +the circle which he had traversed perhaps fifteen times: the masters +of the jungle had become their own mental prey. + +Fewer and fewer now came along the well worn path; burdens littered +the line of march, like the arms and accoutrements thrown down by a +retreating army. At last a scanty single line struggled past--tired, +hopeless, bewildered, idiotic and thoughtless to the last. Then some +half dead Eciton straggled from the circle along the beach, and threw +the line behind him into confusion. The desperation of total +exhaustion had accomplished what necessity and opportunity and normal +life could not. Several others followed his scent instead of that +leading back toward the outhouse, and as an amoeba gradually flows +into one of its own pseudopodia, so the forlorn hope of the great +Eciton army passed slowly down the beach and on into the jungle. Would +they die singly and in bewildered groups, or would the remnant draw +together, and again guided by the super-mind of its Mentor lay the +foundation of another army, and again come to nest in my outhouse? + +Thus was the ending still unfinished, the finale buried in the +future--and in this we find the fascination of Nature and of Science. +Who can be bored for a moment in the short existence vouchsafed us +here; with dramatic beginnings barely hidden in the dust, with the +excitement of every moment of the present, and with all of cosmic +possibility lying just concealed in the future, whether of Betelgeuze, +of Amoeba or--of ourselves? _Vogue la galère!_ + + + + +APPENDIX OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES + + +Page Line + + 4 26 Moriche Oriole; _Icterus chrysocephalus_ (Linné) + + 8 10 Toad; _Bufo guttatus Schneid_. + + 18 3 Bat; _Furipterus horrens_ (F. Cuv.) + + 4 Large Bats; _Vampyrus spectrum_ (Linné) + + 6 Vampire Bats; _Desmodus rotundus_ (Geoff.) + + 22 5 Giant Catfish, Boom-boom; _Doras granulosus_ Valen. + + 23 5 Kiskadee; _Pitangus s. sulphuratus_ (Linné) + + 25 26 Parrakeets; _Touit batavica_ (Bodd.) + + 26 Great Black Orioles; _Ostinops d. decumanus_ (Pall.) + + 26 5 House Wrens; _Troglodytes musculus clarus_ Berl. and Hart + + 29 5 Coati-mundi; _Nasua n. nasua_ (Linné) + + 32 2 Frog; _Phyllomedusa_ sp. + + 34 18 Mazaruni Daisies; _Sipanea pratensis_ Aubl. + + 20 Button Weed; _Spermacoce_ sp. + + 36 23 Melancholy Tyrant; _Tyrannus melancholicus satrapa_ + (Cab. and Hein.) + + 37 2 Monarch; _Anosia plexippus_ (Linné) + + 38 7 Red-breasted Blue Chatterer; _Cotinga cotinga_ Linné + + 18 Yellow Papilio; _Papilio thoas_ Linné + + 49 26 Parrakeets; _Touit batavica_ (Bodd.) + + 52 3 Purple-throated Cotinga; _Cotinga cayana_ (Linné) + + 53 15 Dark-breasted Mourner; _Lipaugus simplex_ Licht. + + 54 26 Toucans; _Ramphastus vitellinus_ Licht. + + 59 6 White-fronted Ant-bird; _Pithys albifrons_ (Linné) + + 60 16 Army Ants; _Eciton burchelli_ Westwood + + 97 10 Great Green Kingfisher; _Chloroceryle amazona_ (Lath.) + + 11 Tiny Emerald Kingfisher; _Chloroceryle americana_ (Gmel.) + +103 25 Gecko; _Thecadactylus rapicaudus_ (Houtt.) + +109 8 Howling Monkeys; _Alouatta seniculus macconnelli_ Elliot + +113 7 Bower Bird; _Ptilonorhynchus violaceus_ (Vieill.) + +116 24 Cassava; _Janipha manihot_ Kth. + +126 20 Frog, Gawain; _Phyllomedusa_ sp. + +132 17 Marine Toad; _Bufo marinus_ (Linné) + +133 8 Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker; _Phyllobates inguinalis_. + +149 2 Attas, Leaf-cutting Ants; _Atta cephalotes_ (Fab.) + +151 12 Fruit Bats; _Vampyrus spectrum_ (Linné) + +152 11 King Vulture; _Gypagus papa_ (Linné) + + 11 Harpy Eagle; _Harpia harpyja_ (Linné) + +163 3 Ani; _Crotophaga ani_ Linné + + 7 Marine Toad; _Bufo marinus_ (Linné) + +164 19 White-faced Opossum; _Metachirus o. opossum_ (Linné) + +173 1 Attas, Leaf-cutting Ants; _Atta cephalotes_ (Fab.) + + 5 Hummingbird; _Phoethornis r. ruber_ (Linné) + +174 7 Tamandua; _Tamandua t. tetradactyla_ (Linné) + +175 1 Trogon; _Trogon s. strigilatus_ (Linné) + + 9 Tarantula Hawks; _Pepsis_ sp. + +181 17 Cicada larvæ; _Quesada gigas_ Oliv. + +182 5 Roaches; _Attaphila_ sp. + +231 26 Manatee; _Trichechus manatus_ Linné + +232 24 Crocodile; _Caiman sclerops_ (Schneid.) + +233 6 Jacana; _Jacana j. jacana_ (Linné) + + 8 Gallinule; _Ionornis martinicus_ (Linné) + + 9 Green Herons; _Butorides striata_ Linné + + 10 Egrets; _Leucophoyx t. thula_ (Molina) + +233 17 Kiskadees; _Pitangus sulphuratus_ (Linné) + + 19 Black Witch; _Crotophaga ani_ (Linné) + + 19 House Wren; _Troglodytes musculus clarus_ Berl. and Hart + + 22 Manatee; _Trichechus manatus_ (Linné) + +242 1 Jacana; _Jacana j. jacana_ (Linné) + + 3 Gallinule; _Ionornis martinicus_ (Linné) + +243 15 Mongoose; _Mungos mungo_ (Gmel.) + +246 11 Little Egret; _Leucophoyx t. thula_ (Molina) + + 14 Tri-colored Heron; _Hydranassa tricolor_ (P. L. S. Mull.) + + 15 Little Blue Heron; _Florida c. caerulea_ (Linné) + +249 14 White Egret; _Casmerodius egretta_ (Gmel.) + +250 10 Night Heron; _Nyctanassa violacea cayennensis_ (Linné) + +254 1 Giant Catfish, Boom-boom; _Doras granulosus_ Valen. + +256 6 Long-armed Beetle; _Acrocinus longimanus_ (Linné) + +276 10 Rufus Hummingbird; _Phoethornis r. ruber_ (Linné) + +278 16 Tapping Wasp; _Synoeca irina_ Spinola + +280 10 Mazaruni Daisy; _Sipanea pratensis_ Aubl. + + 21 Trogons; _Trogonurus c. curucui_ (Linné) + +282 10 Quadrille Bird; _Leucolepis musica musica_ (Bodd.) + +284 3 Bubble Bugs; _Cercopis ruber_ + +289 16 Army Ants; _Eciton burchelli_ Westwood + + + + +INDEX + + +A + +_Acrocinus longimanus_, 255-258 + +Allamander, 121 + +_Alouatta seniculus macconnelli_, 109 + +Ani, 163, 233 + +_Anosia plexippus_, 37 + +Antbirds, white-fronted, 59, 227 + +Antlions, 27, 28 + +Ants, Army, 58, 60, 154, 282, 289; + attack on wasps, 290; + circular marching of, 291-294; + cleaning of, 79-81; + cleaning of ground, 77; + crippled, 70, 71, 81, 82; + enemies, 72; + foraging lines, 64; + guests, 88, 292; + labor, division of, 67; + larvæ, 87; + nest, 59-61, 74, 83, 289; + nest entrance, 74; + observing, methods of, 63; + odor, 62, 64; + parasites, 292; + prey of, 67; + rain, reaction to, 65, 66; + refuse heaps, 77, 78; + scavengers of nest piles, 78; + speed of, 68, 69, 292; + spinning, 84-86; + vitality, 69 + +Ants, _Azteca_, 278 + +Ants, Borneo telegraph, 279 + +Ants, Leaf-cutting, 7, 152, 173, 289; + at home, 172, 194; + attack, method of guarding against, 177; + attack, method of, 177-179; + battle of giant soldiers, 168-171; + castes, 166; + enemies, 162-163; + flight of kings and queens, 185-188; + fungus, 180, 181; + gardens, fungus, 179-181, 189; + instinct, 190-192; + leaf-chewing in nest, 180; + leaves, carrying, 158-162; + leaves, method of cutting, 158; + name, origin of, 156; + nest, 172; + nest, foundation of, 152, 153, 189, 190; + parasites, external, 176; + paths, 163-165; + queen, 152, 153; + queens, young, in nest, 185; + raids on garden, 154-155; + scavengers of nest, 176; + speed of, 165-166; + soldier, description of, 177-178; + trails, 163-165; + visitors at nest, 174-176; + worker, description of, 156, 157 + +_Attaphila_, 182-185 + +Attas. See Ants, Leaf-cutting. + +_Atta cephalotes_, 155, 173 + + +B + +Bamboos, 9, 13, 23-25 + +Bats, 17-19 + +Bats, fruit, 151 + +Bats, vampire, 4, 18-21, 111, 208 + +Beach, Jungle, 90-111 + +Beena, 118 + +Bees, 35-37, 175 + +Beetle, 23 + +Beetle, Histerid, 292 + +Beetle, long-armed, 256-258 + +Beetle, rove, 72-73 + +Beetle, Staphylinid, 292 + +Beetle, water, in roots, 103 + +Boom-boom, 22, 252-255 + +Botanical Gardens, 122 + +Bower Bird, Purple, 113 + +Bougainvillia, 121 + +Boviander, flowers of, 120 + +_Bufo guttatus_, 8 + +_Bufo marinus_, 132, 163 + +Bugs, bubble, 284-288 + +Bugs, doodle, 28 + +_Butorides striata_, 233 + +Butterfly, 37, 125 + +Butterfly, beryl and jasper, 42 + +Butterfly, migrating, 259-263 + +Butterfly, Monarch, 37 + +Butterfly, Morpho, 51 + +Butterfly, Social gathering of, 268-273 + +Butterfly, Yellow papilio, 38 + +Button weed, 34 + + +C + +_Caiman sclerops_, 232 + +Caladium, 118 + +Casareep, 117 + +Cashew trees, 4 + +_Casmerodius egretta_, 249 + +Cassava, 116 + +Cassia, 44 + +Catfish, Giant. See Boom-boom, 22, 253, 254, 273 + +_Catopsilia_, species of, 268 + +_Cercopis ruber_, 284 + +_Cereus_, night blooming, 218 + +Chanties, 6 + +Chatterer, Red-breasted Blue, 38 + +_Chloroceryle amazona_, 97 + +Chloroceryle americana, 97 + +Cicada, 36, 37 + +Cicada, song of, 283 + +Cicada, larvæ. See _Quesada gigas_. + +Clearing, Jungle, 34-57, 275 + +Clearing, after interval of year, 276 + +Coati-mundi, 29 + +Color, 53, 54 + +Convicts, 5, 7 + +Convicts, singing hymns, 109 + +_Cotinga cayana_, 52, 53 + +_Cotinga cotinga_, 38 + +Cotinga, Purple-throated, 52, 53 + +Cotton, Indian, 117 + +Cotton, Sea Island, 117 + +Crabs, in roots, 103 + +Crocodile, 232 + +_Crotophaga ani_, 163, 233 + +Cuyuni River, 9 + + +D + +Daisies, Mazaruni, 34, 280 + +Devilla blossoms, 283 + +Doodle-bugs, 28 + +_Doras granulosus_, 22, 254 + + +E + +Eagle, Harpy, 152 + +Eciton. See Army Ants + +_Eciton burchelli_, 60, 289 + +Eggs, Butterfly, 41-43 + +Egrets, 233, 246, 249 + +_Ereops_, 264, 265 + + +F + +Fer-de-lance, 206 + +Flamboyant, 122 + +Flies, Chalcid, 292 + +Flies, Crane, in roots, 104-106 + +Flies, Phorid, 292 + +Flies, as scavengers, 78 + +_Florida c. caerulea_, 246 + +Flowers of boviander, 120 + +Flycatcher, Kiskadee, 23, 233 + +Flycatcher, Melancholy Tyrant, 36 + +Frangipani, 122 + +Frog, Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker, 133 + +Frog, Tree, 32, 132 + +_Furipterus horrens_, 17, 18 + + +G + +Gallinule, 233, 242 + +Galis, 45-47 + +Garden, Akawai Indian, 115-119 + +Garden, Boviander, 120 + +Garden, Coolie and Negro, 120 + +Garden, Georgetown Botanical, 122, 230 + +Garden, Tropic, 230-251 + +Gawain, 31-33, 126 + +Gecko, 103, 104 + +Ghost, Kartabo, 25 + +God-birds, 26 + +Guests, Army Ant, 72 + +Guinevere, 123-148 + +_Gypagus papa_, 152 + + +H + +Hammocks, 195 + accident in, 204; + capturing bats from, 218-220; + Carib, 197, 198; + environment and dangers, 200, 201; + hummingbirds on, 223, 224; + slinging of, 198, 199, 203, 209, 210; + sounds and scents, 213-215; + trapping from, 205, 206; + watching army ants from, 225, 228; + weaver-birds nesting on, 224 + +_Harpia harpyja_, 152 + +Herons, green, 233 + +Herons, little blue, 246 + +Herons, night, 250 + +Herons, rookery, 244-251 + +Herons, tricolored, 246 + +Hope, 16 + +Hummingbirds, 97, 174, 223, 276 + +Hyacinth, water, 121 + +_Hydranassa tricolor_, 246 + + +I + +_Icterus chrysocephalus_, 4 + +_Ionornis martinicus_, 233, 242 + + +J + +Jacana, 233, 242 + +_Jacana j. jacana_, 233, 242 + +_Janipha manihot_, 116 + + +K + +Kalacoon, 1 + +Kartabo, 1 + +Kartabo, history, 10-12 + +Kartabo, inmates, 21 + +Kartabo, morning at, 23 + +Kib, 29 + +Kibihée, 29 + +Kingfisher, Great Green, 97 + +Kingfisher, Tiny Emerald, 97 + +Kiskadee, 23, 233, 243 + +Kunami, 117 + +Kyk-over-al, 11, 12 + + +L + +_Leucolepis m. musica_, 282 + +_Leucophoyx t. thula_, 233, 246 + +Lilies, water, 121 + +_Lipaugus simplex_, 58 + +Lotus, 121 + + +M + +Manatee, 231-236 + +Martins, 4 + +"Mazacuni" River, 107 + +Mazaruni River, 9 + +_Metachirus o. opossum_, 164 + +Monarch Butterfly, 37 + +Mongoose, 248 + +Monkeys, 25 + +Monkeys, Howling, 109 + +Mosquitoes, 202, 211 + +Mourner, Dark-breasted, 53 + +_Mungos mungo_, 243 + + +N + +_Nasua n. nasua_, 29 + +Niebelungs, 49 + + +O + +Opossum, 164 + +Orchid, Toko-nook, 119 + +Oriole, Great Black, 25 + +Oriole, Moriche, 4 + +_Ostinops d. decumanus_, 25 + + +P + +Paddlers, 5 + +Palm, Cocoanut, 121 + +_Papilio thoas_, 38 + +Parasite, egg, 43, 44 + +Parrakeets, 25, 49-51 + +_Pepsis_, sp., 175 + +Pets, 28-33 + +_Phoethornis r. ruber_, 174, 276 + +_Phyllomedusa_, 32, 126 + +_Phyllomedusa bicolor_, 145 + +_Phyllobates inguinalis_, 133 + +_Pitangus s. sulphuratus_, 23, 233, 243 + +_Pithys albifrons_, 59 + +Piwari, 117 + +Pool, Jungle Rain, 126-132 + +_Ptilonorhynchus violaceus_, 113 + + +Q + +Quadrille Bird, 282, 283 + +_Quesada gigas_, 181 + + +R + +_Ramphastus vitellinus_, 54, 55 + +Roach, 182 + +Rocks, tidal, 265, 266 + +Roots, 98-106, 236 + +_Rozites gongylophora_, 181 + +Rushes, 264 + + +S + +Scorpions, 181 + +Sedges, Scirpus, 264, 265 + +Servants, negro, 14, 15 + +_Sipanea pratensis_, 34, 280 + +Snake, tree, in hammock, 201 + +_Spermacoce_ sp., 34 + +Springtails, in army ants' nest, 88 + +Striders, water, 129, 130 + +Sunrise, 107, 108 + +Swimming at night, 108-111 + +_Synoeca irina_, 278-280 + + +T + +Tadpoles, 127, 130-148 + +Tadpoles, colors of, 146, 147 + +Tadpoles, red-fins, 132, 133, 136, 139, 141, 144 + +Tadpoles, short-tailed blacks, 132, 138 + +Tamandua, 174 + +_Tamandua t. tetradactyla_, 174 + +Tanager, Blue, 111 + +Tarantula, 23 + +Tarantula Hawks, 175 + +Termites, 154, 162 + +_Thecadactylus rapicauda_, 103 + +_Thraupis episcopus_, 111 + +Tidal, area, ecology of, 266-268 + +Toad, 7, 8 + +Toad, Marine, 132, 163 + +Toko-nook, Orchid, 119 + +Toucans, 25, 54, 55, 56 + +_Touit batavica_, 25, 49 + +Tree, Fallen, 95 + +Tree, Prostrate, reactions of, 96, 97 + +Treetop, Fauna of, 95 + +_Trichechus manatus_, 231, 233 + +_Troglodytes musculus clarus_, 26, 233 + +Trogon, 175, 280-282 + +_Trogan s. strigilatus_, 175 + +_Trogonurus c. curucui_, 280 + +Tyrant, Melancholy, 36 + +_Tyrannus melancholicus satrapa_, 36 + + +V + +_Vampyrus spectrum_, 18 + +Vervain, 35 + +_Victoria regia_, 231, 237, 240, 241 + +Vulture, King, 152 + + +W + +Wasps, Ebony, 175 + +Wasps, Painted Nest, 289-291 + +Wasps, Tapping, 278-280 + +Wind, Voice of, 21 + +Witch, Black, 233 + +Wrens, House, 26, 27, 233 + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Edge of the Jungle, by William Beebe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDGE OF THE JUNGLE *** + +***** This file should be named 25888-8.txt or 25888-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/8/8/25888/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Mark C. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Edge of the Jungle + +Author: William Beebe + +Release Date: June 24, 2008 [EBook #25888] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDGE OF THE JUNGLE *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Mark C. Orton, Linda +McKeown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 339px;"> +<img src="images/image_01.jpg" width="339" height="502" alt="WILLIAM BEEBE +Author of Edge of the Jungle, Jungle Days, Gallapagos, World's End, +The Arcturus Adventure, etc." /><span class="caption">WILLIAM BEEBE<br /> +Author of Edge of the Jungle, Jungle Days, Gallapagos, World's End, +The Arcturus Adventure, etc.</span> +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>BY THE AUTHOR OF "JUNGLE DAYS,"<br /> +"THE LOG OF THE SUN," ETC.</h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_02.jpg" width="600" height="47" alt="Decorative Image" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<h1>EDGE OF THE<br /> +JUNGLE</h1> +<p> </p> +<h2>By WILLIAM BEEBE</h2> + +<h4><i>Honorary Curator of Birds and Director of the Tropical<br /> +Research Station of the New York Zoological Society.</i></h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;"> +<img src="images/seal.jpg" width="100" height="160" alt="Seal" /> +</div> +<p> </p> + +<h4>GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK</h4> +<h3>GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING CO., INC.</h3> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + + +<h5><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1921</h5> + +<h4><span class="smcap">By</span> HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h5> + TO<br /> + THE BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES,<br /> + THE ANTS AND TREE-FROGS<br /> + WHO HAVE TOLERATED ME IN<br /> + THEIR JUNGLE ANTE-CHAMBERS<br /> + I OFFER THIS VOLUME OF<br /> + FRIENDLY WORDS<br /> +</h5> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NOTE" id="NOTE"></a>NOTE</h2> + +<p>This second series of essays, following those in <i>Jungle Peace</i>, are +republished by the kindness of the Editors of <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i>, +<i>Harper's Magazine</i> and <i>House and Garden</i>.</p> + +<p>With the exception of <i>A Tropic Garden</i> which refers to the Botanical +Gardens of Georgetown, all deal with the jungle immediately about the +Tropical Research Station of the New York Zoological Society, situated +at Kartabo, at the junction of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni Rivers, in +British Guiana.</p> + +<p>For the accurate identification of the more important organisms +mentioned, a brief appendix of scientific names has been prepared.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="tocch p1">CHAPTER</td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocpg p1">PAGE</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocch">I</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#I">The Lure of Kartabo</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">II</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#II">A Jungle Clearing</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">III</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#III">The Home Town of the Army Ants</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">IV</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#IV">A Jungle Beach</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">V</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#V">A Bit of Uselessness</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">VI</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#VI">Guinevere the Mysterious</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">VII</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#VII">A Jungle Labor Union</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">VIII</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#VIII">The Attas at Home</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">IX</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#IX">Hammock Nights</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">X</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#X">A Tropic Garden</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XI</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XI">The Bay of Butterflies</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XII</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#XII">Sequels</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_274">274</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#APPENDIX_OF_SCIENTIFIC_NAMES">Appendix of Scientific Names</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></span></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="EDGE_OF_THE_JUNGLE" id="EDGE_OF_THE_JUNGLE"></a>EDGE OF THE JUNGLE</h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +"For the true scientific method is this:<br /> +To trust no statements without verification,<br /> +to test all things as rigorously as possible,<br /> +to keep no secrets, to attempt no monopolies,<br /> +to give out one's best modestly and plainly,<br /> +serving no other end but knowledge."<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">H. G. Wells.</span><br /></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<h2>THE LURE OF KARTABO</h2> + + +<p>A house may be inherited, as when a wren rears its brood in turn +within its own natal hollow; or one may build a new home such as is +fashioned from year to year by gaunt and shadowy herons; or we may +have it built to order, as do the drones of the wild jungle bees. In +my case, I flitted like a hermit crab from one used shell to another. +This little crustacean, living his oblique life in the shallows, +changes doorways when his home becomes too small or hinders him in +searching for the things which he covets in life. The difference +between our estates was that the hermit crab sought only for food, I +chiefly for strange new facts—which was a distinction as trivial as +that he achieved his desires sideways and on eight legs, while I +traversed my environment usually forward and generally on two.</p> + +<p>The word of finance went forth and demanded the felling of the second +growth around Kalacoon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> and for the second time the land was given +over to cutlass and fire. But again there was a halting in the affairs +of man, and the rubber saplings were not planted or were smothered; +and again the jungle smiled patiently through a knee-tangle of thorns +and blossoms, and the charred clumps of razor-grass sent forth skeins +of saws and hanks of living barbs.</p> + +<p>I stood beneath the familiar cashew trees, which had yielded for me so +bountifully of their crops of blossoms and hummingbirds, of fruit and +of tanagers, and looked out toward the distant jungle, which trembled +through the expanse of palpitating heat-waves; and I knew how a hermit +crab feels when its home pinches, or is out of gear with the world. +And, too, Nupee was dead, and the jungle to the south seemed to call +less strongly. So I wandered through the old house for the last time, +sniffing the agreeable odor of aged hypo still permeating the dark +room, re-covering the empty stains of skins and traces of maps on the +walls, and re-filling in my mind the vacant shelves. The vampires had +returned to their chosen roost, the martins still swept through the +corridors, and as I went down the hill, a moriche oriole sent a silver +shaft of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> song after me from the sentinel palm, just as he had greeted +me four years ago.</p> + +<p>Then I gathered about me all the strange and unnameable possessions of +a tropical laboratory—and moved. A wren reaches its home after +hundreds of miles of fast aerial travel; a hermit crab achieves a new +lease with a flip of his tail. Between these extremes, and in no less +strange a fashion, I moved. A great barge pushed off from the Penal +Settlement, piled high with my zoölogical Lares and Penates, and along +each side squatted a line of paddlers,—white-garbed burglars and +murderers, forgers and fighters,—while seated aloft on one of my +ammunition trunks, with a microscope case and a camera close under his +watchful eye, sat Case, King of the Warders, the biggest, blackest, +and kindest-hearted man in the world.</p> + +<p>Three miles up river swept my moving-van; and from the distance I +could hear the half-whisper—which was yet a roar—of Case as he +admonished his children. "Mon," he would say to a shirking, shrinking +coolie second-story man, "mon, do you t'ink dis the time to sleep? +What toughts have you in your bosom, dat you delay de Professor's +household?" And then a chanty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> would rise, the voice of the leader +quavering with that wild rhythm which had come down to him, a vocal +heritage, through centuries of tom-toms and generations of savages +striving for emotional expression. But the words were laughable or +pathetic. I was adjured to</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Blow de mon down with a bottle of rum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, de mon—mon—blow de mon down."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Or the jungle reëchoed the edifying reiteration of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Sardines—and bread—OH!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sardines—and bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sardines—and bread—AND!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sardines—and bread."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The thrill that a whole-lunged chanty gives is difficult to describe. +It arouses some deep emotional response, as surely as a military band, +or the reverberating cadence of an organ, or a suddenly remembered +theme of opera.</p> + +<p>As my aquatic van drew up to the sandy landing-beach, I looked at the +motley array of paddlers, and my mind went back hundreds of years to +the first Spanish crew which landed here, and I wondered whether these +pirates of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> early days had any fewer sins to their credit than Case's +convicts—and I doubted it.</p> + +<p>Across my doorstep a line of leaf-cutting ants was passing, each +bearing aloft a huge bit of green leaf, or a long yellow petal, or a +halberd of a stamen. A shadow fell over the line, and I looked up to +see an anthropomorphic enlargement of the ants,—the convicts winding +up the steep bank, each with cot, lamp, table, pitcher, trunk, or +aquarium balanced on his head,—all my possessions suspended between +earth and sky by the neck-muscles of worthy sinners. The first thing +to be brought in was a great war-bag packed to bursting, and Number +214, with eight more years to serve, let it slide down his shoulder +with a grunt—the self-same sound that I have heard from a Tibetan +woman carrier, and a Mexican peon, and a Japanese porter, all of whom +had in past years toted this very bag.</p> + +<p>I led the way up the steps, and there in the doorway was a tenant, one +who had already taken possession, and who now faced me and the +trailing line of convicts with that dignity, poise, and perfect +self-possession which only a toad, a giant grandmother of a toad, can +exhibit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> I, and all the law-breakers who followed, recognized the +nine tenths involved in this instance and carefully stepped around. +When the heavy things began to arrive, I approached diffidently, and +half suggested, half directed her deliberate hops toward a safer +corner. My feelings toward her were mingled, but altogether +kindly,—as guest in her home, I could not but treat her with +respect,—while my scientific soul revelled in the addition of <i>Bufo +guttatus</i> to the fauna of this part of British Guiana. Whether +flashing gold of oriole, or the blinking solemnity of a great toad, it +mattered little—Kartabo had welcomed me with as propitious an omen as +had Kalacoon.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Houses have distinct personalities, either bequeathed to them by their +builders or tenants, absorbed from their materials, or emanating from +the general environment. Neither the mind which had planned our +Kartabo bungalow, nor the hands which fashioned it; neither the +mahogany walls hewn from the adjoining jungle, nor the white-pine +beams which had known many decades of snowy winters—none of these +were obtrusive. The first had passed into oblivion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> the second had +been seasoned by sun and rain, papered by lichens, and gnawed and +bored by tiny wood-folk into a neutral inconspicuousness as complete +as an Indian's deserted <i>benab</i>. The wide verandah was open on all +sides, and from the bamboos of the front compound one looked straight +through the central hall-way to bamboos at the back. It seemed like a +happy accident of the natural surroundings, a jungle-bound cave, or +the low rambling chambers of a mighty hollow tree.</p> + +<p>No thought of who had been here last came to us that first evening. We +unlimbered the creaky-legged cots, stiff and complaining after their +three years' rest, and the air was filled with the clean odor of +micaceous showers of naphthalene from long-packed pillows and sheets. +From the rear came the clatter of plates, the scent of ripe papaws and +bananas, mingled with the smell of the first fire in a new stove. Then +I went out and sat on my own twelve-foot bank, looking down on the +sandy beach and out and over to the most beautiful view in the +Guianas. Down from the right swept slowly the Mazaruni, and from the +left the Cuyuni, mingling with one wide expanse like a great rounded +lake, bounded by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> solid jungle, with only Kalacoon and the Penal +Settlement as tiny breaks in the wall of green.</p> + +<p>The tide was falling, and as I sat watching the light grow dim, the +water receded slowly, and strange little things floated past +downstream. And I thought of the no less real human tide which long +years ago had flowed to my very feet and then ebbed, leaving, as drift +is left upon the sand, the convicts, a few scattered Indians, and +myself. In the peace and quiet of this evening, time seemed a thing of +no especial account. The great jungle trees might always have been +lifeless emerald water-barriers, rather than things of a few +centuries' growth; the ripple-less water bore with equal disregard the +last mora seed which floated past, as it had held aloft the keel of an +unknown Spanish ship three centuries before. These men came up-river +and landed on a little island a few hundred yards from Kartabo. Here +they built a low stone wall, lost a few buttons, coins, and bullets, +and vanished. Then came the Dutch in sturdy ships, cleared the islet +of everything except the Spanish wall, and built them a jolly little +fort intended to command all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> the rivers, naming it Kyk-over-al. +To-day the name and a strong archway of flat Holland bricks survive.</p> + +<p>In this wilderness, so wild and so quiet to-day, it was amazing to +think of Dutch soldiers doing sentry duty and practising with their +little bell-mouthed cannon on the islet, and of scores of negro and +Indian slaves working in cassava fields all about where I sat. And +this not fifty or a hundred or two hundred years ago, but about the +year 1613, before John Smith had named New England, while the Hudson +was still known as the Maurice, before the Mayflower landed with all +our ancestors on board. For many years the story of this settlement +and of the handful of neighboring sugar-plantations is one of +privateer raids, capture, torture, slave-revolts, disease, bad +government, and small profits, until we marvel at the perseverance of +these sturdy Hollanders. From the records still extant, we glean here +and there amusing details of the life which was so soon to falter and +perish before the onpressing jungle. Exactly two hundred and fifty +years ago one Hendrik Rol was appointed commander of Kyk-over-al. He +was governor, captain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> store-keeper and Indian trader, and his salary +was thirty guilders, or about twelve dollars, a month—about what I +paid my cook-boy.</p> + +<p>The high tide of development at Kartabo came two hundred and three +years ago, when, as we read in the old records, a Colony House was +erected here. It went by the name of Huis Naby (the house nearby), +from its situation near the fort. Kyk-over-al was now left to the +garrison, while the commander and the civil servants lived in the new +building. One of its rooms was used as a council chamber and church, +while the lower floor was occupied by the company's store. The land in +the neighborhood was laid out in building lots, with a view to +establishing a town; it even went by the name of Stad Cartabo and had +a tavern and two or three small houses, but never contained enough +dwellings to entitle it to the name of town, or even village.</p> + +<p>The ebb-tide soon began, and in 1739 Kartabo was deserted, and thirty +years before the United States became a nation, the old fort on +Kyk-over-al was demolished. The rivers and rolling jungle were +attractive, but the soil was poor, while the noisome mud-swamps of the +coast proved to be fertile and profitable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some fatality seemed to attach to all future attempts in this region. +Gold was discovered, and diamonds, and to-day the wilderness here and +there is powdering with rust and wreathing with creeping tendrils +great piles of machinery. Pounds of gold have been taken out and +hundreds of diamonds, but thus far the negro pork-knocker, with his +pack and washing-pan, is the only really successful miner.</p> + +<p>The jungle sends forth healthy trees two hundred feet in height, +thriving for centuries, but it reaches out and blights the attempts of +man, whether sisal, rubber, cocoa, or coffee. So far the ebb-tide has +left but two successful crops to those of us whose kismet has led us +hither—crime and science. The concentration of negroes, coolies, +Chinese and Portuguese on the coast furnishes an unfailing supply of +convicts to the settlement, while the great world of life all about +affords to the naturalist a bounty rich beyond all conception.</p> + +<p>So here was I, a grateful legatee of past failures, shaded by +magnificent clumps of bamboo, brought from Java and planted two or +three hundred years ago by the Dutch, and sheltered by a bungalow +which had played its part in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> development and relinquishment of a +great gold mine.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For a time we arranged and adjusted and shifted our +equipment,—tables, books, vials, guns, nets, cameras and +microscopes,—as a dog turns round and round before it composes itself +to rest. And then one day I drew a long breath and looked about, and +realized that I was at home. The newness began to pass from my little +shelves and niches and blotters; in the darkness I could put my hand +on flash or watch or gun; and in the morning I settled snugly into my +woolen shirt, khakis, and sneakers, as if they were merely accessory +skin.</p> + +<p>In the beginning we were three white men and four servants—the latter +all young, all individual, all picked up by instinct, except Sam, who +was as inevitable as the tides. Our cook was too good-looking and too +athletic to last. He had the reputation of being the fastest sprinter +in Guiana, with a record, so we were solemnly told, of 9-1/5 seconds +for the hundred—a veritable Mercury, as the last world's record of +which I knew was 9-3/5. His stay with us was like the orbit of some +comets, which make a single lap around the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> sun never to return, and +his successor Edward, with unbelievably large and graceful hands and +feet, was a better cook, with the softest voice and gentlest manner in +the world.</p> + +<p>But Bertie was our joy and delight. He too may be compared to a +star—one which, originally bright, becomes temporarily dim, and +finally attains to greater magnitude than before. Ultimately he became +a fixed ornament of our culinary and taxidermic cosmic system, and +whatever he did was accomplished with the most remarkable contortions +of limbs and body. To watch him rake was to learn new anatomical +possibilities; when he paddled, a surgeon would be moved to +astonishment; when he caught butterflies, a teacher of physical +culture would not have believed his eyes.</p> + +<p>At night, when our servants had sealed themselves hermetically in +their room in the neighboring thatched quarters, and the last squeak +from our cots had passed out on its journey to the far distant goal of +all nocturnal sounds, we began to realize that our new home held many +more occupants than our three selves. Stealthy rustlings, indistinct +scrapings, and low murmurs kept us interested for as long as ten +minutes;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> and in the morning we would remember and wonder who our +fellow tenants could be. Some nights the bungalow seemed as full of +life as the tiny French homes labeled, "<i>Hommes 40: Chevaux 8</i>," when +the hastily estimated billeting possibilities were actually achieved, +and one wondered whether it were not better to be the <i>cheval +premier</i>, than the <i>homme quarantième</i>.</p> + +<p>For years the bungalow had stood in sun and rain unoccupied, with a +watchman and his wife, named Hope, who lived close by. The aptness of +his name was that of the little Barbadian mule-tram which creeps +through the coral-white streets, striving forever to divorce motion +from progress and bearing the name Alert. Hope had done his duty and +watched the bungalow. It was undoubtedly still there and nothing had +been taken from it; but he had received no orders as to accretions, +and so, to our infinite joy and entertainment, we found that in many +ways it was not only near jungle, it <i>was</i> jungle. I have compared it +with a natural cave. It was also like a fallen jungle-log, and we some +of the small folk who shared its dark recesses with hosts of others. +Through the air, on wings of skin or feathers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> or tissue membrane; +crawling or leaping by night; burrowing underground; gnawing up +through the great supporting posts; swarming up the bamboos and along +the pliant curving stems to drop quietly on the shingled roof;—thus +had the jungle-life come past Hope's unseeing eyes and found the +bungalow worthy residence.</p> + +<p>The bats were with us from first to last. We exterminated one colony +which spent its inverted days clustered over the center of our supply +chamber, but others came immediately and disputed the ownership of the +dark room. Little chaps with great ears and nose-tissue of sensitive +skin, spent the night beneath my shelves and chairs, and even my cot. +They hunted at dusk and again at dawn, slept in my room and vanished +in the day. Even for bats they were ferocious, and whenever I caught +one in a butterfly-net, he went into paroxysms of rage, squealing in +angry passion, striving to bite my hand and, failing that, chewing +vainly on his own long fingers and arms. Their teeth were wonderfully +intricate and seemed adapted for some very special diet, although +beetles seemed to satisfy those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> which I caught. For once, the +systematist had labeled them opportunely, and we never called them +anything but <i>Furipterus horrens</i>.</p> + +<p>In the evening, great bats as large as small herons swept down the +long front gallery where we worked, gleaning as they went; but the +vampires were long in coming, and for months we neither saw nor heard +of one. Then they attacked our servants, and we took heart, and night +after night exposed our toes, as conventionally accepted vampire-bait. +When at last they found that the color of our skins was no criterion +of dilution of blood, they came in crowds. For three nights they swept +about us with hardly a whisper of wings, and accepted either toe or +elbow or finger, or all three, and the cots and floor in the morning +looked like an emergency hospital behind an active front. In spite of +every attempt at keeping awake, we dropped off to sleep before the +bats had begun, and did not waken until they left. We ascertained, +however, that there was no truth in the belief that they hovered or +kept fanning with their wings. Instead, they settled on the person +with an appreciable flop and then crawled to the desired spot.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<p>One night I made a special effort and, with bared arm, prepared for a +long vigil. In a few minutes bats began to fan my face, the wings +almost brushing, but never quite touching my skin. I could distinguish +the difference between the smaller and the larger, the latter having a +deeper swish, deeper and longer drawn-out. Their voices were so high +and shrill that the singing of the jungle crickets seemed almost +contralto in comparison. Finally, I began to feel myself the focus of +one or more of these winged weasels. The swishes became more frequent, +the returnings almost doubling on their track. Now and then a small +body touched the sheet for an instant, and then, with a soft little +tap, a vampire alighted on my chest. I was half sitting up, yet I +could not see him, for I had found that the least hint of light ended +any possibility of a visit. I breathed as quietly as I could, and made +sure that both hands were clear. For a long time there was no +movement, and the renewed swishes made me suspect that the bat had +again taken flight. Not until I felt a tickling on my wrist did I know +that my visitor had shifted and, unerringly, was making for the arm +which I had exposed. Slowly it crept forward,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> but I hardly felt the +pushing of the feet and pulling of the thumbs as it crawled along. If +I had been asleep, I should not have awakened. It continued up my +forearm and came to rest at my elbow. Here another long period of +rest, and then several short, quick shifts of body. With my whole +attention concentrated on my elbow, I began to imagine various +sensations as my mind pictured the long, lancet tooth sinking deep +into the skin, and the blood pumping up. I even began to feel the hot +rush of my vital fluid over my arm, and then found that I had dozed +for a moment and that all my sensations were imaginary. But soon a +gentle tickling became apparent, and, in spite of putting this out of +my mind and with increasing doubts as to the bat being still there, +the tickling continued. It changed to a tingling, rather pleasant than +otherwise, like the first stage of having one's hand asleep.</p> + +<p>It really seemed as if this were the critical time. Somehow or other +the vampire was at work with no pain or even inconvenience to me, and +now was the moment to seize him, call for a lantern, and solve his +supersurgical skill, the exact method of this vespertilial +anæsthetist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> Slowly, very slowly, I lifted the other hand, always +thinking of my elbow, so that I might keep all the muscles relaxed. +Very slowly it approached, and with as swift a motion as I could +achieve, I grasped at the vampire. I felt a touch of fur and I gripped +a struggling, skinny wing; there came a single nip of teeth, and the +wing-tip slipped through my fingers. I could detect no trace of blood +by feeling, so turned over and went to sleep. In the morning I found a +tiny scratch, with the skin barely broken; and, heartily disappointed, +I realized that my tickling and tingling had been the preliminary +symptoms of the operation.</p> + +<p>Marvelous moths which slipped into the bungalow like shadows; pet +tarantulas; golden-eyed gongasocka geckos; automatic, house-cleaning +ants; opossums large and small; tiny lizards who had tongues in place +of eyelids; wasps who had doorsteps and watched the passing from their +windows;—all these were intimates of my laboratory table, whose +riches must be spread elsewhere; but the sounds of the bungalow were +common to the whole structure.</p> + +<p>One of the first things I noticed, as I lay on my cot, was the new +voice of the wind at night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> Now and then I caught a familiar +sound,—faint, but not to be forgotten,—the clattering of palm +fronds. But this came from Boom-boom Point, fifty yards away (an out +jutting of rocks where we had secured our first giant catfish of that +name). The steady rhythm of sound which rose and fell with the breeze +and sifted into my window with the moonbeams, was the gentlest +<i>shussssss</i>ing, a fine whispering, a veritable fern of a sound, high +and crisp and wholly apart from the moaning around the eaves which +arose at stronger gusts. It brought to mind the steep mountain-sides +of Pahang, and windy nights which presaged great storms in high passes +of Yunnan.</p> + +<p>But these wonder times lived only through memory and were misted with +intervening years, while it came upon me during early nights, again +and again, that this was Now, and that into the hour-glass neck of Now +was headed a maelstrom of untold riches of the Future—minutes and +hours and sapphire days ahead—-a Now which was wholly unconcerned +with leagues and liquor, with strikes and salaries. So I turned over +with the peace which passes all telling—the forecast of delving into +the private affairs of birds and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> monkeys, of great butterflies and +strange frogs and flowers. The seeping wind had led my mind on and on +from memory and distant sorrows to thoughts of the joy of labor and +life.</p> + +<p>At half-past five a kiskadee shouted at the top of his lungs from the +bamboos, but he probably had a nightmare, for he went to sleep and did +not wake again for half-an-hour. The final swish of a bat's wing came +to my ear, and the light of a fog-dimmed day slowly tempered the +darkness among the dusty beams and rafters. From high overhead a +sprawling tarantula tossed aside the shriveled remains of his night's +banquet, the emerald cuirass and empty mahogany helmet of a +long-horned beetle, which eddied downward and landed upon my sheet.</p> + +<p>Immediately around the bungalow the bamboos held absolute sway, and +while forming a very tangible link between the roof and the outliers +of the jungle, yet no plant could obtain foothold beneath their shade. +They withheld light, and the mat of myriads of slender leaves killed +off every sprouting thing. This was of the utmost value to us, +providing shade, clear passage to every breeze, and an absolute dearth +of flies and mosquitoes. We found that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> clumps needed clearing of +old stems, and for two days we indulged in the strangest of weedings. +The dead stems were as hard as stone outside, but the ax bit through +easily, and they were so light that we could easily carry enormous +ones, which made us feel like giants, though, when I thought of them +in their true botanical relationship, I dwarfed in imagination as +quickly as Alice, to a pigmy tottering under a blade of grass. It was +like a Brobdingnagian game of jack-straws, as the cutting or prying +loose of a single stem often brought several others crashing to earth +in unexpected places, keeping us running and dodging to avoid their +terrific impact. The fall of these great masts awakened a roaring +swish ending in a hollow rattling, wholly unlike the crash and dull +boom of a solid trunk. When we finished with each clump, it stood as a +perfect giant bouquet, looking, at a distance, like a tuft of green +feathery plumes, with the bungalow snuggled beneath as a toadstool is +overshadowed by ferns.</p> + +<p>Scores of the homes of small folk were uncovered by our weeding +out—wasps, termites, ants, bees, wood-roaches, centipedes; and +occasionally a small snake or great solemn toad came out from the +débris at the roots, the latter blinking and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> swelling indignantly at +this sudden interruption of his siesta. In a strong wind the stems +bent and swayed, thrashing off every imperfect leaf and sweeping low +across the roof, with strange scrapings and bamboo mutterings. But +they hardly ever broke and fell. In the evening, however, and in the +night, after a terrific storm, a sharp, unexpected <i>rat-tat-tat-tat</i>, +exactly like a machine-gun, would smash in on the silence, and two or +three of the great grasses, which perhaps sheltered Dutchmen +generations ago, would snap and fall. But the Indians and Bovianders +who lived nearby, knew this was no wind, nor yet weakness of stem, but +Sinclair, who was abroad and who was cutting down the bamboos for his +own secret reasons. He was evil, and it was well to be indoors with +all windows closed; but further details were lacking, and we were +driven to clothe this imperfect ghost with history and habits of our +own devising.</p> + +<p>The birds and other inhabitants of the bamboos, were those of the more +open jungle,—flocks drifting through the clumps, monkeys occasionally +swinging from one to another of the elastic tips, while toucans came +and went. At evening, flocks of parrakeets and great black orioles +came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> to roost, courting the safety which they had come to associate +with the clearings of human pioneers in the jungle. A box on a bamboo +stalk drew forth joyous hymns of praise from a pair of little +God-birds, as the natives call the house-wrens, who straightway +collected all the grass and feathers in the world, stuffed them into +the tiny chamber, and after a time performed the ever-marvelous feat +of producing three replicas of themselves from this trash-filled box. +The father-parent was one concentrated mite of song, with just enough +feathers for wings to enable him to pursue caterpillars and +grasshoppers as raw material for the production of more song. He sang +at the prospect of a home; then he sang to attract and win a mate; +more song at the joy of finding wonderful grass and feathers; again +melody to beguile his mate, patiently giving the hours and days of her +body-warmth in instinct-compelled belief in the future. He sang while +he took his turn at sitting; then he nearly choked to death trying to +sing while stuffing a bug down a nestling's throat; finally, he sang +at the end of a perfect nesting season; again, in hopes of persuading +his mate to repeat it all, and this failing, sang in chorus in the +wren quintette—I hoped, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> gratitude to us. At least from April to +September he sang every day, and if my interpretation be +anthropomorphic, why, so much the better for anthropomorphism. At any +rate, before we left, all five wrens sat on a little shrub and +imitated the morning stars, and our hearts went out to the little +virile featherlings, who had lost none of their enthusiasm for life in +this tropical jungle. Their one demand in this great wilderness was +man's presence, being never found in the jungle except in an inhabited +clearing, or, as I have found them, clinging hopefully to the +vanishing ruins of a dead Indian's <i>benab</i>, waiting and singing in +perfect faith, until the jungle had crept over it all and they were +compelled to give up and set out in search of another home, within +sound of human voices.</p> + +<p>Bare as our leaf-carpeted bamboo-glade appeared, yet a select little +company found life worth living there. The dry sand beneath the house +was covered with the pits of ant-lions, and as we watched them month +after month, they seemed to have more in common with the grains of +quartz which composed their cosmos than with the organic world. By day +or night no ant or other edible thing seemed ever to approach or be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +entrapped; and month after month there was no sign of change to imago. +Yet each pit held a fat, enthusiastic inmate, ready at a touch to turn +steam-shovel, battering-ram, bayonet, and gourmand. Among the first +thousand-and-one mysteries of Kartabo I give a place to the source of +nourishment of the sub-bungalow ant-lions.</p> + +<p>Walking one day back of the house, I observed a number of small holes, +with a little shining head just visible in each, which vanished at my +approach. Looking closer, I was surprised to find a colony of tropical +doodle-bugs. Straightway I chose a grass-stem and squatting, began +fishing as I had fished many years ago in the southern states. Soon a +nibble and then an angry pull, and I jerked out the irate little chap. +He had the same naked bumpy body and the fierce head, and when two or +three were put together, they fought blindly and with the ferocity of +bulldogs.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>To write of pets is as bad taste as to write in diary form, and, +besides, I had made up my mind to have no pets on this expedition. +They were a great deal of trouble and a source of distraction from +work while they were alive; and one's heart was wrung and one's +concentration disturbed at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> their death. But Kib came one day, brought +by a tiny copper-bronze Indian. He looked at me, touched me +tentatively with a mobile little paw, and my firm resolution melted +away. A young coati-mundi cannot sit man-fashion like a bear-cub, nor +is he as fuzzy as a kitten or as helpless as a puppy, but he has ways +of winning to the human heart, past all obstacles.</p> + +<p>The small Indian thought that three shillings would be a fair +exchange; but I knew the par value of such stock, and Kib changed +hands for three bits. A week later a thousand shillings would have +seemed cheap to his new master. A coati-mundi is a tropical, arboreal +raccoon of sorts, with a long, ever-wriggling snout, sharp teeth, eyes +that twinkle with humor, and clawed paws which are more skilful than +many a fingered hand. By the scientists of the world he is addressed +as <i>Nasua nasua nasua</i>—which lays itself open to the twin ambiguity +of stuttering Latin, or the echoes of a Princetonian football yell. +The natural histories call him coati-mundi, while the Indian has by +far the best of it, with the ringing, climactic syllables, <i>Kibihée!</i> +And so, in the case of a being who has received much more than his +share of vitality, it was altogether fitting to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> shorten this to +Kib—Dunsany's giver of life upon the earth.</p> + +<p>My heart's desire is to run on and tell many paragraphs of Kib; but +that, as I have said, would be bad taste, which is one form of +immorality. For in such things sentiment runs too closely parallel to +sentimentality,—moderation becomes maudlinism,—and one enters the +caste of those who tell anecdotes of children, and the latest symptoms +of their physical ills. And the deeper one feels the joys of +friendship with individual small folk of the jungle, the more +difficult it is to convey them to others. And so it is not of the +tropical mammal coati-mundi, nor even of the humorous Kib that I +think, but of the soul of him galloping up and down his slanting log, +of his little inner ego, which changed from a wild thing to one who +would hurl himself from any height or distance into a lap, confident +that we would save his neck, welcome him, and waste good time playing +the game which he invented, of seeing whether we could touch his +little cold snout before he hid it beneath his curved arms.</p> + +<p>So, in spite of my resolves, our bamboo groves became the homes of +numerous little souls of wild folk, whose individuality shone out and +dominated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> the less important incidental casement, whether it happened +to be feathers, or fur, or scales. It is interesting to observe how +the Adam in one comes to the surface in the matter of names for pets. +I know exactly the uncomfortable feeling which must have perturbed the +heart of that pioneer of nomenclaturists, to be plumped down in the +midst of "the greatest aggregation of animals ever assembled" before +the time of Noah, and to be able to speak of them only as <i>this</i> or +<i>that</i>, <i>he</i> or <i>she</i>. So we felt when inundated by a host of pets. It +is easy to speak of the species by the lawful Latin or Greek name; we +mention the specimen on our laboratory table by its common +natural-history appellation. But the individual who touches our pity, +or concern, or affection, demands a special title—usually absurdly +inapt.</p> + +<p>Soon, in the bamboo glade about our bungalow, ten little jungle +friends came to live; and to us they will always be Kib and Gawain, +George and Gregory, Robert and Grandmother, Raoul and Pansy, Jennie +and Jellicoe.</p> + +<p>Gawain was not a double personality—he was an intermittent +reincarnation, vibrating between the inorganic and the essence of +vitality. In a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> reasonable scheme of earthly things he filled the +niche of a giant green tree-frog, and one of us seemed to remember +that the Knight Gawain was enamored of green, and so we dubbed him. +For the hours of daylight Gawain preferred the role of a hunched-up +pebble of malachite; or if he could find a leaf, he drew eighteen +purple vacuum toes beneath him, veiled his eyes with opalescent lids, +and slipped from the mineral to the vegetable kingdom, flattened by +masterly shading which filled the hollows and leveled the bumps; and +the leaf became more of a leaf than it had been before Gawain was +merged with it.</p> + +<p>Night, or hunger, or the merciless tearing of sleep from his soul +wrought magic and transformed him into a glowing, jeweled specter. He +sprouted toes and long legs; he rose and inflated his sleek emerald +frog-form; his sides blazed forth a mother-of-pearl waist-coat—a +myriad mosaics of pink and blue and salmon and mauve; and from nowhere +if not from the very depths of his throat, there slowly rose twin +globes,—great eyes,—which stood above the flatness of his head, as +mosques above an oriental city. Gone were the neutralizing lids, and +in their place, strange upright pupils surrounded with vermilion lines +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> curves and dots, like characters of ancient illuminated Persian +script. And with these appalling eyes Gawain looked at us, with these +unreal, crimson-flecked globes staring absurdly from an expressionless +emerald mask, he contemplated roaches and small grasshoppers, and +correctly estimated their distance and activity. We never thought of +demanding friendship, or a hint of his voice, or common froggish +activities from Gawain. We were content to visit him now and then, to +arouse him, and then leave him to disincarnate his vertebral outward +phase into chlorophyll or lifeless stone. To muse upon his courtship +or emotions was impossible. His life had a feeling of sphinx-like +duration—Gawain as a tadpole was unthinkable. He seemed ageless, +unreal, wonderfully beautiful, and wholly inexplicable.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h2>A JUNGLE CLEARING</h2> + + +<p>Within six degrees of the Equator, shut in by jungle, on a cloudless +day in mid-August, I found a comfortable seat on a slope of sandy soil +sown with grass and weeds in the clearing back of Kartabo laboratory. +I was shaded only by a few leaves of a low walnut-like sapling, yet +there was not the slightest hint of oppressive heat. It might have +been a warm August day in New England or Canada, except for the +softness of the air.</p> + +<p>In my little cleared glade there was no plant which would be wholly +out of place on a New England country hillside. With debotanized +vision I saw foliage of sumach, elm, hickory, peach, and alder, and +the weeds all about were as familiar as those of any New Jersey +meadow. The most abundant flowers were Mazaruni daisies, cheerful +little pale primroses, and close to me, fairly overhanging the paper +as I wrote, was the spindling button-weed, a wanderer from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> the +States, with its clusters of tiny white blossoms bouqueted in the +bracts of its leaves.</p> + +<p>A few yards down the hillside was a clump of real friends—the rich +green leaves of vervain, that humble little weed, sacred in turn to +the Druids, the Romans, and the early Christians, and now brought +inadvertently in some long-past time, in an overseas shipment, and +holding its own in this breathing-space of the jungle. I was so +interested by this discovery of a superficial northern flora, that I +began to watch for other forms of temperate-appearing life, and for a +long time my ear found nothing out of harmony with the plants. The low +steady hum of abundant insects was so constant that it required +conscious effort to disentangle it from silence. Every few seconds +there arose the cadence of a passing bee or fly, the one low and deep, +the other shrill and penetrating. And now, just as I had become wholly +absorbed in this fascinating game,—the kind of game which may at any +moment take a worth-while scientific turn,—it all dimmed and the +entire picture shifted and changed. I doubt if any one who has been at +a modern battle-front can long sit with closed eyes in a midsummer +meadow and not have his blood leap as scene after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> scene is brought +back to him. Three bees and a fly winging their way past, with the +rise and fall of their varied hums, were sufficient to renew vividly +for me the blackness of night over the sticky mud of Souville, and to +cloud for a moment the scent of clover and dying grass, with that +terrible sickly sweet odor of human flesh in an old shell-hole. In +such unexpected ways do we link peace and war—suspending the greatest +weights of memory, imagination, and visualization on the slenderest +cobwebs of sound, odor, and color.</p> + +<p>But again my bees became but bees—great, jolly, busy yellow-and-black +fellows, who blundered about and squeezed into blossoms many sizes too +small for them. Cicadas tuned up, clearing their drum-heads, +tightening their keys, and at last rousing into the full swing of +their ecstatic theme. And my relaxed, uncritical mind at present +recorded no difference between the sound and that which was vibrated +from northern maples. The tamest bird about me was a big +yellow-breasted white-throated flycatcher, and I had seen this +Melancholy Tyrant, as his technical name describes him, in such +distant lands that he fitted into the picture without effort.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>White butterflies flitted past, then a yellow one, and finally a real +Monarch. In my boy-land, smudgy specimens of this were pinned, +earnestly but asymetrically, in cigar-boxes, under the title of +<i>Danais archippus</i>. At present no reputable entomologist would think +of calling it other than <i>Anosia plexippus</i>, nor should I; but the +particular thrill which it gave to-day was that this self-same species +should wander along at this moment to mosaic into my boreal muse.</p> + +<p>After a little time, with only the hum of the bees and the staccato +cicadas, a double deceit was perpetrated, one which my sentiment of +the moment seized upon and rejoiced in, but at which my mind had to +conceal a smile and turn its consciousness quickly elsewhere, to +prevent an obtrusive reality from dimming this last addition to the +picture. The gentle, unmistakable, velvet warble of a bluebird came +over the hillside, again and again; and so completely absorbed and +lulled was I by the gradual obsession of being in the midst of a +northern scene, that the sound caused not the slightest excitement, +even internally and mentally. But the sympathetic spirit who was +directing this geographic burlesque overplayed, and followed the soft +curve of audible wistfulness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> with an actual bluebird which looped +across the open space in front. The spell was broken for a moment, and +my subconscious autocrat thrust into realization the instantaneous +report—apparent bluebird call is the note of a small flycatcher and +the momentary vision was not even a mountain bluebird but a +red-breasted blue chatterer! So I shut my eyes very quickly and +listened to the soft calls, which alone would have deceived the +closest analyzer of bird songs. And so for a little while longer I +still held my picture intact, a magic scape, a hundred yards square +and an hour long, set in the heart of the Guiana jungle.</p> + +<p>And when at last I had to desert Canada, and relinquish New Jersey, I +slipped only a few hundred miles southward. For another twenty minutes +I clung to Virginia, for the enforced shift was due to a great Papilio +butterfly which stopped nearby and which I captured with a lucky sweep +of my net. My first thought was of the Orange-tree Swallow-tail, <i>née</i> +<i>Papilio cresphontes</i>. Then the first lizards appeared, and by no +stretch of my willing imagination could I pretend that they were +newts, or fit the little emerald scales into a New England pasture. +And so I chose for a time to live again among the Virginian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +butterflies and mockingbirds, the wild roses and the jasmine, and the +other splendors of memory which a single butterfly had unloosed.</p> + +<p>As I looked about me, I saw the flowers and detected their fragrance; +I heard the hum of bees and the contented chirp of well-fed birds; I +marveled at great butterflies flapping so slowly that it seemed as if +they must have cheated gravitation in some subtle way to win such +lightness and disregard of earth-pull. I heard no ugly murmur of long +hours and low wages; the closest scrutiny revealed no strikes or +internal clamorings about wrongs; and I unconsciously relaxed and +breathed more deeply at the thought of this nature world, moving so +smoothly, with directness and simplicity as apparently achieved +ideals.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Then I ceased this superficial glance and looked deeper, and without +moralizing or dragging in far-fetched similes or warnings, tried to +comprehend one fundamental reality in wild nature—the universal +acceptance of opportunity. From this angle it is quite unimportant +whether one believes in vitalism (which is vitiating to our "will to +prove"), or in mechanism (whose name itself is a symbol of ignorance, +or deficient vocabulary,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> or both). Evolution has left no chink or +crevice unfilled, unoccupied, no probability untried, no possibility +unachieved.</p> + +<p>The nearest weed suggested this trend of thought and provided all I +could desire of examples; but the thrill of discovery and the artistic +delight threatened to disturb for the time my solemn application of +these ponderous truisms. The weed alongside had had a prosperous life, +and its leaves were fortunate in the unadulterated sun and rain to +which they had access. At the summit all was focusing for the +consummation of existence: the little blossoms would soon open and +have their one chance. To all the winds of heaven they would fling out +wave upon wave of delicate odor, besides enlisting a subtle form of +vibration and refusing to absorb the pink light—thereby enhancing the +prospects of insect visitors, on whose coming the very existence of +this race of weeds depended.</p> + +<p>Every leaf showed signs of attack: scallops cut out, holes bored, +stains of fungi, wreaths of moss, and the insidious mazes of +leaf-miners. But, like an old-fashioned ship of the line which wins to +port with the remnants of shot-ridden sails, the plant had paid toll +bravely, although unable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> to defend itself or protect its tissues; and +if I did not now destroy it, which I should assuredly not do, this +weed would justify its place as a worthy link in the chain of +numberless generations, past and to come.</p> + +<p>More complex, clever, subtle methods of attack transcended those of +the mere devourer of leaf-tissue, as radically as an inventor of most +intricate instruments differs from the plodding tiller of the soil. In +the center of one leaf, less disfigured than some of its fellows, I +perceived four tiny ivory spheres, a dozen of which might rest +comfortably within the length of an inch. To my eye they looked quite +smooth, although a steady oblique gaze revealed hints of concentric +lines. Before the times of Leeuwenhoek I should perhaps have been +unable to see more than this, although, as a matter of fact, in those +happy-go-lucky days my ancestors would doubtless have trounced me +soundly for wasting my time on such useless and ungodly things as +butterfly eggs. I thought of the coming night when I should sit and +strain with all my might, striving, without the use of my powerful +stereos, to separate from translucent mist of gases the denser nucleus +of the mighty cosmos in Andromeda. And I alternately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> bemoaned my +human limitation of vision, and rejoiced that I could focus clearly, +both upon my butterfly eggs a foot away, and upon the spiral nebula +swinging through the ether perhaps four hundred and fifty light-years +from the earth.</p> + +<p>I unswung my pocket-lens,—the infant of the microscope,—and my whole +being followed my eyes; the trees and sky were eclipsed, and I hovered +in mid-air over four glistening Mars-like planets—seamed with +radiating canals, half in shadow from the slanting sunlight, and +silhouetted against pure emerald. The sculpturing was exquisite. Near +the north poles which pointed obliquely in my direction, the lines +broke up into beads, and the edges of these were frilled and +scalloped; and here again my vision failed and demanded still stronger +binoculars. Here was indeed complexity: a butterfly, one of those +black beauties, splashed with jasper and beryl, hovering nearby, with +taste only for liquid nectar, yet choosing a little weed devoid of +flower or fruit on which to deposit her quota of eggs. She neither +turned to look at their beauties nor trusted another batch to this +plant. Somehow, someway, her caterpillar wormhood had carried, through +the mummified chrysalid and the reincarnation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> of her present form, +knowledge of an earlier, infinitely coarser diet.</p> + +<p>Together with the pure artistic joy which was stirred at the sight of +these tiny ornate globes, there was aroused a realization of +complexity, of helpless, ignorant achievement; the butterfly blindly +pausing in her flower-to-flower fluttering—a pause as momentous to +her race as that of the slow daily and monthly progress of the weed's +struggle to fruition.</p> + +<p>I took a final glance at the eggs before returning to my own larger +world, and I detected a new complication, one which left me with +feelings too involved for calm scientific contemplation. As if a +Martian should suddenly become visible to an astronomer, I found that +one of the egg planets was inhabited. Perched upon the summit—quite +near the north pole—was an insect, a wasp, much smaller than the egg +itself. And as I looked, I saw it at the climax of its diminutive +life; for it reared up, resting on the tips of two legs and the +iridescent wings, and sunk its ovipositor deep into the crystalline +surface. As I watched, an egg was deposited, about the latitude of New +York, and with a tremor the tiny wasp withdrew its instrument and +rested.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the same leaf were casually blown specks of dust, larger than the +quartette of eggs. To the plant the cluster weighed nothing, meant +nothing more than the dust. Yet a moment before they contained the +latent power of great harm to the future growth of the weed—four +lusty caterpillars would work from leaf to leaf with a rapidity and +destructiveness which might, even at the last, have sapped the +maturing seeds. Now, on a smaller scale, but still within the realm of +insect life, all was changed—the plant was safe once more and no +caterpillars would emerge. For the wasp went from sphere to sphere and +inoculated every one with the promise of its kind. The plant bent +slightly in a breath of wind, and knew nothing; the butterfly was far +away to my left, deep-drinking in a cluster of yellow cassia; the wasp +had already forgotten its achievement, and I alone—an outsider, an +interloper—observed, correlated, realized, appreciated, and—at the +last—remained as completely ignorant as the actors themselves of the +real driving force, of the certain beginning, of the inevitable end. +Only a momentary cross-section was vouchsafed, and a wonder and a +desire to know fanned a little hotter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>I had far from finished with my weed: for besides the cuts and tears +and disfigurements of the leaves, I saw a score or more of curious +berry-like or acorn-like growths, springing from both leaf and stem. I +knew, of course, that they were insect-galls, but never before had +they meant quite so much, or fitted in so well as a significant +phenomenon in the nexus of entangling relationships between the weed +and its environment. This visitor, also a minute wasp of sorts, +neither bit nor cut the leaves, but quietly slipped a tiny egg here +and there into the leaf-tissue.</p> + +<p>And this was only the beginning of complexity. For with the quickening +of the larva came a reaction on the part of the plant, which, in +defense, set up a greatly accelerated growth about the young insect. +This might have taken the form of some distorted or deformed plant +organ—a cluster of leaves, a fruit or berry or tuft of hairs, wholly +unlike the characters of the plant itself. My weed was studded with +what might well have been normal seed-fruits, were they not proved +nightmares of berries, awful pseudo-fruits sprouting from horridly +impossible places. And this excess of energy, expressed in tumorous +outgrowths, was all vitally useful to the grub—just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> as the skilful +jiu-jitsu wrestler accomplishes his purpose with the aid of his +opponent's strength. The insect and plant were, however, far more +intricately related than any two human competitors: for the grub in +turn required the continued health and strength of the plant for its +existence; and when I plucked a leaf, I knew I had doomed all the +hidden insects living within its substance.</p> + +<p>The galls at my hand simulated little acorns, dull greenish in color, +matching the leaf-surface on which they rested, and rising in a sharp +point. I cut one through and, when wearied and fretted with the +responsibilities of independent existence, I know I shall often recall +and envy my grub in his palatial parasitic home. Outside came a rather +hard, brown protective sheath; then the main body of the gall, of firm +and dense tissue; and finally, at the heart, like the Queen's chamber +in Cheops, the irregular little dwelling-place of the grub. This was +not empty and barren; but the blackness and silence of this vegetable +chamber, this architecture fashioned by the strangest of builders for +the most remarkable of tenants, was filled with a nap of long, +crystalline hairs or threads like the spun-glass candy in our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +Christmas sweetshops—white at the base and shading from pale salmon +to the deepest of pinks. This exquisite tapestry, whose beauties were +normally forever hidden as well from the blind grub as from the +outside world, was the ambrosia all unwittingly provided by the +antagonism of the plant; the nutrition of resentment, the food of +defiance; and day by day the grub gradually ate his way from one end +to the other of his suite, laying a normal, healthful physical +foundation for his future aerial activities.</p> + +<p>The natural history of galls is full of romance and strange +unrealities, but to-day it meant to me only a renewed instance of an +opportunity seized and made the most of; the success of the indirect, +the unreasonable—the long chance which so few of us humans are +willing to take, although the reward is a perpetual enthusiasm for the +happening of the moment, and the honest gambler's joy for the future. +How much more desirable to acquire merit as a footless grub in the +heart of a home, erected and precariously nourished by a worthy +opponent, with a future of unnumbered possibilities, than to be a +queen-mother in nest or hive—cared-for, fed, and cleansed by a host +of slaves, but with less prospect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> of change or of adventure than an +average toadstool.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Thus I sat for a long time, lulled by similitudes of northern plants +and bees and birds, and then gently shifted southward a few hundred +miles, the transition being smooth and unabrupt. With equal gentleness +the dead calm stirred slightly and exhaled the merest ghost of a +breeze; it seemed as if the air was hardly in motion, but only +restless: the wings of the bees and the flycatcher might well have +caused it. But, judged by the sequence of events, it was the almost +imperceptible signal given by some great Jungle Spirit, who had tired +of playing with my dreams and pleasant fancies of northern life, and +now called upon her legions to disillusion me. And the response was +immediate. Three great shells burst at my very feet,—one of sound, +one of color, and the third of both plus numbers,—and from that time +on, tropical life was dominant whichever way I looked. That is the way +with the wilderness, and especially the tropical wilderness—to +surprise one in the very field with which one is most familiar. While +in my own estimation my chief profession is ignorance, yet I sign<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> my +passport applications and my jury evasions as Ornithologist. And now +this playful Spirit of the Jungle permitted me to meditate cheerfully +on my ability to compare the faunas of New York and Guiana, and then +proceeded to startle me with three salvos of birds, first physically +and then emotionally.</p> + +<p>From the monotone of under-world sounds a strange little rasping +detached itself, a reiterated, subdued scraping or picking. It carried +my mind instantly to the throbbing theme of the Niebelungs, +onomatopoetic of the little hammers forever busy in their underground +work. I circled a small bush at my side, and found that the sound came +from one of the branches near the top; so with my glasses I began a +systematic search. It was at this propitious moment, when I was +relaxed in every muscle, steeped in the quiet of this hillside, and +keen on discovering the beetle, that the first shell arrived. If I had +been less absorbed I might have heard some distant chattering or +calling, but this time it was as if a Spad had shut off its power, +volplaned, kept ahead of its own sound waves, and bombed me. All that +actually happened was that a band of little parrakeets flew down and +alighted nearby.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> When I discovered this, it seemed a disconcerting +anti-climax, just as one can make the bravest man who has been under +rifle-fire flinch by spinning a match swiftly past his ear.</p> + +<p>I have heard this sound of parrakeet's wings, when the birds were +alighting nearby, half a dozen times; but after half a hundred I shall +duck just as spontaneously, and for a few seconds stand just as +immobile with astonishment. From a volcano I expect deep and sinister +sounds; when I watch great breakers I would marvel only if the +accompanying roar were absent; but on a calm sunny August day I do not +expect a noise which, for suddenness and startling character, can be +compared only with a tremendous flash of lightning. Imagine a +wonderful tapestry of strong ancient stuff, which had only been woven, +never torn, and think of this suddenly ripped from top to bottom by +some sinister, irresistible force.</p> + +<p>In the instant that the sound began, it ceased; there was no echo, no +bell-like sustained overtones; both ends were buried in silence. As it +came to-day it was a high tearing crash which shattered silence as a +Very light destroys darkness; and at its cessation I looked up and +saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> twenty little green figures gazing intently down at me, from so +small a sapling that their addition almost doubled the foliage. That +their small wings could wring such a sound from the fabric of the air +was unbelievable. At my first movement, the flock leaped forth, and if +their wings made even a rustle, it was wholly drowned in the chorus of +chattering cries which poured forth unceasingly as the little band +swept up and around the sky circle. As an alighting morpho butterfly +dazzles the eyes with a final flash of his blazing azure before +vanishing behind the leaves and fungi of his lower surface, so +parrakeets change from screaming motes in the heavens to silence, and +then to a hurtling, roaring boomerang, whose amazing unexpectedness +would distract the most dangerous eyes from the little motionless +leaf-figures in a neighboring treetop.</p> + +<p>When I sat down again, the whole feeling of the hillside was changed. +I was aware that my weed was a northern weed only in appearance, and I +should not have been surprised to see my bees change to flies or my +lizards to snakes—tropical beings have a way of doing such things.</p> + +<p>The next phenomenon was color,—unreal, living pigment,—which seemed +to appeal to more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> than one sense, and which satisfied, as a cooling +drink or a rare, delicious fragrance satisfies. A medium-sized, stocky +bird flew with steady wing-beats over the jungle, in black silhouette +against the sky, and swung up to an outstanding giant tree which +partly overhung the edge of my clearing. The instant it passed the +zone of green, it flashed out brilliant turquoise, and in the same +instant I recognized it and reached for my gun. Before I retrieved the +bird, a second, dull and dark-feathered, flew from the tree. I had +watched it for some time, but now, as it passed over, I saw no yellow +and knew it too was of real scientific interest to me; and with the +second barrel I secured it. Picking up my first bird, I found that it +was not turquoise, but beryl; and a few minutes later I was certain +that it was aquamarine; on my way home another glance showed the color +of forget-me-nots on its plumage, and as I looked at it on my table, +it was Nile green. Yet the feathers were painted in flat color, +without especial sheen or iridescence, and when I finally analyzed it, +I found it to be a delicate calamine blue. It actually had the +appearance of a too strong color, as when a glistening surface +reflects the sun. From beak to tail it threw off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> this glowing hue, +except for its chin and throat, which were a limpid amaranth purple; +and the effect on the excited rods and cones in one's eyes was like +the power of great music or some majestic passage in the Bible. You, +who think my similes are overdone, search out in the nearest museum +the dustiest of purple-throated cotingas,—<i>Cotinga cayana,</i>—and +then, instead, berate me for inadequacy.</p> + +<p>Sheer color alone is powerful enough, but when heightened by contrast, +it becomes still more effective, and I seemed to have secured, with +two barrels, a cotinga and its shadow. The latter was also a +full-grown male cotinga, known to a few people in this world as the +dark-breasted mourner (<i>Lipaugus simplex</i>). In general shape and form +it was not unlike its cousin, but in color it was its shadow, its +silhouette. Not a feather upon head or body, wings or tail showed a +hint of warmth, only a dull uniform gray; an ash of a bird, living in +the same warm sunlight, wet by the same rain, feeding on much the same +food, and claiming relationship with a blazing-feathered turquoise. +There is some very exact and very absorbing reason for all this, and +for it I search with fervor, but with little success. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> we may be +certain that the causes of this and of the host of other unreasonable +realities which fill the path of the evolutionist with never-quenched +enthusiasm, will extend far beyond the colors of two tropical birds. +They will have something to do with flowers and with bright +butterflies, and we shall know why our "favorite color" is more than a +whim, and why the Greeks may not have been able to distinguish the +full gamut of our spectrum, and why rainbows are so narrow to our eyes +in comparison to what they might be.</p> + +<p>Finally, there was thrown aside all finesse, all delicacy of +presentation, and the last lingering feeling of temperate life and +nature was erased. From now on there was no confusion of zones, no +concessions, no mental palimpsest of resolving images. The spatial, +the temporal,—the hillside, the passing seconds,—the vibrations and +material atoms stimulating my five senses, all were tropical, +quickened with the unbelievable vitality of equatorial life. A +rustling came to my ears, although the breeze was still little more +than a sensation of coolness. Then a deep whirr sounded overhead, and +another, and another, and with a rush a dozen great toucans were all +about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> me. Monstrous beaks, parodies in pastels of unheard-of blues +and greens, breasts which glowed like mirrored suns,—orange overlaid +upon blinding yellow,—and at every flick of the tail a trenchant +flash of intense scarlet. All these colors set in frames of jet-black +plumage, and suddenly hurled through blue sky and green foliage, made +the hillside a brilliant moving kaleidoscope.</p> + +<p>Some flew straight over, with several quick flaps, then a smooth +glide, flaps and glide. A few banked sharply at sight of me, and +wheeled to right or left. Others alighted and craned their necks in +suspicion; but all sooner or later disappeared eastward in the +direction of a mighty jungle tree just bursting into a myriad of +berries. They were sulphur-breasted toucans, and they were silent, +heralded only by the sound of their wings and the crash of their +pigments. I can think of no other assemblage of jungle creatures more +fitted to impress one with the prodigality of tropical nature. Four +years before, we set ourselves to work to discover the first eggs and +young of toucans, and after weeks of heartbreaking labor and +disappointments we succeeded. Out of the five species of toucans +living in this part of Guiana we found the nests of four,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> and the one +which eluded us was the big sulphur-breasted fellow. I remembered so +vividly the painstaking care with which, week after week, we and our +Indians tramped the jungle for miles,—through swamps and over rolling +hills,—at last having to admit failure; and now I sat and watched +thirty, forty, fifty of the splendid birds whirr past. As the last of +the fifty-four flew on to their feast of berries, I recalled with +difficulty my faded visions of northern birds.</p> + +<p>And so ended, as in the great finale of a pyrotechnic display, my two +hours on a hillside clearing. I can neither enliven it with a +startling escape, nor add a thrill of danger, without using as many +"ifs" as would be needed to make a Jersey meadow untenable. For +example, <i>if</i> I had fallen over backwards and been powerless to rise +or move, I should have been killed within half an hour, for a stray +column of army ants was passing within a yard of me, and death would +await any helpless being falling across their path. But by searching +out a copperhead and imitating Cleopatra, or with patience and +persistence devouring every toadstool, the same result could be +achieved in our home-town orchard. When on the march, the army ants +are as innocuous at two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> inches as at two miles. Had I sat where I was +for days and for nights, my chief danger would have been demise from +sheer chagrin at my inability to grasp the deeper significance of life +and its earthly activities.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h2>THE HOME TOWN OF THE ARMY ANTS</h2> + + +<p>From uniform to civilian clothes is a change transcending mere +alteration of stuffs and buttons. It is scarcely less sweeping than +the shift from civilian clothes to bathing-suit, which so often +compels us to concentrate on remembered mental attributes, to avoid +demanding a renewed introduction to estranged personality. In the home +life of the average soldier, the relaxation from sustained tension and +conscious routine results in a gentleness and quietness of mood for +which warrior nations are especially remembered.</p> + +<p>Army ants have no insignia to lay aside, and their swords are too +firmly hafted in their own beings to be hung up as post-bellum mural +decorations, or—as is done only in poster-land—metamorphosed into +pruning-hooks and plowshares.</p> + +<p>I sat at my laboratory table at Kartabo, and looked down river to the +pink roof of Kalacoon, and my mind went back to the shambles of Pit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +Number Five.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> I was wondering whether I should ever see the army +ants in any guise other than that of scouting, battling searchers for +living prey, when a voice of the jungle seemed to hear my unexpressed +wish. The sharp, high notes of white-fronted antbirds—those +white-crested watchers of the ants—came to my ears, and I left my +table and followed up the sound. Physically, I merely walked around +the bungalow and approached the edge of the jungle at a point where we +had erected a small outhouse a day or two before. But this two hundred +feet might just as well have been a single step through quicksilver, +hand in hand with Alice, for it took me from a world of hyoids and +syrinxes, of vials and lenses and clean-smelling xylol, to the home of +the army ants.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See <i>Jungle Peace</i>, p. 211.</p></div> + +<p>The antbirds were chirping and hopping about on the very edge of the +jungle, but I did not have to go that far. As I passed the doorless +entrance of the outhouse I looked up, and there was an immense mass of +some strange material suspended in the upper corner. It looked like +stringy, chocolate-colored tow, studded with hundreds of tiny ivory +buttons. I came closer and looked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>carefully at this mushroom growth +which had appeared in a single night, and it was then that my eyes +began to perceive and my mind to record, things that my reason +besought me to reject. Such phenomena were all right in a dream, or +one might imagine them and tell them to children on one's knee, with +wind in the eaves—wild tales to be laughed at and forgotten. But this +was daylight and I was a scientist; my eyes were in excellent order, +and my mind rested after a dreamless sleep; so I had to record what I +saw in that little outhouse.</p> + +<p>This chocolate-colored mass with its myriad ivory dots was the home, +the nest, the hearth, the nursery, the bridal suite, the kitchen, the +bed and board of the army ants. It was the focus of all the lines and +files which ravaged the jungle for food, of the battalions which +attacked every living creature in their path, of the unnumbered rank +and file which made them known to every Indian, to every inhabitant of +these vast jungles.</p> + +<p>Louis Quatorze once said, "<i>L'Etat, c'est moi!</i>" but this figure of +speech becomes an empty, meaningless phrase beside what an army ant +could boast,—"<i>La maison, c'est moi!</i>" Every rafter, beam, stringer, +window-frame and door-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>frame, hall-way, room, ceiling, wall and floor, +foundation, superstructure and roof, all were ants—living ants, +distorted by stress, crowded into the dense walls, spread out to +widest stretch across tie-spaces. I had thought it marvelous when I +saw them arrange themselves as bridges, walks, handrails, buttresses, +and sign-boards along the columns; but this new absorption of +environment, this usurpation of wood and stone, this insinuation of +themselves into the province of the inorganic world, was almost too +astounding to credit.</p> + +<p>All along the upper rim the sustaining structure was more distinctly +visible than elsewhere. Here was a maze of taut brown threads +stretching in places across a span of six inches, with here and there +a tiny knot. These were actually tie-strings of living ants, their +legs stretched almost to the breaking-point, their bodies the +inconspicuous knots or nodes. Even at rest and at home, the army ants +are always prepared, for every quiescent individual in the swarm was +standing as erect as possible, with jaws widespread and ready, whether +the great curved mahogany scimitars of the soldiers, or the little +black daggers of the smaller workers. And with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> no eyelids to close, +and eyes which were themselves a mockery, the nerve shriveling and +never reaching the brain, what could sleep mean to them? Wrapped ever +in an impenetrable cloak of darkness and silence, life was yet one +great activity, directed, ordered, commanded by scent and odor alone. +Hour after hour, as I sat close to the nest, I was aware of this odor, +sometimes subtle, again wafted in strong successive waves. It was +musty, like something sweet which had begun to mold; not unpleasant, +but very difficult to describe; and in vain I strove to realize the +importance of this faint essence—taking the place of sound, of +language, of color, of motion, of form.</p> + +<p>I recovered quickly from my first rapt realization, for a dozen ants +had lost no time in ascending my shoes, and, as if at a preconcerted +signal, all simultaneously sank their jaws into my person. Thus +strongly recalled to the realities of life, I realized the opportunity +that was offered and planned for my observation. No living thing could +long remain motionless within the sphere of influence of these +six-legged Boches, and yet I intended to spend days in close +proximity. There was no place to hang a hammock,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> no overhanging tree +from which I might suspend myself spider-wise. So I sent Sam for an +ordinary chair, four tin cans, and a bottle of disinfectant. I filled +the tins with the tarry fluid, and in four carefully timed rushes I +placed the tins in a chair-leg square. The fifth time I put the chair +in place beneath the nest, but I had misjudged my distances and had to +retreat with only two tins in place. Another effort, with Spartan-like +disregard of the fiery bites, and my haven was ready. I hung a bag of +vials, notebook, and lens on the chairback, and, with a final rush, +climbed on the seat and curled up as comfortably as possible.</p> + +<p>All around the tins, swarming to the very edge of the liquid, were the +angry hosts. Close to my face were the lines ascending and descending, +while just above me were hundreds of thousands, a bushel-basket of +army ants, with only the strength of their threadlike legs as +suspension cables. It took some time to get used to my environment, +and from first to last I was never wholly relaxed, or quite +unconscious of what would happen if a chair-leg broke, or a bamboo +fell across the outhouse.</p> + +<p>I swiveled round on the chair-seat and counted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> eight lines of army +ants on the ground, converging to the post at my elbow. Each was four +or five ranks wide, and the eight lines occasionally divided or +coalesced, like a nexus of capillaries. There was a wide expanse of +sand and clay, and no apparent reason why the various lines of +foragers should not approach the nest in a single large column. The +dividing and redividing showed well how completely free were the +columns from any individual dominance. There was no control by +specific individuals or soldiers, but, the general route once +established, the governing factor was the odor of contact.</p> + +<p>The law to pass where others have passed is immutable, but freedom of +action or individual desire dies with the malleable, plastic ends of +the foraging columns. Again and again came to mind the comparison of +the entire colony or army with a single organism; and now the home, +the nesting swarm, the focus of central control, seemed like the body +of this strange amorphous organism—housing the spirit of the army. +One thinks of a column of foragers as a tendril with only the tip +sensitive and growing and moving, while the corpuscle-like individual +ants are driven in the current of blind instinct to and fro,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> on their +chemical errands. And then this whole theory, this most vivid simile, +is quite upset by the sights that I watch in the suburbs of this ant +home!</p> + +<p>The columns were most excellent barometers, and their reaction to +passing showers was invariable. The clay surface held water, and after +each downfall the pools would be higher, and the contour of the little +region altered. At the first few drops, all the ants would hasten, the +throbbing corpuscles speeding up. Then, as the rain came down heavier, +the column melted away, those near each end hurrying to shelter and +those in the center crawling beneath fallen leaves and bits of clod +and sticks. A moment before, hundreds of ants were trudging around a +tiny pool, the water lined with ant handrails, and in shallow places, +veritable formicine pontoons,—large ants which stood up to their +bodies in water, with the booty-laden host passing over them. Now, all +had vanished, leaving only a bare expanse of splashing drops and wet +clay. The sun broke through and the residue rain tinkled from the +bamboos.</p> + +<p>As gradually as the growth of the rainbow above the jungle, the lines +reformed themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> Scouts crept from the jungle-edge at one side, +and from the post at my end, and felt their way, fan-wise, over the +rain-scoured surface; for the odor, which was both sight and sound to +these ants, had been washed away—a more serious handicap than mere +change in contour. Swiftly the wandering individuals found their +bearings again. There was deep water where dry land had been, but, as +if by long-planned study of the work of sappers and engineers, new +pontoon bridges were thrown across, washouts filled in, new cliffs +explored, and easy grades established; and by the time the bamboos +ceased their own private after-shower, the columns were again running +smoothly, battalions of eager light infantry hastening out to battle, +and equal hosts of loot-laden warriors hurrying toward the home nest. +Four minutes was the average time taken to reform a column across the +ten feet of open clay, with all the road-making and engineering feats +which I have mentioned, on the part of ants who had never been over +this new route before.</p> + +<p>Leaning forward within a few inches of the post, I lost all sense of +proportion, forgot my awkward human size, and with a new perspective +became an equal of the ants, looking on,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> watching every passer-by +with interest, straining with the bearers of the heavy loads, and +breathing more easily when the last obstacle was overcome and home +attained. For a period I plucked out every bit of good-sized booty and +found that almost all were portions of scorpions from far-distant dead +logs in the jungle, creatures whose strength and poisonous stings +availed nothing against the attacks of these fierce ants. The loads +were adjusted equably, the larger pieces carried by the big, +white-headed workers, while the smaller ants transported small eggs +and larvæ. Often, when a great mandibled soldier had hold of some +insect, he would have five or six tiny workers surrounding him, each +grasping any projecting part of the loot, as if they did not trust him +in this menial capacity,—as an anxious mother would watch with +doubtful confidence a big policeman wheeling her baby across a crowded +street. These workers were often diminutive Marcelines, hindering +rather than aiding in the progress. But in every phase of activity of +these ants there was not an ounce of intentionally lost power, or a +moment of time wilfully gone to waste. What a commentary on +Bolshevism!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now that I had the opportunity of quietly watching the long, hurrying +columns, I came hour by hour to feel a greater intimacy, a deeper +enthusiasm for their vigor of existence, their unfailing life at the +highest point of possibility of achievement. In every direction my +former desultory observations were discounted by still greater +accomplishments. Elsewhere I have recorded the average speed as two +and a half feet in ten seconds, estimating this as a mile in three and +a half hours. An observant colonel in the American army has laid bare +my congenitally hopeless mathematical inaccuracy, and corrected this +to five hours and fifty-two seconds. Now, however, I established a +wholly new record for the straight-away dash for home of the army +ants. With the handicap of gravity pulling them down, the ants, both +laden and unburdened, averaged ten feet in twenty seconds, as they +raced up the post. I have now called in an artist and an astronomer to +verify my results, these two being the only living beings within +hailing distance as I write, except a baby red howling monkey curled +up in my lap, and a toucan, sloth, and green boa, beyond my laboratory +table. Our results are identical, and I can safely announce that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +amateur record for speed of army ants is equivalent to a mile in two +hours and fifty-six seconds; and this when handicapped by gravity and +burdens of food, but with the incentive of approaching the end of +their long journey.</p> + +<p>As once before, I accidentally disabled a big worker that I was +robbing of his load, and his entire abdomen rolled down a slope and +disappeared. Hours later in the afternoon, I was summoned to view the +same soldier, unconcernedly making his way along an outward-bound +column, guarding it as carefully as if he had not lost the major part +of his anatomy. His mandibles were ready, and the only difference that +I could see was that he could make better speed than others of his +caste. That night he joined the general assemblage of cripples quietly +awaiting death, halfway up to the nest.</p> + +<p>I know of no highway in the world which surpasses that of a big column +of army ants in exciting happenings, although I usually had the +feeling which inspired Kim as he watched the Great White Road, of +understanding so little of all that was going on. Early in the morning +there were only outgoing hosts; but soon eddies were seen in the swift +current, vortexes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> made by a single ant here and there forcing its way +against the stream. Unlike penguins and human beings, army ants have +no rule of the road as to right and left, and there is no lessening of +pace or turning aside for a heavily laden drogher. Their blindness +caused them to bump squarely into every individual, often sending load +and carrier tumbling to the bottom of a vertical path. Another +constant loss of energy was a large cockroach leg, or scorpion +segment, carried by several ants. Their insistence on trying to carry +everything beneath their bodies caused all sorts of comical mishaps. +When such a large piece of booty appeared, it was too much of a +temptation, and a dozen outgoing ants would rush up and seize hold for +a moment, the consequent pulling in all directions reducing progress +at once to zero.</p> + +<p>Until late afternoon few ants returned without carrying their bit. The +exceptions were the cripples, which were numerous and very pitiful. +From such fierce strenuousness, such virile activity, as unending as +elemental processes, it seemed a very terrible drop to disability, to +the utilizing of every atom of remaining strength to return to the +temporary home nest—that instinct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> which drives so many creatures to +the same homing, at the approach of death.</p> + +<p>Even in their helplessness they were wonderful. To see a big +black-headed worker struggling up a post with five short stumps and +only one good hind leg, was a lesson in achieving the impossible. I +have never seen even a suspicion of aid given to any cripple, no +matter how slight or how complete the disability; but frequently a +strange thing occurred, which I have often noticed but can never +explain. One army ant would carry another, perhaps of its own size and +caste, just as if it were a bit of dead provender; and I always +wondered if cannibalism was to be added to their habits. I would +capture both, and the minute they were in the vial, the dead ant would +come to life, and with equal vigor and fury both would rush about +their prison, seeking to escape, becoming indistinguishable in the +twinkling of an eye.</p> + +<p>Very rarely an ant stopped and attempted to clean another which had +become partly disabled through an accumulation of gummy sap or other +encumbering substance. But when a leg or other organ was broken or +missing, the odor of the ant-blood seemed to arouse only suspicion +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> to banish sympathy, and after a few casual wavings of antennæ, +all passed by on the other side. Not only this, but the unfortunates +were actually in danger of attack within the very lines of traffic of +the legionaries. Several times I noticed small rove-beetles +accompanying the ants, who paid little attention to them. Whenever an +ant became suspicious and approached with a raised-eyebrow gesture of +antennæ, the beetles turned their backs quickly and raised threatening +tails. But I did not suspect the vampire or thug-like character of +these guests—tolerated where any other insect would have been torn to +pieces at once. A large crippled worker, hobbling along, had slipped a +little away from the main line, when I was astonished to see two +rove-beetles rush at him and bite him viciously, a third coming up at +once and joining in. The poor worker had no possible chance against +this combination, and he went down after a short, futile struggle. Two +small army ants now happened to pass, and after a preliminary whiffing +with waving antennæ, rushed joyously into the <i>mêlée</i>. The beetles had +a cowardly weapon, and raising their tails, ejected a drop or two of +liquid, utterly confusing the ants, which turned and hastened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> back to +the column. For the next few minutes, until the scent wore off, they +aroused suspicion wherever they went. Meanwhile, the hyena-like +rove-beetles, having hedged themselves within a barricade of their +malodor, proceeded to feast, quarreling with one another as such +cowards are wont to do.</p> + +<p>Thus I thought, having identified myself with the army ants. From a +broader, less biased point of view, I realized that credit should be +given to the rove-beetles for having established themselves in a zone +of such constant danger, and for being able to live and thrive in it.</p> + +<p>The columns converged at the foot of the post, and up its surface ran +the main artery of the nest. Halfway up, a flat board projected, and +here the column divided for the last time, half going on directly into +the nest, and the other half turning aside, skirting the board, +ascending a bit of perpendicular canvas, and entering the nest from +the rear. The entrance was well guarded by a veritable moat and +drawbridge of living ants. A foot away, a flat mat of ants, mandibles +outward, was spread, over which every passing individual stepped. Six +inches farther, and the sides of the mat thickened, and in the last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +three inches these sides met overhead, forming a short tunnel at the +end of which the nest began.</p> + +<p>And here I noticed an interesting thing. Into this organic moat or +tunnel, this living mouth of an inferno, passed all the booty-laden +foragers, or those who for some reason had returned empty-mouthed. But +the outgoing host seeped gradually from the outermost nest-layer—a +gradual but fundamental circulation, like that of ocean currents. +Scorpions, eggs, caterpillars, glass-like wasp pupæ, roaches, spiders, +crickets,—all were drawn into the nest by a maelstrom of hunger, +funneling into the narrow tunnel; while from over all the surface of +the swarm there crept forth layer after layer of invigorated, +implacable seekers after food.</p> + +<p>The mass of ants composing the nest appeared so loosely connected that +it seemed as if a touch would tear a hole, a light wind rend the +supports. It was suspended in the upper corner of the doorway, rounded +on the free sides, and measured roughly two feet in diameter—an +unnumbered host of ants. Those on the surface were in very slow but +constant motion, with legs shifting and antennæ waving continually. +This quivering on the surface of the swarm gave it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> the appearance of +the fur of some terrible animal—fur blowing in the wind from some +unknown, deadly desert. Yet so cohesive was the entire mass, that I +sat close beneath it for the best part of two days and not more than a +dozen ants fell upon me. There was, however, a constant rain of +egg-cases and pupa-skins and the remains of scorpions and +grasshoppers, the residue of the booty which was being poured in. +These wrappings and inedible casing were all brought to the surface +and dropped. This was reasonable, but what I could not comprehend was +a constant falling of small living larvæ. How anything except army +ants could emerge alive from such a sinister swarm was inconceivable. +It took some resolution to stand up under the nest, with my face only +a foot away from this slowly seething mass of widespread jaws. But I +had to discover where the falling larvæ came from, and after a time I +found that they were immature army ants. Here and there a small worker +would appear, carrying in its mandibles a young larva; and while most +made their way through the maze of mural legs and bodies and +ultimately disappeared again, once in a while the burden was dropped +and fell to the floor of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> outhouse. I can account for this only by +presuming that a certain percentage of the nurses were very young and +inexperienced workers and dropped their burdens inadvertently. There +was certainly no intentional casting out of these offspring, as was so +obviously the case with the débris from the food of the colony. The +eleven or twelve ants which fell upon me during my watch were all +smaller workers, no larger ones losing their grip.</p> + +<p>While recording some of these facts, I dropped my pencil, and it was +fully ten minutes before the black mass of enraged insects cleared +away, and I could pick it up. Leaning far over to secure it, I was +surprised by the cleanliness of the floor around my chair. My clothes +and note-paper had been covered with loose wings, dry skeletons of +insects and the other débris, while hundreds of other fragments had +sifted down past me. Yet now that I looked seeingly, the whole area +was perfectly clean. I had to assume a perfect jack-knife pose to get +my face near enough to the floor; but, achieving it, I found about +five hundred ants serving as a street-cleaning squad. They roamed +aimlessly about over the whole floor, ready at once to attack +anything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> of mine, or any part of my anatomy which might come close +enough, but otherwise stimulated to activity only when they came +across a bit of rubbish from the nest high overhead. This was at once +seized and carried off to one of two neat piles in far corners. Before +night these kitchen middens were an inch or two deep and nearly a foot +in length, composed, literally, of thousands of skins, wings, and +insect armor. There was not a scrap of dirt of any kind which had not +been gathered into one of the two piles. The nest was nine feet above +the floor, a distance (magnifying ant height to our own) of nearly a +mile, and yet the care lavished on the cleanliness of the earth so far +below was as thorough and well done as the actual provisioning of the +colony.</p> + +<p>As I watched the columns and the swarm-nest hour after hour, several +things impressed me;—the absolute silence in which the ants +worked;—such ceaseless activity without sound one associates only +with a cinema film; all around me was tremendous energy, marvelous +feats of achievement, super-human instincts, the ceaseless movement of +tens of thousands of legionaries; yet no tramp of feet, no shouts, no +curses, no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> welcomes, no chanties. It was uncanny to think of a race +of creatures such as these, dreaded by every living being, wholly +dominant in their continent-wide sphere of action, yet born, living +out their lives, and dying, dumb and blind, with no possibility of +comment on life and its fullness, of censure or of applause.</p> + +<p>The sweeping squad on the floor was interesting because of its limited +field of work at such a distance from the nest; but close to my chair +were a number of other specialized zones of activity, any one of which +would have afforded a fertile field for concentrated study. Beneath +the swarm on the white canvas, I noticed two large spots of dirt and +moisture, where very small flies were collected. An examination showed +that this was a second, nearer dumping-ground for all the garbage and +refuse of the swarm which could not be thrown down on the kitchen +middens far below. And here were tiny flies and other insects acting +as scavengers, just as the hosts of vultures gather about the +slaughter-house of Georgetown.</p> + +<p>The most interesting of all the phases of life of the ants' home town, +were those on the horizontal board which projected from the beam and +stretched for several feet to one side of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> swarm. This platform +was almost on a level with my eyes, and by leaning slightly forward on +the chair, I was as close as I dared go. Here many ants came from the +incoming columns, and others were constantly arriving from the nest +itself. It was here that I realized my good fortune and the +achievement of my desires, when I first saw an army ant at rest. One +of the first arrivals after I had squatted to my post, was a big +soldier with a heavy load of roach meat. Instead of keeping on +straight up the post, he turned abruptly and dropped his load. It was +instantly picked up by two smaller workers and carried on and upward +toward the nest. Two other big fellows arrived in quick succession, +one with a load which he relinquished to a drogher-in-waiting. Then +the three weary warriors stretched their legs one after another and +commenced to clean their antennæ. This lasted only for a moment, for +three or four tiny ants rushed at each of the larger ones and began as +thorough a cleaning as masseurs or Turkish-bath attendants. The three +arrivals were at once hustled away to a distant part of the board and +there cleaned from end to end. I found that the focal length of my +8-diameter lens was just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> out of reach of the ants, so I focused +carefully on one of the soldiers and watched the entire process. The +small ants scrubbed and scraped him with their jaws, licking him and +removing every particle of dirt. One even crawled under him and worked +away at his upper leg-joints, for all the world as a mechanic will +creep under a car. Finally, I was delighted to see him do what no car +ever does, turn completely over and lie quietly on his back with his +legs in air, while his diminutive helpers overran him and gradually +got him into shape for future battles and foraging expeditions.</p> + +<p>On this resting-stage, within well-defined limits, were dozens of +groups of two cleaning one another, and less numerous parties of the +tiny professionals working their hearts out on battle-worn soldiers. +It became more and more apparent that in the creed of the army ants, +cleanliness comes next to military effectiveness.</p> + +<p>Here and there I saw independent individuals cleaning themselves and +going through the most un-ant-like movements. They scraped their jaws +along the board, pushing forward like a dog trying to get rid of his +muzzle; then they turned on one side and passed the opposite legs +again<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> and again through the mandibles; while the last performance was +to turn over on their backs and roll from side to side, exactly as a +horse or donkey loves to do.</p> + +<p>One ant, I remember, seemed to have something seriously wrong. It sat +up on its bent-under abdomen in a most comical fashion, and was the +object of solicitude of every passing ant. Sometimes there were thirty +in a dense group, pushing and jostling; and, like most of our city +crowds, many seemed to stop only long enough to have a moment's morbid +sight, or to ask some silly question as to the trouble, then to hurry +on. Others remained, and licked and twiddled him with their antennæ +for a long time. He was in this position for at least twenty minutes. +My curiosity was so aroused that I gathered him up in a vial, whereat +he became wildly excited and promptly regained full use of his legs +and faculties. Later, when I examined him under the lens, I could find +nothing whatever wrong.</p> + +<p>Off at one side of the general cleaning and reconstruction areas was a +pitiful assemblage of cripples which had had enough energy to crawl +back, but which did not attempt, or were not allowed, to enter the +nest proper. Some had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> one or two legs gone, others had lost an +antenna or had an injured body. They seemed not to know what to +do—wandering around, now and then giving one another a half-hearted +lick. In the midst was one which had died, and two others, each badly +injured, were trying to tug the body along to the edge of the board. +This they succeeded in doing after a long series of efforts, and down +and down fell the dead ant. It was promptly picked up by several +kitchen-middenites and unceremoniously thrown on the pile of +nest-débris. A load of booty had been dumped among the cripples, and +as each wandered close to it, he seemed to regain strength for a +moment, picked up the load, and then dropped it. The sight of that +which symbolized almost all their life-activity aroused them to a +momentary forgetfulness of their disabilities. There was no longer any +place for them in the home or in the columns of the legionaries. They +had been court-martialed under the most implacable, the most impartial +law in the world—the survival of the fit, the elimination of the +unfit.</p> + +<p>The time came when we had to get at our stored supplies, over which +the army ants were such an effective guard. I experimented on a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +running column with a spray of ammonia and found that it created +merely temporary inconvenience, the ants running back and forming a +new trail. Formaline was more effective, so I sprayed the nest-swarm +with a fifty-per-cent solution, strong enough, one would think, to +harden the very boards. It certainly created a terrible commotion, and +strings of the ants, two feet long, hung dangling from the nest. The +heart of the colony came into view, with thousands of eggs and larvæ, +looking like heaps of white rice-grains. Every ant seized one or the +other and sought escape by the nearest way, while the soldiers still +defied the world. The gradual disintegration revealed an interior +meshed like a wasp's nest, chambered and honeycombed with living tubes +and walls. Little by little the taut guy-ropes, lathes, braces, +joists, all sagged and melted together, each cell-wall becoming +dynamic, now expanding, now contracting; the ceilings vibrant with +waving legs, the floors a seething mass of jaws and antennæ. By the +time it was dark, the swarm was dropping in sections to the floor.</p> + +<p>On the following morning new surprises awaited me. The great mass of +the ants had moved in the night, vanishing with every egg and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +immature larva; but there was left in the corner of the flat board a +swarm of about one-quarter of the entire number, enshrouding a host of +older larvæ. The cleaning zones, the cripples' gathering-room, all had +given way to new activities, on the flat board, down near the kitchen +middens, and in every horizontal crack.</p> + +<p>The cause of all this strange excitement, this braving of the terrible +dangers of fumes which had threatened to destroy the entire colony the +night before, suddenly was made plain as I watched. A critical time +was at hand in the lives of the all-precious larvæ, when they could +not be moved—the period of spinning, of beginning the transformation +from larvæ to pupæ. This evidently was an operation which had to take +place outside the nest and demanded some sort of light covering. On +the flat board were several thousand ants and a dozen or more groups +of full-grown larvæ. Workers of all sizes were searching everywhere +for some covering for the tender immature creatures. They had chewed +up all available loose splinters of wood, and near the rotten, +termite-eaten ends, the sound of dozens of jaws gnawing all at once +was plainly audible. This unaccustomed, unmilitary labor produced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> a +quantity of fine sawdust, which was sprinkled over the larvæ. I had +made a partition of a bit of a British officer's tent which I had used +in India and China, made of several layers of colored canvas and +cloth. The ants found a loose end of this, teased it out and unraveled +it, so that all the larvæ near by were blanketed with a gay, +parti-colored covering of fuzz.</p> + +<p>All this strange work was hurried and carried on under great +excitement. The scores of big soldiers on guard appeared rather ill at +ease, as if they had wandered by mistake into the wrong department. +They sauntered about, bumped into larvæ, turned and fled. A constant +stream of workers from the nest brought hundreds more larvæ; and no +sooner had they been planted and débris of sorts sifted over them, +than they began spinning. A few had already swathed themselves in +cocoons—exceedingly thin coverings of pinkish silk. As this took +place out of the nest,—in the jungle they must be covered with wood +and leaves. The vital necessity for this was not apparent, for none of +this débris was incorporated into the silk of the cocoons, which were +clean and homogeneous. Yet the hundreds of ants gnawed and tore and +labored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> to gather this little dust, as if their very lives depended +upon it.</p> + +<p>With my hand-lens focused just beyond mandible reach of the biggest +soldier, I leaned forward from my insulated chair, hovering like a +great astral eye looking down at this marvelously important business +of little lives. Here were thousands of army ants, not killing, not +carrying booty, nor even suspended quiescent as organic molecules in +the structure of the home, yet in feverish activity equaled only by +battle, making ready for the great change of their foster offspring. I +watched the very first thread of silk drawn between the larva and the +outside world, and in an incredibly short time the cocoon was outlined +in a tissue-thin, transparent aura, within which the tenant could be +seen skilfully weaving its own shroud.</p> + +<p>When first brought from the nest, the larvæ lay quite straight and +still; but almost at once they bent far over in the spinning position. +Then some officious worker would come along, and the unfortunate larva +would be snatched up, carried off, and jammed down in some neighboring +empty space, like a bolt of cloth rearranged upon a shelf. Then +another ant would approach, antenn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>æ the larva, disapprove, and again +shift its position. It was a real survival of the lucky, as to who +should avoid being exhausted by kindness and over-solicitude. I +uttered many a chuckle at the half-ensilked unfortunates being toted +about like mummies, and occasionally giving a sturdy, impatient kick +which upset their tormentors and for a moment created a little swirl +of mild excitement.</p> + +<p>There was no order of packing. The larvæ were fitted together anyway, +and meagerly covered with dust of wood and shreds of cloth. One big +tissue of wood nearly an inch square was too great a temptation to be +let alone, and during the course of my observation it covered in turn +almost every group of larvæ in sight, ending by being accidentally +shunted over the edge and killing a worker near the kitchen middens. +There was only a single layer of larvæ; in no case were they piled up, +and when the platform became crowded, a new column was formed and +hundreds taken outside. To the casual eye there was no difference +between these legionaries and a column bringing in booty of insects, +eggs, and pupæ; yet here all was solicitude, never a bite too severe, +or a blunder of undue force.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>The sights I saw in this second day's accessible nest-swarm would +warrant a season's meditation and study, but one thing impressed me +above all others. Sometimes, when I carefully pried open one section +and looked deep within, I could see large chambers with the larvæ in +piles, besides being held in the mandibles of the components of the +walls and ceilings. Now and then a curious little ghost-like form +would flit across the chamber, coming to rest, gnome-like, on larva or +ant. Again and again I saw these little springtails skip through the +very scimitar mandibles of a soldier, while the workers paid no +attention to them. I wondered if they were not quite odorless, +intangible to the ants, invisible guests which lived close to them, +going where, doing what they willed, yet never perceived by the +thousands of inhabitants. They seemed to live in a kind of fourth +dimensional state, a realm comparable to that which we people with +ghosts and spirits. It was a most uncanny, altogether absorbing, +intensely interesting relationship; and sometimes, when I ponder on +some general aspect of the great jungle,—a forest of greenheart, a +mighty rushing river, a crashing, blasting thunderstorm,—my mind +suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> reverts by way of contrast to the tiny ghosts of springtails +flitting silently among the terrible living chambers of the army ants.</p> + +<p>On the following morning I expected to achieve still greater intimacy +in the lives of the mummy soldier embryos; but at dawn every trace of +nesting swarm, larvæ, pupæ and soldiers was gone. A few dead workers +were being already carried off by small ants which never would have +dared approach them in life. A big blue morpho butterfly flapped +slowly past out of the jungle, and in its wake came the distant +notes—high and sharp—of the white-fronted antbirds; and I knew that +the legionaries were again abroad, radiating on their silent, dynamic +paths of life from some new temporary nest deep in the jungle.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h2>A JUNGLE BEACH</h2> + + +<p>A jungle moon first showed me my beach. For a week I had looked at it +in blazing sunlight, walked across it, even sat on it in the intervals +of getting wonted to the new laboratory; yet I had not perceived it. +Colonel Roosevelt once said to me that he would rather perceive things +from the point of view of a field-mouse, than be a human being and +merely see them. And in my case it was when I could no longer see the +beach that I began to discern its significance.</p> + +<p>This British Guiana beach, just in front of my Kartabo bungalow, was +remarkably diversified, and in a few steps, or strokes of a paddle, I +could pass from clean sand to mangroves and muckamucka swamp, thence +to out-jutting rocks, and on to the Edge of the World, all within a +distance of a hundred yards. For a time my beach walks resulted in +inarticulate reaction. After months in the blindfolded canyons of New +York's streets, a hemicircle of horizon, a hemisphere of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> sky, and a +vast expanse of open water lent itself neither to calm appraisal nor +to impromptu cuff-notes.</p> + +<p>It was recalled to my mind that the miracle of sunrise occurred every +morning, and was not a rather belated alternation of illumination, +following the quenching of Broadway's lights. And the moon I found was +as dependable as when I timed my Himalayan expeditions by her +shadowings. To these phenomena I soon became re-accustomed, and could +watch a bird or outwit an insect in the face of a foreglow and silent +burst of flame that shamed all the barrages ever laid down. But cosmic +happenings kept drawing my attention and paralyzing my activities for +long afterward. With a double rainbow and four storms in action at +once; or a wall of rain like sawn steel slowly drawing up one river +while the Mazaruni remains in full sunlight; with Pegasus galloping +toward the zenith at midnight and the Pleiades just clearing the Penal +Settlement, I could not always keep on dissecting, or recording, or +verifying the erroneousness of one of my recently formed theories.</p> + +<p>There was Thuban, gazing steadily upon my little mahogany bungalow, +as, six millenniums<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> ago, he had shone unfalteringly down the little +stone tube that led his rays into the Queen's Chamber, in the very +heart of great Cheops. Just clearing a low palm was the present North +Star, while, high above, Vega shone, patiently waiting to take her +place half a million years hence. When beginning her nightly climb, +Vega drew a thin, trembling thread of argent over the still water, +just as in other years she had laid for me a slender silver strand of +wire across frozen snow, and on one memorable night traced the ghost +of a reflection over damp sand near the Nile—pale as the wraiths of +the early Pharaohs.</p> + +<p>Low on the eastern horizon, straight outward from my beach, was the +beginning and end of the great zodiac band—the golden Hamal of Aries +and the paired stars of Pisces; and behind, over the black jungle, +glowed the Southern Cross. But night after night, as I watched on the +beach, the sight which moved me most was the dull speck of emerald +mist, a merest smudge on the slate of the heavens,—the spiral nebula +in Andromeda,—a universe in the making, of a size unthinkable to +human minds.</p> + +<p>The power of my jungle beach to attract and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> hold attention was not +only direct and sensory,—through sight and sound and scent,—but +often indirect, seemingly by occult means. Time after time, on an +impulse, I followed some casual line of thought and action, and found +myself at last on or near the beach, on a lead that eventually would +take me to the verge or into the water.</p> + +<p>Once I did what for me was a most unusual thing. I woke in the middle +of the night without apparent reason. The moonlight was pouring in a +white flood through the bamboos, and the jungle was breathless and +silent. Through my window I could see Jennie, our pet monkey, lying +aloft, asleep on her little verandah, head cushioned on both hands, +tail curled around her dangling chain, as a spider guards her +web-strands for hint of disturbing vibrations. I knew that the +slightest touch on that chain would awaken her, and indeed it seemed +as if the very thought of it had been enough; for she opened her eyes, +sent me the highest of insect-like notes and turned over, pushing her +head within the shadow of her little house. I wondered if animals, +too, were, like the Malays and so many savage tribes, afraid of the +moonlight—the "luna-cy" danger in those strange color-strained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> rays, +whose power must be greater than we realize. Beyond the monkey roosted +Robert, the great macaw, wide-awake, watching me with all that +broadside of intensive gaze of which only a parrot is capable.</p> + +<p>The three of us seemed to be the only living things in the world, and +for a long time we—monkey, macaw, and man—listened. Then all but the +man became uneasy. The monkey raised herself and listened, uncurled +her tail, shifted, and listened. The macaw drew himself up, feathers +close, forgot me, and listened. They, unlike me, were not merely +listening—they were hearing something. Then there came, very slowly +and deliberately, as if reluctant to break through the silent +moonlight, a sound, low and constant, impossible to identify, but +clearly audible even to my ears. For just an instant longer it held, +sustained and quivering, then swiftly rose into a crashing roar—the +sound of a great tree falling. I sat up and heard the whole long +descent; but at the end, after the moment of silence, there was no +deep boom—the sound of the mighty bole striking and rebounding from +the earth itself. I wondered about this for a while; then the monkey +and I went to sleep, leaving the macaw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> alone conscious in the +moonlight, watching through the night with his great round, yellow +orbs, and thinking the thoughts that macaws always think in the +moonlight.</p> + +<p>The next day the macaw and the monkey had forgotten all about the +midnight sound, but I searched and found why there was no final boom. +And my search ended at my beach. A bit of overhanging bank had given +way and a tall tree had fallen headlong into the water, its roots +sprawling helplessly in mid-air. Like rats deserting a sinking ship, a +whole Noah's ark of tree-living creatures was hastening along a single +cable shorewards: tree-crickets; ants laden with eggs and larvæ; +mantids gesticulating as they walked, like old men who mumble to +themselves; wood-roaches, some green and leaf-like, others, facsimiles +of trilobites—but fleet of foot and with one goal.</p> + +<p>What was a catastrophe for a tree and a shift of home for the tenants +was good fortune for me, and I walked easily out along the trunk and +branches and examined the strange parasitic growths and the homes +which were being so rapidly deserted. The tide came up and covered the +lower half of the prostrate tree, drowning what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> creatures had not +made their escape and quickening the air-plants with a false rain, +which in course of time would rot their very hearts.</p> + +<p>But the first few days were only the overture of changes in this shift +of conditions. Tropic vegetation is so tenacious of life that it +struggles and adapts itself with all the cunning of a Japanese +wrestler. We cut saplings and thrust them into mud or the crevices of +rocks at low tide far from shore, to mark our channel, and before long +we have buoys of foliage banners waving from the bare poles above +water. We erect a tall bamboo flagpole on the bank, and before long +our flag is almost hidden by the sprouting leaves, and the pulley so +blocked that we have occasionally to lower and lop it.</p> + +<p>So the fallen tree, still gripping the nutritious bank with a moiety +of roots, turned slowly in its fibrous stiffness and directed its life +and sap and hopes upward. During the succeeding weeks I watched trunk +and branches swell and bud out new trunks, new branches, guided, +controlled, by gravity, light, and warmth; and just beyond the reach +of the tides, leaves sprouted, flowers opened and fruit ripened. Weeks +after the last slow invertebrate plodder had made his escape<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +shorewards, the taut liana strand was again crowded with a mass of +passing life—a maze of vines and creepers, whose tendrils and suckers +reached and curled and pressed onward, fighting for gangway to shore, +through days and weeks, as the animal life which preceded them had +made the most of seconds and minutes.</p> + +<p>The half-circle of exposed raw bank became in its turn the center of a +myriad activities. Great green kingfishers began at once to burrow; +tiny emerald ones chose softer places up among the wreckage of +wrenched roots; wasps came and chopped out bits for the walls and +partitions of their cells; spiders hung their cobwebs between ratlines +of rootlets; and hummingbirds promptly followed and plucked them from +their silken nets, and then took the nets to bind their own tiny +air-castles. Finally, other interests intervened, and like Jennie and +Robert, I gradually forgot the tree that fell without an echo.</p> + +<p>In the jungle no action or organism is separate, or quite apart, and +this thing which came to the three of us suddenly at midnight led by +devious means to another magic phase of the shore.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> + +<p>A little to the south along my beach is the Edge of the World. At +least, it looks very much as I have always imagined that place must +look, and I have never been beyond it; so that, after listening to +many arguments in courts of law, and hearing the reasoning of +bolsheviki, teetotalers, and pacifists, I feel that I am quite +reasonable as human beings go. And best of all, it hurts no one, and +annoys only a few of my scientific friends, who feel that one cannot +indulge in such ideas at the wonderful hour of twilight, and yet at +eight o'clock the following morning describe with impeccable accuracy +the bronchial semi-rings, and the intricate mosaic of cartilage which +characterizes and supports the <i>membranis tympaniformis</i> of <i>Attila +thamnophiloides</i>; a dogma which halves life and its interests.</p> + +<p>The Edge of the World has always meant a place where usual things are +different; and my southern stretch of beach was that, because of +roots. Whenever in digging I have come across a root and seen its +living flesh, perhaps pink or rose or pale green, so far underground, +I have desired to know roots better; and now I found my opportunity. I +walked along the proper trail, through right and usual trees,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> with +reasonable foliage and normal trunks, and suddenly I stepped down over +the Edge. Overhead and all around there was still the foliage. It shut +out the sun except for greenish, moderated spots and beams. The +branches dipped low in front over the water, shutting out the sky +except along the tops of the cross-river jungle. Thus a great +green-roofed chamber was formed; and here, between jungle and the +water-level of the world, was the Kingdom of the Roots.</p> + +<p>Great trees had in their youth fallen far forward, undermined by the +water, then slowly taken a new reach upward and stretched forth great +feet and hands of roots, palms pressing against the mud, curved backs +and thews of shoulders braced against one another and the drag of the +tides. Little by little the old prostrate trunks were entirely +obliterated by this fantastic network. There were no fine fibers or +rootlets here; only great beams and buttresses, bridges and up-ended +spirals, grown together or spreading wide apart. Root merged with +trunk, and great boles became roots and then boles again in this +unreasonable land. For here, in place of damp, black mold and soil, +water alternated with dark-shadowed air; and so I was able for a time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +to live the life of a root, resting quietly among them, watching and +feeling them, and moving very slowly, with no thought of time, as +roots must.</p> + +<p>I liked to wait until the last ripple had lapped against the sand +beneath, and then slip quietly in from the margin of the jungle and +perch—like a great tree-frog—on some convenient shelf. Seumas and +Brigid would have enjoyed it, in spite of the fact that the +Leprechauns seemed to have just gone. I found myself usually in a +little room, walled with high-arched, thin sheets of living roots, +some of which would form solid planks three feet wide and twelve long, +and only an inch or two in thickness. These were always on edge, and +might be smooth and sheer, or suddenly sprout five stubby, mittened +fingers, or pairs of curved and galloping legs—and this thought gave +substance to the simile which had occurred again and again: these +trees reminded me of centaurs with proud, upright man torsos, and +great curved backs. In one, a root dropped down and rested on the +back, as a centaur who turns might rest his hand on his withers.</p> + +<p>When I chanced upon an easy perch, and a stray idea came to mind, I +squatted or sat or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> sprawled, and wrote, and strange things often +happened to me. Once, while writing rapidly on a small sheet of paper, +I found my lines growing closer and closer together until my fingers +cramped, and the consciousness of the change overlaid the thoughts +that were driving hand and pen. I then realized that, without +thinking, I had been following a succession of faint lines, +cross-ruled on my white paper, and looking up, I saw that a +leaf-filtered opening had reflected strands of a spider-web just above +my head, and I had been adapting my lines to the narrow spaces, my +chirography controlled by cobweb shadows.</p> + +<p>The first unreality of the roots was their rigidity. I stepped from +one slender tendon of wood to the next, expecting a bending which +never occurred. They might have been turned to stone, and even little +twigs resting on the bark often proved to have grown fast. And this +was the more unexpected because of the grace of curve and line, fold +upon fold, with no sharp angles, but as full of charm of contour as +their grays and olives were harmonious in color. Photographs showed a +little of this; sketches revealed more; but the great splendid things +themselves, devoid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> of similes and human imagination, were +soul-satisfying in their simplicity.</p> + +<p>I seldom sat in one spot more than a few minutes, but climbed and +shifted, tried new seats, couches, perches, grips, sprawling out along +the tops of two parallel monsters, or slipping under their bellies, +always finding some easy way to swing up again. Two openings just +permitted me to squeeze through, and I wondered whether, in another +year, or ten, or fifty, the holes would have grown smaller. I became +imbued with the quiet joy of these roots, so that I hated to touch the +ground. Once I stepped down on the beach after something I had +dropped, and the soft yielding of the sand was so unpleasant that I +did not afterwards leave this strange mid-zone until I had to return. +Unlike Antæus, I seemed to gain strength and poise by disassociation +with the earth.</p> + +<p>Here and there were pockets in the folds of the sweeping draperies, +and each pocket was worth picking. When one tried to paint the roots, +these pockets seemed made expressly to take the place of palette cups, +except that now and then a crab resented the infusion of Hooker's +green with his Vandyke brown puddle, and seized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> the end of the brush. +The crabs were worthy tenants of such strange architecture, with +comical eyes twiddling on the end of their stalks, and their +white-mittened fists feinting and threatening as I looked into their +little dark rain or tide-pools.</p> + +<p>I found three pockets on one wall, which seemed as if they must have +been "salted" for my benefit; and in them, as elsewhere on my beach, +the two extremes of life met. The topmost one, curiously enough, +contained a small crab, together with a large water-beetle at the +farther end. Both seemed rather self-conscious, and there was no hint +of fraternizing. The beetle seemed to be merely existing until +darkness, when he could fly to more water and better company; and the +crab appeared to be waiting for the beetle to go.</p> + +<p>The next pocket was a long, narrow, horizontal fold, and I hoped to +find real excitement among its aquatic folk; but to my surprise it had +no bottom, but was a deep chute or socket, opening far below to the +sand. However, this was not my discovery, and I saw dimly a weird +little head looking up at me—a gecko lizard, which called this +crevice home and the crabs neighbors. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> hailed him as the only other +backboned friend who shared the root-world with me, and then listened +to a high, sweet tone, which came forth in swinging rhythm. It took +some time for my eyes to become accustomed to the semi-darkness, and +then I saw what the gecko saw—a big yellow-bodied fly humming in this +cavern, and swinging in a small orbit as she sang. Now and then she +dashed out past me and hovered in mid-air, when her note sank to a +low, dull hum. Back again, and the sound rose and fell, and gained ten +times in volume from the echo or reverberations. Each time she passed, +the little lizard licked his chops and swallowed—a sort of vicarious +expression of faith or desire; or was he in a Christian Science frame +of mind, saying, "My, how good that fly tasted!" each time the +dipteron passed? The fly was just as inexplicable, braving danger and +darkness time after time, to leave the sunshine and vibrate in the +dusk to the enormously magnified song of its wings.</p> + +<p>With eyes that had forgotten the outside light, I leaned close to the +opening and rested my forehead against the lichens of the wall of +wood. The fly was frightened away, the gecko slipped lower, seemingly +without effort, and in a hollowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> side of the cavernous root I saw a +mist, a quivering, so tenuous and indistinct that at first it might +have been the dancing of motes. I saw that they were living +creatures—the most delicate of tiny crane-flies—at rest looking like +long-legged mosquitoes. Deep within this root, farther from the light +than even the singing fly had ventured, these tiny beings whirled +madly in mid-air—subterranean dervishes, using up energy for their +own inexplicable ends, of which one very interested naturalist could +make nothing.</p> + +<p>Three weeks afterward I happened to pass at high tide in the canoe and +peered into this pocket. The gecko was where geckos go in the space of +three weeks, and the fly also had vanished, either within or without +the gecko. But the crane-flies were still there: to my roughly +appraising eyes the same flies, doing the same dance in exactly the +same place. Three weeks later, and again I returned, this time +intentionally, to see whether the dance still continued; and it was in +full swing. That same night at midnight I climbed down, flashed a +light upon them, and there they whirled and vibrated, silently, +incredibly rapid, unceasingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<p>After a thousand hours all the surroundings had changed. New leaves +had sprouted, flowers faded and turned to fruit, the moon had twice +attained her full brightness, our earth and sun and the whole solar +system had swept headlong a full two-score million miles on the +endless swing toward Vega. Only the roots and the crane-flies +remained. A thousand hours had apparently made no difference to them. +The roots might have been the granite near by, fashioned by primeval +earth-flame, and the flies but vibrating atoms within the granite, +made visible by some alchemy of elements in this weird Rim of the +World.</p> + +<p>And so a new memory is mine; and when one of these insects comes to my +lamp in whatever part of the world, fluttering weakly, legs breaking +off at the slightest touch, I shall cease to worry about the +scientific problems that loom too great for my brain, or about the +imperfection of whatever I am doing, and shall welcome the crane-fly +and strive to free him from this fatal passion for flame, directing +him again into the night; for he may be looking for a dark pocket in a +root, a pocket on the Edge of the World, where crane-flies may vibrate +with their fellows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> in an eternal dance. And so, in some ordained way, +he will fulfil his destiny and I acquire merit.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>To write of sunrises and moonlight is to commit literary harikiri; but +as that terminates life, so may I end this. And I choose the morning +and the midnight of the sixth of August, for reasons both greater and +less than cosmic. Early that morning, looking out from the beach over +the Mazacuni, as we called the union of the two great rivers, there +was wind, yet no wind, as the sun prepared to lift above the horizon. +The great soft-walled jungle was clear and distinct. Every reed at the +landing had its unbroken counterpart in the still surface. But at the +apex of the waters, the smoke of all the battles in the world had +gathered, and upon this the sun slowly concentrated his powers, until +he tore apart the cloak of mist, turning the dark surface, first to +oxidized, and then to shining quicksilver. Instantaneously the same +shaft of light touched the tips of the highest trees, and as if in +response to a poised bâton, there broke forth that wonder of the +world—the Zoroastrian chorus of tens of thousands of jungle +creatures.</p> + +<p>Over the quicksilver surface little individual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> breezes wandered here +and there. I could clearly see the beginning and the end of them, and +one that drifted ashore and passed me felt like the lightest touch of +a breath. One saw only the ripple on the water; one thought of +invisible wings and trailing unseen robes.</p> + +<p>With the increasing warmth the water-mist rose slowly, like a last +quiet breath of night; and as it ascended,—the edges changing from +silvery gray to grayish white,—it gathered close its shredded +margins, grew smaller as it rose higher, and finally became a cloud. I +watched it and wondered about its fate. Before the day was past, it +might darken in its might, hurl forth thunders and jagged light, and +lose its very substance in down-poured liquid. Or, after drifting idly +high in air, the still-born cloud might garb itself in rich purple and +gold for the pageant of the west, and again descend to brood over the +coming marvel of another sunrise.</p> + +<p>The tallest of bamboos lean over our low, lazy spread of bungalow; and +late this very night, in the full moonlight, I leave my cot and walk +down to the beach over a shadow carpet of Japanese filigree. The air +over the white sand is as quiet and feelingless to my skin as +complete, comfortable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> clothing. On one side is the dark river; on the +other, the darker jungle full of gentle rustlings, low, velvety +breaths of sound; and I slip into the water and swim out, out, out. +Then I turn over and float along with the almost tangible moonlight +flooding down on face and water. Suddenly the whole air is broken by +the chorus of big red baboons, which rolls and tumbles toward me in +masses of sound along the surface and goes trembling, echoing on over +shore and jungle, till hurled back by the answering chorus of another +clan. It stirs one to the marrow, for there is far more in it than the +mere roaring of monkeys; and I turn uneasily, and slowly surge back +toward the sand, overhand now, making companionable splashes.</p> + +<p>And then again I stop, treading water softly, with face alone between +river and sky; for the monkeys have ceased, and very faint and low, +but blended in wonderful minor harmony, comes another chorus—from +three miles down the river: the convicts singing hymns in their cells +at midnight. And I ground gently and sit in the silvered shadows with +little bewildered shrimps flicking against me, and unlanguaged +thoughts come and go—impossible similes, too poignant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> phrases to be +stopped and fettered with words, and I am neither scientist nor man +nor naked organism, but just mind. With the coming of silence I look +around and again consciously take in the scene. I am very glad to be +alive, and to know that the possible dangers of jungle and water have +not kept me armed and indoors. I feel, somehow, as if my very daring +and gentle slipping-off of all signs of dominance and protection on +entering into this realm had made friends of all the rare but possible +serpents and scorpions, sting-rays and perai, vampires and electric +eels. For a while I know the happiness of Mowgli.</p> + +<p>And I think of people who would live more joyful lives in dense +communities, who would be more tolerant, and more certain of +straightforward friendship, if they could have as a background a +fundamental hour of living such as this, a leaven for the rest of +what, in comparison, seems mere existence.</p> + +<p>At last I go back between the bamboos and their shadows, from unreal +reality into a definiteness of cot and pajamas and electric torch. But +wild nature still keeps touch with me; for as I write these lines, +curled up on the edge of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> cot, two vampires hawk back and forth so +close that the wind from their wings dries my ink. And the soundness +of my sleep is such that time does not exist between their last +crepuscular squeak and the first wiry twittering of a blue tanager, in +full sunshine, from a palm overhanging my beach.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h2>A BIT OF USELESSNESS</h2> + + +<p>A most admirable servant of mine once risked his life to reach a +magnificent Bornean orchid, and tried to poison me an hour later when +he thought I was going to take the plant away from him. This does not +mean necessarily that we should look with suspicion upon all gardeners +and lovers of flowers. It emphasizes, rather, the fact of the +universal and deep-rooted appreciation of the glories of the vegetable +kingdom. Long before the fatal harvest time, I am certain that Eve +must have plucked a spray of apple blossoms with perfect impunity.</p> + +<p>A vast amount of bad poetry and a much less quantity of excellent +verse has been written about flowers, much of which follows to the +letter Mark Twain's injunction about Truth. It must be admitted that +the relations existing between the honeysuckle and the bee are basely +practical and wholly selfish. A butterfly's admiration of a flower is +no whit less than the blossom's conscious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> appreciation of its own +beauties. There are ants which spend most of their life making +gardens, knowing the uses of fertilizers, mulching, planting seeds, +exercising patience, recognizing the time of ripeness, and gathering +the edible fruit. But this is underground, and the ants are blind.</p> + +<p>There is a bird, however—the bower bird of Australia—which appears +to take real delight in bright things, especially pebbles and flowers +for their own sake. Its little lean-to, or bower of sticks, which has +been built in our own Zoological Park in New York City, is fronted by +a cleared space, which is usually mossy. To this it brings its +colorful treasures, sometimes a score of bright star blossoms, which +are renewed when faded and replaced by others. All this has, probably, +something to do with courtship, which should inspire a sonnet.</p> + +<p>From the first pre-Egyptian who crudely scratched a lotus on his dish +of clay, down to the jolly Feckenham men, the human race has given to +flowers something more than idle curiosity, something less than mere +earnest of fruit or berry.</p> + +<p>At twelve thousand feet I have seen one of my Tibetans with nothing +but a few shreds of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> straw between his bare feet and the snow, probe +around the south edge of melting drifts until he found brilliant +little primroses to stick behind his ears. I have been ushered into +the little-used, musty best-parlor of a New England farmhouse, and +seen fresh vases of homely, old-fashioned flowers—so recently placed +for my edification, that drops of water still glistened like dewdrops +on the dusty plush mat beneath. I have sat in the seat of honor of a +Dyak communal house, looked up at the circle of all too recent heads, +and seen a gay flower in each hollow eye socket, placed there for my +approval. With a cluster of colored petals swaying in the breeze, one +may at times bridge centuries or span the earth.</p> + +<p>And now as I sit writing these words in my jungle laboratory, a small +dusky hand steals around an aquarium and deposits a beautiful spray of +orchids on my table. The little face appears, and I can distinguish +the high cheek bones of Indian blood, the flattened nose and slight +kink of negro, and the faint trace of white—probably of some long +forgotten Dutch sailor, who came and went to Guiana, while New York +City was still a browsing ground for moose.</p> + +<p>So neither race nor age nor mélange of blood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> can eradicate the love +of flowers. It would be a wonderful thing to know about the first +garden that ever was, and I wish that "Best Beloved" had demanded +this. I am sure it was long before the day of dog, or cow, or horse, +or even she who walked alone. The only way we can imagine it, is to go +to some wild part of the earth, where are fortunate people who have +never heard of seed catalogs or lawn mowers.</p> + +<p>Here in British Guiana I can run the whole gamut of gardens, within a +few miles of where I am writing. A mile above my laboratory up-river, +is the thatched <i>benab</i> of an Akawai Indian—whose house is a roof, +whose rooms are hammocks, whose estate is the jungle. Degas can speak +English, and knows the use of my 28-gauge double barrel well enough to +bring us a constant supply of delicious bushmeat—peccary, deer, +monkey, bush turkeys and agoutis. But Grandmother has no language but +her native Akawai. She is a good friend of mine, and we hold long +conversations, neither of us bothering with the letter, but only the +spirit of communication. She is a tiny person, bowed and wrinkled as +only an old Indian squaw can be, always jolly and chuckling to +herself, although<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> Degas tells me that the world is gradually +darkening for her. And she vainly begs me to clear the film which is +slowly closing over her eyes. She labors in a true landscape +garden—the small circle wrested with cutlass and fire from the great +jungle, and kept free only by constant cutting of the vines and lianas +which creep out almost in a night, like sinister octopus tentacles, to +strangle the strange upstarts and rejungle the bit of sunlit glade.</p> + +<p>Although to the eye a mass of tangled vegetation, an Indian's garden +may be resolved into several phases—all utterly practical, with color +and flowers as mere by-products. First come the provisions, for if +Degas were not hunting for me, and eating my rations, he would be out +with bow and blowpipe, or fish-hooks, while the women worked all day +in the cassava field. It is his part to clear and burn the forest, it +is hers to grub up the rich mold, to plant and to weed. Plots and beds +are unknown, for in every direction are fallen trees, too large to +burn or be chopped up, and great sprawling roots. Between these, +sprouts of cassava and banana are stuck, and the yams and melons which +form the food of these primitive people. Cassava is as vital to these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +Indians as the air they breathe. It is their wheat and corn and rice, +their soup and salad and dessert, their ice and their wine, for +besides being their staple food, it provides <i>casareep</i> which +preserves their meat, and <i>piwarie</i> which, like excellent wine, +brightens life for them occasionally, or dims it if overindulged +in—which is equally true of food, or companionship, or the oxygen in +the air we breathe.</p> + +<p>Besides this cultivation, Grandmother has a small group of plants +which are only indirectly concerned with food. One is <i>kunami</i>, whose +leaves are pounded into pulp, and used for poisoning the water of +jungle streams, with the surprising result that the fish all leap out +on the bank and can be gathered as one picks up nuts. When I first +visited Grandmother's garden, she had a few pitiful little cotton +plants from whose stunted bolls she extracted every fiber and made a +most excellent thread. In fact, when she made some bead aprons for me, +she rejected my spool of cotton and chose her own, twisted between +thumb and finger. I sent for seed of the big Sea Island cotton, and +her face almost unwrinkled with delight when she saw the packets with +seed larger than she had ever known.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> + +<p>Far off in one corner I make certain I have found beauty for beauty's +sake, a group of exquisite caladiums and amaryllis, beautiful flowers +and rich green leaves with spots and slashes of white and crimson. But +this is the hunter's garden, and Grandmother has no part in it, +perhaps is not even allowed to approach it. It is the <i>beena</i> +garden—the charms for good luck in hunting. The similarity of the +leaves to the head or other parts of deer or peccary or red-gilled +fish, decides the most favorable choice, and the acrid, smarting juice +of the tuber rubbed into the skin, or the hooks and arrows anointed, +is considered sufficient to produce the desired result. Long ago I +discovered that this demand for immediate physical sensation was a +necessary corollary of doctoring, so I always give two medicines—one +for its curative properties, and the other, bitter, sour, acid or +anything disagreeable, for arousing and sustaining faith in my +ability.</p> + +<p>The Indian's medicine plants, like his true name, he keeps to himself, +and although I feel certain that Grandmother had somewhere a toothache +bush, or pain leaves—yarbs and simples for various miseries—I could +never discover them. Half a dozen tall tobacco plants brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> from +the far interior, eked out the occasional tins of cigarettes in which +Degas indulged, and always the flame-colored little buck-peppers +lightened up the shadows of the <i>benab</i>, as hot to the palate as their +color to the eye.</p> + +<p>One day just as I was leaving, Grandmother led me to a palm nearby, +and to one of its ancient frond-sheaths was fastened a small brown +branch to which a few blue-green leaves were attached. I had never +seen anything like it. She mumbled and touched it with her shriveled, +bent fingers. I could understand nothing, and sent for Degas, who came +and explained grudgingly, "Me no know what for—<i>toko-nook</i> just +name—have got smell when yellow." And so at last I found the bit of +uselessness, which, carried onward and developed in ages to come, as +it had been elsewhere in ages past, was to evolve into botany, and +back-yard gardens, and greenhouses, and wars of roses, and beautiful +paintings, and music with a soul of its own, and verse more than +human. To Degas the <i>toko-nook</i> was "just name," "and it was nothing +more." But he was forgiven, for he had all unwittingly sowed the seeds +of religion, through faith in his glowing caladiums. But Grandmother, +though all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> sunlight seemed dusk, and the dawn but as night, yet +clung to her little plant, whose glory was that it was of no use +whatsoever, but in months to come would be yellow, and would smell.</p> + +<p>Farther down river, in the small hamlets of the bovianders—the people +of mixed blood—the practical was still necessity, but almost every +thatched and wattled hut had its swinging orchid branch, and perhaps a +hideous painted tub with picketed rim, in which grew a golden splash +of croton. This ostentatious floweritis might furnish a theme for a +wholly new phase of the subject—for in almost every respect these +people are less worthy human beings—physically, mentally and +morally—than the Indians. But one cannot shift literary overalls for +philosophical paragraphs in mid-article, so let us take the little +river steamer down stream for forty miles to the coast of British +Guiana, and there see what Nature herself does in the way of gardens. +We drive twenty miles or more before we reach Georgetown, and the +sides of the road are lined for most of the distance with huts and +hovels of East Indian coolies and native Guiana negroes. Some are made +of boxes, others of bark, more of thatch or rough-hewn boards and +barrel staves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> and some of split bamboo. But they resemble one +another in several respects—all are ramshackle, all lean with the +grace of Pisa, all have shutters and doors, so that at night they may +be hermetically closed, and all are half-hidden in the folds of a +curtain of flowers. The most shiftless, unlovely hovel, poised ready +to return to its original chemical elements, is embowered in a mosaic +of color, which in a northern garden would be worth a king's +ransom—or to be strictly modern, should I not say a labor foreman's +or a comrade's ransom!</p> + +<p>The deep trench which extends along the front of these sad dwellings +is sometimes blue with water hyacinths; next the water disappears +beneath a maze of tall stalks, topped with a pink mist of lotus; then +come floating lilies and more hyacinths. Wherever there is sufficient +clear water, the wonderful curve of a cocoanut palm is etched upon it, +reflection meeting palm, to form a dendritic pattern unequaled in +human devising.</p> + +<p>Over a hut of rusty oil-cans, bougainvillia stretches its glowing +branches, sometimes cerise, sometimes purple, or allamanders fill the +air with a golden haze from their glowing search-lights, either hiding +the huts altogether, or softening<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> their details into picturesque +ruins. I remember one coolie dwelling which was dirtier and less +habitable than the meanest stable, and all around it were hundreds +upon hundreds of frangipanni blooms—the white and gold temple flowers +of the East—giving forth of scent and color all that a flower is +capable, to alleviate the miserable blot of human construction. Now +and then a flamboyant tree comes into view, and as, at night, the +head-lights of an approaching car eclipse all else, so this tree of +burning scarlet draws eye and mind from adjacent human-made squalor. +In all the tropics of the world I scarcely remember to have seen more +magnificent color than in these unattended, wilful-grown gardens.</p> + +<p>In tropical cities such as Georgetown, there are very beautiful +private gardens, and the public one is second only to that of Java. +But for the most part one is as conscious of the very dreadful borders +of brick, or bottles, or conchs, as of the flowers themselves. Some +one who is a master gardener will some day write of the possibilities +of a tropical garden, which will hold the reader as does desire to +behold the gardens of Carcassonne itself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h2>GUINEVERE THE MYSTERIOUS</h2> + + +<p>Again the Guiana jungle comes wonderfully to the eye and mysteriously +to the mind; again my khakis and sneakers are skin-comfortable; again +I am squatted on a pleasant mat of leaves in a miniature gorge, miles +back of my Kartabo bungalow. Life elsewhere has already become +unthinkable. I recall a place boiling with worried people, rent with +unpleasing sounds, and beset with unsatisfactory pleasures. In less +than a year I shall long for a sight of these worried people, my ears +will strain to catch the unpleasing sounds, and I shall plunge with +joy into the unsatisfactory pleasures. To-day, however, all these have +passed from mind, and I settle down another notch, head snuggled on +knees, and sway, elephant-fashion, with sheer joy, as a musky, +exciting odor comes drifting, apparently by its own volition, down +through the windless little gorge.</p> + +<p>If I permit a concrete, scientific reaction, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> must acknowledge the +source to be a passing bug,—a giant bug,—related distantly to our +malodorous northern squash-bug, but emitting a scent as different as +orchids' breath from grocery garlic. But I accept this delicate +volatility as simply another pastel-soft sense-impression—as an +earnest of the worthy, smelly things of old jungles. There is no +breeze, no slightest shift of air-particles; yet down the gorge comes +this cloud,—a cloud unsensible except to nostrils,—eddying as if +swirling around the edges of leaves, riding on the air as gently as +the low, distant crooning of great, sleepy jungle doves.</p> + +<p>With two senses so perfectly occupied, sight becomes superfluous and I +close my eyes. And straightway the scent and the murmur usurp my whole +mind with a vivid memory. I am still squatting, but in a dark, +fragrant room; and the murmur is still of doves; but the room is in +the cool, still heart of the Queen's Golden Monastery in northern +Burma, within storm-sound of Tibet, and the doves are perched among +the glitter and tinkling bells of the pagoda roofs. I am squatting +very quietly, for I am tired, after photographing carved peacocks and +junglefowl in the marvelous fretwork of the outer balconies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> There +are idols all about me—or so it would appear to a missionary; for my +part, I can think only of the wonderful face of the old Lama who sits +near me, a face peaceful with the something for which most of us would +desert what we are doing, if by that we could attain it. Near him are +two young priests, sitting as motionless as the Buddha in front of +them.</p> + +<p>After a half-hour of the strange thing that we call time, the Lama +speaks, very low and very; softly:</p> + +<p>"The surface of the mirror is clouded with a breath."</p> + +<p>Out of a long silence one of the neophytes replies, "The mirror can be +wiped clear."</p> + +<p>Again the world becomes incense and doves,—in the silence and peace +of that monastery, it may have been a few minutes or a decade,—and +the second Tibetan whispers, "There is no need to wipe the mirror."</p> + +<p>When I have left behind the world of inharmonious colors, of polluted +waters, of soot-stained walls and smoke-tinged air, the green of +jungle comes like a cooling bath of delicate tints and shades. I think +of all the green things I have loved—of malachite in matrix and +table-top; of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> jade, not factory-hewn baubles, but age-mellowed +signets, fashioned by lovers of their craft, and seasoned by the +toying yellow fingers of generations of forgotten Chinese +emperors—jade, as Dunsany would say, of the exact shade of the right +color. I think too, of dainty emerald scarves that are seen and lost +in a flash at a dance; of the air-cooled, living green of curling +breakers; of a lonely light that gleams to starboard of an unknown +passing vessel, and of the transparent green of northern lights that +flicker and play on winter nights high over the garish glare of +Broadway.</p> + +<p>Now, in late afternoon, when I opened my eyes in the little gorge, the +soft green vibrations merged insensibly with the longer waves of the +doves' voices and with the dying odor. Soon the green alone was +dominant; and when I had finished thinking of pleasant, far-off green +things, the wonderful emerald of my great tree-frog of last year came +to mind,—Gawain the mysterious,—and I wondered if I should ever +solve his life.</p> + +<p>In front of me was a little jungle rainpool. At the base of the +miniature precipice of the gorge, this pool was a thing of clay. It +was milky in consistence, from the roiling of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> suspended clay; and +when the surface caught a glint of light and reflected it, only the +clay and mud walls about came to the eye. It was a very regular pool, +a man's height in diameter, and, for all I knew, from two inches to +two miles deep. I became absorbed in a sort of subaquatic mirage, in +which I seemed to distinguish reflections beneath the surface. My eyes +refocused with a jerk, and I realized that something had unconsciously +been perceived by my rods and cones, and short-circuited to my duller +brain. Where a moment before was an unbroken translucent surface, were +now thirteen strange beings who had appeared from the depths, and were +mumbling oxygen with trembling lips.</p> + +<p>In days to come, through all the months, I should again and again be +surprised and cheated and puzzled—all phases of delight in the beings +who share the earth's life with me. This was one of the first of the +year, and I stiffened into one large eye.</p> + +<p>I did not know whether they were fish, fairy shrimps, or frogs; I had +never seen anything like them, and they were wholly unexpected. I so +much desired to know what they were, that I sat quietly—as I enjoy +keeping a treasured letter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> to the last, or reserving the frosting +until the cake is eaten. It occurred to me that, had it not been for +the Kaiser, I might have been forbidden this mystery; a chain of +occurrences: Kaiser—war—submarines—glass-shortage for +dreadnoughts—mica port-holes needed—Guiana prospector—abandoned +pits—rainy season—mysterious tenants—me!</p> + +<p>When I squatted by the side of the pool, no sign of life was visible. +Far up through the green foliage of the jungle I could see a solid +ceiling of cloud, while beneath me the liquid clay of the pool was +equally opaque and lifeless. As a seer watches the surface of his +crystal ball, so I gazed at my six-foot circle of milky water. My +shift forward was like the fall of a tree: it brought into existence +about it a temporary circle of silence and fear—a circle whose +periphery began at once to contract; and after a few minutes the gorge +again accepted me as a part of its harmless self. A huge bee zoomed +past, and just behind my head a hummingbird beat the air into a froth +of sound, as vibrant as the richest tones of a cello. My concentrated +interest seemed to become known to the life of the surrounding glade, +and I was bombarded with sight,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> sound, and odor, as if on purpose to +distract my attention. But I remained unmoved, and indications of rare +and desirable beings passed unheeded.</p> + +<p>A flotilla of little water-striders came rowing themselves along, +racing for a struggling ant which had fallen into the milky quicksand. +These were in my line of vision, so I watched them for a while, +letting the corner of my eye keep guard for the real aristocrats of +the milky sea—whoever they were. My eye was close enough, my +elevation sufficiently low to become one with the water-striders, and +to become excited over the adventures of these little petrels; and in +my absorption I almost forgot my chief quest. As soaring birds seem at +times to rest against the very substance of cloud, as if upheld by +some thin lift of air, so these insects glided as easily and skimmed +as swiftly upon the surface film of water. I did not know even the +genus of this tropical form; but insect taxonomists have been +particularly happy in their given names—I recalled <i>Hydrobates</i>, +<i>Aquarius</i>, and <i>remigis</i>.</p> + +<p>The spur-winged jacanas are very skilful in their dainty treading of +water-lily leaves; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> here were good-sized insects rowing about on +the water itself. They supported themselves on the four hinder legs, +rowing with the middle pair, and steering with the hinder ones, while +the front limbs were held aloft ready for the seizing of prey. I +watched three of them approach the ant, which was struggling to reach +the shore, and the first to reach it hesitated not a moment, but +leaped into the air from a take-off of mere aqueous surface film, +landed full upon the drowning unfortunate, grasped it, and at the same +instant gave a mighty sweep with its oars, to escape from its +pursuing, envious companions. Off went the twelve dimples, marking the +aquatic footprints of the trio of striders; and as the bearer of the +ant dodged one of its own kind, it was suddenly threatened by a small, +jet submarine of a diving beetle. At the very moment when the pursuit +was hottest, and it seemed anybody's ant, I looked aside, and the +little water-bugs passed from my sight forever—for scattered over the +surface were seven strange, mumbling mouths. Close as I was, their +nature still eluded me. At my slightest movement all vanished, not +with the virile splash of a fish or the healthy roll and dip of a +porpoise, but with a weird, vertical withdrawing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>—the seven +dissolving into the milk to join their six fellows.</p> + +<p>This was sufficient to banish further meditative surmising, and I +crept swiftly to a point of vantage, and with sweep-net awaited their +reappearance. It was five minutes before faint, discolored spots +indicated their rising, and at least two minutes more before they +actually disturbed the surface. With eight or nine in view, I dipped +quickly and got nothing. Then I sank my net deeply and waited again. +This time ten minutes passed, and then I swept deep and swiftly, and +drew up the net with four flopping, struggling super-tadpoles. They +struggled for only a moment, and then lay quietly waiting for what +might be sent by the guardian of the fate of tadpoles—surely some +quaint little god-relation of Neptune, Pan, and St. Vitus. Gently +shunted into a glass jar, these surprising tads accepted the new +environment with quiet philosophy; and when I reached the laboratory +and transferred them again, they dignifiedly righted themselves in the +swirling current, and hung in mid-aquarium, waiting—forever waiting.</p> + +<p>It was difficult to think of them as tadpoles, when the word brought +to mind hosts of little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> black wrigglers filling puddles and swamps of +our northern country. These were slow-moving, graceful creatures, +partly transparent, partly reflecting every hue of the spectrum, with +broad, waving scarlet and hyaline fins, and strange, fish-like mouths +and eyes. Their habits were as unpollywoglike as their appearance. I +visited their micaceous pool again and again; and if I could have +spent days instead of hours with them, no moment of ennui would have +intervened.</p> + +<p>My acquaintanceship with tadpoles in the past had not aroused me to +enthusiasm in the matter of their mental ability; as, for example, the +inmates of the next aquarium to that of the Redfins, where I kept a +herd or brood or school of Short-tailed Blacks—pollywogs of the Giant +Toad (<i>Bufo marinus</i>). At earliest dawn they swam aimlessly about and +mumbled; at high noon they mumbled and still swam; at midnight they +refused to be otherwise occupied. It was possible to alarm them; but +even while they fled they mumbled.</p> + +<p>In bodily form my Redfins were fish, but mentally they had advanced a +little beyond the usual tadpole train of reactions, reaching forward +toward the varied activities of the future amphibian.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> One noticeable +thing was their segregation, whether in the mica pools, or in two +other smaller ones near by, in which I found them. Each held a pure +culture of Redfins, and I found that this was no accident, but aided +and enforced by the tads themselves. Twice, while I watched them, I +saw definite pursuit of an alien pollywog,—the larva of the +Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker (<i>Phyllobates inguinalis</i>),—which fled +headlong. The second time the attack was so persistent that the lesser +tadpole leaped from the water, wriggled its way to a damp heap of +leaves, and slipped down between them. For tadpoles to take such +action as this was as reasonable as for an orchid to push a fellow +blossom aside on the approach of a fertilizing hawk-moth. This +momentary co-operation, and the concerted elimination of the undesired +tadpole, affected me as the thought of the first consciousness of +power of synchronous rhythm coming to ape men: it seemed a spark of +tadpole genius—an adumbration of possibilities which now would end in +the dull consciousness of the future frog, but which might, in past +ages, have been a vital link in the development of an ancestral +Ereops.</p> + +<p>My Redfins were assuredly no common tadpoles,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> and an intolerant +pollywog offers worthy research for the naturalist. Straining their +medium of its opacity, I drew off the clayey liquid and replaced it +with the clearer brown, wallaba-stained water of the Mazaruni; and +thereafter all their doings, all their intimacies, were at my mercy. I +felt as must have felt the first aviator who flew unheralded over an +oriental city, with its patios and house-roofs spread naked beneath +him.</p> + +<p>It was on one of the early days of observation that an astounding +thought came to me—before I had lost perspective in intensive +watching, before familiarity had assuaged some of the marvel of these +super-tadpoles. Most of those in my jar were of a like size, just +short of an inch; but one was much larger, and correspondingly +gorgeous in color and graceful in movement. As she swept slowly past +my line of vision, she turned and looked, first at me, then up at the +limits of her world, with a slow deliberateness and a hint of +expression which struck deep into my memory. Green came to +mind,—something clad in a smock of emerald, with a waist-coat of +mother-of-pearl, and great sprawling arms,—and I found myself +thinking of Gawain, our mystery frog of a year<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> ago, who came without +warning, and withheld all the secrets of his life. And I glanced again +at this super-tad,—as unlike her ultimate development as the grub is +unlike the beetle,—and one of us exclaimed, "It is the same, or +nearly, but more delicate, more beautiful; it must be Guinevere." And +so, probably for the first time in the world, there came to be a pet +tadpole, one with an absurd name which will forever be more +significant to us than the term applied by a forgotten herpetologist +many years ago.</p> + +<p>And Guinevere became known to all who had to do with the laboratory. +Her health and daily development and color-change were things to be +inquired after and discussed; one of us watched her closely and made +notes of her life, one painted every radical development of color and +pattern, another photographed her, and another brought her delectable +scum. She was waited upon as sedulously as a termite queen. And she +rewarded us by living, which was all we asked.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for a diver to express his emotions on paper, and +verbal arguments with a dentist are usually one-sided. So must the +spirit of a tadpole suffer greatly from handicaps of the flesh. A +mumbling mouth and an uncontrollable,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> flagellating tail, connected by +a pinwheel of intestine, are scant material wherewith to attempt new +experiments, whereon to nourish aspirations. Yet the Redfins, as +typified by Guinevere, have done both, and given time enough, they may +emulate or surpass the achievements of larval axolotls, or the +astounding egg-producing maggots of certain gnats, thus realizing all +the possibilities of froghood while yet cribbed within the lowly +casing of a pollywog.</p> + +<p>In the first place Guinevere had ceased being positively thigmotactic, +and, writing as a technical herpetologist, I need add no more. In +fact, all my readers, whether Batrachologists or Casuals, will agree +that this is an unheard-of achievement. But before I loosen the +technical etymology and become casually more explicit, let me hold +this term in suspense a moment, as I once did, fascinated by the sheer +sound of the syllables, as they first came to my ears years ago in a +university lecture. There is that of possibility in being positively +thigmotactic which makes one dread the necessity of exposing and +limiting its meaning, of digging down to its mathematically accurate +roots. It could never be called a flower of speech: it is an over-ripe +fruit rather: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>heavy-stoned, thin-fleshed—an essentially practical +term. It is eminently suited to its purpose, and so widely used that +my friend the editor must accept it; not looking askance as he did at +my definition of a vampire as a vespertilial anæsthetist, or breaking +into open but wholly ineffectual rebellion, at the past tense of the +verb to candelabra. I admit that the conjugation</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I candelabra<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You candelabra<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He candelabras<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>arouses a ripple of confusion in the mind; but it is far more +important to use words than to parse them, anyway, so I acclaim +perfect clarity for "The fireflies candelabraed the trees!"</p> + +<p>Not to know the precise meaning of being positively thigmotactic is a +stimulant to the imagination, which opens the way to an entire essay +on the disadvantages of education—a thought once strongly aroused by +the glorious red-and-gold hieroglyphic signs of the Peking +merchants—signs which have always thrilled me more than the utmost +efforts of our modern psychological advertisers.</p> + +<p>Having crossed unconsciously by such a slender<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> etymological bridge +from my jungle tadpole to China, it occurs to me that the Chinese are +the most positively thigmotactic people in the world. I have walked +through block after block of subterranean catacombs, beneath city +streets which were literally packed full of humanity, and I have seen +hot mud pondlets along the Min River wholly eclipsed by shivering +Chinamen packed sardinewise, twenty or thirty in layers, or radiating +like the spokes of a great wheel which has fallen into the mud.</p> + +<p>From my brood of Short-tailed Blacks, a half-dozen tadpoles wandered +off now and then, each scum-mumbling by himself. Shortly his +positivism asserted itself and back he wriggled, twisting in and out +of the mass of his fellows, or at the approach of danger nuzzling into +the dead leaves at the bottom, content only with the feeling of +something pressing against his sides and tail. His physical make-up, +simple as it is, has proved perfectly adapted to this touch system of +life: flat-bottomed, with rather narrow, paddle-shaped tail-fins +which, beginning well back of the body, interfere in no way with the +pollywog's instincts, he can thigmotact to his heart's content. His +eyes are also adapted to looking upward, discerning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> dimly dangers +from above, and whatever else catches the attention of a bottom-loving +pollywog. His mouth is well below, as best suits bottom mumbling.</p> + +<p>Compared with these <i>polloi</i> pollywogs, Redfins were as hummingbirds +to quail. Their very origin was unique; for while the toad tadpoles +wriggled their way free from egg gelatine deposited in the water +itself, the Redfins were literally rained down. Within a folded leaf +the parents left the eggs—a leaf carefully chosen as overhanging a +suitable ditch, or pit, or puddle. If all signs of weather and season +failed and a sudden drought set in, sap would dry, leaf would shrivel, +and the pitiful gamble for life of the little jungle frogs would be +lost; the spoonful of froth would collapse bubble by bubble, and, +finally, a thin dry film on the brown leaf would in turn vanish, and +Guinevere and her companions would never have been.</p> + +<p>But untold centuries of unconscious necessity have made these +tree-frogs infallible weather prophets, and the liberating rain soon +sifted through the jungle foliage. In the streaming drops which +funneled from the curled leaf, tadpole after tadpole hurtled downward +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> splashed headlong into the water; their parents and the rain and +gravitation had performed their part, and from now on fate lay with +the super-tads themselves—except when a passing naturalist brought +new complications, new demands of Karma, as strange and unpredictable +as if from another planet or universe.</p> + +<p>Only close examination showed that these were tadpoles, not fish, +judged by the staring eyes, and broad fins stained above and below +with orange-scarlet—colors doomed to oblivion in the native, milky +waters, but glowing brilliantly in my aquarium. Although they were +provided with such an expanse of fin, the only part used for ordinary +progression was the extreme tip, a mere threadlike streamer, which +whipped in never-ending spirals, lashing forward, backward, and +sideways. So rapid was this motion, and so short the flagellum, that +the tadpole did not even tremble or vibrate as it moved, but forged +steadily onward, without a tremor.</p> + +<p>The head was buffy yellow, changing to bittersweet orange back of the +eyes and on the gills. The body was dotted with a host of minute +specks of gold and silver. On the sides and below, this gave place to +a rich bronze, and then to a clear,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> iridescent silvery blue. The eye +proper was silvery white, but the upper part of the eyeball fairly +glowed with color. In front it was jet black flecked with gold, +merging behind into a brilliant blue. Yet this patch of jeweled tissue +was visible only rarely as the tadpole turned forward, and in the +opaque liquid of the mica pool must have ever been hidden. And even if +plainly seen, of what use was a shred of rainbow to a sexless tadpole +in the depths of a shady pool!</p> + +<p>With high-arched fins, beginning at neck and throat, body compressed +as in a racing yacht, there could be no bottom life for Guinevere. +Whenever she touched a horizontal surface,—whether leaf or twig,—she +careened; when she sculled through a narrow passage in the floating +algæ, her fins bent and rippled as they were pressed bodywards. So she +and her fellow brood lived in mid-aquarium, or at most rested lightly +against stem or glass, suspended by gentle suction of the complex +mouth. Once, when I inserted a long streamer of delicate water-weed, +it remained upright, like some strange tree of carboniferous memory. +After an hour I found this the perching-place of fourteen Redfin tads, +and at the very summit was Guinevere. The rest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> were arranged nearly +in altitudinal size—two large tadpoles being close below Guinevere, +and a bevy of six tiny chaps lowest down. All were lightly poised, +swaying in mid-water, at a gently sloping angle, like some unheard-of, +orange-stained, aquatic autumn foliage.</p> + +<p>For two weeks Guinevere remained almost as I have described her, +gaining slightly in size, but with little alteration of color or +pattern. Then came the time of the great change: we felt it to be +imminent before any outward signs indicated its approach. And for four +more days there was no hint except the sudden growth of the hind legs. +From tiny dangling appendages with minute toes and indefinite knees, +they enlarged and bent, and became miniature but perfect frog's limbs.</p> + +<p>She had now reached a length of two inches, and her delicate colors +and waving fins made her daily more marvelous. The strange thing about +the hind limbs was that, although so large and perfect, they were +quite useless. They could not even be unflexed; and other mere +pollywogs near by were wriggling toes, calves, and thighs while yet +these were but imperfect buds. When she dived suddenly, the toes +occasionally moved a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> little; but as a whole, they merely sagged and +drifted like some extraneous things entangled in the body.</p> + +<p>Smoothly and gracefully Guinevere moved about the aquarium. Her gills +lifted and closed rhythmically—twice as slowly as compared with the +three or four times every second of her breathless young tadpolehood. +Several times on the fourteenth day, she came quietly to the surface +for a gulp of air.</p> + +<p>Looking at her from above, two little bulges were visible on either +side of the body—the ensheathed elbows pressing outward. Twice, when +she lurched forward in alarm, I saw these front limbs jerk +spasmodically; and when she was resting quietly, they rubbed and +pushed impatiently against their mittened tissue.</p> + +<p>And now began a restless shifting, a slow, strange dance in mid-water, +wholly unlike any movement of her smaller companions; up and down, +slowly revolving on oblique planes, with rhythmical turns and +sinkings—this continued for an hour, when I was called for lunch. And +as if to punish me for this material digression and desertion, when I +returned, in half an hour, the miracle had happened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> + +<p>Guinevere still danced in stately cadence, with the other Redfins at a +distance going about their several businesses. She danced alone—a +dance of change, of happenings of tremendous import, of symbolism as +majestic as it was age-old. Here in this little glass aquarium the +tadpole Guinevere had just freed her arms—she, with waving scarlet +fins, watching me with lidless white and staring eyes, still with +fish-like, fin-bound body. She danced upright, with new-born arms +folded across her breast, tail-tip flagellating frenziedly, stretching +long fingers with disks like cymbals, reaching out for the land she +had never trod, limbs flexed for leaps she had never made.</p> + +<p>A few days before and Guinevere had been a fish, then a helpless +biped, and now suddenly, somewhere between my salad and coffee, she +became an aquatic quadruped. Strangest of all, her hands were mobile, +her feet useless; and when the dance was at an end, and she sank +slowly to the bottom, she came to rest on the very tips of her two +longest fingers; her legs and toes still drifting high and useless. +Just before she ceased, her arms stretched out right froggily, her +weird eyes rolled about, and she gulped a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> mighty gulp of the strange +thin medium that covered the surface of her liquid home.</p> + +<p>At midnight of this same day only three things existed in the +world—on my table I turned from the <i>Bhagavad-Gita</i> to Drinkwater's +<i>Reverie</i> and back again; then I looked up to the jar of clear water +and watched Guinevere hovering motionless. At six the next morning she +was crouched safely on a bit of paper a foot from the aquarium. She +had missed the open window, the four-foot drop to the floor, and a +neighboring aquarium stocked with voracious fish: surely the gods of +pollywogs were kind to me. The great fins were gone—dissolved into +blobs of dull pink; the tail was a mere stub, the feet drawn close, +and a glance at her head showed that Guinevere had become a frog +almost within an hour. Three things I hastened to observe: the pupils +of her eyes were vertical, revealing her genus <i>Phyllomedusa</i> (making +apt our choice of the feminine); by a gentle urging I saw that the +first and second toes were equal in length; and a glance at her little +humped back showed a scattering of white calcareous spots, giving the +clue to her specific personality—<i>bicolor</i>: thus were we introduced +to <i>Phyllomedusa bicolor</i>, alias Guinevere,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> and thus was established +beyond doubt her close relationship to Gawain.</p> + +<p>During that first day, within three hours, during most of which I +watched her closely, Guinevere's change in color was beyond belief. +For an hour she leaped from time to time; but after that, and for the +rest of her life, she crept in strange unfroglike fashion, raised high +on all four limbs, with her stubby tail curled upward, and reaching +out one weird limb after another. If one's hand approached within a +foot, she saw it and stretched forth appealing, skinny fingers.</p> + +<p>At two o'clock she was clad in a general cinnamon buff; then a shade +of glaucous green began to creep over head and upper eyelids, onward +over her face, finally coloring body and limbs. Beneath, the little +pollyfrog fairly glowed with bright apricot orange, throat and tail +amparo purple, mouth green, and sides rich pale blue. To this maze of +color we must add a strange, new expression, born of the prominent +eyes, together with the line of the mouth extending straight back with +a final jeering, upward lift; in front, the lower lip thick and +protruding, which, with the slanting eyes, gave a leering, devilish +smirk, while her set, stiff, exact posture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> compelled a vivid thought +of the sphinx. Never have I seen such a remarkable combination. It +fascinated us. We looked at Guinevere, and then at the tadpoles +swimming quietly in their tank, and evolution in its wildest +conceptions appeared a tame truism.</p> + +<p>This was the acme of Guinevere's change, the pinnacle of her +development. Thereafter her transformations were rhythmical, +alternating with the day and night. Through the nights of activity she +was garbed in rich, warm brown. With the coming of dawn, as she +climbed slowly upward, her color shifted through chestnut to maroon; +this maroon then died out on the mid-back to a delicate, dull +violet-blue, which in turn became obscured in the sunlight by +turquoise, which crept slowly along the sides. Carefully and +laboriously she clambered up, up to the topmost frond, and there +performed her little toilet, scraping head and face with her hands, +passing the hinder limbs over her back to brush off every grain of +sand. The eyes had meanwhile lost their black-flecked, golden, +nocturnal iridescence, and had gradually paled to a clear silvery +blue, while the great pupil of darkness narrowed to a slit.</p> + +<p>Little by little her limbs and digits were drawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> in out of sight, and +the tiny jeweled being crouched low, hoping for a day of comfortable +clouds, a little moisture, and a swift passage of time to the next +period of darkness, when it was fitting and right for Guineveres to +seek their small meed of sustenance, to grow to frog's full estate, +and to fulfil as well as might be what destiny the jungle offered. To +unravel the meaning of it all is beyond even attempting. The breath of +mist ever clouds the mirror, and only as regards a tiny segment of the +life-history of Guinevere can I say, "There is no need to wipe the +mirror."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h2>A JUNGLE LABOR-UNION</h2> + + +<p>Pterodactyl Pups led me to the wonderful Attas—the most astounding of +the jungle labor-unions. We were all sitting on the Mazaruni bank, the +night before the full moon, immediately in front of my British Guiana +laboratory. All the jungle was silent in the white light, with now and +then the splash of a big river fish. On the end of the bench was the +monosyllabic Scot, who ceased the exquisite painting of mora +buttresses and jungle shadows only for the equal fascination of +searching bats for parasites. Then the great physician, who had come +six thousand miles to peer into the eyes of birds and lizards in my +dark-room, working with a gentle hypnotic manner that made the little +beings seem to enjoy the experience. On my right sat an army captain, +who had given more thought to the possible secrets of French +chaffinches than to the approaching barrage. There was also the +artist, who could draw a lizard's head like a Japanese<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> print, but +preferred to depict impressionistic Laocoön roots.</p> + +<p>These and others sat with me on the long bench and watched the +moonpath. The conversation had begun with possible former life on the +moon, then shifted to Conan Doyle's <i>The Lost World</i>, based on the +great Roraima plateau, a hundred and fifty miles west of where we were +sitting. Then we spoke of the amusing world-wide rumor, which had +started no one knows how, that I had recently discovered a +pterodactyl. One delightful result of this had been a letter from a +little English girl, which would have made a worthy chapter-subject +for <i>Dream Days</i>. For years she and her little sister had peopled a +wood near her home with pterodactyls, but had somehow never quite seen +one; and would I tell her a little about them—whether they had +scales, or made nests; so that those in the wood might be a little +easier to recognize.</p> + +<p>When strange things are discussed for a long time, in the light of a +tropical moon, at the edge of a dark, whispering jungle, the mind +becomes singularly imaginative and receptive; and, as I looked through +powerful binoculars at the great suspended globe, the dead craters and +precipices<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> became very vivid and near. Suddenly, without warning, +there flapped into my field, a huge shapeless creature. It was no +bird, and there was nothing of the bat in its flight—the wings moved +with steady rhythmical beats, and drove it straight onward. The wings +were skinny, the body large and of a pale ashy hue. For a moment I was +shaken. One of the others had seen it, and he, too, did not speak, but +concentrated every sense into the end of the little tubes. By the time +I had begun to find words, I realized that a giant fruit bat had flown +from utter darkness across my line of sight; and by close watching we +soon saw others. But for a very few seconds these Pterodactyl Pups, as +I nicknamed them, gave me all the thrill of a sudden glimpse into the +life of past ages. The last time I had seen fruit bats was in the +gardens of Perideniya, Ceylon. I had forgotten that they occurred in +Guiana, and was wholly unprepared for the sight of bats a yard across, +with a heron's flight, passing high over the Mazaruni in the +moonlight.</p> + +<p>The talk ended on the misfortune of the configuration of human +anatomy, which makes sky-searching so uncomfortable a habit. This +outlook was probably developed to a greater extent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> during the war +than ever before; and I can remember many evenings in Paris and London +when a sinister half-moon kept the faces of millions turned +searchingly upward. But whether in city or jungle, sky-scanning is a +neck-aching affair.</p> + +<p>The following day my experience with the Pterodactyl Pups was not +forgotten, and as a direct result of looking out for soaring vultures +and eagles, with hopes of again seeing a white-plumaged King and the +regal Harpy, I caught sight of a tiny mote high up in mid-sky. I +thought at first it was a martin or swift; but it descended, slowly +spiraling, and became too small for any bird. With a final, long, +descending curve, it alighted in the compound of our bungalow +laboratory and rested quietly—a great queen of the leaf-cutting Attas +returning from her marriage flight. After a few minutes she stirred, +walked a few steps, cleaned her antennæ, and searched nervously about +on the sand. A foot away was a tiny sprig of indigo, the offspring of +some seed planted two or three centuries ago by a thrifty Dutchman. In +the shade of its three leaves the insect paused, and at once began +scraping at the sand with her jaws. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> loosened grain after grain, +and as they came free they were moistened, agglutinated, and pressed +back against her forelegs. When at last a good-sized ball was formed, +she picked it up, turned around and, after some fussy indecision, +deposited it on the sand behind her. Then she returned to the very +shallow, round depression, and began to gather a second ball.</p> + +<p>I thought of the first handful of sand thrown out for the base of +Cheops, of the first brick placed in position for the Great Wall, of a +fresh-cut trunk, rough-hewn and squared for a log-cabin on Manhattan; +of the first shovelful of earth flung out of the line of the Panama +Canal. Yet none seemed worthy of comparison with even what little I +knew of the significance of this ant's labor, for this was earnest of +what would make trivial the engineering skill of Egyptians, of Chinese +patience, of municipal pride and continental schism.</p> + +<p>Imagine sawing off a barn-door at the top of a giant sequoia, growing +at the bottom of the Grand Cañon, and then, with five or six children +clinging to it, descending the tree, and carrying it up the cañon +walls against a subway rush of rude people, who elbowed and pushed +blindly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> against you. This is what hundreds of leaf-cutting ants +accomplish daily, when cutting leaves from a tall bush, at the foot of +the bank near the laboratory.</p> + +<p>There are three dominant labor-unions in the jungle, all social +insects, two of them ants, never interfering with each other's field +of action, and all supremely illustrative of conditions resulting from +absolute equality, free-and-equalness, communalism, socialism carried +to the (forgive me!) anth power. The Army Ants are carnivorous, +predatory, militant nomads; the Termites are vegetarian scavengers, +sedentary, negative and provincial; the Attas, or leaf-cutting ants, +are vegetarians, active and dominant, and in many ways the most +interesting of all.</p> + +<p>The casual observer becomes aware of them through their raids upon +gardens; and indeed the Attas are a very serious menace to agriculture +in many parts of the tropics, where their nests, although underground, +may be as large as a house and contain millions of individuals. While +their choice among wild plants is exceedingly varied, it seems that +there are certain things they will not touch; but when any +human-reared flower, vegetable, shrub, vine, or tree is planted,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> the +Attas rejoice, and straightway desert the native vegetation to fall +upon the newcomers. Their whims and irregular feeding habits make it +difficult to guard against them. They will work all round a garden for +weeks, perhaps pass through it <i>en route</i> to some tree that they are +defoliating, and then suddenly, one night, every Atta in the world +seems possessed with a desire to work havoc, and at daylight the next +morning, the garden looks like winter stubble—a vast expanse of stems +and twigs, without a single remaining leaf. Volumes have been written, +and a whole chemist's shop of deadly concoctions devised, for +combating these ants, and still they go steadily on, gathering leaves +which, as we shall see, they do not even use for food.</p> + +<p>Although essentially a tropical family, Attas have pushed as far north +as New Jersey, where they make a tiny nest, a few inches across, and +bring to it bits of pine needles.</p> + +<p>In a jungle Baedeker, we should double-star these insects, and paragraph +them as "<i>Atta</i>, named by Fabricius in 1804; the Kartabo species, +<i>cephalotes</i>; Leaf-cutting or Cushie or Parasol Ants; very abundant. +<i>Atta</i>, a subgenus of <i>Atta</i>, which is a genus of <i>Attii</i>, +which is a tribe of <i>Myrmicinæ</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> which is a subfamily of +<i>Formicidæ</i>," etc.</p> + +<p>With a feeling of slightly greater intimacy, of mental possession, we +set out, armed with a name of one hundred and seventeen years' +standing, and find a big Atta worker carving away at a bit of leaf, +exactly as his ancestors had done for probably one hundred and +seventeen thousand years.</p> + +<p>We gently lift him from his labor, and a drop of chloroform banishes +from his ganglia all memory of the hundred thousand years of pruning. +Under the lens his strange personality becomes manifest, and we wonder +whether the old Danish zoölogist had in mind the slender toe-tips +which support him, or in a chuckling mood made him a namesake of C. +Quintius Atta. A close-up shows a very comic little being, encased in +a prickly, chestnut-colored armor, which should make him fearless in a +den of a hundred anteaters. The front view of his head is a bit +mephistophelian, for it is drawn upward into two horny spines; but the +side view recalls a little girl with her hair brushed very tightly up +and back from her face.</p> + +<p>The connection between Atta and the world<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> about him is furnished by +this same head: two huge, flail-shaped antennæ arching up like aerial, +detached eyebrows—vehicles, through their golden pile, of senses +which foil our most delicate tests. Outside of these are two little +shoe-button eyes; and we are not certain whether they reflect to the +head ganglion two or three hundred bits of leaf, or one large mosaic +leaf. Below all is swung the pair of great scythes, so edged and hung +that they can function as jaws, rip-saws, scissors, forceps, and +clamps. The thorax, like the head of a titanothere, bears three pairs +of horns—a great irregular expanse of tumbled, rock-like skin and +thorn, a foundation for three pairs of long legs, and sheltering +somewhere in its heart a thread of ant-life; finally, two little +pedicels lead to a rounded abdomen, smaller than the head. This +Third-of-an-inch is a worker Atta to the physical eye; and if we catch +another, or ten, or ten million, we find that some are small, others +much larger, but that all are cast in the same mold, all +indistinguishable except, perhaps, to the shoe-button eyes.</p> + +<p>When a worker has traveled along the Atta trails, and has followed the +temporary mob-instinct and climbed bush or tree, the same +irresistible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> force drives him out upon a leaf. Here, apparently, +instinct slightly loosens its hold, and he seems to become individual +for a moment, to look about, and to decide upon a suitable edge or +corner of green leaf. But even in this he probably has no choice. At +any rate, he secures a good hold and sinks his jaws into the tissue. +Standing firmly on the leaf, he measures his distance by cutting +across a segment of a circle, with one of his hind feet as a center. +This gives a very true curve, and provides a leaf-load of suitable +size. He does not scissor his way across, but bit by bit sinks the tip +of one jaw, hook-like, into the surface, and brings the other up to +it, slicing through the tissue with surprising ease. He stands upon +the leaf, and I always expect to see him cut himself and his load +free, Irishman-wise. But one or two of his feet have invariably +secured a grip on the plant, sufficient to hold him safely. Even if +one or two of his fellows are at work farther down the leaf, he has +power enough in his slight grip to suspend all until they have +finished and clambered up over him with their loads.</p> + +<p>Holding his bit of leaf edge-wise, he bends his head down as far as +possible, and secures a strong purchase along the very rim. Then, as +he raises<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> his head, the leaf rises with it, suspended high over his +back, out of the way. Down the stem or tree-trunk he trudges, head +first, fighting with gravitation, until he reaches the ground. After a +few feet, or, measured by his stature, several hundred yards, his +infallible instinct guides him around pebble boulders, mossy orchards, +and grass jungles to a specially prepared path.</p> + +<p>Thus in words, in sentences, we may describe the cutting of a single +leaf; but only in the imagination can we visualize the cell-like or +crystal-like duplication of this throughout all the great forests of +Guiana and of South America. As I write, a million jaws snip through +their stint; as you read, ten million Attas begin on new bits of leaf. +And all in silence and in dim light, legions passing along the little +jungle roads, unending lines of trembling banners, a political parade +of ultra socialism, a procession of chlorophyll floats illustrating +unreasoning unmorality, a fairy replica of "Birnam Forest come to +Dunsinane."</p> + +<p>In their leaf-cutting, Attas have mastered mass, but not form. I have +never seen one cut off a piece too heavy to carry, but many a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>hard-sliced bit has had to be deserted because of the configuration +of the upper edge. On almost any trail, an ant can be found with a +two-inch stem of grass, attempting to pass under a twig an inch +overhead. After five or ten minutes of pushing, backing, and pulling, +he may accidentally march off to one side, or reach up and climb over; +but usually he drops his burden. His little works have been wound up, +and set at the mark "home"; and though he has now dropped the prize +for which he walked a dozen ant-miles, yet any idea of cutting another +stem, or of picking up a slice of leaf from those lying along the +trail, never occurs to him. He sets off homeward, and if any emotion +of sorrow, regret, disappointment, or secret relief troubles his +ganglia, no trace of it appears in antennæ, carriage, or speed. I can +very readily conceive of his trudging sturdily all the way back to the +nest, entering it, and going to the place where he would have dumped +his load, having fulfilled his duty in the spirit at least. Then, if +there comes a click in his internal time-clock, he may set out upon +another quest—more cabined, cribbed, and confined than any member of +a Cook's tourist party.</p> + +<p>I once watched an ant with a piece of leaf<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> which had a regular +shepherd's crook at the top, and if his adventures of fifty feet could +have been caught on a moving-picture film, Charlie Chaplin would have +had an arthropod rival. It hooked on stems and pulled its bearer off +his feet, it careened and ensnared the leaves of other ants, at one +place mixing up with half a dozen. A big thistledown became tangled in +it, and well-nigh blew away with leaf and all; hardly a foot of his +path was smooth-going. But he persisted, and I watched him reach the +nest, after two hours of tugging and falling and interference with +traffic.</p> + +<p>Occasionally an ant will slip in crossing a twiggy crevasse, and his +leaf become tightly wedged. After sprawling on his back and vainly +clawing at the air for a while, he gets up, brushes off his antennæ, +and sets to work. For fifteen minutes I have watched an Atta in this +predicament, stodgily endeavoring to lift his leaf while standing on +it at the same time. The equation of push equaling pull is fourth +dimensional to the Attas.</p> + +<p>With all this terrible expenditure of energy, the activities of these +ants are functional within very narrow limits. The blazing sun causes +them to drop their burdens and flee for home; a heavy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> wind frustrates +them, for they cannot reef. When a gale arises and sweeps an exposed +portion of the trail, their only resource is to cut away all sail and +heave it overboard. A sudden downpour reduces a thousand banners and +waving, bright-colored petals to débris, to be trodden under foot. +Sometimes, after a ten-minute storm, the trails will be carpeted with +thousands of bits of green mosaic, which the outgoing hordes will +trample in their search for more leaves. On a dark night little seems +to be done; but at dawn and dusk, and in the moonlight or clear +starlight, the greatest activity is manifest.</p> + +<p>Attas are such unpalatable creatures that they are singularly free +from dangers. There is a tacit armistice between them and the other +labor-unions. The army ants occasionally make use of their trails when +they are deserted; but when the two great races of ants meet, each +antennæs the aura of the other, and turns respectfully aside. When +termites wish to traverse an Atta trail, they burrow beneath it, or +build a covered causeway across, through which they pass and repass at +will, and over which the Attas trudge, uncaring and unconscious of its +significance.</p> + +<p>Only creatures with the toughest of digestions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> would dare to include +these prickly, strong-jawed, meatless insects in a bill of fare. Now +and then I have found an ani, or black cuckoo, with a few in its +stomach: but an ani can swallow a stinging-haired caterpillar and +enjoy it. The most consistent feeder upon Attas is the giant marine +toad. Two hundred Attas in a night is not an uncommon meal, the exact +number being verifiable by a count of the undigested remains of heads +and abdomens. <i>Bufo marinus</i> is the gardener's best friend in this +tropic land, and besides, he is a gentleman and a philosopher, if ever +an amphibian was one.</p> + +<p>While the cutting of living foliage is the chief aim in life of these +ants, yet they take advantage of the flotsam and jetsam along the +shore, and each low tide finds a column from some nearby nest +salvaging flowerets, leaves, and even tiny berries. A sudden wash of +tide lifts a hundred ants with their burdens and then sets them down +again, when they start off as if nothing had happened.</p> + +<p>The paths or trails of the Attas represent very remarkable feats of +engineering, and wind about through jungle and glade for surprising +distances. I once traced a very old and wide trail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> for well over two +hundred yards. Taking little Third-of-an-inch for a type (although he +would rank as a rather large Atta), and comparing him with a six-foot +man, we reckon this trail, ant-ratio, as a full twenty-five miles. +Belt records a leaf-cutter's trail half a mile long, which would mean +that every ant that went out, cut his tiny bit of leaf, and returned, +would traverse a distance of a hundred and sixteen miles. This was an +extreme; but our Atta may take it for granted, speaking antly, that +once on the home trail, he has, at the least, four or five miles ahead +of him.</p> + +<p>The Atta roads are clean swept, as straight as possible, and very +conspicuous in the jungle. The chief high-roads leading from very +large nests are a good foot across, and the white sand of their beds +is visible a long distance away. I once knew a family of opossums +living in a stump in the center of a dense thicket. When they left at +evening, they always climbed along as far as an Atta trail, dropped +down to it, and followed it for twenty or thirty yards. During the +rains I have occasionally found tracks of agoutis and deer in these +roads. So it would be very possible for the Attas to lay the +foundation for an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> animal trail, and this, <i>à la</i> calf-path, for the +street of a future city.</p> + +<p>The part that scent plays in the trails is evidenced if we scatter an +inch or two of fresh sand across the road. A mass of ants banks +against the strange obstruction on both sides, on the one hand a solid +phalanx of waving green banners, and on the other a mob of empty-jawed +workers with wildly waving antennæ. Scouts from both sides slowly +wander forward, and finally reach one another and pass across. But not +for ten minutes does anything like regular traffic begin again.</p> + +<p>When carrying a large piece of leaf, and traveling at a fair rate of +speed, the ants average about a foot in ten seconds, although many go +the same distance in five. I tested the speed of an Atta, and then I +saw that its leaf seemed to have a peculiar-shaped bug upon it, and +picked it up with its bearer. Finding the blemish to be only a bit of +fungus, I replaced it. Half an hour later I was seated by a trail far +away, when suddenly my ant with the blemished spot appeared. It was +unmistakable, for I had noticed that the spot was exactly that of the +Egyptian symbol of life. I paced the trail, and found that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> seventy +yards away it joined the spot where I had first seen my friend. So, +with occasional spurts, he had done two hundred and ten feet in thirty +minutes, and this in spite of the fact that he had picked up a +supercargo.</p> + +<p>Two parts of hydrogen and one of oxygen, under the proper stimulus, +invariably result in water; two and two, considered calmly and without +passion, combine into four; the workings of instinct, especially in +social insects, is so mechanical that its results can almost be +demonstrated in formula; and yet here was my Atta leaf-carrier +burdened with a minim. The worker Attas vary greatly in size, as a +glance at a populous trail will show. They have been christened +<i>macrergates, desmergates</i> and <i>micrergates</i>; or we may call the +largest Maxims, the average middle class Mediums, and the tiny chaps +Minims, and all have more or less separate functions in the ecology of +the colony. The Minims are replicas in miniature of the big chaps, +except that their armor is pale cinnamon rather than chestnut. +Although they can bite ferociously, they are too small to cut through +leaves, and they have very definite duties in the nest; yet they are +found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> with every leaf-cutting gang, hastening along with their larger +brethren, but never doing anything, that I could detect, at their +journey's end. I have a suspicion that the little Minims, who are very +numerous, function as light cavalry; for in case of danger they are as +eager at attack as the great soldiers, and the leaf-cutters, absorbed +in their arduous labor, would benefit greatly from the immunity +ensured by a flying corps of their little bulldog comrades.</p> + +<p>I can readily imagine that these nestling Minims become weary and +foot-sore (like bank-clerks guarding a reservoir), and if instinct +allows such abominable individuality, they must often wish themselves +back at the nest, for every mile of a Medium is three miles to them.</p> + +<p>Here is where our mechanical formula breaks down; for, often, as many +as one in every five leaves that pass bears aloft a Minim or two, +clinging desperately to the waving leaf and getting a free ride at the +expense of the already overburdened Medium. Ten is the extreme number +seen, but six to eight Minims collected on a single leaf is not +uncommon. Several times I have seen one of these little banner-riders +shift deftly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> from leaf to leaf, when a swifter carrier passed by, as +a circus bareback rider changes steeds at full gallop.</p> + +<p>Once I saw enacted above ground, and in the light of day, something +which may have had its roots in an <i>anlage</i> of divine discontent. If I +were describing the episode half a century ago, I should entitle it, +"The Battle of the Giants, or Emotion Enthroned." A quadruple line of +leaf-carriers was disappearing down a hole in front of the laboratory, +bumped and pushed by an out-pouring, empty-jawed mass of workers. As I +watched them, I became aware of an area of great excitement beyond the +hole. Getting down as nearly as possible to ant height, I witnessed a +terrible struggle. Two giants—of the largest soldier Maxim +caste—were locked in each other's jaws, and to my horror, I saw that +each had lost his abdomen. The antennæ and the abdomen petiole are the +only vulnerable portions of an Atta, and long after he has lost these +apparently dispensable portions of his anatomy, he is able to walk, +fight, and continue an active but erratic life. These mighty-jawed +fellows seem never to come to the surface unless danger threatens; and +my mind went down into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> black, musty depths, where it is the duty +of these soldiers to walk about and wait for trouble. What could have +raised the ire of such stolid neuters against one another? Was it +sheer lack of something to do? or was there a cell or two of the +winged caste lying fallow within their bodies, which, stirring at +last, inspired a will to battle, a passing echo of romance, of the +activities of the male Atta?</p> + +<p>Their unnatural combat had stirred scores of smaller workers to the +highest pitch of excitement. Now and then, out of the mêlée, a Medium +would emerge, with a tiny Minim in his jaws. One of these carried his +still living burden many feet away, along an unused trail, and dropped +it. I examined the small ant, and found that it had lost an antenna, +and its body was crushed. When the ball of fighters cleared, twelve +small ants were seen clinging to the legs and heads of the mutilated +giants, and now and then these would loosen their hold on each other, +turn, and crush one of their small tormenters. Several times I saw a +Medium rush up and tear a small ant away, apparently quite insane with +excitement.</p> + +<p>Occasionally the least exhausted giant would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> stagger to his four and +a half remaining legs, hoist his assailant, together with a mass of +the midgets, high in air, and stagger for a few steps, before falling +beneath the onrush of new attackers. It made me wish to help the great +insect, who, for aught I knew, was doomed because he was +different—because he had dared to be an individual.</p> + +<p>I left them struggling there, and half an hour later, when I returned, +the episode was just coming to a climax. My Atta hero was exerting his +last strength, flinging off the pile that assaulted him, fighting all +the easier because of the loss of his heavy body. He lurched forward, +dragging the second giant, now dead, not toward the deserted trail or +the world of jungle around him, but headlong into the lines of stupid +leaf-carriers, scattering green leaves and flower-petals in all +directions. Only when dozens of ants threw themselves upon him, many +of them biting each other in their wild confusion, did he rear up for +the last time, and, with the whole mob, rolled down into the yawning +mouth of the Atta nesting-hole, disappearing from view, and carrying +with him all those hurrying up the steep sides. It was a great battle. +I was breathing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> fast with sympathy, and whatever his cause, I was on +his side.</p> + +<p>The next day both giants were lying on the old, disused trail; the +revolt against absolute democracy was over; ten thousand ants passed +to and fro without a dissenting thought, or any thought, and the +Spirit of the Attas was content.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h2>THE ATTAS AT HOME</h2> + + +<p>Clambering through white, pasty mud which stuck to our boots by the +pound, peering through bitter cold mist which seemed but a thinner +skim of mud, drenched by flurries of icy drops shaken from the +atmosphere by a passing moan and a crash, breathing air heavy with a +sweet, horrible, penetrating odor—such was the world as it existed +for an hour one night, while I and the Commandant of <i>Douaumont</i> +wandered about completely lost, on the top of his own fort. We finally +stumbled on the little grated opening through which the lookout peered +unceasingly over the landscape of mud. The mist lifted and we +rediscovered the cave-like entrance, watched for a moment the ominous +golden dumb-bells rising from the premier ligne, scraped our boots on +a German helmet and went down again into the strangest sanctuary in +the world.</p> + +<p>This was the vision which flashed through my mind as I began vigil at +an enormous nest of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> Attas—the leaf-cutting ants of the British +Guiana jungle. In front of me was a glade, about thirty feet across, +devoid of green growth, and filled with a great irregular expanse of +earth and mud. Relative to the height of the Attas, my six feet must +seem a good half mile, and from this height I looked down and saw +again the same inconceivably sticky clay of France. There were the +rain-washed gullies, the half-roofed entrances to the vast underground +fortresses, clean-swept, perfect roads, as efficient as the arteries +of Verdun, flapping dead leaves like the omnipresent, worn-out +scare-crows of camouflage, and over in one corner, to complete the +simile, were a dozen shell-holes, the homes of voracious ant-lions, +which, for passing insects, were unexploded mines, set at hair +trigger.</p> + +<p>My Atta city was only two hundred feet away from the laboratory, in +fairly high jungle, within sound of the dinner triangle, and of the +lapping waves on the Mazaruni shore. To sit near by and concentrate +solely upon the doings of these ant people, was as easy as watching a +single circus ring of performing elephants, while two more rings, a +maze of trapezes, a race track and side-shows were in full swing. The +jungle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> around me teemed with interesting happenings and distracting +sights and sounds. The very last time I visited the nest and became +absorbed in a line of incoming ants, I heard the shrill squeaking of +an angry hummingbird overhead. I looked up, and there, ten feet above, +was a furry tamandua anteater slowly climbing a straight purpleheart +trunk, while around and around his head buzzed and swore the little +fury—a pinch of cinnamon feathers, ablaze with rage. The curved claws +of the unheeding anteater fitted around the trunk and the strong +prehensile tail flattened against the bark, so that the creature +seemed to put forth no more exertion than if walking along a fallen +log. Now and then it stopped and daintily picked at a bit of termite +nest.</p> + +<p>With such side-shows it was sometimes difficult to concentrate on the +Attas. Yet they offered problems for years of study. The glade was a +little world in itself, with visitors and tenants, comedy and tragedy, +sounds and silences. It was an ant-made glade, with all new growths +either choked by upflung, earthen hillocks, or leaves bitten off as +soon as they appeared. The casual visitors were the most conspicuous, +an occasional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> trogon swooping across—a glowing, feathered comet of +emerald, azurite and gold; or, slowly drifting in and out among the +vines and coming to rest with waving wings, a yellow and red spotted +Ithomiid,—or was it a Heliconiid or a Danaiid?—with such bewildering +models and marvelous mimics it was impossible to tell without capture +and close examination. Giant, purple tarantula-hawks hummed past, +scanning the leaves for their prey.</p> + +<p>Another class of glade haunters were those who came strictly on +business,—plasterers and sculptors, who found wet clay ready to their +needs. Great golden and rufous bees blundered down and gouged out +bucketsful of mud; while slender-bodied, dainty, ebony wasps, after +much fastidious picking of place, would detach a tiny bit of the +whitest clay, place it in their snuff-box holder, clean their feet and +antennæ, run their rapier in and out and delicately take to wing.</p> + +<p>Little black trigonid bees had their special quarry, a small deep +valley in the midst of a waste of interlacing Bad Lands, on the side +of a precipitous butte. Here they picked and shoveled to their hearts' +content, plastering their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> thighs until their wings would hardly lift +them. They braced their feet, whirred, lifted unevenly, and sank back +with a jar. Then turning, they bit off a piece of ballast, and heaving +it over the precipice, swung off on an even keel.</p> + +<p>Close examination of some of the craters and volcanic-like cones +revealed many species of ants, beetles and roaches searching for bits +of food—the scavengers of this small world. But the most interesting +were the actual parasites, flies of many colors and sizes, humming +past like little planes and zeppelins over this hidden city, ready to +drop a bomb in the form of an egg deposited on the refuse heaps or on +the ants themselves. The explosion might come slowly, but it would be +none the less deadly. Once I detected a hint of the complexity of the +glade life—beautiful metallic green flies walking swiftly about on +long legs, searching nervously, whose eggs would be deposited near +those of other flies, their larvæ to feed upon the others—parasites +upon parasites.</p> + +<p>As I had resolutely put the doings of the treetops away from my +consciousness, so now I forgot visitors and parasites, and armed +myself for the excavation of this buried metropolis. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> rubbed +vaseline on my high boots, and about the tops bound a band of +teased-out absorbent cotton. My pick and shovel I treated likewise, +and thus I was comparatively insulated. Without precautions no living +being could withstand the slow, implacable attack of disturbed Attas. +At present I walked unmolested across the glade. The millions beneath +my feet were as unconscious of my presence as they were of the breeze +in the palm fronds overhead.</p> + +<p>At the first deep shovel thrust, a slow-moving flood of reddish-brown +began to pour forth from the crumbled earth—the outposts of the Atta +Maxims moving upward to the attack. For a few seconds only workers of +various sizes appeared, then an enormous head heaved upward and there +came into the light of day the first Atta soldier. He was twice as +large as a large worker and heavy in proportion. Instead of being +drawn up into two spines, the top of his head was rounded, bald and +shiny, and only at the back were the two spines visible, shifted +downward. The front of the head was thickly clothed with golden hair, +which hung down bang-like over a round, glistening, single, median +eye. One by one, and then shoulder to shoulder, these Cyclopean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +Maxims lumbered forth to battle, and soon my boots were covered in +spite of the grease, all sinking their mandibles deep into the +leather.</p> + +<p>When I unpacked these boots this year I found the heads and jaws of +two Attas still firmly attached, relics of some forgotten foray of the +preceding year. This mechanical, vise-like grip, wholly independent of +life or death, is utilized by the Guiana Indians. In place of +stitching up extensive wounds, a number of these giant Atta Maxims are +collected, and their jaws applied to the edges of the skin, which are +drawn together. The ants take hold, their bodies are snipped off, and +the row of jaws remains until the wound is healed.</p> + +<p>Over and around the out-pouring soldiers, the tiny workers ran and bit +and chewed away at whatever they could reach. Dozens of ants made +their way up to the cotton, but found the utmost difficulty in +clambering over the loose fluff. Now and then, however, a needle-like +nip at the back of my neck, showed that some pioneer of these shock +troops had broken through, when I was thankful that Attas could only +bite and not sting as well. At such a time as this, the greatest +difference is apparent between these and the Eciton<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> army ants. The +Eciton soldier with his long, curved scimitars and his swift, nervous +movements, was to one of these great insects as a fighting d'Artagnan +would be to an armored tank. The results were much the same +however,—perfect efficiency.</p> + +<p>I now dug swiftly and crashed with pick down through three feet of +soil. The great entrance arteries of the nest branched and bifurcated, +separated and anastomosed, while here and there were chambers varying +in size from a cocoanut to a football. These were filled with what +looked like soft grayish sponge covered with whitish mold, and these +somber affairs were the <i>raison d'être</i> for all the leaf-cutting, the +trails, the struggles through jungles, the constant battling against +wind and rain and sun.</p> + +<p>But the labors of the Attas are only renewed when a worker disappears +down a hole with his hard-earned bit of leaf. He drops it and goes on +his way. We do not know what this way is, but my guess is that he +turns around and goes after another leaf. Whatever the nests of Attas +possess, they are without recreation rooms. These sluggard-instructors +do not know enough to take a vacation; their faces are fashioned for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +biting, but not for laughing or yawning. I once dabbed fifteen Mediums +with a touch of white paint as they approached the nest, and within +five minutes thirteen of them had emerged and started on the back +track again.</p> + +<p>The leaf is taken in charge by another Medium, hosts of whom are +everywhere. Once after a spadeful, I placed my eye as close as +possible to a small heap of green leaves, and around one oblong bit +were five Mediums, each with a considerable amount of chewed and +mumbled tissue in front of him. This is the only time I have ever +succeeded in finding these ants actually at this work. The leaves are +chewed thoroughly and built up into the sponge gardens, being used +neither for thatch nor for food, but as fertilizer. And not for any +strange subterranean berry or kernel or fruit, but for a fungus or +mushroom. The spores sprout and proliferate rapidly, the gray mycelia +covering the garden, and at the end of each thread is a little knobbed +body filled with liquid. This forms the sole food of the ants in the +nest, but a drop of honey placed by a busy trail will draw a circle of +workers at any time—both Mediums and Minims, who surround it and +drink their fill.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the fungus garden is in full growth, the nest labors of the +Minims begin, and until the knobbed bodies are actually ripe, they +never cease to weed and to prune, thus killing off the multitude of +other fungi and foreign organisms, and by pruning they keep their +particular fungus growing, and prevent it from fructifying. The fungus +of the Attas is a particular species with the resonant, Dunsanyesque +name of <i>Rozites gongylophora</i>. It is quite unknown outside of the +nests of these ants, and is as artificial as a banana.</p> + +<p>Only in Calcutta bazaars at night, and in underground streets of +Pekin, have I seen stranger beings than I unearthed in my Atta nest. +Now and then there rolled out of a shovelful of earth, an unbelievably +big and rotund Cicada larva—which in the course of time, whether in +one or in seventeen years, would emerge as the great marbled winged +<i>Cicada gigas</i>, spreading five inches from tip to tip. Small +tarantulas, with beautiful wine-colored cephalothorax, made their home +deep in the nest, guarded, perhaps, by their dense covering of hair; +slender scorpions sidled out from the ruins. They were bare, with +vulnerable joints, but they had the advantage of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> a pair of hands, and +long, mobile arms, which could quickly and skilfully pluck an +attacking ant from any part of their anatomy.</p> + +<p>The strangest of all the tenants were the tiny, amber-colored roaches +which clung frantically to the heads of the great soldier ants, or +scurried over the tumultuous mounds, searching for a crevice +sanctuary. They were funny, fat little beings, wholly blind, yet +supremely conscious of the danger that threatened, and with only the +single thought of getting below the surface as quickly as possible. +The Attas had very few insect guests, but this cockroach is one which +had made himself perfectly at home. Through century upon century he +had become more and more specialized and adapted to Atta life, eyes +slipping until they were no more than faint specks, legs and antennæ +changing, gait becoming altered to whatever speed and carriage best +suited little guests in big underground halls and galleries. He and +his race had evolved unseen and unnoticed even by the Maxim policemen. +But when nineteen hundred humanly historical years had passed, a man +with a keen sense of fitness named him Little Friend of the Attas; and +so for a few more years, until scientists give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> place to the next +caste, <i>Attaphila</i> will, all unconsciously, bear a name.</p> + +<p>Attaphilas have staked their whole gamble of existence on the +continued possibility of guest-ship with the Attas. Although they +lived near the fungus gardens they did not feed upon them, but +gathered secretions from the armored skin of the giant soldiers, who +apparently did not object, and showed no hostility to their diminutive +masseurs. A summer boarder may be quite at home on a farm, and safe +from all ordinary dangers, but he must keep out of the way of scythes +and sickles if he chooses to haunt the hay-fields. And so Attaphila, +snug and safe, deep in the heart of the nest, had to keep on the qui +vive when the ant harvesters came to glean in the fungus gardens. +Snip, snip, snip, on all sides in the musty darkness, the keen +mandibles sheared the edible heads, and though the little Attaphilas +dodged and ran, yet most of them, in course of time, lost part of an +antenna or even a whole one.</p> + +<p>Thus the Little Friend of the Leaf-cutters lives easily through his +term of weeks or months, or perhaps even a year, and has nothing to +fear for food or mate, or from enemies. But Attaphilas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> cannot all +live in a single nest, and we realize that there must come a crisis, +when they pass out into a strange world of terrible light and +multitudes of foes. For these pampered, degenerate roaches to find +another Atta nest unaided, would be inconceivable. In the big nest +which I excavated I observed them on the back and heads not only of +the large soldiers, but also of the queens which swarmed in one +portion of the galleries; and indeed, of twelve queens, seven had +roaches clinging to them. This has been noted also of a Brazilian +species, and we suddenly realize what splendid sports these humble +insects are. They resolutely prepare for their gamble—<i>l'aventure +magnifique</i>—the slenderest fighting chance, and we are almost +inclined to forget the irresponsible implacability of instinct, and +cheer the little fellows for lining up on this forlorn hope. When the +time comes, the queens leave, and are off up into the unheard-of sky, +as if an earthworm should soar with eagle's feathers; past the +gauntlet of voracious flycatchers and hawks, to the millionth chance +of meeting an acceptable male of the same species. After the mating, +comes the solitary search for a suitable site, and only when the +pitifully unfair gamble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> has been won by a single fortunate queen, +does the Attaphila climb tremblingly down and accept what fate has +sent. His ninety and nine fellows have met death in almost as many +ways.</p> + +<p>With the exception of these strange inmates there are very few tenants +or guests in the nests of the Attas. Unlike the termites and Ecitons, +who harbor a host of weird boarders, the leaf-cutters are able to keep +their nest free from undesirables.</p> + +<p>Once, far down in the nest, I came upon three young queens, recently +emerged, slow and stupid, with wings dull and glazed, who crawled with +awkward haste back into darkness. And again twelve winged females were +grouped in one small chamber, restless and confused. This was the only +glimpse I ever had of Atta royalty at home.</p> + +<p>Good fortune was with me, however, on a memorable fifth of May, when +returning from a monkey hunt in high jungle. As I came out into the +edge of a clearing, a low humming attracted my attention. It was +ventriloquial, and my ear refused to trace it. It sounded exactly like +a great aerodrome far in the distance, with a score or more of planes +tuning up. I chanced to see a large bee-like insect rising through +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> branches, and following back along its path, I suddenly perceived +the rarest of sights—an Atta nest entrance boiling with the +excitement of a flight of winged kings and queens. So engrossed were +the ants that they paid no attention to me, and I was able to creep up +close and kneel within two feet of the hole. The main nest was twenty +feet away, and this was a special exit made for the occasion—a +triumphal gateway erected far away from the humdrum leaf traffic.</p> + +<p>The two-inch, arched hole led obliquely down into darkness, while +brilliant sunshine illumined the earthen take-off and the surrounding +mass of pink Mazaruni primroses. Up this corridor was coming, slowly, +with dignity, as befitted the occasion, a pageant of royalty. The king +males were more active, as they were smaller in size than the females, +but they were veritable giants in comparison with the workers. The +queens seemed like beings of another race, with their great bowed +thorax supporting the folded wings, heads correspondingly large, with +less jaw development, but greatly increased keenness of vision. In +comparison with the Minims, these queens were as a human being one +hundred feet in height.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<p>I selected one large queen as she appeared and watched her closely. +Slowly and with great effort she climbed the steep ascent into the +blazing sunlight. Five tiny Minims were clinging to her body and +wings, all scrubbing and cleaning as hard as they could. She chose a +clear space, spread her wings, wide and flat, stood high upon her six +legs and waited. I fairly shouted at this change, for slight though it +was, it worked magic, and the queen Atta was a queen no more, but a +miniature, straddle-legged aeroplane, pushed into position, and +overrun by a crowd of mechanics, putting the finishing touches, +tightening the wires, oiling every pliable crevice. A Medium came +along, tugged at a leg and the obliging little plane lifted it for +inspection. For three minutes this kept up, and then the plane became +a queen and moved restlessly. Without warning, as if some +irresponsible mechanic had turned the primed propellers, the four +mighty wings whirred—and four Minims were hurled head over heels a +foot away, snapped from their positions. The sound of the wings was +almost too exact an imitation of the snarl of a starting plane—the +comparison was absurd in its exactness of timbre and resonance. It was +only a test, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> and the moment the queen became quiet the upset +mechanics clambered back. They crawled beneath her, scraped her feet +and antennæ, licked her eyes and jaws, and went over every shred of +wing tissue. Then again she buzzed, this time sending only a single +Minim sprawling. Again she stopped after lifting herself an inch, but +immediately started up, and now rose rather unsteadily, but without +pause, and slowly ascended above the nest and the primroses. Circling +once, she passed through green leaves and glowing balls of fruit, into +the blue sky.</p> + +<p>Thus I followed the passing of one queen Atta into the jungle world, +as far as human eyes would permit, and my mind returned to the mote +which I had detected at an equally great height—the queen descending +after her marriage—as isolated as she had started.</p> + +<p>We have seen how the little blind roaches occasionally cling to an +emerging queen and so are transplanted to a new nest. But the queen +bears something far more valuable. More faithfully than ever virgin +tended temple fires, each departing queen fills a little pouch in the +lower part of her mouth with a pellet of the precious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> fungus, and +here it is carefully guarded until the time comes for its propagation +in the new nest.</p> + +<p>When she has descended to earth and excavated a little chamber, she +closes the entrance, and for forty days and nights labors at the +founding of a new colony. She plants the little fungus cutting and +tends it with the utmost solicitude. The care and feeding in her past +life have stored within her the substance for vast numbers of eggs. +Nine out of ten which she lays she eats to give her the strength to go +on with her labors, and when the first larvæ emerge, they, too, are +fed with surplus eggs. In time they pupate and at the end of six weeks +the first workers—all tiny Minims—hatch. Small as they are, born in +darkness, yet no education is needed. The Spirit of the Attas infuses +them. Play and rest are the only things incomprehensible to them, and +they take charge at once, of fungus, of excavation, of the care of the +queen and eggs, the feeding of the larvæ, and as soon as the huskier +Mediums appear, they break through into the upper world and one day +the first bit of green leaf is carried down into the nest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p> + +<p>The queen rests. Henceforth, as far as we know, she becomes a mere +egg-producing machine, fed mechanically by mechanical workers, the +food transformed by physiological mechanics into yolk and then +deposited. The aeroplane has become transformed into an incubator.</p> + +<p>One wonders whether, throughout the long hours, weeks and months, in +darkness which renders her eyes a mockery, there ever comes to her +dull ganglion a flash of memory of The Day, of the rushing wind, the +escape from pursuing puff-birds, the jungle stretching away for miles +beneath, her mate, the cool tap of drops from a passing shower, the +volplane to earth, and the obliteration of all save labor. Did she +once look behind her, did she turn aside for a second, just to feel +the cool silk of petals?</p> + +<p>As we have seen, an Atta worker is a member of the most implacable +labor-union in the world: he believes in a twenty-four hour day, no pay, no +play, no rest—he is a cog in a machine-driven +Good-for-the-greatest-number. After studying these beings for a week, one +longs to go out and shout for kaisers and tsars, for selfishness and +crime—anything as a relief from such terrible unthinking altruism. All +Atta workers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> are born free and equal—which is well; and they remain +so—which is what a Buddhist priest once called "gashang"—or so it +sounded, and which he explained as a state where plants and animals and men +were crystal-like in growth and existence. What a welcome sight it would be +to see a Medium mount a bit of twig, antennæ a crowd of Minims about him, +and start off on a foray of his own!</p> + +<p>We may jeer or condemn the Attas for their hard-shell existence, but +there comes to mind again and again, the wonder of it all. Are the +hosts of little beings really responsible; have they not evolved into +a pocket, a mental cul-de-sac, a swamping of individuality, pooling +their personalities? And what is it they have gained—what pledge of +success in food, in safety, in propagation? They are not separate +entities, they have none of the freedom of action, of choice, of +individuality of the solitary wasps. They are the somatic cells of the +body politic, while deep within the nest are the guarded sexual +cells—the winged kings and queens, which from time to time, exactly +as in isolated organisms, are thrown off to propagate, and to found +new nests. They, no less than the workers, are parts of something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +more subtle than the visible Attas and their material nest. Whether I +go to the ant as sluggard, or myrmocologist, or accidentally, via +Pterodactyl Pups, a day spent with them invariably leaves me with my +whole being concentrated on this mysterious Atta Ego. Call it +Vibration, Aura, Spirit of the nest, clothe ignorance in whatever term +seems appropriate, we cannot deny its existence and power.</p> + +<p>As with the Army ants, the flowing lines of leaf-cutters always +brought to mind great arteries, filled with pulsating, tumbling +corpuscles. When an obstruction appeared, as a fallen leaf, across the +great sandy track, a dozen, or twenty or a hundred workers +gathered—like leucocytes—and removed the interfering object. If I +injured a worker who was about to enter the nest, I inoculated the +Atta organism with a pernicious, foreign body. Even the victim himself +was dimly aware of the law of fitness. Again and again he yielded to +the call of the nest, only to turn aside at the last moment. From a +normal link in the endless Atta chain, he had become an +outcast—snapped at by every passing ant, self-banished, wandering off +at nightfall to die somewhere in the wilderness of grass. When well,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +an Atta has relations but no friends, when ill, every jaw is against +him.</p> + +<p>As I write this seated at my laboratory table, by turning down my lamp +and looking out, I can see the star dust of Orion's nebula, and +without moving from my chair, Rigel, Sirius, Capella and +Betelgeuze—the blue, white, yellow and red evolution of so-called +lifeless cosmic matter. A few slides from the aquarium at my side +reveal an evolutionary sequence to the heavenly host—the simplest of +earthly organisms playing fast and loose with the borderland, not only +of plants and animals, but of the one and of the many-celled. First a +swimming lily, Stentor, a solitary animal bloom, twenty-five to the +inch; Cothurnia, a double lily, and Gonium, with a quartet of cells +clinging tremulously together, progressing unsteadily—materially +toward the rim of my field of vision—in the evolution of earthly life +toward sponges, peripatus, ants and man.</p> + +<p>I was interrupted in my microcosmus just as it occurred to me that +Chesterton would heartily approve of my approximation of Sirius and +Stentor, of Capella and Cothurnia—the universe balanced. My attention +was drawn from the atom Gonium—whose brave little spirit was striving +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> keep his foursome one—a primordial struggle toward unity of self +and division of labor; my consciousness climbed the microscope tube +and came to rest upon a slim glass of amber liquid on my laboratory +table: a servant had brought a cocktail, for it was New Year's Eve. +(Now the thought came that there were a number of worthy people who +would also approve of this approximation!) I looked at the small +spirituous luxury, and I thought of my friends in New York, and then +of the Attas in front of the laboratory. With my electric flash I went +out into the starlight, and found the usual hosts struggling nestward +with their chlorophyll burdens, and rushing frantically out into the +black jungle for more and yet more leaves. My mind swept back over +evolution from star-dust to Kartabo compound, from Gonium to man, and +to these leaf-cutting ants. And I wondered whether the Attas were any +the better for being denied the stimulus of temptation, or whether I +was any the worse for the opportunity of refusing a second glass. I +went back into the house, and voiced a toast to tolerance, to +temperance, and—to pterodactyls—and drank my cocktail.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h2>HAMMOCK NIGHTS</h2> + + +<p>There is a great gulf between pancakes and truffles: an eternal, +fixed, abysmal cañon. It is like the chasm between beds and hammocks. +It is not to be denied and not to be traversed; for if pancakes with +syrup are a necessary of life, then truffles with anything must be, by +the very nature of things, a supreme and undisputed luxury, a regal +food for royalty and the chosen of the earth. There cannot be a shadow +of a doubt that these two are divided; and it is not alone a mere +arbitrary division of poverty and riches as it would appear on the +surface. It is an alienation brought about by profound and fundamental +differences; for the gulf between them is that gulf which separates +the prosaic, the ordinary, the commonplace, from all that is colored +and enlivened by romance.</p> + +<p>The romance of truffles endows the very word itself with a halo, an +aristocratic halo full of mystery and suggestion. One remembers the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +hunters who must track their quarry through marshy and treacherous +lands, and one cannot forget their confiding catspaw, that desolated +pig, created only to be betrayed and robbed of the fungi of his +labors. He is one of the pathetic characters of history, born to +secret sorrow, victimized by those superior tastes which do not become +his lowly station. Born to labor and to suffer, but not to eat. To +this day he commands my sympathy; his ghost—lean, bourgeois, +reproachful—looks out at me from every market-place in the world +where the truffle proclaims his faithful service.</p> + +<p>But the pancake is a pancake, nothing more. It is without inherent or +artificial glamour; and this unfortunately, when you come right down +to it, is true of food in general. For food, after all, is one of the +lesser considerations; the connoisseur, the gourmet, even the +gourmand, spends no more than four hours out of the day at his table. +From the cycle, he may select four in which to eat; but whether he +will or not, he must set aside seven of the twenty-four in which to +sleep.</p> + +<p>Sleeping, then, as opposed to eating, is of almost double importance, +since it consumes nearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> twice as much time—and time, in itself, is +the most valuable thing in the world. Considered from this angle, it +seems incredible that we have no connoisseurs of sleep. For we have +none. Therefore it is with some temerity that I declare sleep to be +one of the romances of existence, and not by any chance the simple +necessary it is reputed to be.</p> + +<p>However, this romance, in company with whatever is worthy, is not to +be discovered without the proper labor. Life is not all truffles. +Neither do they grow in modest back-yards to be picked of mornings by +the maid-of-all-work. A mere bed, notwithstanding its magic camouflage +of coverings, of canopy, of disguised pillows, of shining brass or +fluted carven posts, is, pancake like, never surrounded by this aura +of romance. No, it is hammock sleep which is the sweetest of all +slumber. Not in the hideous, dyed affairs of our summer porches, with +their miserable curved sticks to keep the strands apart, and their +maddening creaks which grow in length and discord the higher one +swings—but in a hammock woven by Carib Indians. An Indian hammock +selected at random will not suffice; it must be a Carib and none +other. For they, themselves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> are part and parcel of the romance, +since they are not alone a quaint and poetic people, but the direct +descendants of those remote Americans who were the first to see the +caravels of Columbus. Indeed, he paid the initial tribute to their +skill, for in the diary of his first voyage he writes,—</p> + +<p>"A great many Indians in canoes came to the ship to-day for the +purpose of bartering their cotton, and <i>hamacas</i> or nets in which they +sleep."</p> + +<p>It is supposed that this name owes its being to the hamack tree, from +the bark of which they were woven. However that may be, the modern +hammock of these tropical Red Men is so light and so delicate in +texture that during the day one may wear it as a sash, while at night +it forms an incomparable couch.</p> + +<p>But one does not drop off to sleep in this before a just and proper +preparation. This presents complexities. First, the hammock must be +slung with just the right amount of tautness; then, the novice must +master the knack of winding himself in his blanket that he may slide +gently into his aerial bed and rest at right angles to the tied ends, +thus permitting the free side-meshes to curl up naturally over his +feet and head. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> cannot be taught. It is an art; and any art is +one-tenth technique, and nine-tenths natural talent. However, it is +possible to acquire a certain virtuosity, which, after all is said, is +but pure mechanical skill as opposed to sheer genius. One might, +perhaps, get a hint by watching the living chrysalid of a potential +moon-moth wriggle back into its cocoon—but little is to be learned +from human teaching. However, if, night after night, one observes his +Indians, a certain instinctive knowledge will arise to aid and abet +him in his task. Then, after his patient apprenticeship, he may reap +as he has sowed. If it is to be disaster, it is as immediate as it is +ignominious; but if success is to be his portion, then he is destined +to rest, wholly relaxed, upon a couch encushioned and resilient beyond +belief. He finds himself exalted and supreme above all mundane +disturbances, with the treetops and the stars for his canopy, and the +earth a shadowy floor far beneath. This gentle aerial support is +distributed throughout hundreds of fine meshes, and the sole contact +with the earth is through twin living boles, pulsing with swift +running sap, whose lichened bark and moonlit foliage excel any +tapestry of man's devising.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> + +<p>Perhaps it is atavistic—this desire to rest and swing in a hamaca. +For these are not unlike the treetop couches of our arboreal +ancestors, such a one as I have seen an orang-utan weave in a few +minutes in the swaying crotch of a tree. At any rate, the hammock is +not dependent upon four walls, upon rooms and houses, and it partakes +altogether of the wilderness. Its movement is æolian—yielding to +every breath of air. It has even its own weird harmony—for I have +often heard a low, whistling hum as the air rushed through the cordage +mesh. In a sudden tropical gale every taut strand of my hamaca has +seemed a separate, melodious, orchestral note, while I was buffeted to +and fro, marking time to some rhythmic and reckless tune of the wind +playing fortissimo on the woven strings about me. The climax of this +musical outburst was not without a mild element of danger—sufficient +to create that enviable state of mind wherein the sense of security +and the knowledge that a minor catastrophe may perhaps be brought +about are weighed one against the other.</p> + +<p>Special, unexpected, and interesting minor dangers are also the +province of the hamaca. Once, in the tropics, a great fruit fell on +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> elastic strands and bounced upon my body. There was an ominous +swish of the air in the sweeping arc which this missile described, +also a goodly shower of leaves; and since the fusillade took place at +midnight, it was, all in all, a somewhat alarming visitation. However, +there were no honorable scars to mark its advent; and what is more +important, from all my hundreds of hammock nights, I have no other +memory of any actual or threatened danger which was not due to human +carelessness or stupidity. It is true that once, in another continent, +by the light of a campfire, I saw the long, liana-like body of a +harmless tree-snake wind down from one of my fronded bed-posts and, +like a living woof following its shuttle, weave a passing pattern of +emerald through the pale meshes. But this heralded no harm, for the +poisonous reptiles of that region never climb; and so, since I was +worn out by a hard day, I shut my eyes and slept neither better nor +worse because of the transient confidence of a neighborly serpent.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, the wilderness provides but few real perils, and +in a hammock one is safely removed from these. One lies in a stratum +above all damp and chill of the ground, beyond<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> the reach of crawling +tick and looping leech; and with an enveloping <i>mosquitaro</i>, or +mosquito shirt, as the Venezuelans call it, one is fortified even in +the worst haunts of these most disturbing of all pests.</p> + +<p>Once my ring rope slipped and the hammock settled, but not enough to +wake me up and force me to set it to rights. I was aware that +something had gone wrong, but, half asleep, I preferred to leave the +matter in the lap of the gods. Later, as a result, I was awakened +several times by the patting of tiny paws against my body, as small +jungle-folk, standing on their hind-legs, essayed to solve the mystery +of the swaying, silent, bulging affair directly overhead. I was unlike +any tree or branch or liana which had come their way before; I do not +doubt that they thought me some new kind of ant-nest, since these +structures are alike only as their purpose in life is identical—for +they express every possible variation in shape, size, color, design, +and position. As for their curiosity, I could make no complaint, for, +at best, my visitors could not be so inquisitive as I, inasmuch as I +had crossed one ocean and two continents with no greater object than +to pry into their personal and civic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> affairs as well as those of +their neighbors. To say nothing of their environment and other +matters.</p> + +<p>That my rope slipped was the direct result of my own inefficiency. The +hammock protects one from the dangers of the outside world, but like +any man-made structure, it shows evidences of those imperfections +which are part and parcel of human nature, and serve, no doubt, to +make it interesting. But one may at least strive for perfection by +being careful. Therefore tie the ropes of your hammock yourself, or +examine and test the job done for you. The master of hammocks makes a +knot the name of which I do not know—I cannot so much as describe it. +But I would like to twist it again—two quick turns, a push and a +pull; then, the greater the strain put upon it, the greater its +resistance.</p> + +<p>This trustworthiness commands respect and admiration, but it is in the +morning that one feels the glow of real gratitude; for, in striking +camp at dawn, one has but to give a single jerk and the rope is +straightened out, without so much as a second's delay. It is the +tying, however, which must be well done—this I learned from bitter +experience.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was one morning, years ago, but the memory of it is with me still, +vivid and painful. One of the party had left her hammock, which was +tied securely since she was skilful in such matters, to sit down and +rest in another, belonging to a servant. This was slung at one end of +a high, tropical porch, which was without the railing that surrounds +the more pretentious verandahs of civilization, so that the hammock +swung free, first over the rough flooring, then a little out over the +yard itself. A rope slipped, the faulty knot gave way, and she fell +backward—a seven-foot fall with no support of any kind by which she +might save herself. A broken wrist was the price she had to pay for +another's carelessness—a broken wrist which, in civilization, is +perhaps, one of the lesser tragedies; but this was in the very heart +of the Guiana wilderness. Many hours from ether and surgical skill, +such an accident assumes alarming proportions. Therefore, I repeat my +warning: tie your knots or examine them.</p> + +<p>It is true, that, when all is said and done, a dweller in hammocks may +bring upon himself any number of diverse dangers of a character never +described in books or imagined in fiction. A fellow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> naturalist of +mine never lost an opportunity to set innumerable traps for the lesser +jungle-folk, such as mice and opossums, all of which he religiously +measured and skinned, so that each, in its death, should add its mite +to human knowledge. As a fisherman runs out set lines, so would he +place his traps in a circle under his hammock, using a cord to tie +each and every one to the meshes. This done, it was his custom to lie +at ease and wait for the click below which would usher in a new +specimen,—perhaps a new species,—to be lifted up, removed, and +safely cached until morning. This strategic method served a double +purpose: it conserved natural energy, and it protected the catch. For +if the traps were set in the jungle and trustfully confided to its +care until the break of day, the ants would leave a beautifully +cleaned skeleton, intact, all unnecessarily entrapped.</p> + +<p>Now it happened that once, when he had set his nocturnal traps, he +straightway went to sleep in the midst of all the small jungle people +who were calling for mates and new life, so that he did not hear the +click which was to warn him that another little beast of fur had come +unawares upon his death. But he heard, suddenly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> a disturbance in the +low ferns beneath his hammock. He reached over and caught hold of one +of the cords, finding the attendant trap heavy with prey. He was on +the point of feeling his way to the trap itself, when instead, by some +subconscious prompting, he reached over and snapped on his flashlight. +And there before him, hanging in mid-air, striking viciously at his +fingers which were just beyond its reach, was a young +fer-de-lance—one of the deadliest of tropical serpents. His nerves +gave way, and with a crash the trap fell to the ground where he could +hear it stirring and thrashing about among the dead leaves. This +ominous rustling did not encourage sleep; he lay there for a long time +listening,—and every minute is longer in the darkness,—while his +hammock quivered and trembled with the reaction.</p> + +<p>Guided by this, I might enter into a new field of naturalizing and say +to those who might, in excitement, be tempted to do otherwise, "Look +at your traps before lifting them." But my audience would be too +limited; I will refrain from so doing.</p> + +<p>It is true that this brief experience might be looked upon as one +illustration of the perils of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> the wilderness, since it is not +customary for the fer-de-lance to frequent the city and the town. But +this would give rise to a footless argument, leading nowhere. For +danger is everywhere—it lurks in every shadow and is hidden in the +bright sunlight, it is the uninvited guest, the invisible pedestrian +who walks beside you in the crowded street ceaselessly, without +tiring. But even a fer-de-lance should rather add to the number of +hammock devotees than diminish them; for the three feet or more of +elevation is as good as so many miles between the two of you. And +three miles from any serpent is sufficient.</p> + +<p>It may be that the very word danger is subjected to a different +interpretation in each one of our mental dictionaries. It is elastic, +comprehensive. To some it may include whatever is terrible, +terrifying; to others it may symbolize a worthy antagonist, one who +throws down the gauntlet and asks no questions, but who will make a +good and fair fight wherein advantage is neither taken nor given. I +suppose, to be bitten by vampires would be thought a danger by many +who have not graduated from the mattress of civilization to this +cubiculum of the wilderness. This is due, in part, to an ignorance, +which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> to be condoned; and this ignorance, in turn, is due to that +lack of desire for a knowledge of new countries and new experiences, +which lack is to be deplored and openly mourned. Many years ago, in +Mexico, when I first entered the vampire zone, I was apprised of the +fact by the clotted blood on my horse's neck in the early morning. In +actually seeing this evidence, I experienced the diverse emotions of +the discoverer, although as a matter of fact I had discovered nothing +more than the verification of a scientific commonplace. It so happened +that I had read, at one time, many conflicting statements of the +workings of this aerial leech; therefore, finding myself in his native +habitat, I went to all sorts of trouble to become a victim to his +sorceries. The great toe is the favorite and stereotyped point of +attack, we are told; so, in my hammock, my great toes were +conscientiously exposed night after night, but not until a decade +later was my curiosity satisfied.</p> + +<p>I presume that this was a matter of ill luck, rather than a personal +matter between the vampire and me. Therefore, as a direct result of +this and like experiences, I have learned to make proper allowances +for the whims of the Fates.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> I have learned that it is their pleasure +to deluge me with rainstorms at unpropitious moments, also to send me, +with my hammock, to eminently desirable countries, which, however, are +barren of trees and scourged of every respectable shrub. That the +showers may not find me unprepared, I pack with my hamaca an extra +length of rope, to be stretched taut from foot-post to head-post, that +a tarpaulin or canvas may be slung over it. When a treeless country is +presented to me in prospect, I have two stout stakes prepared, and I +do not move forward without them.</p> + +<p>It is a wonderful thing to see an experienced hammocker take his +stakes, first one, then the other, and plunge them into the ground +three or four times, measuring at one glance the exact distance and +angle, and securing magically that mysterious "give" so essential to +well-being and comfort. Any one can sink them like fence-posts, so +that they stand deep and rigid, a reproach and an accusation; but it +requires a particular skill to judge by the pull whether or not they +will hold through the night and at the same time yield with gentle and +supple swing to the least movement of the sleeper. A Carib knows, +instantly, worthy and unworthy ground. I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> seen an Indian sink his +hamaca posts into sand with one swift, concentrated motion, +mathematical in its precision and surety, so that he might enter at +once into a peaceful night of tranquil and unbroken slumber, while I, +a tenderfoot then, must needs beat my stakes down into the ground with +tremendous energy, only to come to earth with a resounding thwack the +moment I mounted my couch.</p> + +<p>The Red Man made his comment, smiling: "Yellow earth, much squeeze." +Which, being translated, informed me that the clayey ground I had +chosen, hard though it seemed, was more like putty in that it would +slip and slip with the prolonged pressure until the post fell inward +and catastrophe crowned my endeavor.</p> + +<p>So it follows that the hammock, in company with an adequate tarpaulin +and two trustworthy stakes, will survive the heaviest downpour as well +as the most arid and uncompromising desert. But since it is man-made, +with finite limitations, nature is not without means to defeat its +purpose. The hammock cannot cope with the cold—real cold, that is, +not the sudden chill of tropical night which a blanket resists, but +the cold of the north or of high altitudes. This is the realm of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +sleeping-bag, the joy of which is another story. More than once I have +had to use a hammock at high levels, since there was nothing else at +hand; and the numbness of the Arctic was mine. Every mesh seemed to +invite a separate draught. The winds of heaven—all four—played +unceasingly upon me, and I became in due time a swaying mummy of ice. +It was my delusion that I was a dead Indian cached aloft upon my +arboreal bier—which is not a normal state of mind for the sleeping +explorer.</p> + +<p>Anything rather than this helpless surrender to the elements. Better +the lowlands and that fantastic shroud, the mosquitaro. For even to +wind one's self into this is an experience of note. It is ingenious, +and called the mosquito shirt because of its general shape, which is +as much like a shirt as anything else. A large round center covers the +hammock, and two sleeves extend up the supporting strands and inclose +the ends, being tied to the ring-ropes. If at sundown swarms of +mosquitoes become unbearable, one retires into his netting funnel, and +there disrobes. Clothes are rolled into a bundle and tied to the +hammock, that one may close one's eyes reasonably confident that the +supply will not be diminished by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> some small marauder. It is then that +a miracle is enacted. For one is at last enabled, under these +propitious circumstances, to achieve the impossible, to control and +manipulate the void and the invisible, to obey that unforgotten advice +of one's youth, "Oh, g'wan—crawl into a hole and pull the hole in +after you!" At an early age, this unnatural advice held my mind, so +that I devised innumerable means of verifying it; I was filled with a +despair and longing whenever I met it anew. But it was an ambition +appeased only in maturity. And this is the miracle of the tropics: +climb up into the hamaca, and, at this altitude, draw in the hole of +the mosquitaro funnel, making it fast with a single knot. It is done. +One is at rest, and lying back, listens to the humming of all the +mosquitoes in the world, to be lulled to sleep by the sad, minor +singing of their myriad wings. But though I have slung my hammock in +many lands, on all the continents, I have few memories of netting +nights. Usually, both in tropics and in tempered climes, one may +boldly lie with face uncovered to the night.</p> + +<p>And this brings us to the greatest joy of hammock life, admission to +the secrets of the wilderness, initiation to new intimacies and +subtleties<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> of this kingdom, at once welcomed and delicately ignored +as any honored guest should be. For this one must make unwonted +demands upon one's nocturnal senses. From habit, perhaps, it is +natural to lie with the eyes wide open, but with all the faculties +concentrated on the two senses which bring impressions from the world +of darkness—hearing and smell. In a jungle hut a loud cry from out of +the black treetops now and then reaches the ear; in a tent the faint +noises of the night outside are borne on the wind, and at times the +silhouette of a passing animal moves slowly across the heavy cloth; +but in a hamaca one is not thus set apart to be baffled by hidden +mysteries—one is given the very point of view of the creatures who +live and die in the open.</p> + +<p>Through the meshes which press gently against one's face comes every +sound which our human ears can distinguish and set apart from the +silence—a silence which in itself is only a mirage of apparent +soundlessness, a testimonial to the imperfection of our senses. The +moaning and whining of some distant beast of prey is brought on the +breeze to mingle with the silken swishing of the palm fronds overhead +and the insistent chirping of many insects—a chirping so fine and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +shrill that it verges upon the very limits of our hearing. And these, +combined, unified, are no more than the ground surge beneath the +countless waves of sound. For the voice of the jungle is the voice of +love, of hatred, of hope, of despair—and in the night-time, when the +dominance of sense-activity shifts from eye to ear, from retina to +nostril, it cries aloud its confidences to all the world. But the +human mind is not equal to a true understanding of these; for in a +tropical jungle the birds and the frogs, the beasts and the insects +are sending out their messages so swiftly one upon the other, that the +senses fail of their mission and only chaos and a great confusion are +carried to the brain. The whirring of invisible wings and the movement +of the wind in the low branches become one and the same: it is an +epic, told in some strange tongue, an epic filled to overflowing with +tragedy, with poetry and mystery. The cloth of this drama is woven +from many-colored threads, for Nature is lavish with her pigment, +reckless with life and death. She is generous because there is no need +for her to be miserly. And in the darkness, I have heard the working +of her will, translating as best I could.</p> + +<p>In the darkness, I have at times heard the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> tramping of many feet; in +a land traversed only by Indian trails I have listened to an +overloaded freight train toiling up a steep grade; I have heard the +noise of distant battle and the cries of the victor and the +vanquished. Hard by, among the trees, I have heard a woman seized, +have heard her crying, pleading for mercy, have heard her choking and +sobbing till the end came in a terrible, gasping sigh; and then, in +the sudden silence, there was a movement and thrashing about in the +topmost branches, and the flutter and whirr of great wings moving +swiftly away from me into the heart of the jungle—the only clue to +the author of this vocal tragedy. Once, a Pan of the woods tuned up +his pipes—striking a false note now and then, as if it were his whim +to appear no more than the veriest amateur; then suddenly, with the +full liquid sweetness of his reeds, bursting into a strain so +wonderful, so silvery clear, that I lay with mouth open to still the +beating of blood in my ears, hardly breathing, that I might catch +every vibration of his song. When the last note died away, there was +utter stillness about me for an instant—nothing stirred, nothing +moved; the wind seemed to have forsaken the leaves. From a great +distance, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> if he were going deeper into the woods, I heard him once +more tuning up his pipes; but he did not play again.</p> + +<p>Beside me, I heard the low voice of one of my natives murmuring, +"<i>Muerte ha pasado</i>." My mind took up this phrase, repeating it, +giving it the rhythm of Pan's song—a rhythm delicate, sustained, full +of color and meaning in itself. I was ashamed that one of my kind +could translate such sweet and poignant music into a superstition, +could believe that it was the song of death,—the death that +passes,—and not the voice of life. But it may have been that he was +wiser in such matters than I; superstitions are many times no more +than truth in masquerade. For I could call it by no name—whether bird +or beast, creature of fur or feather or scale. And not for one, but +for a thousand creatures within my hearing, any obscure nocturnal +sound may have heralded the end of life. Song and death may go hand in +hand, and such a song may be a beautiful one, unsung, unuttered until +this moment when Nature demands the final payment for what she has +given so lavishly. In the open, the dominant note is the call to a +mate, and with it, that there may be color and form and contrast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +there is that note of pure vocal exuberance which is beauty for beauty +and for nothing else; but in this harmony there is sometimes the cry +of a creature who has come upon death unawares, a creature who has +perhaps been dumb all the days of his life, only to cry aloud this +once for pity, for mercy, or for faith, in this hour of his extremity. +Of all, the most terrible is the death-scream of a horse,—a cry of +frightful timbre,—treasured, according to some secret law, until this +dire instant when for him death indeed passes.</p> + +<p>It was years ago that I heard the pipes of Pan; but one does not +forget these mysteries of the jungle night: the sounds and scents and +the dim, glimpsed ghosts which flit through the darkness and the +deepest shadow mark a place for themselves in one's memory, which is +not erased. I have lain in my hammock looking at a tapestry of green +draped over a half-fallen tree, and then for a few minutes have turned +to watch the bats flicker across a bit of sky visible through the dark +branches. When I looked back again at the tapestry, although the dusk +had only a moment before settled into the deeper blue of twilight, a +score of great lustrous stars were shining there,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> making new patterns +in the green drapery; for in this short time, the spectral blooms of +the night had awakened and flooded my resting-place with their +fragrance.</p> + +<p>And these were but the first of the flowers; for when the brief tropic +twilight is quenched, a new world is born. The leaves and blossoms of +the day are at rest, and the birds and insects sleep. New blooms open, +strange scents pour forth. Even our dull senses respond to these; for +just as the eye is dimmed, so are the other senses quickened in the +sudden night of the jungle. Nearby, so close that one can reach out +and touch them, the pale Cereus moons expand, exhaling their +sweetness, subtle breaths of fragrance calling for the very life of +their race to the whirring hawkmoths. The tiny miller who, through the +hours of glare has crouched beneath a leaf, flutters upward, and the +trail of her perfume summons her mate perhaps half a mile down wind. +The civet cat, stimulated by love or war, fills the glade with an odor +so pungent that it seems as if the other senses must mark it.</p> + +<p>Although there may seem not a breath of air in motion, yet the tide of +scent is never still. One's moistened finger may reveal no cool side,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +since there is not the vestige of a breeze; but faint odors arrive, +become stronger, and die away, or are wholly dissipated by an onrush +of others, so musky or so sweet that one can almost taste them. These +have their secret purposes, since Nature is not wasteful. If she +creates beautiful things, it is to serve some ultimate end; it is her +whim to walk in obscure paths, but her goal is fixed and immutable. +However, her designs are hidden and not easy to decipher; at best, one +achieves, not knowledge, but a few isolated facts.</p> + +<p>Sport in a hammock might, by the casual thinker, be considered as +limited to dreams of the hunt and chase. Yet I have found at my +disposal a score of amusements. When the dusk has just settled down, +and the little bats fill every glade in the forest, a box of beetles +or grasshoppers—or even bits of chopped meat—offers the possibility +of a new and neglected sport, in effect the inversion of baiting a +school of fish. Toss a grasshopper into the air and he has only time +to spread his wings for a parachute to earth, when a bat swoops past +so quickly that the eyes refuse to see any single effort—but the +grasshopper has vanished. As for the piece of meat, it is drawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> like +a magnet to the fierce little face. Once I tried the experiment of a +bit of blunted bent wire on a long piece of thread, and at the very +first cast I entangled a flutter-mouse and pulled him in. I was aghast +when I saw what I had captured. A body hardly as large as that of a +mouse was topped with the head of a fiend incarnate. Between his red +puffed lips his teeth showed needle-sharp and ivory-white; his eyes +were as evil as a caricature from <i>Simplicissimus</i>, and set deep in +his head, while his ears and nose were monstrous with fold upon fold +of skinny flaps. It was not a living face, but a mask of frightful +mobility.</p> + +<p>I set him free, deeming anything so ugly well worthy of life, if such +could find sustenance among his fellows and win a mate for himself +somewhere in this world. But he, for all his hideousness and unseemly +mien, is not the vampire; the blood-sucking bat has won a mantle of +deceit from the hands of Nature—a garb that gives him a modest and +not unpleasing appearance, and makes it a difficult matter to +distinguish him from his guileless confrères of our summer evenings.</p> + +<p>But in the tropics,—the native land of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> hammock,—not only the +mysteries of the night, but the affairs of the day may be legitimately +investigated from this aerial point of view. It is a fetish of belief +in hot countries that every unacclimatized white man must, sooner or +later, succumb to that sacred custom, the siesta. In the cool of the +day he may work vigorously, but this hour of rest is indispensable. To +a healthful person, living a reasonable life, the siesta is sheer +luxury. However, in camp, when the sun nears the zenith and the hush +which settles over the jungle proclaims that most of the wild +creatures are resting, one may swing one's hammock in the very heart +of this primitive forest and straightway be admitted into a new +province, where rare and unsuspected experiences are open to the +wayfarer. This is not the province of sleep or dreams, where all +things are possible and preëminently reasonable; for one does not go +through sundry hardships and all manner of self-denial, only to be +blindfolded on the very threshold of his ambition. No naturalist of a +temperament which begrudges every unused hour will, for a moment, +think of sleep under such conditions. It is not true that the rest and +quiet are necessary to cool the Northern blood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> for active work in the +afternoon, but the eye and the brain can combine relaxation with +keenest attention.</p> + +<p>In the northlands the difference in the temperature of the early dawn +and high noon is so slight that the effect on birds and other +creatures, as well as plants of all kinds, is not profound. But in the +tropics a change takes place which is as pronounced as that brought +about by day and night. Above all, the volume of sound becomes no more +than a pianissimo melody; for the chorus of birds and insects dies +away little by little with the increase of heat. There is something +geometrical about this, something precise and fine in this working of +a natural law—a law from which no living being is immune, for at +length one unconsciously lies motionless, overcome by the warmth and +this illusion of silence.</p> + +<p>The swaying of the hammock sets in motion a cool breeze, and lying at +full length, one is admitted at high noon to a new domain which has no +other portal but this. At this hour, the jungle shows few evidences of +life, not a chirp of bird or song of insect, and no rustling of leaves +in the heat which has descended so surely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> and so inevitably. But from +hidden places and cool shadows come broken sounds and whisperings, +which cover the gamut from insects to mammals and unite to make a +drowsy and contented murmuring—a musical undertone of amity and +goodwill. For pursuit and killing are at the lowest ebb, the stifling +heat being the flag of truce in the world-wide struggle for life and +food and mate—a struggle which halts for naught else, day or night.</p> + +<p>Lying quietly, the confidence of every unconventional and adventurous +wanderer will include your couch, since courage is a natural virtue +when the spirit of friendliness is abroad in the land. I felt that I +had acquired merit that eventful day when a pair of +hummingbirds—thimblefuls of fluff with flaming breastplates and caps +of gold—looked upon me with such favor that they made the strands of +my hamaca their boudoir. I was not conscious of their designs upon me +until I saw them whirring toward me, two bright, swiftly moving atoms, +glowing like tiny meteors, humming like a very battalion of bees. They +betook themselves to two chosen cords and, close together, settled +themselves with no further demands upon existence. A hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> of them +could have rested upon the pair of strands; even the dragon-flies +which dashed past had a wider spread of wing; but for these two there +were a myriad glistening featherlets to be oiled and arranged, two +pairs of slender wings to be whipped clean of every speck of dust, two +delicate, sharp bills to be wiped again and again and cleared of +microscopic drops of nectar. Then—like the great eagles roosting high +overhead in the clefts of the mountainside—these mites of birds must +needs tuck their heads beneath their wings for sleep; thus we three +rested in the violent heat.</p> + +<p>On other days, in Borneo, weaver birds have brought dried grasses and +woven them into the fabric of my hammock, making me indeed feel that +my couch was a part of the wilderness. At times, some of the larger +birds have crept close to my glade, to sleep in the shadows of the low +jungle-growth. But these were, one and all, timid folk, politely +incurious, with evident respect for the rights of the individual. But +once, some others of a ruder and more barbaric temperament advanced +upon me unawares, and found me unprepared for their coming. I was +dozing quietly, glad to escape for an instant the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> insistent screaming +of a cicada which seemed to have gone mad in the heat, when a low +rustling caught my ear—a sound of moving leaves without wind; the +voice of a breeze in the midst of breathless heat. There was in it +something sinister and foreboding. I leaned over the edge of my +hammock, and saw coming toward me, in a broad, irregular front, a +great army of ants, battalion after battalion of them flowing like a +sea of living motes over twigs and leaves and stems. I knew the danger +and I half sat up, prepared to roll out and walk to one side. Then I +gaged my supporting strands; tested them until they vibrated and +hummed, and lay back, watching, to see what would come about. I knew +that no creature in the world could stay in the path of this horde and +live. To kill an insect or a great bird would require only a few +minutes, and the death of a jaguar or a tapir would mean only a few +more. Against this attack, claws, teeth, poison-fangs would be idle +weapons.</p> + +<p>In the van fled a cloud of terrified insects—those gifted with flight +to wing their way far off, while the humbler ones went running +headlong, their legs, four, six, or a hundred, making the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> swiftest +pace vouchsafed them. There were foolish folk who climbed up low +ferns, achieving the swaying, topmost fronds only to be trailed by the +savage ants and brought down to instant death.</p> + +<p>Even the winged ones were not immune, for if they hesitated a second, +an ant would seize upon them, and, although carried into the air, +would not loosen his grip, but cling to them, obstruct their flight, +and perhaps bring them to earth in the heart of the jungle, where, cut +off from their kind, the single combat would be waged to the death. +From where I watched, I saw massacres innumerable; terrible battles in +which some creature—a giant beside an ant—fought for his life, +crushing to death scores of the enemy before giving up.</p> + +<p>They were a merciless army and their number was countless, with host +upon host following close on each other's heels. A horde of warriors +found a bird in my game-bag, and left of it hardly a feather. I +wondered whether they would discover me, and they did, though I think +it was more by accident than by intention. Nevertheless a half-dozen +ants appeared on the foot-strands, nervously twiddling their antennæ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +in my direction. Their appraisal was brief; with no more than a +second's delay they started toward me. I waited until they were well +on their way, then vigorously twanged the cords under them harpwise, +sending all the scouts into mid-air and headlong down among their +fellows. So far as I know, this was a revolutionary maneuver in +military tactics, comparable only to the explosion of a set mine. But +even so, when the last of this brigade had gone on their menacing, +pitiless way, and the danger had passed to a new province, I could not +help thinking of the certain, inexorable fate of a man who, unable to +move from his hammock or to make any defense, should be thus exposed +to their attack. There could be no help for him if but one of this +great host should scent him out and carry the word back to the rank +and file.</p> + +<p>It was after this army had been lost in the black shadows of the +forest floor, that I remembered those others who had come with +them—those attendant birds of prey who profit by the evil work of +this legion. For, hovering over them, sometimes a little in advance, +there had been a flying squadron of antbirds and others which had come +to feed, not on the ants, but on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> the insects which had been +frightened into flight. At one time, three of these dropped down to +perch on my hammock, nervous, watchful, and alert, waiting but a +moment before darting after some ill-fated moth or grasshopper which, +in its great panic, had escaped one danger only to fall an easy victim +to another. For a little while, the twittering and chirping of these +camp-followers, these feathered profiteers, was brought back to me on +the wind; and when it had died away, I took up my work again in a +glade in which no voice of insect reached my ears. The hunting ants +had done their work thoroughly.</p> + +<p>And so it comes about that by day or by night the hammock carries with +it its own reward to those who have learned but one thing—that there +is a chasm between pancakes and truffles. It is an open door to a new +land which does not fail of its promise, a land in which the prosaic, +the ordinary, the everyday have no place, since they have been +shouldered out, dethroned, by a new and competent perspective. The god +of hammocks is unfailingly kind, just, and generous to those who have +found pancakes wanting and have discovered by inspiration, or +what-not, that truffles do not grow in back-yards to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> served at +early breakfast by the maid-of-all-work. Which proves, I believe, that +a mere bed may be a block in the path of philosophy, a commonplace, +and that truffles and hammocks—hammocks unquestionably—are twin +doors to the land of romance.</p> + +<p>The swayer in hammocks may find amusement and may enrich science by +his record of observations; his memory will be more vivid, his caste +the worthier, for the intimacy with wild things achieved when swinging +between earth and sky, unfettered by mattress or roof.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h2>A TROPIC GARDEN</h2> + + +<p>Take an automobile and into it pile a superman, a great evolutionist, +an artist, an ornithologist, a poet, a botanist, a photographer, a +musician, an author, adorable youngsters of fifteen, and a tired +business man, and within half an hour I shall have drawn from them +superlatives of appreciation, each after his own method of emotional +expression—whether a flood of exclamations, or silence. This is no +light boast, for at one time or another, I have done all this, but in +only one place—the Botanical Gardens of Georgetown, British Guiana. +As I hold it sacrilege to think of dying without again seeing the Taj +Mahal, or the Hills from Darjeeling, so something of ethics seems +involved in my soul's necessity of again watching the homing of the +herons in these tropic gardens at evening.</p> + +<p>In the busy, unlovely streets of the waterfront of Georgetown, one is +often jostled; in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> the markets, it is often difficult at times to make +one's way; but in the gardens a solitary laborer grubs among the +roots, a coolie woman swings by with a bundle of grass on her head, +or, in the late afternoon, an occasional motor whirrs past. Mankind +seems almost an interloper, rather than architect and owner of these +wonder-gardens. His presence is due far more often to business, his +transit marked by speed, than the slow walking or loitering which real +appreciation demands.</p> + +<p>A guide-book will doubtless give the exact acreage, tell the mileage +of excellent roads, record the date of establishment, and the number +of species of palms and orchids. But it will have nothing to say of +the marvels of the slow decay of a Victoria Regia leaf, or of the +spiral descent of a white egret, or of the feelings which Roosevelt +and I shared one evening, when four manatees rose beneath us. It was +from a little curved Japanese bridge, and the next morning we were to +start up-country to my jungle laboratory. There was not a ripple on +the water, but here I chose to stand still and wait. After ten minutes +of silence, I put a question and Roosevelt said, "I would willingly +stand for two days to catch a good glimpse of a wild manatee." And +St.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> Francis heard, and, one after another, four great backs slowly +heaved up; then an ill-formed head and an impossible mouth, with the +unbelievable harelip, and before our eyes the sea-cows snorted and +gamboled.</p> + +<p>Again, four years later, I put my whole soul into a prayer for +manatees, and again with success. During a few moments' interval of a +tropical downpour, I stood on the same little bridge with Henry +Fairfield Osborn. We had only half an hour left in the tropics; the +steamer was on the point of sailing; what, in ten minutes, could be +seen of tropical life! I stood helpless, waiting, hoping for anything +which might show itself in this magic garden, where to-day the foliage +was glistening malachite and the clouds a great flat bowl of oxidized +silver.</p> + +<p>The air brightened, and a tree leaning far across the water came into +view. On its under side was a long silhouetted line of one and twenty +little fish-eating bats, tiny spots of fur and skinny web, all so much +alike that they might well have been one bat and twenty shadows.</p> + +<p>A small crocodile broke water into air which for him held no moisture, +looked at the bats, then at us, and slipped back into the world of +crocodiles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> A cackle arose, so shrill and sudden, that it seemed to +have been the cause of the shower of drops from the palm-fronds; and +then, on the great leaves of the Regia, which defy simile, we +perceived the first feathered folk of this single tropical +glimpse—spur-winged jacanas, whose rich rufus and cool lemon-yellow +no dampness could deaden. With them were gallinules and small green +herons, and across the pink mist of lotos blossoms just beyond, three +egrets drew three lines of purest white—and vanished. It was not at +all real, this onrush of bird and blossom revealed by the temporary +erasing of the driven lines of gray rain.</p> + +<p>Like a spendthrift in the midst of a winning game, I still watched +eagerly and ungratefully for manatees. Kiskadees splashed rather than +flew through the drenched air, an invisible black witch bubbled +somewhere to herself, and a wren sang three notes and a trill which +died out in a liquid gurgle. Then came another crocodile, and finally +the manatees. Not only did they rise and splash and roll and +indolently flick themselves with their great flippers, but they stood +upright on their tails, like Alice's carpenter's companion, and one +fondled its young as a water-mamma<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> should. Then the largest stretched +up as far as any manatee can ever leave the water, and caught and +munched a drooping sprig of bamboo. Watching the great puffing lips, +we again thought of walruses; but only a caterpillar could emulate +that sideways mumbling—the strangest mouth of any mammal. But from +behind, the rounded head, the shapely neck, the little baby manatee +held carefully in the curve of a flipper, made legends of mermaids +seem very reasonable; and if I had been an early <i>voyageur</i>, I should +assuredly have had stories to tell of mer-kiddies as well. As we +watched, the young one played about, slowly and deliberately, without +frisk or gambol, but determinedly, intently, as if realizing its duty +to an abstract conception of youth and warm-blooded mammalness.</p> + +<p>The earth holds few breathing beings stranger than these manatees. +Their life is a slow progression through muddy water from one bed of +lilies or reeds to another. Every few minutes, day and night, year +after year, they come to the surface for a lungful of the air which +they must have, but in which they cannot live. In place of hands they +have flippers, which paddle them leisurely along, which also serve to +hold the infant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> manatee, and occasionally to scratch themselves when +leeches irritate. The courtship of sea-cows, the qualities which +appeal most to their dull minds, the way they protect the callow +youngsters from voracious crocodiles, how or where they sleep—of all +this we are ignorant. We belong to the same class, but the line +between water and air is a no man's land which neither of us can pass +for more than a few seconds.</p> + +<p>When their big black hulks heaved slowly upward, it brought to my mind +the huge glistening backs of elephants bathing in Indian streams; and +this resemblance is not wholly fantastic. Not far from the oldest +Egyptian ruins, excavations have brought to light ruins millions of +years more ancient—the fossil bones of great creatures as strange as +any that live in the realm of fairyland or fiction. Among them was +revealed the ancestry of elephants, which was also that of manatees. +Far back in geological times the tapir-like Moeritherium, which +wandered through Eocene swamps, had within itself the prophecy of two +diverse lines. One would gain great tusks and a long, mobile trunk and +live its life in distant tropical jungles; and another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> branch was to +sink still deeper into the swamp-water, where its hind-legs would +weaken and vanish as it touched dry land less and less. And here +to-day we watched a quartette of these manatees, living contented +lives and breeding in the gardens of Georgetown.</p> + +<p>The mist again drifted its skeins around leaf and branch, gray things +became grayer, drops formed in mid-air and slipped slowly through +other slower forming drops, and a moment later rain was falling +gently. We went away, and to our mind's eye the manatees behind that +gray curtain still munch bamboos, the spur-wings stretch their +colorful wings cloudward, and the bubble-eyed crocodiles float +intermittently between two watery zones.</p> + +<p>To say that these are beautiful botanical gardens is like the +statement that sunsets are admirable events. It is better to think of +them as a setting, focusing about the greatest water-lily in the +world, or, as we have seen, the strangest mammal; or as an exhibit of +roots—roots as varied and as exquisite as a hall of famous sculpture; +or as a wilderness of tapestry foliage, in texture from cobweb to +burlap; or as a heaven-roofed, sun-furnaced greenhouse of blossoms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +from the tiniest of dull-green orchids to the fifty-foot spike of +taliput bloom. With this foundation of vegetation recall that the +Demerara coast is a paradise for herons, egrets, bitterns, gallinules, +jacanas, and hawks, and think of these trees and foliage, islands and +marsh, as a nesting and roosting focus for hundreds of such birds. +Thus, considering the gardens indirectly, one comes gradually to the +realization of their wonderful character.</p> + +<p>The Victoria Regia has one thing in common with a volcano—no amount +of description or of colored plates prepares one for the plant itself. +In analysis we recall its dimensions, colors, and form. Standing by a +trench filled with its leaves and flowers, we discard the records of +memory, and cleansing the senses of pre-impressions, begin anew. The +marvel is for each of us, individually, an exception to evolution; it +is a special creation, like all the rainbows seen in one's life—a +thing to be reverently absorbed by sight, by scent, by touch, absorbed +and realized without precedent or limit. Only ultimately do we find it +necessary to adulterate this fine perception with definitive words and +phrases, and so attempt to register it for ourselves or others.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have seen many wonderful sights from an automobile,—such as my +first Boche barrage and the tree ferns of Martinique,—but none to +compare with the joys of vision from prehistoric <i>tikka gharries</i>, +ancient victorias, and aged hacks. It was from the low curves of these +equine rickshaws that I first learned to love Paris and Calcutta and +the water-lilies of Georgetown. One of the first rites which I perform +upon returning to New York is to go to the Lafayette and, after +dinner, brush aside the taxi men and hail a victoria. The last time I +did this, my driver was so old that two fellow drivers, younger than +he and yet grandfatherly, assisted him, one holding the horse and the +other helping him to his seat. Slowly ascending Fifth Avenue close to +the curb and on through Central Park is like no other experience. The +vehicle is so low and open that all resemblance to bus or taxi is +lost. Everything is seen from a new angle. One learns incidentally +that there is a guild of cab-drivers—proud, restrained, jealous. A +hundred cars rush by without notice. Suddenly we see the whip brought +up in salute to the dingy green top-hat, and across the avenue we +perceive another victoria. And we are thrilled at the discovery, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +if we had unearthed a new codex of some ancient ritual.</p> + +<p>And so, initiated by such precedent, I have found it a worthy thing to +spend hours in decrepit cabs loitering along side roads in the +Botanical Gardens, watching herons and crocodiles, lilies and +manatees, from the rusty leather seats. At first the driver looked at +me in astonishment as I photographed or watched or wrote; but later he +attended to his horse, whispering strange things into its ears, and +finally deserted me. My writing was punctuated by graceful flourishes, +resulting from an occasional lurch of the vehicle as the horse stepped +from one to another patch of luscious grass.</p> + +<p>Like Fujiyama, the Victoria Regia changes from hour to hour, +color-shifted, wind-swung, and the mechanism of the blossoms never +ceasing. In northern greenhouses it is nursed by skilled gardeners, +kept in indifferent vitality by artificial heat and ventilation, with +gaged light and selected water; here it was a rank growth, in its +natural home, and here we knew of its antiquity from birds whose toes +had been molded through scores of centuries to tread its great +leaves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the cool fragrance of early morning, with the sun low across the +water, the leaves appeared like huge, milky-white platters, with now +and then little dancing silhouettes running over them. In another +slant of light they seemed atolls scattered thickly through a dark, +quiet sea, with new-blown flowers filling the whole air with +slow-drifting perfume. Best of all, in late afternoon, the true colors +came to the eye—six-foot circles of smooth emerald, with up-turned +hem of rich wine-color. Each had a tell-tale cable lying along the +surface, a score of leaves radiating from one deep hidden root.</p> + +<p>Up through mud and black trench-water came the leaf, like a tiny fist +of wrinkles, and day by day spread and uncurled, looking like the +unwieldy paw of a kitten or cub. The keels and ribs covering the +under-side increased in size and strength, and finally the great leaf +was ironed out by the warm sun into a mighty sheet of smooth, emerald +chlorophyll. Then, for a time,—no one has ever taken the trouble to +find out how long,—it was at its best, swinging back and forth at its +moorings with deep upright rim, a notch at one side revealing the +almost invisible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> seam of the great lobes, and serving, also, as +drainage outlet for excess of rain.</p> + +<p>A young leaf occasionally came to grief by reaching the surface amid +several large ones floating close together. Such a leaf expanded, as +usual, but, like a beached boat, was gradually forced high and dry, +hardening into a distorted shape and sinking only with the decay of +the underlying leaves.</p> + +<p>The deep crimson of the outside of the rim was merely a reflection +tint, and vanished when the sun shone directly through; but the masses +of sharp spines were very real, and quite efficient in repelling +boarders. The leaf offered safe haven to any creature that could leap +or fly to its surface; but its life would be short indeed if the +casual whim of every baby crocodile or flipper of a young manatee met +with no opposition.</p> + +<p>Insects came from water and from air and called the floating leaf +home, and, from now on, its surface was one of the most interesting +and busy arenas in this tropical landscape.</p> + +<p>In late September I spread my observation chair at the very edge of +one of the dark tarns and watched the life on the leaves. Out at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +center a fussy jacana was feeding with her two spindly-legged babies, +while, still nearer, three scarlet-helmeted gallinules lumbered about, +now and then tipping over a silvery and black infant which seemed +puzzled as to which it should call parent. Here was a clear example, +not only of the abundance of life in the tropics, but of the keen +competition. The jacana invariably lays four eggs, and the gallinule, +at this latitude, six or eight, yet only a fraction of the young had +survived even to this tender age.</p> + +<p>As I looked, a small crocodile rose, splashed, and sank, sending +terror among the gallinules, but arousing the spur-wing jacana to a +high pitch of anger. It left its young and flew directly to the +widening circles and hovered, cackling loudly. These birds have ample +ability to cope with the dangers which menace from beneath; but their +fear was from above, and every passing heron, egret, or harmless hawk +was given a quick scrutiny, with an instinctive crouch and half-spread +wings.</p> + +<p>But still the whole scene was peaceful; and as the sun grew warmer, +young herons and egrets crawled out of their nests on the island a few +yards away and preened their scanty plumage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> Kiskadees splashed and +dipped along the margin of the water. Everywhere this species seems +seized with an aquatic fervor, and in localities hundreds of miles +apart I have seen them gradually desert their fly-catching for surface +feeding, or often plunging, kingfisher-like, bodily beneath, to emerge +with a small wriggling fish—another certain reflection of +overpopulation and competition.</p> + +<p>As I sat I heard a rustle behind me, and there, not eight feet away, +narrow snout held high, one tiny foot lifted, was that furry fiend, +Rikki-tikki. He was too quick for me, and dived into a small clump of +undergrowth and bamboos. But I wanted a specimen of mongoose, and the +artist offered to beat one end of the bush. Soon I saw the gray form +undulating along, and as the rustling came nearer, he shot forth, +moving in great bounds. I waited until he had covered half the +distance to the next clump and rolled him over. Going back to my +chair, I found that neither jacana, nor gallinules, nor herons had +been disturbed by my shot.</p> + +<p>While the introduction of the mongoose into Guiana was a very +reckless, foolish act, yet he seems to be having a rather hard time of +it, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> with islands and lily-pads as havens, and waterways in every +direction, Rikki is reduced chiefly to grasshoppers and such small +game. He has spread along the entire coast, through the cane-fields +and around the rice-swamps, and it will not be his fault if he does +not eventually get a foothold in the jungle itself.</p> + +<p>No month or day or hour fails to bring vital changes—tragedies and +comedies—to the network of life of these tropical gardens; but as we +drive along the broad paths of an afternoon, the quiet vistas show +only waving palms, weaving vultures, and swooping kiskadees, with +bursts of color from bougainvillea, flamboyant, and queen of the +flowers. At certain times, however, the tide of visible change swelled +into a veritable bore of life, gently and gradually, as quiet waters +become troubled and then pass into the seething uproar of rapids. In +late afternoon, when the long shadows of palms stretched their +blue-black bars across the terra-cotta roads, the foliage of the green +bamboo islands was dotted here and there with a scattering of young +herons, white and blue and parti-colored. Idly watching them through +glasses, I saw them sleepily preening their sprouting feathers, making +ineffectual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> attempts at pecking one another, or else hunched in +silent heron-dream. They were scarcely more alive than the creeping, +hour-hand tendrils about them, mere double-stemmed, fluffy petaled +blossoms, no more strange than the nearest vegetable blooms—the +cannon-ball mystery, the sand-box puzzle, sinister orchids, and the +false color-alarms of the white-bracted silver-leaf. Compared with +these, perching herons are right and seemly fruit.</p> + +<p>As I watched them I suddenly stiffened in sympathy, as I saw all +vegetable sloth drop away and each bird become a detached individual, +plucked by an electric emotion from the appearance of a thing of sap +and fiber to a vital being of tingling nerves. I followed their united +glance, and overhead there vibrated, lightly as a thistledown, the +first incoming adult heron, swinging in from a day's fishing along the +coast. It went on and vanished among the fronds of a distant island; +but the calm had been broken, and through all the stems there ran a +restless sense of anticipation, a zeitgeist of prophetic import. One +felt that memory of past things was dimming, and content with present +comfort was no longer dominant. It was the future to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> both the +baby herons and I were looking, and for them realization came quickly. +The sun had sunk still lower, and great clouds had begun to spread +their robes and choose their tints for the coming pageant.</p> + +<p>And now the vanguard of the homing host appeared,—black dots against +blue and white and salmon,—thin, gaunt forms with slow-moving wings +which cut the air through half the sky. The little herons and I +watched them come—first a single white egret, which spiralled down, +just as I had many times seen the first returning Spad eddy downward +to a cluster of great hump-backed hangars; then a trio of tricolored +herons, and six little blues, and after that I lost count. It seemed +as if these tiny islands were magnets drawing all the herons in the +world.</p> + +<p>Parrakeets whirl roostwards with machine-like synchronism of flight; +geese wheel down in more or less regular formation; but these herons +concentrated along straight lines, each describing its individual +radius from the spot where it caught its last fish or shrimp to its +nest or the particular branch on which it will spend the night. With a +hemicircle of sufficient size, one might plot all of the hundreds upon +hundreds of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> these radii, and each would represent a distinct line, if +only a heron's width apart.</p> + +<p>At the height of the evening's flight there were sometimes fifty +herons in sight at once, beating steadily onward until almost +overhead, when they put on brakes and dropped. Some, as the little +egrets, were rather awkward; while the tricolors were the most +skilful, sometimes nose-diving, with a sudden flattening out just in +time to reach out and grasp a branch. Once or twice, when a fitful +breeze blew at sunset, I had a magnificent exhibition of aeronautics. +The birds came upwind slowly, beating their way obliquely but +steadily, long legs stretched out far behind the tail and swinging +pendulum-like whenever a shift of ballast was needed. They apparently +did not realize the unevenness of the wind, for when they backed air, +ready to descend, a sudden gust would often undercut them and over +they would go, legs, wings, and neck sprawling in mid-air. After one +or two somersaults or a short, swift dive, they would right +themselves, feathers on end, and frantically grasp at the first leaf +or twig within reach. Panting, they looked helplessly around, +reorientation coming gradually.</p> + +<p>At each arrival, a hoarse chorus went up from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> hungry throats, and +every youngster within reach scrambled wildly forward, hopeful of a +fish course. They received but scant courtesy and usually a vicious +peck tumbled them off the branch. I saw a young bird fall to the +water, and this mishap was from no attack, but due to his tripping +over his own feet, the claws of one foot gripping those of the other +in an insane clasp, which overbalanced him. He fell through a thin +screen of vines and splashed half onto a small Regia leaf. With neck +and wings he struggled to pull himself up, and had almost succeeded +when heron and leaf sank slowly, and only the bare stem swung up +again. A few bubbles led off in a silvery path toward deeper water, +showing where a crocodile swam slowly off with his prey.</p> + +<p>For a time the birds remained still, and then crept within the +tangles, to their mates or nests, or quieted the clamor of the young +with warm-storage fish. How each one knew its own offspring was beyond +my ken, but on three separate evenings scattered through one week, I +observed an individual, marked by a wing-gap of two lost feathers, +come, within a quarter-hour of six o'clock, and feed a great awkward +youngster<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> which had lost a single feather from each wing. So there +was no hit-or-miss method—no luck in the strongest birds taking toll +from more than two of the returning parents.</p> + +<p>Observing this vesper migration in different places, I began to see +orderly segregation on a large scale. All the smaller herons dwelt +together on certain islands in more or less social tolerance; and on +adjoining trees, separated by only a few yards, scores of hawks +concentrated and roosted, content with their snail diet, and wholly +ignoring their neighbors. On the other side of the gardens, in +aristocratic isolation, was a colony of stately American egrets, +dainty and graceful. Their circumference of radiation was almost or +quite a circle, for they preferred the ricefields for their daily +hunting. Here the great birds, snowy white, with flowing aigrettes, +and long, curving necks, settled with dignity, and here they slept and +sat on their rough nests of sticks.</p> + +<p>When the height of homing flight of the host of herons had passed, I +noticed a new element of restlessness, and here and there among the +foliage appeared dull-brown figures. There occurred the comic +explanation of white herons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> who had crept deep among the branches, +again emerging in house coat of drab! These were not the same, +however, and the first glance through binoculars showed the thick-set, +humped figures and huge, staring eyes of night herons.</p> + +<p>As the last rays of the sun left the summit of the royal palms, +something like the shadow of a heron flashed out and away, and then +the import of these facts was impressed upon me. The egret, the night +heron, the vampire—here were three types of organisms, characterizing +the actions and reactions in nature. The islands were receiving and +giving up. Their heart was becoming filled with the many day-feeding +birds, and now the night-shift was leaving, and the very branch on +which a night heron might have been dozing all day was now occupied, +perhaps, by a sleeping egret. With eyes enlarged to gather together +the scanty rays of light, the night herons were slipping away in the +path of the vampires—both nocturnal, but unlike in all other ways. +And I wondered if, in the very early morning, infant night herons +would greet their returning parents; and if their callow young ever +fell into the dark waters, what awful deathly alternates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> would night +reveal; or were the slow-living crocodiles sleepless, with cruel eyes +which never closed so soundly but that the splash of a young night +heron brought instant response?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h2>THE BAY OF BUTTERFLIES</h2> + + +<p>Butterflies doing strange things in very beautiful ways were in my +mind when I sat down, but by the time my pen was uncapped my thoughts +had shifted to rocks. The ink was refractory and a vigorous flick sent +a shower of green drops over the sand on which I was sitting, and as I +watched the ink settle into the absorbent quartz—the inversions of +our grandmothers' blotters—I thought of what jolly things the lost +ink might have been made to say about butterflies and rocks, if it +could have flowed out slowly in curves and angles and dots over +paper—for the things we might have done are always so much more +worthy than those which we actually accomplish. When at last I began +to write, a song came to my ears and my mind again looped backward. At +least, there came from the very deeps of the water beyond the +mangroves a low, metallic murmur; and my Stormouth says that in +Icelandic <i>sangra</i> means to murmur. So what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> is a murmur in Iceland +may very well be a song in Guiana. At any rate, my pen would have to +do only with words of singing catfish; yet from butterflies to rock, +to fish, all was logical looping—mental giant-swings which came as +relaxation after hours of observation of unrelated sheer facts.</p> + +<p>The singing cats, so my pen consented to write, had serenaded me while +I crossed the Cuyuni in a canoe. There arose deep, liquid, vibrating +sounds, such as those I now heard, deep and penetrating, as if from +some submarine gong—a gong which could not be thought of as wet, for +it had never been dry. As I stopped paddling the sound became absolute +vibration, the canoe itself seemed to tremble, the paddle tingled in +my hands. It was wholly detached; it came from whatever direction the +ear sought it. Then, without dying out, it was reinforced by another +sound, rhythmical, abrupt, twanging, filling the water and air with a +slow measure on four notes. The water swirled beside the canoe, and a +face appeared—a monstrous, complacent face, such as Böcklin would +love—a face inhuman in possessing the quality of supreme contentment. +Framed in the brown waters, the head of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> great, grinning catfish +rose, and slowly sank, leaving outlines discernible in ripples and +bubbles with almost Cheshire persistency. One of my Indians, passing +in his dugout, smiled at my peering down after the fish, and murmured, +"Boom-boom."</p> + +<p>Then came a day when one of these huge, amiable, living smiles +blundered into our net, a smile a foot wide and six feet long, and +even as he lay quietly awaiting what fate brought to great catfish, he +sang, both theme and accompaniment. His whole being throbbed with the +continuous deep drumming as the thin, silky walls of his swim-bladder +vibrated in the depths of his body. The oxygen in the air was slowly +killing him, and yet his swan song was possible because of an inner +atmosphere so rich in this gas that it would be unbreathable by a +creature of the land. Nerve and muscle, special expanse of circling +bones, swim-bladder and its tenuous gas—all these combined to produce +the aquatic harmony. But as if to load this contented being with +largesse of apparently useless abilities, the two widespreading fin +spines—the fins which correspond to our arms—were swiveled in +rough-ridged cups at what might have been shoulders, and when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> moved +back and forth the stridulation troubled all the water, and the air, +too, with the muffled, twanging, <i>rip</i>, <i>rip</i>, <i>rip</i>, <i>rip</i>. The two +spines were tuned separately, the right being a full tone lower, and +the backward drawing of the bow gave a higher note than its forward +reach. So, alternately, at a full second tempo, the four tones rose +and fell, carrying out some strange Silurian theme: a muffled cadence +of undertones, which, thrilled with the mystery of their author and +cause, yet merged smoothly with the cosmic orchestra of wind and +ripples and distant rain.</p> + +<p>So the great, smooth, arching lift of granite rocks at our bungalow's +shore, where the giant catfish sang, was ever afterward Boom-boom +Point. And now I sat close by on the sand and strove to think anew of +my butterflies, for they were the reason of my being there that +brilliant October afternoon. But still my pen refused, hovering about +the thing of ultimate interest as one leaves the most desired book to +the last. For again the ear claimed dominance, and I listened to a new +little refrain over my shoulder. I pictured a tiny sawhorse, and a +midget who labored with might and main to cut through a never-ending +stint of twigs. I chose to keep my image to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> the last, and did not +move or look around, until there came the slightest of tugs at my +knee, and into view clambered one of those beings who are so beautiful +and bizarre that one almost thinks they should not be. My second +singer was a beetle—an awkward, enormous, serious, brilliant beetle, +with six-inch antennæ and great wing covers, which combined the hues +of the royal robes of Queen Thi, tempered by thousands of years of +silent darkness in the underground tombs at Sakhara, with the grace of +curve and angle of equally ancient characters on the hill tombs of +Fokien. On a background of olive ochre there blazed great splashes and +characters of the red of jasper framed in black. Toward the front +Nature had tried heavy black stippling, but it clouded the pattern and +she had given it up in order that I might think of Egypt and Cathay.</p> + +<p>But the thing which took the beetle quite out of a world of reasonable +things was his forelegs. They were outrageous, and he seemed to think +so, too, for they got in his way, and caught in wrong things and +pulled him to one side. They were three times the length of his other +limbs, spreading sideways a full thirteen inches, long, slender, +beautifully sculptured, and forever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> reaching out in front for +whatever long-armed beetles most desire. And his song, as he climbed +over me, was squeaky and sawlike, and as he walked he doddered, head +trembling as an old man's shakes in final acquiescence in the futility +of life.</p> + +<p>But in this great-armed beetle it was a nodding of necessity, a +doddering of desire, the drawing of the bow across the strings in a +hymn of hope which had begun in past time with the first stridulation +of ancient insects. To-day the fiddling vibrations, the Song of the +Beetle, reached out in all directions. To the majority of jungle ears +it was only another note in the day's chorus: I saw it attract a +flycatcher's attention, hold it a moment, and then lose it. To me it +came as a vitally interesting tone of deep significance, for whatever +emotions it might arouse in casual ears, its goal was another +Great-armed Beetle, who might or might not come within its radius. +With unquestioning search the fiddler clambered on and on, over me and +over flowers and rocks, skirting the ripples and vanishing into a +maelstrom of waving grass. Long after the last awkward lurch, there +came back zizzing squeaks of perfect faith, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> hoped, as I passed +beyond the periphery of sound, that instinct and desire might direct +their rolling ball of vibrations toward the one whose ear, whether in +antenna, or thorax or femoral tympanum had, through untold numbers of +past lives, been attuned to its rhythm.</p> + +<p>Two thousand miles north of where I sat, or ten million, five hundred +and sixty thousand feet (for, like Bunker Bean's book-keeper, I +sometimes like to think of things that way), I would look out of the +window one morning in days to come, and thrill at the sight of falling +flakes. The emotion would very probably be sentiment—the memory of +wonderful northland snowstorms, of huge fires, of evenings with +Roosevelt, when discussions always led to unknowable fields, when book +after book yielded its phrase or sentence of pure gold thought. On one +of the last of such evenings I found a forgotten joy-of-battle-speech +of Huxley's, which stimulated two full days and four books +re-read—while flakes swirled and invisible winds came swiftly around +the eaves over the great trophies—<i>poussant des soupirs</i>,—we longing +with our whole souls for an hour of talk with that splendid old +fighting scientist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> + +<p>These are thoughts which come at first-snow, thoughts humanly narrow +and personal compared to the later delights of snow itself—crystals +and tracks, the strangeness of freezing and the mystery of melting. +And they recurred now because for days past I had idly watched +scattered flurries of lemon-yellow and of orange butterflies drift +past Kartabo. Down the two great Guiana rivers they came, steadily +progressing, yet never hurrying; with zigzag flickering flight they +barely cleared the trees and shrubs, and then skimmed the surface, +vanishing when ripples caught the light, redoubled by reflection when +the water lay quiet and polished. For month after month they passed, +sometimes absent for days or weeks, but soon to be counted at earliest +sunup, always arousing renewed curiosity, always bringing to mind the +first flurry of winter.</p> + +<p>We watch the autumn passing of birds with regret, but when the +bluebirds warble their way southward we are cheered with the hope and +the knowledge that some, at least, will return. Here, vast stretches +of country, perhaps all Guiana, and how much of Brazil and Venezuela +no one knows, poured forth a steady stream of yellow and orange +butterflies. They were very beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> and they danced and flickered +in the sunlight, but this was no temporary shifting to a pleasanter +clime or a land of more abundant flowers, but a migration in the grim +old sense which Cicero loved, <i>non dubitat</i> ... <i>migrare de vita</i>. No +butterfly ever turned back, or circled again to the glade, with its +yellow cassia blooms where he had spent his caterpillarhood. Nor did +he fly toward the north star or the sunset, but between the two. +Twelve years before, as I passed up the Essequibo and the Cuyuni, I +noticed hundreds of yellow butterflies each true to his little compass +variation of NNW.</p> + +<p>There are times and places in Guiana where emigrating butterflies turn +to the north or the south; sometimes for days at a time, but sooner or +later the eddies straighten out, their little flotillas cease tacking, +and all swing again NNW.</p> + +<p>To-day the last of the migration stragglers of the year—perhaps the +fiftieth great-grandsons of those others—held true to the Catopsilian +lodestone.</p> + +<p>My masculine pronouns are intentional, for of all the thousands and +tens of thousands of migrants, all, as far as I know, were males. +Catch a dozen yellows in a jungle glade and the sexes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> may be equal. +But the irresistible maelstrom impels only the males. Whence they come +or why they go is as utterly unknown to us as why the females are +immune.</p> + +<p>Once, from the deck of a steamer, far off the Guiana coast, I saw +hosts of these same great saffron-wings flying well above the water, +headed for the open sea. Behind them were sheltering fronds, nectar, +soft winds, mates; before were corroding salt, rising waves, lowering +clouds, a storm imminent. Their course was NNW, they sailed under +sealed orders, their port was Death.</p> + +<p>Looking out over the great expanse of the Mazaruni, the fluttering +insects were usually rather evenly distributed, each with a few yards +of clear space about it, but very rarely—I have seen it only twice—a +new force became operative. Not only were the little volant beings +siphoned up in untold numbers from their normal life of sleeping, +feeding, dancing about their mates, but they were blindly poured into +an invisible artery, down which they flowed in close association, +<i>véritables corpuscules de papillons</i>, almost touching, forming a +bending ribbon, winding its way seaward, with here and there a +temporary fraying out of eddying wings. It seemed like a wayward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +cloud still stained with last night's sunset yellow, which had set out +on its own path over rivers and jungles to join the sea mists beyond +the uttermost trees.</p> + +<p>Such a swarm seemed imbued with an ecstasy of travel which surpassed +discomfort. Deep cloud shadows might settle down, but only dimmed the +painted wings; under raindrops the ribbon sagged, the insects flying +closer to the water. On the other hand, the scattered hosts of the +more ordinary migrations, while they turned neither to the north nor +to the west, yet fled at the advent of clouds and rain, seeking +shelter under the nearest foliage. So much loitering was permitted, +but with the coming of the sun again they must desert the pleasant +feel of velvet leaves, the rain-washed odors of streaming blossoms, +and set their antennæ unquestioningly upon the strange last turn of +their wheel of life.</p> + +<p>What crime of ancestors are they expiating? In some forgotten +caterpillardom was an act committed, so terrible that it can never be +known, except through the working out of the karma upon millions of +butterflies? Or does there linger in the innumerable little ganglion +minds a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> memory of long-lost Atlantis, so compelling to masculine +Catopsilias that the supreme effort of their lives is an attempt to +envisage it? "Absurd fancies, all," says our conscious entomological +sense, and we agree and sweep them aside. And then quite as readily, +more reasonable scientific theories fall asunder, and we are left at +last alone with the butterflies, a vast ignorance, and a great +unfulfilled desire to know what it all means.</p> + +<p>On this October day the migration of the year had ceased. To my coarse +senses the sunlight was of equal intensity, the breeze unchanged, the +whole aspect the same—and yet something as intangible as thought, as +impelling as gravitation, had ceased to operate. The tension once +slackened, the butterflies took up their more usual lives. But what +could I know of the meaning of "normal" in the life of a butterfly—I +who boasted a miserable single pair of eyes and no greater number of +legs, whose shoulders supported only shoulder blades, and whose youth +was barren of caterpillarian memories!</p> + +<p>As I have said, migration was at an end, yet here I had stumbled upon +a Bay of Butterflies. No matter whether one's interest in life lay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +chiefly with ornithology, teetotalism, arrowheads, politics, botany, +or finance, in this bay one's thoughts would be sure to be +concentrated on butterflies. And no less interesting than the +butterflies were their immediate surroundings. The day before, I had +sat close by on a low boulder at the head of the tiny bay, with not a +butterfly in sight. It occurred to me that my ancestor, Eryops, would +have been perfectly at home, for in front of me were clumps of +strange, carboniferous rushes, lacking leaves and grace, and sedges +such as might be fashioned in an attempt to make plants out of green +straw. Here and there an ancient jointed stem was in blossom, a +pinnacle of white filaments, and hour after hour there came little +brown trigonid visitors, sting-less bees, whose nests were veritable +museums of flower extracts—tubs of honey, hampers of pollen, barrels +of ambrosia, hoarded in castles of wax. Scirpus-sedge or orchid, all +was the same to them.</p> + +<p>All odor evaded me until I had recourse to my usual olfactory crutch, +placing the flower in a vial in the sunlight. Delicate indeed was the +fragrance which did not yield itself to a few minutes of this +distillation. As I removed the cork<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> there gently arose the scent of +thyme, and of rose petals long pressed between the leaves of old, old +books—a scent memorable of days ancient to us, which in past lives of +sedges would count but a moment. In an instant it passed, drowned in +the following smell of bruised stem. But I had surprised the odor of +this age-old growth, as evanescent as the faint sound of the breeze +sifting through the cluster of leafless stalks. I felt certain that +Eryops, although living among horserushes and ancient sedges, never +smelled or listened to them, and a glow of satisfaction came over me +at the thought that perhaps I represented an advance on this funny old +forebear of mine; but then I thought of the little bees, drawn from +afar by the scent, and I returned to my usual sense of human futility, +which is always dominant in the presence of insect activities.</p> + +<p>I leaned back, crowding into a crevice of rock, and strove to realize +more deeply the kinship of these fine earth neighbors. Bone of my bone +indeed they were, but their quiet dignity, their calmness in storm and +sun, their poise, their disregard of all small, petty things, whether +of mechanics, whether chemical or emotional—these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> were attributes to +which I could only aspire, being the prerogatives of superiors.</p> + +<p>These rocks, in particular, seemed of the very essence of earth. Three +elements fought over them. The sand and soil from which they lifted +their splendid heads sifted down, or was washed up, in vain effort to +cover them. More subtly dead tree trunks fell upon them, returned to +earth, and strove to encloak them. For six hours at a time the water +claimed them, enveloping them slowly in a mantle of quicksilver, or +surging over with rough waves. Algal spores took hold, desmids and +diatoms swam in and settled down, little fish wandered in and out of +the crevices, while large ones nosed at the entrances.</p> + +<p>Then Mother Earth turned slowly onward; the moon, reaching down, +beckoned with invisible fingers, and the air again entered this no +man's land. Breezes whispered where a few moments before ripples had +lapped; with the sun as ally, the last remaining pool vanished and +there began the hours of aerial dominion. The most envied character of +our lesser brethren is their faith. No matter how many hundreds of +thousands of tides had ebbed and flowed, yet to-day every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> pinch of +life which was blown or walked or fell or flew to the rocks during +their brief respite from the waves, accepted the good dry surface +without question.</p> + +<p>Seeds and berries fell, and rolled into hollows rich in mulcted earth; +parachutes, buoyed on thistle silk, sailed from distant jungle plants; +every swirl of breeze brought spores of lichens and moss, and even the +retreating water unwittingly aided, having transported hither and +dropped a cargo of living things, from tiniest plant to seeds of +mightiest mora. Though in the few allotted hours these might not +sprout, but only quicken in their heart, yet blue-winged wasps made +their faith more manifest, and worked with feverish haste to gather +pellets of clay and fashion cells. I once saw even the beginning of +storage—a green spider, which an hour later was swallowed by a +passing fish instead of nourishing an infant wasp.</p> + +<p>Spiders raised their meshes where shrimps had skipped, and flies +hummed and were caught by singing jungle vireos, where armored catfish +had passed an hour or two before.</p> + +<p>So the elements struggled and the creatures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> of each strove to fulfil +their destiny, and for a little time the rocks and I wondered at it +together.</p> + +<p>In this little arena, floored with sand, dotted with rushes and +balconied with boulders, many hundreds of butterflies were gathered. +There were five species, all of the genius <i>Catopsilia</i>, but only +three were easily distinguishable in life, the smaller, lemon yellow +<i>statira</i>, and the larger, orange <i>argente</i> and <i>philea</i>. There was +also <i>eubele</i>, the migrant, keeping rather to itself.</p> + +<p>I took some pictures, then crept closer; more pictures and a nearer +approach. Then suddenly all rose, and I felt as if I had shattered a +wonderful painting. But the sand was a lodestone and drew them down. I +slipped within a yard, squatted, and mentally became one of them. +Silently, by dozens and scores, they flew around me, and soon they +eclipsed the sand. They were so closely packed that their outstretched +legs touched. There were two large patches, and a smaller area +outlined by no boundary that I could detect. Yet when these were +occupied the last comers alighted on top of the wings of their +comrades, who resented neither the disturbance nor the weight. Two +layers of butterflies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> crammed into small areas of sand in the midst +of more sand, bounded by walls of empty air—this was a strange thing.</p> + +<p>A little later, when I enthusiastically reported it to a professional +lepidopterist he brushed it aside. "A common occurrence the world +over, Rhopalocera gathered in damp places to drink." I, too, had +observed apparently similar phenomena along icy streams in Sikkim, and +around muddy buffalo-wallows in steaming Malay jungles. And I can +recall many years ago, leaning far out of a New England buggy to watch +clouds of little sulphurs flutter up from puddles beneath the creaking +wheels.</p> + +<p>The very fact that butterflies chose to drink in company is of intense +interest, and to be envied as well by us humans who are temporarily +denied that privilege. But in the Bay of Butterflies they were not +drinking, nor during the several days when I watched them. One of the +chosen patches of sand was close to the tide when I first saw them, +and damp enough to appease the thirst of any butterfly. The other two +were upon sand, parched by hours of direct tropical sun, and here the +two layers were massed.</p> + +<p>The insects alighted, facing in any direction,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> but veered at once, +heading upbreeze. Along the riverside of markets of tropical cities I +have seen fleets of fishing boats crowded close together, their gay +sails drying, while great ebony Neptunes brought ashore baskets of +angel fish. This came to mind as I watched my flotillas of +butterflies.</p> + +<p>I leaned forward until my face was hardly a foot from the outliers, +and these I learned to know as individuals. One sulphur had lost a bit +of hind wing, and three times he flew away and returned to the same +spot. Like most cripples, he was unamiable, and resented a close +approach, pushing at the trespasser with a foreleg in a most +unbutterfly-like way. Although I watched closely, I did not see a +single tongue uncoiled for drinking. Only when a dense group became +uneasy and pushed one another about were the tongue springs slightly +loosened. Even the nervous antennæ were quiet after the insects had +settled. They seemed to have achieved a Rhopaloceran Nirvana, content +to rest motionless until caught up in the temporary whirlwinds of +restlessness which now and then possessed them.</p> + +<p>They came from all directions, swirling over the rocks, twisting +through nearby brambles,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> and settling without a moment's hesitation. +It was as though they had all been here many times before, a +rendezvous which brooked not an instant's delay. From time to time +some mass spirit troubled them, and, as one butterfly, the whole +company took to wing. Close as they were when resting, they fairly +buffeted one another in mid-air. Their wings, striking one another and +my camera and face, made a strange little rustling, crisp and +crackling whispers of sounds. As if a pile of Northern autumn leaves, +fallen to earth, suddenly remembered days of greenness and humming +bees, and strove to raise themselves again to the bare branches +overhead.</p> + +<p>Down came the butterflies again, brushing against my clothes and eyes +and hands. All that I captured later were males, and most were fresh +and newly emerged, with a scattering of dimmed wings, frayed at edges, +who flew more slowly, with less vigor. Finally the lower patch was +washed out by the rising tide, but not until the water actually +reached them did the insects leave. I could trace with accuracy the +exact reach of the last ripple to roll over the flat sand by the +contour of the remaining outermost rank of insects.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p> + +<p>On and on came the water, and soon I was forced to move, and the +hundreds of butterflies in front of me. When the last one had left I +went away, returning two hours later. It was then that I witnessed the +most significant happening in the Bay of Butterflies—one which shook +to the bottom the theory of my lepidopterist friend, together with my +thoughtless use of the word normal. Over two feet of restless brown +water covered the sand patches and rocked the scouring rushes. A few +feet farther up the little bay the remaining sand was still exposed. +Here were damp sand, sand dotted with rushes, and sand dry and white +in the sun. About a hundred butterflies were in sight, some +continually leaving, and others arriving. Individuals still dashed +into sight and swooped downward. But not one attempted to alight on +the exposed sand. There was fine, dry sand, warm to a butterfly's +feet, or wet sand soaked with draughts of good Mazaruni water. But +they passed this unheeding, and circled and fluttered in two swarms, +as low as they dared, close to the surface of the water, exactly over +the two patches of sand which had so drawn and held them or their +brethren two hours before. Whatever the ultimate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> satisfaction may +have been, the attraction was something transcending humidity, +aridity, or immediate possibility of attainment. It was a definite +cosmic point, a geographical focus, which, to my eyes and +understanding, was unreasonable, unsuitable, and inexplicable.</p> + +<p>As I watched the restless water and the butterflies striving to find a +way down through it to the only desired patches of sand in the world, +there arose a fine, thin humming, seeping up through the very waves, +and I knew the singing catfish were following the tide shoreward. And +as I considered my vast ignorance of what it all meant, of how little +I could ever convey of the significance of the happenings in the Bay +of Butterflies, I felt that it would have been far better for all of +my green ink to have trickled down through the grains of sand.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<h2>SEQUELS</h2> + + +<p>Tropical midges of sorts live less than a day—sequoias have felt +their sap quicken at the warmth of fifteen hundred springs. Somewhere +between these extremes, we open our eyes, look about us for a time and +close them again. Modern political geography and shifts of government +give us Methusalistic feelings—but a glance at rocks or stars sends +us shuddering among the other motes which glisten for a moment in the +sunlight and then vanish.</p> + +<p>We who strive for a little insight into evolution and the meaning of +things as they are, forever long for a glimpse of things as they were. +Here at my laboratory I wonder what the land was like before the dense +mat of vegetation came to cover every rock and grain of sand, or how +the rivers looked when first their waters trickled to the sea.</p> + +<p>All our stories are of the middles of things,—without beginning or +end; we scientists are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> plunged suddenly upon a cosmos in the full +uproar of eons of precedent, unable to look ahead, while to look +backward we must look down.</p> + +<p>Exactly a year ago I spent two hours in a clearing in the jungle back +of Kartabo laboratory, and let my eyes and ears have full swing.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +Now in August of the succeeding year I came again to this clearing, +and found it no more a clearing. Indeed so changed was it, that for +weeks I had passed close by without a thought of the jungle meadow of +the previous year, and now, what finally turned me aside from my usual +trail, was a sound. Twelve months ago I wrote, "From the monotone of +under-world sounds a strange little rasping detached itself, a +reiterated, subdued scraping or picking. It carried my mind instantly +to the throbbing theme of the Niebelungs, onomatopoetic of the little +hammers forever busy in their underground work. I circled a small bush +at my side, and found that the sound came from one of the branches +near the top; so with my glasses I began a systematic search." This +was as far as I ever got, for a flock of parrakeets exploded close at +hand and blew the lesser sound out of mind. If I had stopped <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>to guess +I would probably have considered the author a longicorn beetle or some +fiddling orthopter.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See page <a href="#Page_34">34.</a></p> +</div> + +<p>Now, a year later, I suddenly stopped twenty yards away, for at the +end of the silvery cadence of a woodhewer, I heard the low, measured, +toneless rhythm which instantly revived to mind every detail of the +clearing. I was headed toward a distant palm frond beneath whose tip +was a nest of Rufous Hermits, for I wished to see the two atoms of +hummingbirds at the moment when they rolled from their <i>petit pois</i> +egg-shells. I gave this up for the day and turned up the hill, where +fifty feet away was the stump and bush near which I had sat and +watched. Three times I went past the place before I could be certain, +and even at the last I identified it only by the relative position of +the giant tauroneero tree, in which I had shot many cotingas. The +stump was there, a bit lower and more worn at the crevices, leaking +sawdust like an overloved doll—but the low shrub had become a tall +sapling, the weeds—vervain, boneset, velvet-leaf—all had been topped +and killed off by dense-foliaged bushes and shrubs, which a year +before had not raised a leaf above the meadow level. The old vistas +were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> gone, the landscape had closed in, the wilderness was shutting +down. Nature herself was "letting in the jungle." I felt like Rip Van +Winkle, or even more alien, as if the passing of time had been +accelerated and my longed-for leap had been accomplished, beyond the +usual ken of mankind's earthly lease of senses.</p> + +<p>All these astounding changes had come to pass through the heat and +moisture of a tropical year, and under deliberate scientific +calculation there was nothing unusual in the alteration. I remembered +the remarkable growth of one of the laboratory bamboo shoots during +the rainy season—twelve and a half feet in sixteen days, but that was +a single stem like a blade of grass, whereas here the whole landscape +was altered—new birds, new insects, branches, foliage, flowers, where +twelve short months past, was open sky above low weeds.</p> + +<p>In the hollow root on the beach, my band of crane-flies had danced for +a thousand hours, but here was a sound which had apparently never +ceased for more than a year—perhaps five thousand hours of daylight. +It was a low, penetrating, abruptly reiterated beat, occurring about +once every second and a half, and distinctly audible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> a hundred feet +away. The "low bush" from which it proceeded last year, was now a +respectable sapling, and the source far out of reach overhead. I +discovered a roundish mass among the leaves, and the first stroke of +the ax sent the rhythm up to once a second, but did not alter the +timbre. A few blows and the small trunk gave way and I fled for my +life. But there was no angry buzzing and I came close. After a +cessation of ten or fifteen seconds the sound began again, weaker but +steady. The foliage was alive with small Azteca ants, but these were +tenants of several small nests near by, and at the catastrophe overran +everything.</p> + +<p>The largest structure was the smooth carton nest of a wasp, a +beautiful species, pale yellowish-red with wine-colored wings. Only +once did an individual make an attempt to sting and even when my head +was within six inches, the wasps rested quietly on the broken combs. +By careful watching, I observed that many of the insects jerked the +abdomen sharply downward, butting the comb or shell of smooth paper a +forceful blow, and producing a very distinct noise. I could not at +first see the mass of wasps which were giving forth the major rhythm, +as they were hidden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> deep in the nest, but the fifty-odd wasps in +sight kept perfect time, or occasionally an individual skipped one or +two beats, coming in regularly on every alternate or every third beat. +Where they were two or three deep, the uppermost wasps struck the +insects below them with their abdomens in perfect rhythm with the nest +beat. For half an hour the sound continued, then died down and was not +heard again. The wasps dispersed during the night and the nest was +deserted.</p> + +<p>It reminded me of the telegraphing ants which I have often heard in +Borneo, a remarkable sweeping roll, caused by the host of insects +striking the leaves with their heads, and produced only when they are +disturbed. It appeared to be of the nature of a warning signal, giving +me opportunity to back away from the stinging legions which filled the +thicket against which I pushed.</p> + +<p>The rhythm of these wasps was very different. They were peaceable, not +even resenting the devastation of their home, but always and always +must the inexplicable beat, beat, beat, be kept up, serving some +purpose quite hidden from me. During succeeding months I found two +more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> nests, with similar fetish of sound vibrations, which led to +their discovery. From one small nest, which fairly shook with the +strength of their beats, I extracted a single wasp and placed him in a +glass-topped, metal box. For three minutes he kept up the rhythmic +beat. Then I began a more rapid tattoo on the bottom of the box, and +the changed tempo confused him, so that he stopped at once, and would +not tap again.</p> + +<p>A few little Mazaruni daisies survived here and there, blossoming +bravely, trying to believe that the shade was lessening, and not daily +becoming more dense. But their leaves were losing heart, and paling in +the scant light. Another six months and dead leaves and moss would +have obliterated them, and the zone of brilliant flowers and gorgeous +butterflies and birds would shift many feet into the air, with the +tops of the trees as a new level.</p> + +<p>As long as I remained by my stump my visitors were of the jungle. A +yellow-bellied trogon came quite close, and sat as trogons do, very +straight and stiff like a poorly mounted bird, watching passing +flycatchers and me and the glimpses of sky. At first he rolled his +little cuckoo-like notes, and his brown mate swooped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> up, saw me, +shifted a few feet farther off and perched full of curiosity, craning +her neck and looking first with one eye, then the other. Now the male +began a content song. With all possible variations of his few and +simple tones, on a low and very sweet timbre, he belied his unoscine +perch in the tree of bird life, and sang to himself. Now and then he +was drowned out by the shrilling of cicadas, but it was a delightful +serenade, and he seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. A few days +before, I had made a careful study of the syrinx of this bird, whom we +may call rather euphoniously <i>Trogonurus curucui</i>, and had been struck +by the simplicity both of muscles and bones. Now, having summoned his +mate in regular accents, there followed this unexpected whisper song. +It recalled similar melodies sung by pheasants and Himalayan +partridges, usually after they had gone to roost.</p> + +<p>Once the female swooped after an insect, and in the midst of one of +the sweetest passages of the male trogon, a green grasshopper shifted +his position. He was only two inches away from the singer, and all +this time had been hidden by his chlorophyll-hued veil. And now the +trogon fairly fell off the branch, seizing the insect almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> before +the tone died away. Swallowing it with considerable difficulty, the +harmony was taken up again, a bit throaty for a few notes. Then the +pair talked together in the usual trogon fashion, and the sudden +shadow of a passing vulture, drew forth discordant cat calls, as both +birds swooped from sight to avoid the fancied hawk.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later the vocal seal of the jungle was uttered by a +quadrille bird. When the notes of this wren are heard, I can never +imagine open, blazing sunshine, or unobstructed blue sky. Like the +call of the wood pewee, the wren's radiates coolness and shadowy +quiet. No matter how tropic or breathless the jungle, when the +flute-like notes arise they bring a feeling of freshness, they arouse +a mental breeze, which cools one's thoughts, and, although there may +be no water for miles, yet we can fairly hear the drip of cool drops +falling from thick moss to pools below. First an octave of two notes +of purest silver, then a varying strain of eight or ten notes, so +sweet and powerful, so individual and meaningful that it might stand +for some wonderful motif in a great opera. I shut my eyes, and I was +deaf to all other sounds while the wren sang.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> And as it dwelt on the +last note of its phrase, a cicada took it up on the exact tone, and +blended the two final notes into a slow vibration, beginning gently +and rising with the crescendo of which only an insect, and especially +a cicada, is master. Here was the eternal, hypnotic tom-tom rhythm of +the East, grafted upon supreme Western opera. For a time my changed +clearing became merely a sounding box for the most thrilling of jungle +songs. I called the wren as well as I could, and he came nearer and +nearer. The music rang out only a few yards away. Then he became +suspicious, and after that each phrase was prefaced by typical wren +scolding. He could not help but voice his emotions, and the harsh +notes told plainly what he thought of my poor imitation. Then another +feeling would dominate, and out of the maelstrom of harshness, of +tumbled, volcanic vocalization would rise the pure silver stream of +single notes.</p> + +<p>The wren slipped away through the masses of fragrant Davilla blossoms, +but his songs remained and are with me to this moment. And now I +leaned back, lost my balance, and grasping the old stump for support, +loosened a big piece of soft, mealy wood. In the hollow beneath,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> I +saw a rainbow in the heart of the dead tree.</p> + +<p>This rainbow was caused by a bug, and when we stop to think of it, +this shows how little there is in a name. For when we say bug, or for +that matter bogy or bugbear, we are garbling the sound which our very, +very forefathers uttered when they saw a specter or hobgoblin. They +said it <i>bugge</i> or even <i>bwg</i>, but then they were more afraid of +specters in those days than we, who imprison will-o'-the-wisps in Very +lights, and rub fox-fire on our watch faces. At any rate here was a +bug who seemed to ill-deserve his name, although if the Niblelungs +could fashion the Rheingold, why could not a bug conceive a rainbow?</p> + +<p>Whenever a human, and especially a house-human thinks of bugs, she +thinks unpleasantly and in superlatives. And it chances that +evolution, or natural selection, or life's mechanism, or fate or a +creator, has wrought them into form and function also in superlatives. +Cicadas are supreme in longevity and noise. One of our northern +species sucks in silent darkness for seventeen years, and then, for a +single summer, breaks all American long-distance records for insect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +voices. To another group, known as Fulgorids, gigantic heads and +streamers of wax have been allotted. Those possessing the former +rejoice in the name of Lantern Flies, but they are at present +unfaithful vestal bugs, though it is extremely doubtful if their wicks +were ever trimmed or lighted. To see a big wax bug flying with +trailing ribbons slowly from tree to tree in the jungle is to recall +the streaming trains of a flock of peacocks on the wing.</p> + +<p>The membracids must of all deserve the name of "bugges" for no elf or +hobgoblin was ever more bizarre. Their legs and heads and bodies are +small and aphid-like, but aloft there spring minarets and handles and +towers and thorns and groups of hairy balls, out of all reason and +sense. Only Stegosaurus and Triceratops bear comparison. Another group +of five-sided bugs are the skunks and civet-cats among insects, +guarding themselves from danger by an aura of obnoxious scent.</p> + +<p>Not the least strange of this assemblage is the author of our rainbow +in the stump. My awkwardness had broken into a hollow which opened to +the light on the other side of the rotten bole. A vine had tendriled +its way into the crevice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> where the little weaver of rainbows had +found board and lodging. We may call him toad-hopper or spittle-bug, +or as Fabre says, "<i>Contentons-nous de Cicadelle, qui respecte le +tympan.</i>" Like all of its kindred, the Bubble Bug finds Nirvana in a +sappy green stem. It has neither strong flight, nor sticky wax, thorny +armature nor gas barrage, so it proceeds to fashion an armor of +bubbles, a cuirass of liquid film. This, in brief, was the rainbow +which caught my eye when I broke open the stump. Up to that moment no +rainbow had existed, only a little light sifting through from the +vine-clad side. But now a ray of sun shattered itself on the pile of +bubbles, and sprayed itself out into a curved glory.</p> + +<p>Bubble Bugs blow their froth only when immature, and their bodies are +a distillery or home-brew of sorts. No matter what the color, or +viscosity or chemical properties of sap, regardless of whether it +flows in liana, shrub, or vine, yet the Bug's artesian product is +clear, tasteless and wholly without the possibility of being blown +into bubbles. When a large drop has collected, the tip of the abdomen +encloses a retort of air, inserts this in the drop and forces it out. +In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> some way an imponderable amount of oil or dissolved wax is +extruded and mixed with the drop, an invisible shellac which toughens +the bubble and gives it an astounding glutinous endurance. As long as +the abdominal air-pump can be extended into the atmosphere, so long +does the pile of bubbles grow until the insect is deep buried, and to +penetrate this is as unpleasant an achievement for small marauders as +to force a cobweb entanglement. I have draped a big pile of bubbles +around the beak of an insect-eating bird, and watched it shake its +head and wipe its beak in evident disgust at the clinging oily films. +In the north we have the bits of fine white foam which we +characteristically call frog-spittle, but these tropic relatives have +bigger bellows and their covering is like the interfering mass of +films which emerges from the soap-bubble bowl when a pipe is thrust +beneath the surface and that delicious gurgling sound produced.</p> + +<p>The most marvelous part of the whole thing is that the undistilled +well which the Bubble Bug taps would often overwhelm it in an instant, +either by the burning acidity of its composition, or the rubber +coating of death into which it hardens in the air. Yet with this +current of lava<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> or vitriol, our Bug does three wonderful things, it +distills sweet water for its present protective cell of bubbles, it +draws purest nourishment for continual energy to run its bellows and +pump, and simultaneously it fills its blood and tissues with a pungent +flavor, which in the future will be a safeguard against the attacks of +birds and lizards. Little by little its wings swell to full spread and +strength, muscles are fashioned in its hind legs, which in time will +shoot it through great distances of space, and pigment of the most +brilliant yellow and black forms on its wing covers. When at last it +shuts down its little still and creeps forth through the filmy veil, +it is immature no longer, but a brilliant frog-hopper, sitting on the +most conspicuous leaves, trusting by pigmental warning to advertise +its inedibility, and watchful for a mate, so that the future may hold +no dearth of Bubble Bugs.</p> + +<p>On my first tramp each season in the tropical jungle, I see the +legionary army ants hastening on their way to battle, and the +leaf-cutters plodding along, with chlorophyll hods over their +shoulders, exactly as they did last year, and the year preceding, and +probably a hundred thousand years before that. The Colony Egos of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +army and leaf-cutters may quite reasonably be classified according to +Kingdom. The former, with carnivorous, voracious, nervous, vitally +active members, seems an intangible, animal-like organism; while the +stolid, vegetarian, unemotional, weather-swung Attas, resemble the +flowing sap of the food on which they subsist—vegetable.</p> + +<p>Yet, whatever the simile, the net of unconscious precedent is too +closely drawn, the mesh of instinct is too fine to hope for any +initiative. This was manifested by the most significant and +spectacular occurrence I have ever observed in the world of insects. +One year and a half ago I studied and reported upon, a nest of Ecitons +or army ants.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Now, eighteen months later, apparently the same army +appeared and made a similar nest of their own bodies, in the identical +spot near the door of the outhouse, where I had found them before. +Again we had to break up the temporary colony, and killed about +three-quarters of the colony with various deadly chemicals.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> See page <a href="#Page_58">58.</a></p> +</div> + +<p>In spite of all the tremendous slaughter, the Ecitons, in late +afternoon, raided a small colony of Wasps-of-the-Painted-Nest. These +little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>chaps construct a round, sub-leaf carton-home, as large as a +golf ball, which carries out all the requirements of counter shading +and of ruptive markings. The flattened, shadowed under surface was +white, and most of the sloping walls dark brown, down which extended +eight white lines, following the veins of the leaf overhead. The side +close to the stem of the leaf, and consequently always in deep shadow, +was pure white. The eaves catching high lights were black. All this +marvelous merging with leaf tones went for naught when once an advance +Eciton scout located the nest.</p> + +<p>As the deadly mob approached, the wasplets themselves seemed to +realize the futility of offering battle, and the entire colony of +forty-four gathered in a forlorn group on a neighboring leaf, while +their little castle was rifled—larvæ and pupæ torn from their cells +and rushed down the stems to the chaos which was raging in Eciton's +own home. The wasps could guard against optical discovery, but the +blind Ecitons had senses which transcended vision, if not even scent.</p> + +<p>Late that night, our lanterns showed the remnants of the Eciton army +wandering aimlessly about, making near approach impossible, but +apparently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> lacking any definite concerted action.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock the following morning I started out for a swim, when at +the foot of the laboratory steps I saw a swiftly-moving, broad line of +army ants on safari, passing through the compound to the beach. I +traced them back under the servants' quarters, through two clumps of +bamboos to the outhouse. Later I followed along the column down to the +river sand, through a dense mass of underbrush, through a hollow log, +up the bank, back through light jungle—to the outhouse again, and on +a large fallen log, a few feet beyond the spot where their nest had +been, the ends of the circle <i>actually came together</i>! It was the most +astonishing thing, and I had to verify it again and again before I +could believe the evidence of my eyes. It was a strong column, six +lines wide in many places, and the ants fully believed that they were +on their way to a new home, for most were carrying eggs or larvæ, +although many had food, including the larvæ of the Painted Nest +Wasplets. For an hour at noon during heavy rain, the column weakened +and almost disappeared, but when the sun returned, the lines rejoined, +and the revolution of the vicious circle continued.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span></p> + +<p>There were several places which made excellent points of observation, +and here we watched and marveled. Careful measurement of the great +circle showed a circumference of twelve hundred feet. We timed the +laden Ecitons and found that they averaged two to two and +three-quarter inches a second. So a given individual would complete +the round in about two hours and a half. Many guests were plodding +along with the ants, mostly staphylinids of which we secured five +species, a brown histerid beetle, a tiny chalcid, and several Phorid +flies, one of which was winged.</p> + +<p>The fat Histerid beetle was most amusing, getting out of breath every +few feet, and abruptly stopping to rest, turning around in its tracks, +standing almost on its head, and allowing the swarm of ants to run up +over it and jump off. Then on it would go again, keeping up the +terrific speed of two and a half inches a second for another yard. Its +color was identical with the Ecitons' armor, and when it folded up, +nothing could harm it. Once a worker stopped and antennæd it +suspiciously, but aside from this, it was accepted as one of the line +of marchers. Along the same route came the tiny Phorid flies, wingless +but swift as shadows, rushing from side to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> side, over ants, leaves, +débris, impatient only at the slowness of the army.</p> + +<p>All the afternoon the insane circle revolved; at midnight the hosts +were still moving, the second morning many had weakened and dropped +their burdens, and the general pace had very appreciably slackened. +But still the blind grip of instinct held them. On, on, on they must +go! Always before in their nomadic life there had been a goal—a +sanctuary of hollow tree, snug heart of bamboos—surely this terrible +grind must end somehow. In this crisis, even the Spirit of the Army +was helpless. Along the normal paths of Eciton life he could inspire +endless enthusiasm, illimitable energy, but here his material units +were bound upon the wheel of their perfection of instinct. Through sun +and cloud, day and night, hour after hour there was found no Eciton +with individual initiative enough to turn aside an ant's breadth from +the circle which he had traversed perhaps fifteen times: the masters +of the jungle had become their own mental prey.</p> + +<p>Fewer and fewer now came along the well worn path; burdens littered +the line of march, like the arms and accoutrements thrown down by a +retreating army. At last a scanty single line<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> struggled past—tired, +hopeless, bewildered, idiotic and thoughtless to the last. Then some +half dead Eciton straggled from the circle along the beach, and threw +the line behind him into confusion. The desperation of total +exhaustion had accomplished what necessity and opportunity and normal +life could not. Several others followed his scent instead of that +leading back toward the outhouse, and as an amoeba gradually flows +into one of its own pseudopodia, so the forlorn hope of the great +Eciton army passed slowly down the beach and on into the jungle. Would +they die singly and in bewildered groups, or would the remnant draw +together, and again guided by the super-mind of its Mentor lay the +foundation of another army, and again come to nest in my outhouse?</p> + +<p>Thus was the ending still unfinished, the finale buried in the +future—and in this we find the fascination of Nature and of Science. +Who can be bored for a moment in the short existence vouchsafed us +here; with dramatic beginnings barely hidden in the dust, with the +excitement of every moment of the present, and with all of cosmic +possibility lying just concealed in the future, whether of Betelgeuze, +of Amoeba or—of ourselves? <i>Vogue la galère!</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="APPENDIX_OF_SCIENTIFIC_NAMES" id="APPENDIX_OF_SCIENTIFIC_NAMES"></a>APPENDIX OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES</h2> + + + +<table summary="Appendix of Scientific Names"> +<tr><td class="tocch">Page</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">Line</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">26</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Moriche Oriole; <i>Icterus chrysocephalus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">10</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Toad; <i>Bufo guttatus Schneid</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">3</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Bat; <i>Furipterus horrens</i> (F. Cuv.)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">4</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Large Bats; <i>Vampyrus spectrum</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">6</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Vampire Bats; <i>Desmodus rotundus</i> (Geoff.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">5</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Giant Catfish, Boom-boom; <i>Doras granulosus</i> Valen.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">5</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Kiskadee; <i>Pitangus s. sulphuratus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">26</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Parrakeets; <i>Touit batavica</i> (Bodd.)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">26</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Great Black Orioles; <i>Ostinops d. decumanus</i> (Pall.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">5</td> + <td> </td> + <td>House Wrens; <i>Troglodytes musculus clarus</i> Berl. and Hart</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_29">29</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">5</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Coati-mundi; <i>Nasua n. nasua</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">2</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Frog; <i>Phyllomedusa</i> sp.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">18</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Mazaruni Daisies; <i>Sipanea pratensis</i> Aubl.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">20</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Button Weed; <i>Spermacoce</i> sp.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_36">36</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">23</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Melancholy Tyrant; <i>Tyrannus melancholicus satrapa</i> (Cab. and Hein.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">2</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Monarch; <i>Anosia plexippus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">7</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Red-breasted Blue Chatterer; <i>Cotinga cotinga</i> Linné</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">18</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Yellow Papilio; <i>Papilio thoas</i> Linné</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">26</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Parrakeets; <i>Touit batavica</i> (Bodd.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">3</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Purple-throated Cotinga; <i>Cotinga cayana</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">15</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Dark-breasted Mourner; <i>Lipaugus simplex</i> Licht.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">26</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Toucans; <i>Ramphastus vitellinus</i> Licht.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">6</td> + <td> </td> + <td>White-fronted Ant-bird; <i>Pithys albifrons</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">16</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Army Ants; <i>Eciton burchelli</i> Westwood</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"> <a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">10</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Great Green Kingfisher; <i>Chloroceryle amazona</i> (Lath.)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">11</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Tiny Emerald Kingfisher; <i>Chloroceryle americana</i> (Gmel.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">25</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Gecko; <i>Thecadactylus rapicaudus</i> (Houtt.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">8</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Howling Monkeys; <i>Alouatta seniculus macconnelli</i> Elliot</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">7</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Bower Bird; <i>Ptilonorhynchus violaceus</i> (Vieill.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">24</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Cassava; <i>Janipha manihot</i> Kth.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">20</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Frog, Gawain; <i>Phyllomedusa</i> sp.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">17</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Marine Toad; <i>Bufo marinus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">8</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker; <i>Phyllobates inguinalis</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">2</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Attas, Leaf-cutting Ants; <i>Atta cephalotes</i> (Fab.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">12</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Fruit Bats; <i>Vampyrus spectrum</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">11</td> + <td> </td> + <td>King Vulture; <i>Gypagus papa</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">11</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Harpy Eagle; <i>Harpia harpyja</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">3</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Ani; <i>Crotophaga ani</i> Linné</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">7</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Marine Toad; <i>Bufo marinus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">19</td> + <td> </td> + <td>White-faced Opossum; <i>Metachirus o. opossum</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">1</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Attas, Leaf-cutting Ants; <i>Atta cephalotes</i> (Fab.)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">5</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Hummingbird; <i>Phoethornis r. ruber</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">7</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Tamandua; <i>Tamandua t. tetradactyla</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">1</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Trogon; <i>Trogon s. strigilatus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">9</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Tarantula Hawks; <i>Pepsis</i> sp.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">17</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Cicada larvæ; <i>Quesada gigas</i> Oliv.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">5</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Roaches; <i>Attaphila</i> sp.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">26</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Manatee; <i>Trichechus manatus</i> Linné</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">24</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Crocodile; <i>Caiman sclerops</i> (Schneid.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">6</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Jacana; <i>Jacana j. jacana</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">8</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Gallinule; <i>Ionornis martinicus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">9</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Green Herons; <i>Butorides striata</i> Linné</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">10</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Egrets; <i>Leucophoyx t. thula</i> (Molina)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">17</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Kiskadees; <i>Pitangus sulphuratus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">19</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Black Witch; <i>Crotophaga ani</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">19</td> + <td> </td> + <td>House Wren; <i>Troglodytes musculus clarus</i> Berl. and Hart</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">22</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Manatee; <i>Trichechus manatus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">1</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Jacana; <i>Jacana j. jacana</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">3</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Gallinule; <i>Ionornis martinicus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">15</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Mongoose; <i>Mungos mungo</i> (Gmel.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">11</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Little Egret; <i>Leucophoyx t. thula</i> (Molina)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">14</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Tri-colored Heron; <i>Hydranassa tricolor</i> (P. L. S. Mull.)</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">15</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Little Blue Heron; <i>Florida c. caerulea</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">14</td> + <td> </td> + <td>White Egret; <i>Casmerodius egretta</i> (Gmel.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">10</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Night Heron; <i>Nyctanassa violacea cayennensis</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">1</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Giant Catfish, Boom-boom; <i>Doras granulosus</i> Valen.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_256">256</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">6</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Long-armed Beetle; <i>Acrocinus longimanus</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">10</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Rufus Hummingbird; <i>Phoethornis r. ruber</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">16</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Tapping Wasp; <i>Synoeca irina</i> Spinola</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">10</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Mazaruni Daisy; <i>Sipanea pratensis</i> Aubl.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">21</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Trogons; <i>Trogonurus c. curucui</i> (Linné)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_282">282</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">10</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Quadrille Bird; <i>Leucolepis musica musica</i> (Bodd.)</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">3</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Bubble Bugs; <i>Cercopis ruber</i></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#Page_289">289</a></td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocch">16</td> + <td> </td> + <td>Army Ants; <i>Eciton burchelli</i> Westwood</td></tr> +</table> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> + + +<div class="index"> +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="indlet">A</span></li> + +<li><i>Acrocinus longimanus</i>, <a href="#Page_255">255-258</a></li> + +<li>Allamander, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li><i>Alouatta seniculus macconnelli</i>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> + +<li>Ani, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li><i>Anosia plexippus</i>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li>Antbirds, white-fronted, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> + +<li>Antlions, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + +<li>Ants, Army, <a name="Anch1" id="Anch1"></a><a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; +<ul class="IX"> +<li>attack on wasps, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li> +<li>circular marching of, <a href="#Page_291">291-294</a>;</li> +<li>cleaning of, <a href="#Page_79">79-81</a>;</li> +<li>cleaning of ground, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li> +<li>crippled, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li> +<li>enemies, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> +<li>foraging lines, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li> +<li>guests, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</li> +<li>labor, division of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li> +<li>larvæ, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li> +<li>nest, <a href="#Page_59">59-61</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li> +<li>nest entrance, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li> +<li>observing, methods of, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li> +<li>odor, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li> +<li>parasites, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</li> +<li>prey of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li> +<li>rain, reaction to, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li> +<li>refuse heaps, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> +<li>scavengers of nest piles, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> +<li>speed of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</li> +<li>spinning, <a href="#Page_84">84-86</a>;</li> +<li>vitality, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Ants, <i>Azteca</i>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li> + +<li>Ants, Borneo telegraph, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> + +<li>Ants, Leaf-cutting, <a name="Anch2" id="Anch2"></a><a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; +<ul class="IX"> +<li>at home, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> +<li>attack, method of guarding against, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</li> +<li>attack, method of, <a href="#Page_177">177-179</a>;</li> +<li>battle of giant soldiers, <a href="#Page_168">168-171</a>;</li> +<li>castes, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li> +<li>enemies, <a href="#Page_162">162-163</a>;</li> +<li>flight of kings and queens, <a href="#Page_185">185-188</a>;</li> +<li>fungus, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</li> +<li>gardens, fungus, <a href="#Page_179">179-181</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</li> +<li>instinct, <a href="#Page_190">190-192</a>;</li> +<li>leaf-chewing in nest, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li> +<li>leaves, carrying, <a href="#Page_158">158-162</a>;</li> +<li>leaves, method of cutting, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li> +<li>name, origin of, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> +<li>nest, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li> +<li>nest, foundation of, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li> +<li>parasites, external, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li> +<li>paths, <a href="#Page_163">163-165</a>;</li> +<li>queen, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li> +<li>queens, young, in nest, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</li> +<li>raids on garden, <a href="#Page_154">154-155</a>;</li> +<li>scavengers of nest, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li> +<li>speed of, <a href="#Page_165">165-166</a>;</li> +<li>soldier, description of, <a href="#Page_177">177-178</a>;</li> +<li>trails, <a href="#Page_163">163-165</a>;</li> +<li>visitors at nest, <a href="#Page_174">174-176</a>;</li> +<li>worker, description of, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li><i>Attaphila</i>, <a href="#Page_182">182-185</a></li> + +<li>Attas. See <a href="#Anch2">Ants, Leaf-cutting.</a></li> + +<li><i>Atta cephalotes</i>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="indlet">B</span></li> + +<li>Bamboos, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23-25</a></li> + +<li>Bats, <a href="#Page_17">17-19</a></li> + +<li>Bats, fruit, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> + +<li>Bats, vampire, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18-21</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li> + +<li>Beach, Jungle, <a href="#Page_90">90-111</a></li> + +<li>Beena, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li>Bees, <a href="#Page_35">35-37</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li> + +<li>Beetle, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + +<li>Beetle, Histerid, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> + +<li>Beetle, long-armed, <a href="#Page_256">256-258</a></li> + +<li>Beetle, rove, <a href="#Page_72">72-73</a></li> +<li class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></li> +<li>Beetle, Staphylinid, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> + +<li>Beetle, water, in roots, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> + +<li>Boom-boom, <a name="Anch3" id="Anch3"></a><a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252-255</a></li> + +<li>Botanical Gardens, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li>Bower Bird, Purple, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li>Bougainvillia, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li>Boviander, flowers of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> + +<li><i>Bufo guttatus</i>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> + +<li><i>Bufo marinus</i>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li>Bugs, bubble, <a href="#Page_284">284-288</a></li> + +<li>Bugs, doodle, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + +<li><i>Butorides striata</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li>Butterfly, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li>Butterfly, beryl and jasper, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + +<li>Butterfly, migrating, <a href="#Page_259">259-263</a></li> + +<li>Butterfly, Monarch, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li>Butterfly, Morpho, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> + +<li>Butterfly, Social gathering of, <a href="#Page_268">268-273</a></li> + +<li>Butterfly, Yellow papilio, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li>Button weed, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">C</span></li> + +<li><i>Caiman sclerops</i>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li>Caladium, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li>Casareep, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li>Cashew trees, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> + +<li><i>Casmerodius egretta</i>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li> + +<li>Cassava, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + +<li>Cassia, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> + +<li>Catfish, Giant. See <a href="#Anch3">Boom-boom</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li> + +<li><i>Catopsilia</i>, species of, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li> + +<li><i>Cercopis ruber</i>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li><i>Cereus</i>, night blooming, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> + +<li>Chanties, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> + +<li>Chatterer, Red-breasted Blue, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li><i>Chloroceryle amazona</i>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> + +<li>Chloroceryle americana, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> + +<li>Cicada, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li>Cicada, song of, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li>Cicada, larvæ. See <a href="#Anch4"><i>Quesada gigas</i>.</a></li> + +<li>Clearing, Jungle, <a href="#Page_34">34-57</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li>Clearing, after interval of year, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li>Coati-mundi, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li>Color, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> + +<li>Convicts, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li>Convicts, singing hymns, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> + +<li><i>Cotinga cayana</i>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + +<li><i>Cotinga cotinga</i>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li>Cotinga, Purple-throated, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + +<li>Cotton, Indian, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li>Cotton, Sea Island, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li>Crabs, in roots, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> + +<li>Crocodile, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li><i>Crotophaga ani</i>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li>Cuyuni River, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">D</span></li> + +<li>Daisies, Mazaruni, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> + +<li>Devilla blossoms, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li>Doodle-bugs, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + +<li><i>Doras granulosus</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">E</span></li> + +<li>Eagle, Harpy, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + +<li>Eciton. See <a href="#Anch1">Army Ants</a></li> + +<li><i>Eciton burchelli</i>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li> + +<li>Eggs, Butterfly, <a href="#Page_41">41-43</a></li> + +<li>Egrets, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li> + +<li><i>Ereops</i>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">F</span></li> + +<li>Fer-de-lance, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> + +<li>Flamboyant, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li>Flies, Chalcid, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> + +<li>Flies, Crane, in roots, <a href="#Page_104">104-106</a></li> + +<li>Flies, Phorid, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> + +<li>Flies, as scavengers, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li> + +<li><i>Florida c. caerulea</i>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> + +<li>Flowers of boviander, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> + +<li>Flycatcher, Kiskadee, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li>Flycatcher, Melancholy Tyrant, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> + +<li>Frangipani, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li>Frog, Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li>Frog, Tree, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li><i>Furipterus horrens</i>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> +<li class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="indlet">G</span></li> + +<li>Gallinule, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> + +<li>Galis, <a href="#Page_45">45-47</a></li> + +<li>Garden, Akawai Indian, <a href="#Page_115">115-119</a></li> + +<li>Garden, Boviander, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> + +<li>Garden, Coolie and Negro, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> + +<li>Garden, Georgetown Botanical, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li> + +<li>Garden, Tropic, <a href="#Page_230">230-251</a></li> + +<li>Gawain, <a href="#Page_31">31-33</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> + +<li>Gecko, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li>Ghost, Kartabo, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li>God-birds, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> + +<li>Guests, Army Ant, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> + +<li>Guinevere, <a href="#Page_123">123-148</a></li> + +<li><i>Gypagus papa</i>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">H</span></li> + +<li>Hammocks, <a href="#Page_195">195</a> +<ul class="IX"> +<li>accident in, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> +<li>capturing bats from, <a href="#Page_218">218-220</a>;</li> +<li>Carib, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li> +<li>environment and dangers, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li> +<li>hummingbirds on, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> +<li>slinging of, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> +<li>sounds and scents, <a href="#Page_213">213-215</a>;</li> +<li>trapping from, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> +<li>watching army ants from, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li> +<li>weaver-birds nesting on, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li><i>Harpia harpyja</i>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + +<li>Herons, green, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li>Herons, little blue, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> + +<li>Herons, night, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li> + +<li>Herons, rookery, <a href="#Page_244">244-251</a></li> + +<li>Herons, tricolored, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> + +<li>Hope, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + +<li>Hummingbirds, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li>Hyacinth, water, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li><i>Hydranassa tricolor</i>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">I</span></li> + +<li><i>Icterus chrysocephalus</i>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> + +<li><i>Ionornis martinicus</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">J</span></li> + +<li>Jacana, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> + +<li><i>Jacana j. jacana</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> + +<li><i>Janipha manihot</i>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">K</span></li> + +<li>Kalacoon, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li> + +<li>Kartabo, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li> + +<li>Kartabo, history, <a href="#Page_10">10-12</a></li> + +<li>Kartabo, inmates, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> + +<li>Kartabo, morning at, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + +<li>Kib, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li>Kibihée, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li>Kingfisher, Great Green, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> + +<li>Kingfisher, Tiny Emerald, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> + +<li>Kiskadee, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li> + +<li>Kunami, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li>Kyk-over-al, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">L</span></li> + +<li><i>Leucolepis m. musica</i>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li> + +<li><i>Leucophoyx t. thula</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> + +<li>Lilies, water, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li><i>Lipaugus simplex</i>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li>Lotus, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">M</span></li> + +<li>Manatee, <a href="#Page_231">231-236</a></li> + +<li>Martins, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> + +<li>"Mazacuni" River, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> + +<li>Mazaruni River, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li><i>Metachirus o. opossum</i>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> + +<li>Monarch Butterfly, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + +<li>Mongoose, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li>Monkeys, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li>Monkeys, Howling, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> + +<li>Mosquitoes, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li> + +<li>Mourner, Dark-breasted, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + +<li><i>Mungos mungo</i>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">N</span></li> + +<li><i>Nasua n. nasua</i>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li>Niebelungs, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> +<li class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="indlet">O</span></li> + +<li>Opossum, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> + +<li>Orchid, Toko-nook, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> + +<li>Oriole, Great Black, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li>Oriole, Moriche, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> + +<li><i>Ostinops d. decumanus</i>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">P</span></li> + +<li>Paddlers, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li>Palm, Cocoanut, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li><i>Papilio thoas</i>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li>Parasite, egg, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> + +<li>Parrakeets, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49-51</a></li> + +<li><i>Pepsis</i>, sp., <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li> + +<li>Pets, <a href="#Page_28">28-33</a></li> + +<li><i>Phoethornis r. ruber</i>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li><i>Phyllomedusa</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> + +<li><i>Phyllomedusa bicolor</i>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li><i>Phyllobates inguinalis</i>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li><i>Pitangus s. sulphuratus</i>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li> + +<li><i>Pithys albifrons</i>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li>Piwari, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li>Pool, Jungle Rain, <a href="#Page_126">126-132</a></li> + +<li><i>Ptilonorhynchus violaceus</i>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">Q</span></li> + +<li>Quadrille Bird, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li><a name="Anch4" id="Anch4"></a><i>Quesada gigas</i>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">R</span></li> + +<li><i>Ramphastus vitellinus</i>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> + +<li>Roach, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li>Rocks, tidal, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li> + +<li>Roots, <a href="#Page_98">98-106</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li> + +<li><i>Rozites gongylophora</i>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> + +<li>Rushes, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">S</span></li> + +<li>Scorpions, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> + +<li>Sedges, Scirpus, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li> + +<li>Servants, negro, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + +<li><i>Sipanea pratensis</i>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> + +<li>Snake, tree, in hammock, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> + +<li><i>Spermacoce</i> sp., <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> + +<li>Springtails, in army ants' nest, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li>Striders, water, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> + +<li>Sunrise, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> + +<li>Swimming at night, <a href="#Page_108">108-111</a></li> + +<li><i>Synoeca irina</i>, <a href="#Page_278">278-280</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">T</span></li> + +<li>Tadpoles, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130-148</a></li> + +<li>Tadpoles, colors of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li> + +<li>Tadpoles, red-fins, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> + +<li>Tadpoles, short-tailed blacks, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li>Tamandua, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li><i>Tamandua t. tetradactyla</i>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li>Tanager, Blue, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> + +<li>Tarantula, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + +<li>Tarantula Hawks, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li> + +<li>Termites, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> + +<li><i>Thecadactylus rapicauda</i>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> + +<li><i>Thraupis episcopus</i>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> + +<li>Tidal, area, ecology of, <a href="#Page_266">266-268</a></li> + +<li>Toad, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> + +<li>Toad, Marine, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li>Toko-nook, Orchid, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> + +<li>Toucans, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> + +<li><i>Touit batavica</i>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> + +<li>Tree, Fallen, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li>Tree, Prostrate, reactions of, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> + +<li>Treetop, Fauna of, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li><i>Trichechus manatus</i>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li><i>Troglodytes musculus clarus</i>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li>Trogon, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280-282</a></li> + +<li><i>Trogan s. strigilatus</i>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li> + +<li><i>Trogonurus c. curucui</i>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> + +<li>Tyrant, Melancholy, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> + +<li><i>Tyrannus melancholicus satrapa</i>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> +<li class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> +<li><span class="indlet">V</span></li> + +<li><i>Vampyrus spectrum</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> + +<li>Vervain, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> + +<li><i>Victoria regia</i>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li> + +<li>Vulture, King, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> +</ul> +<ul class="IX"> + +<li><span class="indlet">W</span></li> + +<li>Wasps, Ebony, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li> + +<li>Wasps, Painted Nest, <a href="#Page_289">289-291</a></li> + +<li>Wasps, Tapping, <a href="#Page_278">278-280</a></li> + +<li>Wind, Voice of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> + +<li>Witch, Black, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li>Wrens, House, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Edge of the Jungle, by William Beebe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDGE OF THE JUNGLE *** + +***** This file should be named 25888-h.htm or 25888-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/8/8/25888/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Mark C. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Edge of the Jungle + +Author: William Beebe + +Release Date: June 24, 2008 [EBook #25888] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDGE OF THE JUNGLE *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Mark C. Orton, Linda +McKeown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: WILLIAM BEEBE + Author of Edge of the Jungle, Jungle Days, Gallapagos, World's End, + The Arcturus Adventure, etc.] + + + + BY THE AUTHOR OF "JUNGLE DAYS," + "THE LOG OF THE SUN," ETC. + + + + EDGE OF THE + + JUNGLE + + + + By WILLIAM BEEBE + + _Honorary Curator of Birds and Director of the Tropical + Research Station of the New York Zoological Society._ + + + + GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK + + GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING CO., INC. + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1921 + + BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + + * * * * * + + + + +TO +THE BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES, +THE ANTS AND TREE-FROGS +WHO HAVE TOLERATED ME IN +THEIR JUNGLE ANTE-CHAMBERS +I OFFER THIS VOLUME OF +FRIENDLY WORDS + + * * * * * + + + + +NOTE + + +This second series of essays, following those in _Jungle Peace_, are +republished by the kindness of the Editors of _The Atlantic Monthly_, +_Harper's Magazine_ and _House and Garden_. + +With the exception of _A Tropic Garden_ which refers to the Botanical +Gardens of Georgetown, all deal with the jungle immediately about the +Tropical Research Station of the New York Zoological Society, situated +at Kartabo, at the junction of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni Rivers, in +British Guiana. + +For the accurate identification of the more important organisms +mentioned, a brief appendix of scientific names has been prepared. + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I THE LURE OF KARTABO 3 + +II A JUNGLE CLEARING 34 + +III THE HOME TOWN OF THE ARMY ANTS 58 + +IV A JUNGLE BEACH 90 + +V A BIT OF USELESSNESS 112 + +VI GUINEVERE THE MYSTERIOUS 123 + +VII A JUNGLE LABOR UNION 149 + +VIII THE ATTAS AT HOME 172 + +IX HAMMOCK NIGHTS 195 + +X A TROPIC GARDEN 230 + +XI THE BAY OF BUTTERFLIES 252 + +XII SEQUELS 274 + + APPENDIX OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES 295 + + INDEX 299 + + * * * * * + + + + +EDGE OF THE JUNGLE + + +"For the true scientific method is this: +To trust no statements without verification, +to test all things as rigorously as possible, +to keep no secrets, to attempt no monopolies, +to give out one's best modestly and plainly, +serving no other end but knowledge." + +H. G. WELLS. + + + + +I + +THE LURE OF KARTABO + + +A house may be inherited, as when a wren rears its brood in turn +within its own natal hollow; or one may build a new home such as is +fashioned from year to year by gaunt and shadowy herons; or we may +have it built to order, as do the drones of the wild jungle bees. In +my case, I flitted like a hermit crab from one used shell to another. +This little crustacean, living his oblique life in the shallows, +changes doorways when his home becomes too small or hinders him in +searching for the things which he covets in life. The difference +between our estates was that the hermit crab sought only for food, I +chiefly for strange new facts--which was a distinction as trivial as +that he achieved his desires sideways and on eight legs, while I +traversed my environment usually forward and generally on two. + +The word of finance went forth and demanded the felling of the second +growth around Kalacoon, and for the second time the land was given +over to cutlass and fire. But again there was a halting in the affairs +of man, and the rubber saplings were not planted or were smothered; +and again the jungle smiled patiently through a knee-tangle of thorns +and blossoms, and the charred clumps of razor-grass sent forth skeins +of saws and hanks of living barbs. + +I stood beneath the familiar cashew trees, which had yielded for me so +bountifully of their crops of blossoms and hummingbirds, of fruit and +of tanagers, and looked out toward the distant jungle, which trembled +through the expanse of palpitating heat-waves; and I knew how a hermit +crab feels when its home pinches, or is out of gear with the world. +And, too, Nupee was dead, and the jungle to the south seemed to call +less strongly. So I wandered through the old house for the last time, +sniffing the agreeable odor of aged hypo still permeating the dark +room, re-covering the empty stains of skins and traces of maps on the +walls, and re-filling in my mind the vacant shelves. The vampires had +returned to their chosen roost, the martins still swept through the +corridors, and as I went down the hill, a moriche oriole sent a silver +shaft of song after me from the sentinel palm, just as he had greeted +me four years ago. + +Then I gathered about me all the strange and unnameable possessions of +a tropical laboratory--and moved. A wren reaches its home after +hundreds of miles of fast aerial travel; a hermit crab achieves a new +lease with a flip of his tail. Between these extremes, and in no less +strange a fashion, I moved. A great barge pushed off from the Penal +Settlement, piled high with my zoological Lares and Penates, and along +each side squatted a line of paddlers,--white-garbed burglars and +murderers, forgers and fighters,--while seated aloft on one of my +ammunition trunks, with a microscope case and a camera close under his +watchful eye, sat Case, King of the Warders, the biggest, blackest, +and kindest-hearted man in the world. + +Three miles up river swept my moving-van; and from the distance I +could hear the half-whisper--which was yet a roar--of Case as he +admonished his children. "Mon," he would say to a shirking, shrinking +coolie second-story man, "mon, do you t'ink dis the time to sleep? +What toughts have you in your bosom, dat you delay de Professor's +household?" And then a chanty would rise, the voice of the leader +quavering with that wild rhythm which had come down to him, a vocal +heritage, through centuries of tom-toms and generations of savages +striving for emotional expression. But the words were laughable or +pathetic. I was adjured to + + "Blow de mon down with a bottle of rum, + Oh, de mon--mon--blow de mon down." + +Or the jungle reechoed the edifying reiteration of + + "Sardines--and bread--OH! + Sardines--and bread, + Sardines--and bread--AND! + Sardines--and bread." + +The thrill that a whole-lunged chanty gives is difficult to describe. +It arouses some deep emotional response, as surely as a military band, +or the reverberating cadence of an organ, or a suddenly remembered +theme of opera. + +As my aquatic van drew up to the sandy landing-beach, I looked at the +motley array of paddlers, and my mind went back hundreds of years to +the first Spanish crew which landed here, and I wondered whether these +pirates of early days had any fewer sins to their credit than Case's +convicts--and I doubted it. + +Across my doorstep a line of leaf-cutting ants was passing, each +bearing aloft a huge bit of green leaf, or a long yellow petal, or a +halberd of a stamen. A shadow fell over the line, and I looked up to +see an anthropomorphic enlargement of the ants,--the convicts winding +up the steep bank, each with cot, lamp, table, pitcher, trunk, or +aquarium balanced on his head,--all my possessions suspended between +earth and sky by the neck-muscles of worthy sinners. The first thing +to be brought in was a great war-bag packed to bursting, and Number +214, with eight more years to serve, let it slide down his shoulder +with a grunt--the self-same sound that I have heard from a Tibetan +woman carrier, and a Mexican peon, and a Japanese porter, all of whom +had in past years toted this very bag. + +I led the way up the steps, and there in the doorway was a tenant, one +who had already taken possession, and who now faced me and the +trailing line of convicts with that dignity, poise, and perfect +self-possession which only a toad, a giant grandmother of a toad, can +exhibit. I, and all the law-breakers who followed, recognized the +nine tenths involved in this instance and carefully stepped around. +When the heavy things began to arrive, I approached diffidently, and +half suggested, half directed her deliberate hops toward a safer +corner. My feelings toward her were mingled, but altogether +kindly,--as guest in her home, I could not but treat her with +respect,--while my scientific soul revelled in the addition of _Bufo +guttatus_ to the fauna of this part of British Guiana. Whether +flashing gold of oriole, or the blinking solemnity of a great toad, it +mattered little--Kartabo had welcomed me with as propitious an omen as +had Kalacoon. + + * * * * * + +Houses have distinct personalities, either bequeathed to them by their +builders or tenants, absorbed from their materials, or emanating from +the general environment. Neither the mind which had planned our +Kartabo bungalow, nor the hands which fashioned it; neither the +mahogany walls hewn from the adjoining jungle, nor the white-pine +beams which had known many decades of snowy winters--none of these +were obtrusive. The first had passed into oblivion, the second had +been seasoned by sun and rain, papered by lichens, and gnawed and +bored by tiny wood-folk into a neutral inconspicuousness as complete +as an Indian's deserted _benab_. The wide verandah was open on all +sides, and from the bamboos of the front compound one looked straight +through the central hall-way to bamboos at the back. It seemed like a +happy accident of the natural surroundings, a jungle-bound cave, or +the low rambling chambers of a mighty hollow tree. + +No thought of who had been here last came to us that first evening. We +unlimbered the creaky-legged cots, stiff and complaining after their +three years' rest, and the air was filled with the clean odor of +micaceous showers of naphthalene from long-packed pillows and sheets. +From the rear came the clatter of plates, the scent of ripe papaws and +bananas, mingled with the smell of the first fire in a new stove. Then +I went out and sat on my own twelve-foot bank, looking down on the +sandy beach and out and over to the most beautiful view in the +Guianas. Down from the right swept slowly the Mazaruni, and from the +left the Cuyuni, mingling with one wide expanse like a great rounded +lake, bounded by solid jungle, with only Kalacoon and the Penal +Settlement as tiny breaks in the wall of green. + +The tide was falling, and as I sat watching the light grow dim, the +water receded slowly, and strange little things floated past +downstream. And I thought of the no less real human tide which long +years ago had flowed to my very feet and then ebbed, leaving, as drift +is left upon the sand, the convicts, a few scattered Indians, and +myself. In the peace and quiet of this evening, time seemed a thing of +no especial account. The great jungle trees might always have been +lifeless emerald water-barriers, rather than things of a few +centuries' growth; the ripple-less water bore with equal disregard the +last mora seed which floated past, as it had held aloft the keel of an +unknown Spanish ship three centuries before. These men came up-river +and landed on a little island a few hundred yards from Kartabo. Here +they built a low stone wall, lost a few buttons, coins, and bullets, +and vanished. Then came the Dutch in sturdy ships, cleared the islet +of everything except the Spanish wall, and built them a jolly little +fort intended to command all the rivers, naming it Kyk-over-al. +To-day the name and a strong archway of flat Holland bricks survive. + +In this wilderness, so wild and so quiet to-day, it was amazing to +think of Dutch soldiers doing sentry duty and practising with their +little bell-mouthed cannon on the islet, and of scores of negro and +Indian slaves working in cassava fields all about where I sat. And +this not fifty or a hundred or two hundred years ago, but about the +year 1613, before John Smith had named New England, while the Hudson +was still known as the Maurice, before the Mayflower landed with all +our ancestors on board. For many years the story of this settlement +and of the handful of neighboring sugar-plantations is one of +privateer raids, capture, torture, slave-revolts, disease, bad +government, and small profits, until we marvel at the perseverance of +these sturdy Hollanders. From the records still extant, we glean here +and there amusing details of the life which was so soon to falter and +perish before the onpressing jungle. Exactly two hundred and fifty +years ago one Hendrik Rol was appointed commander of Kyk-over-al. He +was governor, captain, store-keeper and Indian trader, and his salary +was thirty guilders, or about twelve dollars, a month--about what I +paid my cook-boy. + +The high tide of development at Kartabo came two hundred and three +years ago, when, as we read in the old records, a Colony House was +erected here. It went by the name of Huis Naby (the house nearby), +from its situation near the fort. Kyk-over-al was now left to the +garrison, while the commander and the civil servants lived in the new +building. One of its rooms was used as a council chamber and church, +while the lower floor was occupied by the company's store. The land in +the neighborhood was laid out in building lots, with a view to +establishing a town; it even went by the name of Stad Cartabo and had +a tavern and two or three small houses, but never contained enough +dwellings to entitle it to the name of town, or even village. + +The ebb-tide soon began, and in 1739 Kartabo was deserted, and thirty +years before the United States became a nation, the old fort on +Kyk-over-al was demolished. The rivers and rolling jungle were +attractive, but the soil was poor, while the noisome mud-swamps of the +coast proved to be fertile and profitable. + +Some fatality seemed to attach to all future attempts in this region. +Gold was discovered, and diamonds, and to-day the wilderness here and +there is powdering with rust and wreathing with creeping tendrils +great piles of machinery. Pounds of gold have been taken out and +hundreds of diamonds, but thus far the negro pork-knocker, with his +pack and washing-pan, is the only really successful miner. + +The jungle sends forth healthy trees two hundred feet in height, +thriving for centuries, but it reaches out and blights the attempts of +man, whether sisal, rubber, cocoa, or coffee. So far the ebb-tide has +left but two successful crops to those of us whose kismet has led us +hither--crime and science. The concentration of negroes, coolies, +Chinese and Portuguese on the coast furnishes an unfailing supply of +convicts to the settlement, while the great world of life all about +affords to the naturalist a bounty rich beyond all conception. + +So here was I, a grateful legatee of past failures, shaded by +magnificent clumps of bamboo, brought from Java and planted two or +three hundred years ago by the Dutch, and sheltered by a bungalow +which had played its part in the development and relinquishment of a +great gold mine. + + * * * * * + +For a time we arranged and adjusted and shifted our +equipment,--tables, books, vials, guns, nets, cameras and +microscopes,--as a dog turns round and round before it composes itself +to rest. And then one day I drew a long breath and looked about, and +realized that I was at home. The newness began to pass from my little +shelves and niches and blotters; in the darkness I could put my hand +on flash or watch or gun; and in the morning I settled snugly into my +woolen shirt, khakis, and sneakers, as if they were merely accessory +skin. + +In the beginning we were three white men and four servants--the latter +all young, all individual, all picked up by instinct, except Sam, who +was as inevitable as the tides. Our cook was too good-looking and too +athletic to last. He had the reputation of being the fastest sprinter +in Guiana, with a record, so we were solemnly told, of 9-1/5 seconds +for the hundred--a veritable Mercury, as the last world's record of +which I knew was 9-3/5. His stay with us was like the orbit of some +comets, which make a single lap around the sun never to return, and +his successor Edward, with unbelievably large and graceful hands and +feet, was a better cook, with the softest voice and gentlest manner in +the world. + +But Bertie was our joy and delight. He too may be compared to a +star--one which, originally bright, becomes temporarily dim, and +finally attains to greater magnitude than before. Ultimately he became +a fixed ornament of our culinary and taxidermic cosmic system, and +whatever he did was accomplished with the most remarkable contortions +of limbs and body. To watch him rake was to learn new anatomical +possibilities; when he paddled, a surgeon would be moved to +astonishment; when he caught butterflies, a teacher of physical +culture would not have believed his eyes. + +At night, when our servants had sealed themselves hermetically in +their room in the neighboring thatched quarters, and the last squeak +from our cots had passed out on its journey to the far distant goal of +all nocturnal sounds, we began to realize that our new home held many +more occupants than our three selves. Stealthy rustlings, indistinct +scrapings, and low murmurs kept us interested for as long as ten +minutes; and in the morning we would remember and wonder who our +fellow tenants could be. Some nights the bungalow seemed as full of +life as the tiny French homes labeled, "_Hommes 40: Chevaux 8_," when +the hastily estimated billeting possibilities were actually achieved, +and one wondered whether it were not better to be the _cheval +premier_, than the _homme quarantieme_. + +For years the bungalow had stood in sun and rain unoccupied, with a +watchman and his wife, named Hope, who lived close by. The aptness of +his name was that of the little Barbadian mule-tram which creeps +through the coral-white streets, striving forever to divorce motion +from progress and bearing the name Alert. Hope had done his duty and +watched the bungalow. It was undoubtedly still there and nothing had +been taken from it; but he had received no orders as to accretions, +and so, to our infinite joy and entertainment, we found that in many +ways it was not only near jungle, it _was_ jungle. I have compared it +with a natural cave. It was also like a fallen jungle-log, and we some +of the small folk who shared its dark recesses with hosts of others. +Through the air, on wings of skin or feathers or tissue membrane; +crawling or leaping by night; burrowing underground; gnawing up +through the great supporting posts; swarming up the bamboos and along +the pliant curving stems to drop quietly on the shingled roof;--thus +had the jungle-life come past Hope's unseeing eyes and found the +bungalow worthy residence. + +The bats were with us from first to last. We exterminated one colony +which spent its inverted days clustered over the center of our supply +chamber, but others came immediately and disputed the ownership of the +dark room. Little chaps with great ears and nose-tissue of sensitive +skin, spent the night beneath my shelves and chairs, and even my cot. +They hunted at dusk and again at dawn, slept in my room and vanished +in the day. Even for bats they were ferocious, and whenever I caught +one in a butterfly-net, he went into paroxysms of rage, squealing in +angry passion, striving to bite my hand and, failing that, chewing +vainly on his own long fingers and arms. Their teeth were wonderfully +intricate and seemed adapted for some very special diet, although +beetles seemed to satisfy those which I caught. For once, the +systematist had labeled them opportunely, and we never called them +anything but _Furipterus horrens_. + +In the evening, great bats as large as small herons swept down the +long front gallery where we worked, gleaning as they went; but the +vampires were long in coming, and for months we neither saw nor heard +of one. Then they attacked our servants, and we took heart, and night +after night exposed our toes, as conventionally accepted vampire-bait. +When at last they found that the color of our skins was no criterion +of dilution of blood, they came in crowds. For three nights they swept +about us with hardly a whisper of wings, and accepted either toe or +elbow or finger, or all three, and the cots and floor in the morning +looked like an emergency hospital behind an active front. In spite of +every attempt at keeping awake, we dropped off to sleep before the +bats had begun, and did not waken until they left. We ascertained, +however, that there was no truth in the belief that they hovered or +kept fanning with their wings. Instead, they settled on the person +with an appreciable flop and then crawled to the desired spot. + +One night I made a special effort and, with bared arm, prepared for a +long vigil. In a few minutes bats began to fan my face, the wings +almost brushing, but never quite touching my skin. I could distinguish +the difference between the smaller and the larger, the latter having a +deeper swish, deeper and longer drawn-out. Their voices were so high +and shrill that the singing of the jungle crickets seemed almost +contralto in comparison. Finally, I began to feel myself the focus of +one or more of these winged weasels. The swishes became more frequent, +the returnings almost doubling on their track. Now and then a small +body touched the sheet for an instant, and then, with a soft little +tap, a vampire alighted on my chest. I was half sitting up, yet I +could not see him, for I had found that the least hint of light ended +any possibility of a visit. I breathed as quietly as I could, and made +sure that both hands were clear. For a long time there was no +movement, and the renewed swishes made me suspect that the bat had +again taken flight. Not until I felt a tickling on my wrist did I know +that my visitor had shifted and, unerringly, was making for the arm +which I had exposed. Slowly it crept forward, but I hardly felt the +pushing of the feet and pulling of the thumbs as it crawled along. If +I had been asleep, I should not have awakened. It continued up my +forearm and came to rest at my elbow. Here another long period of +rest, and then several short, quick shifts of body. With my whole +attention concentrated on my elbow, I began to imagine various +sensations as my mind pictured the long, lancet tooth sinking deep +into the skin, and the blood pumping up. I even began to feel the hot +rush of my vital fluid over my arm, and then found that I had dozed +for a moment and that all my sensations were imaginary. But soon a +gentle tickling became apparent, and, in spite of putting this out of +my mind and with increasing doubts as to the bat being still there, +the tickling continued. It changed to a tingling, rather pleasant than +otherwise, like the first stage of having one's hand asleep. + +It really seemed as if this were the critical time. Somehow or other +the vampire was at work with no pain or even inconvenience to me, and +now was the moment to seize him, call for a lantern, and solve his +supersurgical skill, the exact method of this vespertilial +anaesthetist. Slowly, very slowly, I lifted the other hand, always +thinking of my elbow, so that I might keep all the muscles relaxed. +Very slowly it approached, and with as swift a motion as I could +achieve, I grasped at the vampire. I felt a touch of fur and I gripped +a struggling, skinny wing; there came a single nip of teeth, and the +wing-tip slipped through my fingers. I could detect no trace of blood +by feeling, so turned over and went to sleep. In the morning I found a +tiny scratch, with the skin barely broken; and, heartily disappointed, +I realized that my tickling and tingling had been the preliminary +symptoms of the operation. + +Marvelous moths which slipped into the bungalow like shadows; pet +tarantulas; golden-eyed gongasocka geckos; automatic, house-cleaning +ants; opossums large and small; tiny lizards who had tongues in place +of eyelids; wasps who had doorsteps and watched the passing from their +windows;--all these were intimates of my laboratory table, whose +riches must be spread elsewhere; but the sounds of the bungalow were +common to the whole structure. + +One of the first things I noticed, as I lay on my cot, was the new +voice of the wind at night. Now and then I caught a familiar +sound,--faint, but not to be forgotten,--the clattering of palm +fronds. But this came from Boom-boom Point, fifty yards away (an out +jutting of rocks where we had secured our first giant catfish of that +name). The steady rhythm of sound which rose and fell with the breeze +and sifted into my window with the moonbeams, was the gentlest +_shussssss_ing, a fine whispering, a veritable fern of a sound, high +and crisp and wholly apart from the moaning around the eaves which +arose at stronger gusts. It brought to mind the steep mountain-sides +of Pahang, and windy nights which presaged great storms in high passes +of Yunnan. + +But these wonder times lived only through memory and were misted with +intervening years, while it came upon me during early nights, again +and again, that this was Now, and that into the hour-glass neck of Now +was headed a maelstrom of untold riches of the Future--minutes and +hours and sapphire days ahead---a Now which was wholly unconcerned +with leagues and liquor, with strikes and salaries. So I turned over +with the peace which passes all telling--the forecast of delving into +the private affairs of birds and monkeys, of great butterflies and +strange frogs and flowers. The seeping wind had led my mind on and on +from memory and distant sorrows to thoughts of the joy of labor and +life. + +At half-past five a kiskadee shouted at the top of his lungs from the +bamboos, but he probably had a nightmare, for he went to sleep and did +not wake again for half-an-hour. The final swish of a bat's wing came +to my ear, and the light of a fog-dimmed day slowly tempered the +darkness among the dusty beams and rafters. From high overhead a +sprawling tarantula tossed aside the shriveled remains of his night's +banquet, the emerald cuirass and empty mahogany helmet of a +long-horned beetle, which eddied downward and landed upon my sheet. + +Immediately around the bungalow the bamboos held absolute sway, and +while forming a very tangible link between the roof and the outliers +of the jungle, yet no plant could obtain foothold beneath their shade. +They withheld light, and the mat of myriads of slender leaves killed +off every sprouting thing. This was of the utmost value to us, +providing shade, clear passage to every breeze, and an absolute dearth +of flies and mosquitoes. We found that the clumps needed clearing of +old stems, and for two days we indulged in the strangest of weedings. +The dead stems were as hard as stone outside, but the ax bit through +easily, and they were so light that we could easily carry enormous +ones, which made us feel like giants, though, when I thought of them +in their true botanical relationship, I dwarfed in imagination as +quickly as Alice, to a pigmy tottering under a blade of grass. It was +like a Brobdingnagian game of jack-straws, as the cutting or prying +loose of a single stem often brought several others crashing to earth +in unexpected places, keeping us running and dodging to avoid their +terrific impact. The fall of these great masts awakened a roaring +swish ending in a hollow rattling, wholly unlike the crash and dull +boom of a solid trunk. When we finished with each clump, it stood as a +perfect giant bouquet, looking, at a distance, like a tuft of green +feathery plumes, with the bungalow snuggled beneath as a toadstool is +overshadowed by ferns. + +Scores of the homes of small folk were uncovered by our weeding +out--wasps, termites, ants, bees, wood-roaches, centipedes; and +occasionally a small snake or great solemn toad came out from the +debris at the roots, the latter blinking and swelling indignantly at +this sudden interruption of his siesta. In a strong wind the stems +bent and swayed, thrashing off every imperfect leaf and sweeping low +across the roof, with strange scrapings and bamboo mutterings. But +they hardly ever broke and fell. In the evening, however, and in the +night, after a terrific storm, a sharp, unexpected _rat-tat-tat-tat_, +exactly like a machine-gun, would smash in on the silence, and two or +three of the great grasses, which perhaps sheltered Dutchmen +generations ago, would snap and fall. But the Indians and Bovianders +who lived nearby, knew this was no wind, nor yet weakness of stem, but +Sinclair, who was abroad and who was cutting down the bamboos for his +own secret reasons. He was evil, and it was well to be indoors with +all windows closed; but further details were lacking, and we were +driven to clothe this imperfect ghost with history and habits of our +own devising. + +The birds and other inhabitants of the bamboos, were those of the more +open jungle,--flocks drifting through the clumps, monkeys occasionally +swinging from one to another of the elastic tips, while toucans came +and went. At evening, flocks of parrakeets and great black orioles +came to roost, courting the safety which they had come to associate +with the clearings of human pioneers in the jungle. A box on a bamboo +stalk drew forth joyous hymns of praise from a pair of little +God-birds, as the natives call the house-wrens, who straightway +collected all the grass and feathers in the world, stuffed them into +the tiny chamber, and after a time performed the ever-marvelous feat +of producing three replicas of themselves from this trash-filled box. +The father-parent was one concentrated mite of song, with just enough +feathers for wings to enable him to pursue caterpillars and +grasshoppers as raw material for the production of more song. He sang +at the prospect of a home; then he sang to attract and win a mate; +more song at the joy of finding wonderful grass and feathers; again +melody to beguile his mate, patiently giving the hours and days of her +body-warmth in instinct-compelled belief in the future. He sang while +he took his turn at sitting; then he nearly choked to death trying to +sing while stuffing a bug down a nestling's throat; finally, he sang +at the end of a perfect nesting season; again, in hopes of persuading +his mate to repeat it all, and this failing, sang in chorus in the +wren quintette--I hoped, in gratitude to us. At least from April to +September he sang every day, and if my interpretation be +anthropomorphic, why, so much the better for anthropomorphism. At any +rate, before we left, all five wrens sat on a little shrub and +imitated the morning stars, and our hearts went out to the little +virile featherlings, who had lost none of their enthusiasm for life in +this tropical jungle. Their one demand in this great wilderness was +man's presence, being never found in the jungle except in an inhabited +clearing, or, as I have found them, clinging hopefully to the +vanishing ruins of a dead Indian's _benab_, waiting and singing in +perfect faith, until the jungle had crept over it all and they were +compelled to give up and set out in search of another home, within +sound of human voices. + +Bare as our leaf-carpeted bamboo-glade appeared, yet a select little +company found life worth living there. The dry sand beneath the house +was covered with the pits of ant-lions, and as we watched them month +after month, they seemed to have more in common with the grains of +quartz which composed their cosmos than with the organic world. By day +or night no ant or other edible thing seemed ever to approach or be +entrapped; and month after month there was no sign of change to imago. +Yet each pit held a fat, enthusiastic inmate, ready at a touch to turn +steam-shovel, battering-ram, bayonet, and gourmand. Among the first +thousand-and-one mysteries of Kartabo I give a place to the source of +nourishment of the sub-bungalow ant-lions. + +Walking one day back of the house, I observed a number of small holes, +with a little shining head just visible in each, which vanished at my +approach. Looking closer, I was surprised to find a colony of tropical +doodle-bugs. Straightway I chose a grass-stem and squatting, began +fishing as I had fished many years ago in the southern states. Soon a +nibble and then an angry pull, and I jerked out the irate little chap. +He had the same naked bumpy body and the fierce head, and when two or +three were put together, they fought blindly and with the ferocity of +bulldogs. + + * * * * * + +To write of pets is as bad taste as to write in diary form, and, +besides, I had made up my mind to have no pets on this expedition. +They were a great deal of trouble and a source of distraction from +work while they were alive; and one's heart was wrung and one's +concentration disturbed at their death. But Kib came one day, brought +by a tiny copper-bronze Indian. He looked at me, touched me +tentatively with a mobile little paw, and my firm resolution melted +away. A young coati-mundi cannot sit man-fashion like a bear-cub, nor +is he as fuzzy as a kitten or as helpless as a puppy, but he has ways +of winning to the human heart, past all obstacles. + +The small Indian thought that three shillings would be a fair +exchange; but I knew the par value of such stock, and Kib changed +hands for three bits. A week later a thousand shillings would have +seemed cheap to his new master. A coati-mundi is a tropical, arboreal +raccoon of sorts, with a long, ever-wriggling snout, sharp teeth, eyes +that twinkle with humor, and clawed paws which are more skilful than +many a fingered hand. By the scientists of the world he is addressed +as _Nasua nasua nasua_--which lays itself open to the twin ambiguity +of stuttering Latin, or the echoes of a Princetonian football yell. +The natural histories call him coati-mundi, while the Indian has by +far the best of it, with the ringing, climactic syllables, _Kibihee!_ +And so, in the case of a being who has received much more than his +share of vitality, it was altogether fitting to shorten this to +Kib--Dunsany's giver of life upon the earth. + +My heart's desire is to run on and tell many paragraphs of Kib; but +that, as I have said, would be bad taste, which is one form of +immorality. For in such things sentiment runs too closely parallel to +sentimentality,--moderation becomes maudlinism,--and one enters the +caste of those who tell anecdotes of children, and the latest symptoms +of their physical ills. And the deeper one feels the joys of +friendship with individual small folk of the jungle, the more +difficult it is to convey them to others. And so it is not of the +tropical mammal coati-mundi, nor even of the humorous Kib that I +think, but of the soul of him galloping up and down his slanting log, +of his little inner ego, which changed from a wild thing to one who +would hurl himself from any height or distance into a lap, confident +that we would save his neck, welcome him, and waste good time playing +the game which he invented, of seeing whether we could touch his +little cold snout before he hid it beneath his curved arms. + +So, in spite of my resolves, our bamboo groves became the homes of +numerous little souls of wild folk, whose individuality shone out and +dominated the less important incidental casement, whether it happened +to be feathers, or fur, or scales. It is interesting to observe how +the Adam in one comes to the surface in the matter of names for pets. +I know exactly the uncomfortable feeling which must have perturbed the +heart of that pioneer of nomenclaturists, to be plumped down in the +midst of "the greatest aggregation of animals ever assembled" before +the time of Noah, and to be able to speak of them only as _this_ or +_that_, _he_ or _she_. So we felt when inundated by a host of pets. It +is easy to speak of the species by the lawful Latin or Greek name; we +mention the specimen on our laboratory table by its common +natural-history appellation. But the individual who touches our pity, +or concern, or affection, demands a special title--usually absurdly +inapt. + +Soon, in the bamboo glade about our bungalow, ten little jungle +friends came to live; and to us they will always be Kib and Gawain, +George and Gregory, Robert and Grandmother, Raoul and Pansy, Jennie +and Jellicoe. + +Gawain was not a double personality--he was an intermittent +reincarnation, vibrating between the inorganic and the essence of +vitality. In a reasonable scheme of earthly things he filled the +niche of a giant green tree-frog, and one of us seemed to remember +that the Knight Gawain was enamored of green, and so we dubbed him. +For the hours of daylight Gawain preferred the role of a hunched-up +pebble of malachite; or if he could find a leaf, he drew eighteen +purple vacuum toes beneath him, veiled his eyes with opalescent lids, +and slipped from the mineral to the vegetable kingdom, flattened by +masterly shading which filled the hollows and leveled the bumps; and +the leaf became more of a leaf than it had been before Gawain was +merged with it. + +Night, or hunger, or the merciless tearing of sleep from his soul +wrought magic and transformed him into a glowing, jeweled specter. He +sprouted toes and long legs; he rose and inflated his sleek emerald +frog-form; his sides blazed forth a mother-of-pearl waist-coat--a +myriad mosaics of pink and blue and salmon and mauve; and from nowhere +if not from the very depths of his throat, there slowly rose twin +globes,--great eyes,--which stood above the flatness of his head, as +mosques above an oriental city. Gone were the neutralizing lids, and +in their place, strange upright pupils surrounded with vermilion lines +and curves and dots, like characters of ancient illuminated Persian +script. And with these appalling eyes Gawain looked at us, with these +unreal, crimson-flecked globes staring absurdly from an expressionless +emerald mask, he contemplated roaches and small grasshoppers, and +correctly estimated their distance and activity. We never thought of +demanding friendship, or a hint of his voice, or common froggish +activities from Gawain. We were content to visit him now and then, to +arouse him, and then leave him to disincarnate his vertebral outward +phase into chlorophyll or lifeless stone. To muse upon his courtship +or emotions was impossible. His life had a feeling of sphinx-like +duration--Gawain as a tadpole was unthinkable. He seemed ageless, +unreal, wonderfully beautiful, and wholly inexplicable. + + + + +II + +A JUNGLE CLEARING + + +Within six degrees of the Equator, shut in by jungle, on a cloudless +day in mid-August, I found a comfortable seat on a slope of sandy soil +sown with grass and weeds in the clearing back of Kartabo laboratory. +I was shaded only by a few leaves of a low walnut-like sapling, yet +there was not the slightest hint of oppressive heat. It might have +been a warm August day in New England or Canada, except for the +softness of the air. + +In my little cleared glade there was no plant which would be wholly +out of place on a New England country hillside. With debotanized +vision I saw foliage of sumach, elm, hickory, peach, and alder, and +the weeds all about were as familiar as those of any New Jersey +meadow. The most abundant flowers were Mazaruni daisies, cheerful +little pale primroses, and close to me, fairly overhanging the paper +as I wrote, was the spindling button-weed, a wanderer from the +States, with its clusters of tiny white blossoms bouqueted in the +bracts of its leaves. + +A few yards down the hillside was a clump of real friends--the rich +green leaves of vervain, that humble little weed, sacred in turn to +the Druids, the Romans, and the early Christians, and now brought +inadvertently in some long-past time, in an overseas shipment, and +holding its own in this breathing-space of the jungle. I was so +interested by this discovery of a superficial northern flora, that I +began to watch for other forms of temperate-appearing life, and for a +long time my ear found nothing out of harmony with the plants. The low +steady hum of abundant insects was so constant that it required +conscious effort to disentangle it from silence. Every few seconds +there arose the cadence of a passing bee or fly, the one low and deep, +the other shrill and penetrating. And now, just as I had become wholly +absorbed in this fascinating game,--the kind of game which may at any +moment take a worth-while scientific turn,--it all dimmed and the +entire picture shifted and changed. I doubt if any one who has been at +a modern battle-front can long sit with closed eyes in a midsummer +meadow and not have his blood leap as scene after scene is brought +back to him. Three bees and a fly winging their way past, with the +rise and fall of their varied hums, were sufficient to renew vividly +for me the blackness of night over the sticky mud of Souville, and to +cloud for a moment the scent of clover and dying grass, with that +terrible sickly sweet odor of human flesh in an old shell-hole. In +such unexpected ways do we link peace and war--suspending the greatest +weights of memory, imagination, and visualization on the slenderest +cobwebs of sound, odor, and color. + +But again my bees became but bees--great, jolly, busy yellow-and-black +fellows, who blundered about and squeezed into blossoms many sizes too +small for them. Cicadas tuned up, clearing their drum-heads, +tightening their keys, and at last rousing into the full swing of +their ecstatic theme. And my relaxed, uncritical mind at present +recorded no difference between the sound and that which was vibrated +from northern maples. The tamest bird about me was a big +yellow-breasted white-throated flycatcher, and I had seen this +Melancholy Tyrant, as his technical name describes him, in such +distant lands that he fitted into the picture without effort. + +White butterflies flitted past, then a yellow one, and finally a real +Monarch. In my boy-land, smudgy specimens of this were pinned, +earnestly but asymetrically, in cigar-boxes, under the title of +_Danais archippus_. At present no reputable entomologist would think +of calling it other than _Anosia plexippus_, nor should I; but the +particular thrill which it gave to-day was that this self-same species +should wander along at this moment to mosaic into my boreal muse. + +After a little time, with only the hum of the bees and the staccato +cicadas, a double deceit was perpetrated, one which my sentiment of +the moment seized upon and rejoiced in, but at which my mind had to +conceal a smile and turn its consciousness quickly elsewhere, to +prevent an obtrusive reality from dimming this last addition to the +picture. The gentle, unmistakable, velvet warble of a bluebird came +over the hillside, again and again; and so completely absorbed and +lulled was I by the gradual obsession of being in the midst of a +northern scene, that the sound caused not the slightest excitement, +even internally and mentally. But the sympathetic spirit who was +directing this geographic burlesque overplayed, and followed the soft +curve of audible wistfulness with an actual bluebird which looped +across the open space in front. The spell was broken for a moment, and +my subconscious autocrat thrust into realization the instantaneous +report--apparent bluebird call is the note of a small flycatcher and +the momentary vision was not even a mountain bluebird but a +red-breasted blue chatterer! So I shut my eyes very quickly and +listened to the soft calls, which alone would have deceived the +closest analyzer of bird songs. And so for a little while longer I +still held my picture intact, a magic scape, a hundred yards square +and an hour long, set in the heart of the Guiana jungle. + +And when at last I had to desert Canada, and relinquish New Jersey, I +slipped only a few hundred miles southward. For another twenty minutes +I clung to Virginia, for the enforced shift was due to a great Papilio +butterfly which stopped nearby and which I captured with a lucky sweep +of my net. My first thought was of the Orange-tree Swallow-tail, _nee_ +_Papilio cresphontes_. Then the first lizards appeared, and by no +stretch of my willing imagination could I pretend that they were +newts, or fit the little emerald scales into a New England pasture. +And so I chose for a time to live again among the Virginian +butterflies and mockingbirds, the wild roses and the jasmine, and the +other splendors of memory which a single butterfly had unloosed. + +As I looked about me, I saw the flowers and detected their fragrance; +I heard the hum of bees and the contented chirp of well-fed birds; I +marveled at great butterflies flapping so slowly that it seemed as if +they must have cheated gravitation in some subtle way to win such +lightness and disregard of earth-pull. I heard no ugly murmur of long +hours and low wages; the closest scrutiny revealed no strikes or +internal clamorings about wrongs; and I unconsciously relaxed and +breathed more deeply at the thought of this nature world, moving so +smoothly, with directness and simplicity as apparently achieved +ideals. + + * * * * * + +Then I ceased this superficial glance and looked deeper, and without +moralizing or dragging in far-fetched similes or warnings, tried to +comprehend one fundamental reality in wild nature--the universal +acceptance of opportunity. From this angle it is quite unimportant +whether one believes in vitalism (which is vitiating to our "will to +prove"), or in mechanism (whose name itself is a symbol of ignorance, +or deficient vocabulary, or both). Evolution has left no chink or +crevice unfilled, unoccupied, no probability untried, no possibility +unachieved. + +The nearest weed suggested this trend of thought and provided all I +could desire of examples; but the thrill of discovery and the artistic +delight threatened to disturb for the time my solemn application of +these ponderous truisms. The weed alongside had had a prosperous life, +and its leaves were fortunate in the unadulterated sun and rain to +which they had access. At the summit all was focusing for the +consummation of existence: the little blossoms would soon open and +have their one chance. To all the winds of heaven they would fling out +wave upon wave of delicate odor, besides enlisting a subtle form of +vibration and refusing to absorb the pink light--thereby enhancing the +prospects of insect visitors, on whose coming the very existence of +this race of weeds depended. + +Every leaf showed signs of attack: scallops cut out, holes bored, +stains of fungi, wreaths of moss, and the insidious mazes of +leaf-miners. But, like an old-fashioned ship of the line which wins to +port with the remnants of shot-ridden sails, the plant had paid toll +bravely, although unable to defend itself or protect its tissues; and +if I did not now destroy it, which I should assuredly not do, this +weed would justify its place as a worthy link in the chain of +numberless generations, past and to come. + +More complex, clever, subtle methods of attack transcended those of +the mere devourer of leaf-tissue, as radically as an inventor of most +intricate instruments differs from the plodding tiller of the soil. In +the center of one leaf, less disfigured than some of its fellows, I +perceived four tiny ivory spheres, a dozen of which might rest +comfortably within the length of an inch. To my eye they looked quite +smooth, although a steady oblique gaze revealed hints of concentric +lines. Before the times of Leeuwenhoek I should perhaps have been +unable to see more than this, although, as a matter of fact, in those +happy-go-lucky days my ancestors would doubtless have trounced me +soundly for wasting my time on such useless and ungodly things as +butterfly eggs. I thought of the coming night when I should sit and +strain with all my might, striving, without the use of my powerful +stereos, to separate from translucent mist of gases the denser nucleus +of the mighty cosmos in Andromeda. And I alternately bemoaned my +human limitation of vision, and rejoiced that I could focus clearly, +both upon my butterfly eggs a foot away, and upon the spiral nebula +swinging through the ether perhaps four hundred and fifty light-years +from the earth. + +I unswung my pocket-lens,--the infant of the microscope,--and my whole +being followed my eyes; the trees and sky were eclipsed, and I hovered +in mid-air over four glistening Mars-like planets--seamed with +radiating canals, half in shadow from the slanting sunlight, and +silhouetted against pure emerald. The sculpturing was exquisite. Near +the north poles which pointed obliquely in my direction, the lines +broke up into beads, and the edges of these were frilled and +scalloped; and here again my vision failed and demanded still stronger +binoculars. Here was indeed complexity: a butterfly, one of those +black beauties, splashed with jasper and beryl, hovering nearby, with +taste only for liquid nectar, yet choosing a little weed devoid of +flower or fruit on which to deposit her quota of eggs. She neither +turned to look at their beauties nor trusted another batch to this +plant. Somehow, someway, her caterpillar wormhood had carried, through +the mummified chrysalid and the reincarnation of her present form, +knowledge of an earlier, infinitely coarser diet. + +Together with the pure artistic joy which was stirred at the sight of +these tiny ornate globes, there was aroused a realization of +complexity, of helpless, ignorant achievement; the butterfly blindly +pausing in her flower-to-flower fluttering--a pause as momentous to +her race as that of the slow daily and monthly progress of the weed's +struggle to fruition. + +I took a final glance at the eggs before returning to my own larger +world, and I detected a new complication, one which left me with +feelings too involved for calm scientific contemplation. As if a +Martian should suddenly become visible to an astronomer, I found that +one of the egg planets was inhabited. Perched upon the summit--quite +near the north pole--was an insect, a wasp, much smaller than the egg +itself. And as I looked, I saw it at the climax of its diminutive +life; for it reared up, resting on the tips of two legs and the +iridescent wings, and sunk its ovipositor deep into the crystalline +surface. As I watched, an egg was deposited, about the latitude of New +York, and with a tremor the tiny wasp withdrew its instrument and +rested. + +On the same leaf were casually blown specks of dust, larger than the +quartette of eggs. To the plant the cluster weighed nothing, meant +nothing more than the dust. Yet a moment before they contained the +latent power of great harm to the future growth of the weed--four +lusty caterpillars would work from leaf to leaf with a rapidity and +destructiveness which might, even at the last, have sapped the +maturing seeds. Now, on a smaller scale, but still within the realm of +insect life, all was changed--the plant was safe once more and no +caterpillars would emerge. For the wasp went from sphere to sphere and +inoculated every one with the promise of its kind. The plant bent +slightly in a breath of wind, and knew nothing; the butterfly was far +away to my left, deep-drinking in a cluster of yellow cassia; the wasp +had already forgotten its achievement, and I alone--an outsider, an +interloper--observed, correlated, realized, appreciated, and--at the +last--remained as completely ignorant as the actors themselves of the +real driving force, of the certain beginning, of the inevitable end. +Only a momentary cross-section was vouchsafed, and a wonder and a +desire to know fanned a little hotter. + +I had far from finished with my weed: for besides the cuts and tears +and disfigurements of the leaves, I saw a score or more of curious +berry-like or acorn-like growths, springing from both leaf and stem. I +knew, of course, that they were insect-galls, but never before had +they meant quite so much, or fitted in so well as a significant +phenomenon in the nexus of entangling relationships between the weed +and its environment. This visitor, also a minute wasp of sorts, +neither bit nor cut the leaves, but quietly slipped a tiny egg here +and there into the leaf-tissue. + +And this was only the beginning of complexity. For with the quickening +of the larva came a reaction on the part of the plant, which, in +defense, set up a greatly accelerated growth about the young insect. +This might have taken the form of some distorted or deformed plant +organ--a cluster of leaves, a fruit or berry or tuft of hairs, wholly +unlike the characters of the plant itself. My weed was studded with +what might well have been normal seed-fruits, were they not proved +nightmares of berries, awful pseudo-fruits sprouting from horridly +impossible places. And this excess of energy, expressed in tumorous +outgrowths, was all vitally useful to the grub--just as the skilful +jiu-jitsu wrestler accomplishes his purpose with the aid of his +opponent's strength. The insect and plant were, however, far more +intricately related than any two human competitors: for the grub in +turn required the continued health and strength of the plant for its +existence; and when I plucked a leaf, I knew I had doomed all the +hidden insects living within its substance. + +The galls at my hand simulated little acorns, dull greenish in color, +matching the leaf-surface on which they rested, and rising in a sharp +point. I cut one through and, when wearied and fretted with the +responsibilities of independent existence, I know I shall often recall +and envy my grub in his palatial parasitic home. Outside came a rather +hard, brown protective sheath; then the main body of the gall, of firm +and dense tissue; and finally, at the heart, like the Queen's chamber +in Cheops, the irregular little dwelling-place of the grub. This was +not empty and barren; but the blackness and silence of this vegetable +chamber, this architecture fashioned by the strangest of builders for +the most remarkable of tenants, was filled with a nap of long, +crystalline hairs or threads like the spun-glass candy in our +Christmas sweetshops--white at the base and shading from pale salmon +to the deepest of pinks. This exquisite tapestry, whose beauties were +normally forever hidden as well from the blind grub as from the +outside world, was the ambrosia all unwittingly provided by the +antagonism of the plant; the nutrition of resentment, the food of +defiance; and day by day the grub gradually ate his way from one end +to the other of his suite, laying a normal, healthful physical +foundation for his future aerial activities. + +The natural history of galls is full of romance and strange +unrealities, but to-day it meant to me only a renewed instance of an +opportunity seized and made the most of; the success of the indirect, +the unreasonable--the long chance which so few of us humans are +willing to take, although the reward is a perpetual enthusiasm for the +happening of the moment, and the honest gambler's joy for the future. +How much more desirable to acquire merit as a footless grub in the +heart of a home, erected and precariously nourished by a worthy +opponent, with a future of unnumbered possibilities, than to be a +queen-mother in nest or hive--cared-for, fed, and cleansed by a host +of slaves, but with less prospect of change or of adventure than an +average toadstool. + + * * * * * + +Thus I sat for a long time, lulled by similitudes of northern plants +and bees and birds, and then gently shifted southward a few hundred +miles, the transition being smooth and unabrupt. With equal gentleness +the dead calm stirred slightly and exhaled the merest ghost of a +breeze; it seemed as if the air was hardly in motion, but only +restless: the wings of the bees and the flycatcher might well have +caused it. But, judged by the sequence of events, it was the almost +imperceptible signal given by some great Jungle Spirit, who had tired +of playing with my dreams and pleasant fancies of northern life, and +now called upon her legions to disillusion me. And the response was +immediate. Three great shells burst at my very feet,--one of sound, +one of color, and the third of both plus numbers,--and from that time +on, tropical life was dominant whichever way I looked. That is the way +with the wilderness, and especially the tropical wilderness--to +surprise one in the very field with which one is most familiar. While +in my own estimation my chief profession is ignorance, yet I sign my +passport applications and my jury evasions as Ornithologist. And now +this playful Spirit of the Jungle permitted me to meditate cheerfully +on my ability to compare the faunas of New York and Guiana, and then +proceeded to startle me with three salvos of birds, first physically +and then emotionally. + +From the monotone of under-world sounds a strange little rasping +detached itself, a reiterated, subdued scraping or picking. It carried +my mind instantly to the throbbing theme of the Niebelungs, +onomatopoetic of the little hammers forever busy in their underground +work. I circled a small bush at my side, and found that the sound came +from one of the branches near the top; so with my glasses I began a +systematic search. It was at this propitious moment, when I was +relaxed in every muscle, steeped in the quiet of this hillside, and +keen on discovering the beetle, that the first shell arrived. If I had +been less absorbed I might have heard some distant chattering or +calling, but this time it was as if a Spad had shut off its power, +volplaned, kept ahead of its own sound waves, and bombed me. All that +actually happened was that a band of little parrakeets flew down and +alighted nearby. When I discovered this, it seemed a disconcerting +anti-climax, just as one can make the bravest man who has been under +rifle-fire flinch by spinning a match swiftly past his ear. + +I have heard this sound of parrakeet's wings, when the birds were +alighting nearby, half a dozen times; but after half a hundred I shall +duck just as spontaneously, and for a few seconds stand just as +immobile with astonishment. From a volcano I expect deep and sinister +sounds; when I watch great breakers I would marvel only if the +accompanying roar were absent; but on a calm sunny August day I do not +expect a noise which, for suddenness and startling character, can be +compared only with a tremendous flash of lightning. Imagine a +wonderful tapestry of strong ancient stuff, which had only been woven, +never torn, and think of this suddenly ripped from top to bottom by +some sinister, irresistible force. + +In the instant that the sound began, it ceased; there was no echo, no +bell-like sustained overtones; both ends were buried in silence. As it +came to-day it was a high tearing crash which shattered silence as a +Very light destroys darkness; and at its cessation I looked up and +saw twenty little green figures gazing intently down at me, from so +small a sapling that their addition almost doubled the foliage. That +their small wings could wring such a sound from the fabric of the air +was unbelievable. At my first movement, the flock leaped forth, and if +their wings made even a rustle, it was wholly drowned in the chorus of +chattering cries which poured forth unceasingly as the little band +swept up and around the sky circle. As an alighting morpho butterfly +dazzles the eyes with a final flash of his blazing azure before +vanishing behind the leaves and fungi of his lower surface, so +parrakeets change from screaming motes in the heavens to silence, and +then to a hurtling, roaring boomerang, whose amazing unexpectedness +would distract the most dangerous eyes from the little motionless +leaf-figures in a neighboring treetop. + +When I sat down again, the whole feeling of the hillside was changed. +I was aware that my weed was a northern weed only in appearance, and I +should not have been surprised to see my bees change to flies or my +lizards to snakes--tropical beings have a way of doing such things. + +The next phenomenon was color,--unreal, living pigment,--which seemed +to appeal to more than one sense, and which satisfied, as a cooling +drink or a rare, delicious fragrance satisfies. A medium-sized, stocky +bird flew with steady wing-beats over the jungle, in black silhouette +against the sky, and swung up to an outstanding giant tree which +partly overhung the edge of my clearing. The instant it passed the +zone of green, it flashed out brilliant turquoise, and in the same +instant I recognized it and reached for my gun. Before I retrieved the +bird, a second, dull and dark-feathered, flew from the tree. I had +watched it for some time, but now, as it passed over, I saw no yellow +and knew it too was of real scientific interest to me; and with the +second barrel I secured it. Picking up my first bird, I found that it +was not turquoise, but beryl; and a few minutes later I was certain +that it was aquamarine; on my way home another glance showed the color +of forget-me-nots on its plumage, and as I looked at it on my table, +it was Nile green. Yet the feathers were painted in flat color, +without especial sheen or iridescence, and when I finally analyzed it, +I found it to be a delicate calamine blue. It actually had the +appearance of a too strong color, as when a glistening surface +reflects the sun. From beak to tail it threw off this glowing hue, +except for its chin and throat, which were a limpid amaranth purple; +and the effect on the excited rods and cones in one's eyes was like +the power of great music or some majestic passage in the Bible. You, +who think my similes are overdone, search out in the nearest museum +the dustiest of purple-throated cotingas,--_Cotinga cayana,_--and +then, instead, berate me for inadequacy. + +Sheer color alone is powerful enough, but when heightened by contrast, +it becomes still more effective, and I seemed to have secured, with +two barrels, a cotinga and its shadow. The latter was also a +full-grown male cotinga, known to a few people in this world as the +dark-breasted mourner (_Lipaugus simplex_). In general shape and form +it was not unlike its cousin, but in color it was its shadow, its +silhouette. Not a feather upon head or body, wings or tail showed a +hint of warmth, only a dull uniform gray; an ash of a bird, living in +the same warm sunlight, wet by the same rain, feeding on much the same +food, and claiming relationship with a blazing-feathered turquoise. +There is some very exact and very absorbing reason for all this, and +for it I search with fervor, but with little success. But we may be +certain that the causes of this and of the host of other unreasonable +realities which fill the path of the evolutionist with never-quenched +enthusiasm, will extend far beyond the colors of two tropical birds. +They will have something to do with flowers and with bright +butterflies, and we shall know why our "favorite color" is more than a +whim, and why the Greeks may not have been able to distinguish the +full gamut of our spectrum, and why rainbows are so narrow to our eyes +in comparison to what they might be. + +Finally, there was thrown aside all finesse, all delicacy of +presentation, and the last lingering feeling of temperate life and +nature was erased. From now on there was no confusion of zones, no +concessions, no mental palimpsest of resolving images. The spatial, +the temporal,--the hillside, the passing seconds,--the vibrations and +material atoms stimulating my five senses, all were tropical, +quickened with the unbelievable vitality of equatorial life. A +rustling came to my ears, although the breeze was still little more +than a sensation of coolness. Then a deep whirr sounded overhead, and +another, and another, and with a rush a dozen great toucans were all +about me. Monstrous beaks, parodies in pastels of unheard-of blues +and greens, breasts which glowed like mirrored suns,--orange overlaid +upon blinding yellow,--and at every flick of the tail a trenchant +flash of intense scarlet. All these colors set in frames of jet-black +plumage, and suddenly hurled through blue sky and green foliage, made +the hillside a brilliant moving kaleidoscope. + +Some flew straight over, with several quick flaps, then a smooth +glide, flaps and glide. A few banked sharply at sight of me, and +wheeled to right or left. Others alighted and craned their necks in +suspicion; but all sooner or later disappeared eastward in the +direction of a mighty jungle tree just bursting into a myriad of +berries. They were sulphur-breasted toucans, and they were silent, +heralded only by the sound of their wings and the crash of their +pigments. I can think of no other assemblage of jungle creatures more +fitted to impress one with the prodigality of tropical nature. Four +years before, we set ourselves to work to discover the first eggs and +young of toucans, and after weeks of heartbreaking labor and +disappointments we succeeded. Out of the five species of toucans +living in this part of Guiana we found the nests of four, and the one +which eluded us was the big sulphur-breasted fellow. I remembered so +vividly the painstaking care with which, week after week, we and our +Indians tramped the jungle for miles,--through swamps and over rolling +hills,--at last having to admit failure; and now I sat and watched +thirty, forty, fifty of the splendid birds whirr past. As the last of +the fifty-four flew on to their feast of berries, I recalled with +difficulty my faded visions of northern birds. + +And so ended, as in the great finale of a pyrotechnic display, my two +hours on a hillside clearing. I can neither enliven it with a +startling escape, nor add a thrill of danger, without using as many +"ifs" as would be needed to make a Jersey meadow untenable. For +example, _if_ I had fallen over backwards and been powerless to rise +or move, I should have been killed within half an hour, for a stray +column of army ants was passing within a yard of me, and death would +await any helpless being falling across their path. But by searching +out a copperhead and imitating Cleopatra, or with patience and +persistence devouring every toadstool, the same result could be +achieved in our home-town orchard. When on the march, the army ants +are as innocuous at two inches as at two miles. Had I sat where I was +for days and for nights, my chief danger would have been demise from +sheer chagrin at my inability to grasp the deeper significance of life +and its earthly activities. + + + + +III + +THE HOME TOWN OF THE ARMY ANTS + + +From uniform to civilian clothes is a change transcending mere +alteration of stuffs and buttons. It is scarcely less sweeping than +the shift from civilian clothes to bathing-suit, which so often +compels us to concentrate on remembered mental attributes, to avoid +demanding a renewed introduction to estranged personality. In the home +life of the average soldier, the relaxation from sustained tension and +conscious routine results in a gentleness and quietness of mood for +which warrior nations are especially remembered. + +Army ants have no insignia to lay aside, and their swords are too +firmly hafted in their own beings to be hung up as post-bellum mural +decorations, or--as is done only in poster-land--metamorphosed into +pruning-hooks and plowshares. + +I sat at my laboratory table at Kartabo, and looked down river to the +pink roof of Kalacoon, and my mind went back to the shambles of Pit +Number Five.[1] I was wondering whether I should ever see the army +ants in any guise other than that of scouting, battling searchers for +living prey, when a voice of the jungle seemed to hear my unexpressed +wish. The sharp, high notes of white-fronted antbirds--those +white-crested watchers of the ants--came to my ears, and I left my +table and followed up the sound. Physically, I merely walked around +the bungalow and approached the edge of the jungle at a point where we +had erected a small outhouse a day or two before. But this two hundred +feet might just as well have been a single step through quicksilver, +hand in hand with Alice, for it took me from a world of hyoids and +syrinxes, of vials and lenses and clean-smelling xylol, to the home of +the army ants. + +[Footnote 1: See _Jungle Peace_, p. 211.] + +The antbirds were chirping and hopping about on the very edge of the +jungle, but I did not have to go that far. As I passed the doorless +entrance of the outhouse I looked up, and there was an immense mass of +some strange material suspended in the upper corner. It looked like +stringy, chocolate-colored tow, studded with hundreds of tiny ivory +buttons. I came closer and looked carefully at this mushroom growth +which had appeared in a single night, and it was then that my eyes +began to perceive and my mind to record, things that my reason +besought me to reject. Such phenomena were all right in a dream, or +one might imagine them and tell them to children on one's knee, with +wind in the eaves--wild tales to be laughed at and forgotten. But this +was daylight and I was a scientist; my eyes were in excellent order, +and my mind rested after a dreamless sleep; so I had to record what I +saw in that little outhouse. + +This chocolate-colored mass with its myriad ivory dots was the home, +the nest, the hearth, the nursery, the bridal suite, the kitchen, the +bed and board of the army ants. It was the focus of all the lines and +files which ravaged the jungle for food, of the battalions which +attacked every living creature in their path, of the unnumbered rank +and file which made them known to every Indian, to every inhabitant of +these vast jungles. + +Louis Quatorze once said, "_L'Etat, c'est moi!_" but this figure of +speech becomes an empty, meaningless phrase beside what an army ant +could boast,--"_La maison, c'est moi!_" Every rafter, beam, stringer, +window-frame and door-frame, hall-way, room, ceiling, wall and floor, +foundation, superstructure and roof, all were ants--living ants, +distorted by stress, crowded into the dense walls, spread out to +widest stretch across tie-spaces. I had thought it marvelous when I +saw them arrange themselves as bridges, walks, handrails, buttresses, +and sign-boards along the columns; but this new absorption of +environment, this usurpation of wood and stone, this insinuation of +themselves into the province of the inorganic world, was almost too +astounding to credit. + +All along the upper rim the sustaining structure was more distinctly +visible than elsewhere. Here was a maze of taut brown threads +stretching in places across a span of six inches, with here and there +a tiny knot. These were actually tie-strings of living ants, their +legs stretched almost to the breaking-point, their bodies the +inconspicuous knots or nodes. Even at rest and at home, the army ants +are always prepared, for every quiescent individual in the swarm was +standing as erect as possible, with jaws widespread and ready, whether +the great curved mahogany scimitars of the soldiers, or the little +black daggers of the smaller workers. And with no eyelids to close, +and eyes which were themselves a mockery, the nerve shriveling and +never reaching the brain, what could sleep mean to them? Wrapped ever +in an impenetrable cloak of darkness and silence, life was yet one +great activity, directed, ordered, commanded by scent and odor alone. +Hour after hour, as I sat close to the nest, I was aware of this odor, +sometimes subtle, again wafted in strong successive waves. It was +musty, like something sweet which had begun to mold; not unpleasant, +but very difficult to describe; and in vain I strove to realize the +importance of this faint essence--taking the place of sound, of +language, of color, of motion, of form. + +I recovered quickly from my first rapt realization, for a dozen ants +had lost no time in ascending my shoes, and, as if at a preconcerted +signal, all simultaneously sank their jaws into my person. Thus +strongly recalled to the realities of life, I realized the opportunity +that was offered and planned for my observation. No living thing could +long remain motionless within the sphere of influence of these +six-legged Boches, and yet I intended to spend days in close +proximity. There was no place to hang a hammock, no overhanging tree +from which I might suspend myself spider-wise. So I sent Sam for an +ordinary chair, four tin cans, and a bottle of disinfectant. I filled +the tins with the tarry fluid, and in four carefully timed rushes I +placed the tins in a chair-leg square. The fifth time I put the chair +in place beneath the nest, but I had misjudged my distances and had to +retreat with only two tins in place. Another effort, with Spartan-like +disregard of the fiery bites, and my haven was ready. I hung a bag of +vials, notebook, and lens on the chairback, and, with a final rush, +climbed on the seat and curled up as comfortably as possible. + +All around the tins, swarming to the very edge of the liquid, were the +angry hosts. Close to my face were the lines ascending and descending, +while just above me were hundreds of thousands, a bushel-basket of +army ants, with only the strength of their threadlike legs as +suspension cables. It took some time to get used to my environment, +and from first to last I was never wholly relaxed, or quite +unconscious of what would happen if a chair-leg broke, or a bamboo +fell across the outhouse. + +I swiveled round on the chair-seat and counted eight lines of army +ants on the ground, converging to the post at my elbow. Each was four +or five ranks wide, and the eight lines occasionally divided or +coalesced, like a nexus of capillaries. There was a wide expanse of +sand and clay, and no apparent reason why the various lines of +foragers should not approach the nest in a single large column. The +dividing and redividing showed well how completely free were the +columns from any individual dominance. There was no control by +specific individuals or soldiers, but, the general route once +established, the governing factor was the odor of contact. + +The law to pass where others have passed is immutable, but freedom of +action or individual desire dies with the malleable, plastic ends of +the foraging columns. Again and again came to mind the comparison of +the entire colony or army with a single organism; and now the home, +the nesting swarm, the focus of central control, seemed like the body +of this strange amorphous organism--housing the spirit of the army. +One thinks of a column of foragers as a tendril with only the tip +sensitive and growing and moving, while the corpuscle-like individual +ants are driven in the current of blind instinct to and fro, on their +chemical errands. And then this whole theory, this most vivid simile, +is quite upset by the sights that I watch in the suburbs of this ant +home! + +The columns were most excellent barometers, and their reaction to +passing showers was invariable. The clay surface held water, and after +each downfall the pools would be higher, and the contour of the little +region altered. At the first few drops, all the ants would hasten, the +throbbing corpuscles speeding up. Then, as the rain came down heavier, +the column melted away, those near each end hurrying to shelter and +those in the center crawling beneath fallen leaves and bits of clod +and sticks. A moment before, hundreds of ants were trudging around a +tiny pool, the water lined with ant handrails, and in shallow places, +veritable formicine pontoons,--large ants which stood up to their +bodies in water, with the booty-laden host passing over them. Now, all +had vanished, leaving only a bare expanse of splashing drops and wet +clay. The sun broke through and the residue rain tinkled from the +bamboos. + +As gradually as the growth of the rainbow above the jungle, the lines +reformed themselves. Scouts crept from the jungle-edge at one side, +and from the post at my end, and felt their way, fan-wise, over the +rain-scoured surface; for the odor, which was both sight and sound to +these ants, had been washed away--a more serious handicap than mere +change in contour. Swiftly the wandering individuals found their +bearings again. There was deep water where dry land had been, but, as +if by long-planned study of the work of sappers and engineers, new +pontoon bridges were thrown across, washouts filled in, new cliffs +explored, and easy grades established; and by the time the bamboos +ceased their own private after-shower, the columns were again running +smoothly, battalions of eager light infantry hastening out to battle, +and equal hosts of loot-laden warriors hurrying toward the home nest. +Four minutes was the average time taken to reform a column across the +ten feet of open clay, with all the road-making and engineering feats +which I have mentioned, on the part of ants who had never been over +this new route before. + +Leaning forward within a few inches of the post, I lost all sense of +proportion, forgot my awkward human size, and with a new perspective +became an equal of the ants, looking on, watching every passer-by +with interest, straining with the bearers of the heavy loads, and +breathing more easily when the last obstacle was overcome and home +attained. For a period I plucked out every bit of good-sized booty and +found that almost all were portions of scorpions from far-distant dead +logs in the jungle, creatures whose strength and poisonous stings +availed nothing against the attacks of these fierce ants. The loads +were adjusted equably, the larger pieces carried by the big, +white-headed workers, while the smaller ants transported small eggs +and larvae. Often, when a great mandibled soldier had hold of some +insect, he would have five or six tiny workers surrounding him, each +grasping any projecting part of the loot, as if they did not trust him +in this menial capacity,--as an anxious mother would watch with +doubtful confidence a big policeman wheeling her baby across a crowded +street. These workers were often diminutive Marcelines, hindering +rather than aiding in the progress. But in every phase of activity of +these ants there was not an ounce of intentionally lost power, or a +moment of time wilfully gone to waste. What a commentary on +Bolshevism! + +Now that I had the opportunity of quietly watching the long, hurrying +columns, I came hour by hour to feel a greater intimacy, a deeper +enthusiasm for their vigor of existence, their unfailing life at the +highest point of possibility of achievement. In every direction my +former desultory observations were discounted by still greater +accomplishments. Elsewhere I have recorded the average speed as two +and a half feet in ten seconds, estimating this as a mile in three and +a half hours. An observant colonel in the American army has laid bare +my congenitally hopeless mathematical inaccuracy, and corrected this +to five hours and fifty-two seconds. Now, however, I established a +wholly new record for the straight-away dash for home of the army +ants. With the handicap of gravity pulling them down, the ants, both +laden and unburdened, averaged ten feet in twenty seconds, as they +raced up the post. I have now called in an artist and an astronomer to +verify my results, these two being the only living beings within +hailing distance as I write, except a baby red howling monkey curled +up in my lap, and a toucan, sloth, and green boa, beyond my laboratory +table. Our results are identical, and I can safely announce that the +amateur record for speed of army ants is equivalent to a mile in two +hours and fifty-six seconds; and this when handicapped by gravity and +burdens of food, but with the incentive of approaching the end of +their long journey. + +As once before, I accidentally disabled a big worker that I was +robbing of his load, and his entire abdomen rolled down a slope and +disappeared. Hours later in the afternoon, I was summoned to view the +same soldier, unconcernedly making his way along an outward-bound +column, guarding it as carefully as if he had not lost the major part +of his anatomy. His mandibles were ready, and the only difference that +I could see was that he could make better speed than others of his +caste. That night he joined the general assemblage of cripples quietly +awaiting death, halfway up to the nest. + +I know of no highway in the world which surpasses that of a big column +of army ants in exciting happenings, although I usually had the +feeling which inspired Kim as he watched the Great White Road, of +understanding so little of all that was going on. Early in the morning +there were only outgoing hosts; but soon eddies were seen in the swift +current, vortexes made by a single ant here and there forcing its way +against the stream. Unlike penguins and human beings, army ants have +no rule of the road as to right and left, and there is no lessening of +pace or turning aside for a heavily laden drogher. Their blindness +caused them to bump squarely into every individual, often sending load +and carrier tumbling to the bottom of a vertical path. Another +constant loss of energy was a large cockroach leg, or scorpion +segment, carried by several ants. Their insistence on trying to carry +everything beneath their bodies caused all sorts of comical mishaps. +When such a large piece of booty appeared, it was too much of a +temptation, and a dozen outgoing ants would rush up and seize hold for +a moment, the consequent pulling in all directions reducing progress +at once to zero. + +Until late afternoon few ants returned without carrying their bit. The +exceptions were the cripples, which were numerous and very pitiful. +From such fierce strenuousness, such virile activity, as unending as +elemental processes, it seemed a very terrible drop to disability, to +the utilizing of every atom of remaining strength to return to the +temporary home nest--that instinct which drives so many creatures to +the same homing, at the approach of death. + +Even in their helplessness they were wonderful. To see a big +black-headed worker struggling up a post with five short stumps and +only one good hind leg, was a lesson in achieving the impossible. I +have never seen even a suspicion of aid given to any cripple, no +matter how slight or how complete the disability; but frequently a +strange thing occurred, which I have often noticed but can never +explain. One army ant would carry another, perhaps of its own size and +caste, just as if it were a bit of dead provender; and I always +wondered if cannibalism was to be added to their habits. I would +capture both, and the minute they were in the vial, the dead ant would +come to life, and with equal vigor and fury both would rush about +their prison, seeking to escape, becoming indistinguishable in the +twinkling of an eye. + +Very rarely an ant stopped and attempted to clean another which had +become partly disabled through an accumulation of gummy sap or other +encumbering substance. But when a leg or other organ was broken or +missing, the odor of the ant-blood seemed to arouse only suspicion +and to banish sympathy, and after a few casual wavings of antennae, +all passed by on the other side. Not only this, but the unfortunates +were actually in danger of attack within the very lines of traffic of +the legionaries. Several times I noticed small rove-beetles +accompanying the ants, who paid little attention to them. Whenever an +ant became suspicious and approached with a raised-eyebrow gesture of +antennae, the beetles turned their backs quickly and raised threatening +tails. But I did not suspect the vampire or thug-like character of +these guests--tolerated where any other insect would have been torn to +pieces at once. A large crippled worker, hobbling along, had slipped a +little away from the main line, when I was astonished to see two +rove-beetles rush at him and bite him viciously, a third coming up at +once and joining in. The poor worker had no possible chance against +this combination, and he went down after a short, futile struggle. Two +small army ants now happened to pass, and after a preliminary whiffing +with waving antennae, rushed joyously into the _melee_. The beetles had +a cowardly weapon, and raising their tails, ejected a drop or two of +liquid, utterly confusing the ants, which turned and hastened back to +the column. For the next few minutes, until the scent wore off, they +aroused suspicion wherever they went. Meanwhile, the hyena-like +rove-beetles, having hedged themselves within a barricade of their +malodor, proceeded to feast, quarreling with one another as such +cowards are wont to do. + +Thus I thought, having identified myself with the army ants. From a +broader, less biased point of view, I realized that credit should be +given to the rove-beetles for having established themselves in a zone +of such constant danger, and for being able to live and thrive in it. + +The columns converged at the foot of the post, and up its surface ran +the main artery of the nest. Halfway up, a flat board projected, and +here the column divided for the last time, half going on directly into +the nest, and the other half turning aside, skirting the board, +ascending a bit of perpendicular canvas, and entering the nest from +the rear. The entrance was well guarded by a veritable moat and +drawbridge of living ants. A foot away, a flat mat of ants, mandibles +outward, was spread, over which every passing individual stepped. Six +inches farther, and the sides of the mat thickened, and in the last +three inches these sides met overhead, forming a short tunnel at the +end of which the nest began. + +And here I noticed an interesting thing. Into this organic moat or +tunnel, this living mouth of an inferno, passed all the booty-laden +foragers, or those who for some reason had returned empty-mouthed. But +the outgoing host seeped gradually from the outermost nest-layer--a +gradual but fundamental circulation, like that of ocean currents. +Scorpions, eggs, caterpillars, glass-like wasp pupae, roaches, spiders, +crickets,--all were drawn into the nest by a maelstrom of hunger, +funneling into the narrow tunnel; while from over all the surface of +the swarm there crept forth layer after layer of invigorated, +implacable seekers after food. + +The mass of ants composing the nest appeared so loosely connected that +it seemed as if a touch would tear a hole, a light wind rend the +supports. It was suspended in the upper corner of the doorway, rounded +on the free sides, and measured roughly two feet in diameter--an +unnumbered host of ants. Those on the surface were in very slow but +constant motion, with legs shifting and antennae waving continually. +This quivering on the surface of the swarm gave it the appearance of +the fur of some terrible animal--fur blowing in the wind from some +unknown, deadly desert. Yet so cohesive was the entire mass, that I +sat close beneath it for the best part of two days and not more than a +dozen ants fell upon me. There was, however, a constant rain of +egg-cases and pupa-skins and the remains of scorpions and +grasshoppers, the residue of the booty which was being poured in. +These wrappings and inedible casing were all brought to the surface +and dropped. This was reasonable, but what I could not comprehend was +a constant falling of small living larvae. How anything except army +ants could emerge alive from such a sinister swarm was inconceivable. +It took some resolution to stand up under the nest, with my face only +a foot away from this slowly seething mass of widespread jaws. But I +had to discover where the falling larvae came from, and after a time I +found that they were immature army ants. Here and there a small worker +would appear, carrying in its mandibles a young larva; and while most +made their way through the maze of mural legs and bodies and +ultimately disappeared again, once in a while the burden was dropped +and fell to the floor of the outhouse. I can account for this only by +presuming that a certain percentage of the nurses were very young and +inexperienced workers and dropped their burdens inadvertently. There +was certainly no intentional casting out of these offspring, as was so +obviously the case with the debris from the food of the colony. The +eleven or twelve ants which fell upon me during my watch were all +smaller workers, no larger ones losing their grip. + +While recording some of these facts, I dropped my pencil, and it was +fully ten minutes before the black mass of enraged insects cleared +away, and I could pick it up. Leaning far over to secure it, I was +surprised by the cleanliness of the floor around my chair. My clothes +and note-paper had been covered with loose wings, dry skeletons of +insects and the other debris, while hundreds of other fragments had +sifted down past me. Yet now that I looked seeingly, the whole area +was perfectly clean. I had to assume a perfect jack-knife pose to get +my face near enough to the floor; but, achieving it, I found about +five hundred ants serving as a street-cleaning squad. They roamed +aimlessly about over the whole floor, ready at once to attack +anything of mine, or any part of my anatomy which might come close +enough, but otherwise stimulated to activity only when they came +across a bit of rubbish from the nest high overhead. This was at once +seized and carried off to one of two neat piles in far corners. Before +night these kitchen middens were an inch or two deep and nearly a foot +in length, composed, literally, of thousands of skins, wings, and +insect armor. There was not a scrap of dirt of any kind which had not +been gathered into one of the two piles. The nest was nine feet above +the floor, a distance (magnifying ant height to our own) of nearly a +mile, and yet the care lavished on the cleanliness of the earth so far +below was as thorough and well done as the actual provisioning of the +colony. + +As I watched the columns and the swarm-nest hour after hour, several +things impressed me;--the absolute silence in which the ants +worked;--such ceaseless activity without sound one associates only +with a cinema film; all around me was tremendous energy, marvelous +feats of achievement, super-human instincts, the ceaseless movement of +tens of thousands of legionaries; yet no tramp of feet, no shouts, no +curses, no welcomes, no chanties. It was uncanny to think of a race +of creatures such as these, dreaded by every living being, wholly +dominant in their continent-wide sphere of action, yet born, living +out their lives, and dying, dumb and blind, with no possibility of +comment on life and its fullness, of censure or of applause. + +The sweeping squad on the floor was interesting because of its limited +field of work at such a distance from the nest; but close to my chair +were a number of other specialized zones of activity, any one of which +would have afforded a fertile field for concentrated study. Beneath +the swarm on the white canvas, I noticed two large spots of dirt and +moisture, where very small flies were collected. An examination showed +that this was a second, nearer dumping-ground for all the garbage and +refuse of the swarm which could not be thrown down on the kitchen +middens far below. And here were tiny flies and other insects acting +as scavengers, just as the hosts of vultures gather about the +slaughter-house of Georgetown. + +The most interesting of all the phases of life of the ants' home town, +were those on the horizontal board which projected from the beam and +stretched for several feet to one side of the swarm. This platform +was almost on a level with my eyes, and by leaning slightly forward on +the chair, I was as close as I dared go. Here many ants came from the +incoming columns, and others were constantly arriving from the nest +itself. It was here that I realized my good fortune and the +achievement of my desires, when I first saw an army ant at rest. One +of the first arrivals after I had squatted to my post, was a big +soldier with a heavy load of roach meat. Instead of keeping on +straight up the post, he turned abruptly and dropped his load. It was +instantly picked up by two smaller workers and carried on and upward +toward the nest. Two other big fellows arrived in quick succession, +one with a load which he relinquished to a drogher-in-waiting. Then +the three weary warriors stretched their legs one after another and +commenced to clean their antennae. This lasted only for a moment, for +three or four tiny ants rushed at each of the larger ones and began as +thorough a cleaning as masseurs or Turkish-bath attendants. The three +arrivals were at once hustled away to a distant part of the board and +there cleaned from end to end. I found that the focal length of my +8-diameter lens was just out of reach of the ants, so I focused +carefully on one of the soldiers and watched the entire process. The +small ants scrubbed and scraped him with their jaws, licking him and +removing every particle of dirt. One even crawled under him and worked +away at his upper leg-joints, for all the world as a mechanic will +creep under a car. Finally, I was delighted to see him do what no car +ever does, turn completely over and lie quietly on his back with his +legs in air, while his diminutive helpers overran him and gradually +got him into shape for future battles and foraging expeditions. + +On this resting-stage, within well-defined limits, were dozens of +groups of two cleaning one another, and less numerous parties of the +tiny professionals working their hearts out on battle-worn soldiers. +It became more and more apparent that in the creed of the army ants, +cleanliness comes next to military effectiveness. + +Here and there I saw independent individuals cleaning themselves and +going through the most un-ant-like movements. They scraped their jaws +along the board, pushing forward like a dog trying to get rid of his +muzzle; then they turned on one side and passed the opposite legs +again and again through the mandibles; while the last performance was +to turn over on their backs and roll from side to side, exactly as a +horse or donkey loves to do. + +One ant, I remember, seemed to have something seriously wrong. It sat +up on its bent-under abdomen in a most comical fashion, and was the +object of solicitude of every passing ant. Sometimes there were thirty +in a dense group, pushing and jostling; and, like most of our city +crowds, many seemed to stop only long enough to have a moment's morbid +sight, or to ask some silly question as to the trouble, then to hurry +on. Others remained, and licked and twiddled him with their antennae +for a long time. He was in this position for at least twenty minutes. +My curiosity was so aroused that I gathered him up in a vial, whereat +he became wildly excited and promptly regained full use of his legs +and faculties. Later, when I examined him under the lens, I could find +nothing whatever wrong. + +Off at one side of the general cleaning and reconstruction areas was a +pitiful assemblage of cripples which had had enough energy to crawl +back, but which did not attempt, or were not allowed, to enter the +nest proper. Some had one or two legs gone, others had lost an +antenna or had an injured body. They seemed not to know what to +do--wandering around, now and then giving one another a half-hearted +lick. In the midst was one which had died, and two others, each badly +injured, were trying to tug the body along to the edge of the board. +This they succeeded in doing after a long series of efforts, and down +and down fell the dead ant. It was promptly picked up by several +kitchen-middenites and unceremoniously thrown on the pile of +nest-debris. A load of booty had been dumped among the cripples, and +as each wandered close to it, he seemed to regain strength for a +moment, picked up the load, and then dropped it. The sight of that +which symbolized almost all their life-activity aroused them to a +momentary forgetfulness of their disabilities. There was no longer any +place for them in the home or in the columns of the legionaries. They +had been court-martialed under the most implacable, the most impartial +law in the world--the survival of the fit, the elimination of the +unfit. + +The time came when we had to get at our stored supplies, over which +the army ants were such an effective guard. I experimented on a +running column with a spray of ammonia and found that it created +merely temporary inconvenience, the ants running back and forming a +new trail. Formaline was more effective, so I sprayed the nest-swarm +with a fifty-per-cent solution, strong enough, one would think, to +harden the very boards. It certainly created a terrible commotion, and +strings of the ants, two feet long, hung dangling from the nest. The +heart of the colony came into view, with thousands of eggs and larvae, +looking like heaps of white rice-grains. Every ant seized one or the +other and sought escape by the nearest way, while the soldiers still +defied the world. The gradual disintegration revealed an interior +meshed like a wasp's nest, chambered and honeycombed with living tubes +and walls. Little by little the taut guy-ropes, lathes, braces, +joists, all sagged and melted together, each cell-wall becoming +dynamic, now expanding, now contracting; the ceilings vibrant with +waving legs, the floors a seething mass of jaws and antennae. By the +time it was dark, the swarm was dropping in sections to the floor. + +On the following morning new surprises awaited me. The great mass of +the ants had moved in the night, vanishing with every egg and +immature larva; but there was left in the corner of the flat board a +swarm of about one-quarter of the entire number, enshrouding a host of +older larvae. The cleaning zones, the cripples' gathering-room, all had +given way to new activities, on the flat board, down near the kitchen +middens, and in every horizontal crack. + +The cause of all this strange excitement, this braving of the terrible +dangers of fumes which had threatened to destroy the entire colony the +night before, suddenly was made plain as I watched. A critical time +was at hand in the lives of the all-precious larvae, when they could +not be moved--the period of spinning, of beginning the transformation +from larvae to pupae. This evidently was an operation which had to take +place outside the nest and demanded some sort of light covering. On +the flat board were several thousand ants and a dozen or more groups +of full-grown larvae. Workers of all sizes were searching everywhere +for some covering for the tender immature creatures. They had chewed +up all available loose splinters of wood, and near the rotten, +termite-eaten ends, the sound of dozens of jaws gnawing all at once +was plainly audible. This unaccustomed, unmilitary labor produced a +quantity of fine sawdust, which was sprinkled over the larvae. I had +made a partition of a bit of a British officer's tent which I had used +in India and China, made of several layers of colored canvas and +cloth. The ants found a loose end of this, teased it out and unraveled +it, so that all the larvae near by were blanketed with a gay, +parti-colored covering of fuzz. + +All this strange work was hurried and carried on under great +excitement. The scores of big soldiers on guard appeared rather ill at +ease, as if they had wandered by mistake into the wrong department. +They sauntered about, bumped into larvae, turned and fled. A constant +stream of workers from the nest brought hundreds more larvae; and no +sooner had they been planted and debris of sorts sifted over them, +than they began spinning. A few had already swathed themselves in +cocoons--exceedingly thin coverings of pinkish silk. As this took +place out of the nest,--in the jungle they must be covered with wood +and leaves. The vital necessity for this was not apparent, for none of +this debris was incorporated into the silk of the cocoons, which were +clean and homogeneous. Yet the hundreds of ants gnawed and tore and +labored to gather this little dust, as if their very lives depended +upon it. + +With my hand-lens focused just beyond mandible reach of the biggest +soldier, I leaned forward from my insulated chair, hovering like a +great astral eye looking down at this marvelously important business +of little lives. Here were thousands of army ants, not killing, not +carrying booty, nor even suspended quiescent as organic molecules in +the structure of the home, yet in feverish activity equaled only by +battle, making ready for the great change of their foster offspring. I +watched the very first thread of silk drawn between the larva and the +outside world, and in an incredibly short time the cocoon was outlined +in a tissue-thin, transparent aura, within which the tenant could be +seen skilfully weaving its own shroud. + +When first brought from the nest, the larvae lay quite straight and +still; but almost at once they bent far over in the spinning position. +Then some officious worker would come along, and the unfortunate larva +would be snatched up, carried off, and jammed down in some neighboring +empty space, like a bolt of cloth rearranged upon a shelf. Then +another ant would approach, antennae the larva, disapprove, and again +shift its position. It was a real survival of the lucky, as to who +should avoid being exhausted by kindness and over-solicitude. I +uttered many a chuckle at the half-ensilked unfortunates being toted +about like mummies, and occasionally giving a sturdy, impatient kick +which upset their tormentors and for a moment created a little swirl +of mild excitement. + +There was no order of packing. The larvae were fitted together anyway, +and meagerly covered with dust of wood and shreds of cloth. One big +tissue of wood nearly an inch square was too great a temptation to be +let alone, and during the course of my observation it covered in turn +almost every group of larvae in sight, ending by being accidentally +shunted over the edge and killing a worker near the kitchen middens. +There was only a single layer of larvae; in no case were they piled up, +and when the platform became crowded, a new column was formed and +hundreds taken outside. To the casual eye there was no difference +between these legionaries and a column bringing in booty of insects, +eggs, and pupae; yet here all was solicitude, never a bite too severe, +or a blunder of undue force. + +The sights I saw in this second day's accessible nest-swarm would +warrant a season's meditation and study, but one thing impressed me +above all others. Sometimes, when I carefully pried open one section +and looked deep within, I could see large chambers with the larvae in +piles, besides being held in the mandibles of the components of the +walls and ceilings. Now and then a curious little ghost-like form +would flit across the chamber, coming to rest, gnome-like, on larva or +ant. Again and again I saw these little springtails skip through the +very scimitar mandibles of a soldier, while the workers paid no +attention to them. I wondered if they were not quite odorless, +intangible to the ants, invisible guests which lived close to them, +going where, doing what they willed, yet never perceived by the +thousands of inhabitants. They seemed to live in a kind of fourth +dimensional state, a realm comparable to that which we people with +ghosts and spirits. It was a most uncanny, altogether absorbing, +intensely interesting relationship; and sometimes, when I ponder on +some general aspect of the great jungle,--a forest of greenheart, a +mighty rushing river, a crashing, blasting thunderstorm,--my mind +suddenly reverts by way of contrast to the tiny ghosts of springtails +flitting silently among the terrible living chambers of the army ants. + +On the following morning I expected to achieve still greater intimacy +in the lives of the mummy soldier embryos; but at dawn every trace of +nesting swarm, larvae, pupae and soldiers was gone. A few dead workers +were being already carried off by small ants which never would have +dared approach them in life. A big blue morpho butterfly flapped +slowly past out of the jungle, and in its wake came the distant +notes--high and sharp--of the white-fronted antbirds; and I knew that +the legionaries were again abroad, radiating on their silent, dynamic +paths of life from some new temporary nest deep in the jungle. + + + + +IV + +A JUNGLE BEACH + + +A jungle moon first showed me my beach. For a week I had looked at it +in blazing sunlight, walked across it, even sat on it in the intervals +of getting wonted to the new laboratory; yet I had not perceived it. +Colonel Roosevelt once said to me that he would rather perceive things +from the point of view of a field-mouse, than be a human being and +merely see them. And in my case it was when I could no longer see the +beach that I began to discern its significance. + +This British Guiana beach, just in front of my Kartabo bungalow, was +remarkably diversified, and in a few steps, or strokes of a paddle, I +could pass from clean sand to mangroves and muckamucka swamp, thence +to out-jutting rocks, and on to the Edge of the World, all within a +distance of a hundred yards. For a time my beach walks resulted in +inarticulate reaction. After months in the blindfolded canyons of New +York's streets, a hemicircle of horizon, a hemisphere of sky, and a +vast expanse of open water lent itself neither to calm appraisal nor +to impromptu cuff-notes. + +It was recalled to my mind that the miracle of sunrise occurred every +morning, and was not a rather belated alternation of illumination, +following the quenching of Broadway's lights. And the moon I found was +as dependable as when I timed my Himalayan expeditions by her +shadowings. To these phenomena I soon became re-accustomed, and could +watch a bird or outwit an insect in the face of a foreglow and silent +burst of flame that shamed all the barrages ever laid down. But cosmic +happenings kept drawing my attention and paralyzing my activities for +long afterward. With a double rainbow and four storms in action at +once; or a wall of rain like sawn steel slowly drawing up one river +while the Mazaruni remains in full sunlight; with Pegasus galloping +toward the zenith at midnight and the Pleiades just clearing the Penal +Settlement, I could not always keep on dissecting, or recording, or +verifying the erroneousness of one of my recently formed theories. + +There was Thuban, gazing steadily upon my little mahogany bungalow, +as, six millenniums ago, he had shone unfalteringly down the little +stone tube that led his rays into the Queen's Chamber, in the very +heart of great Cheops. Just clearing a low palm was the present North +Star, while, high above, Vega shone, patiently waiting to take her +place half a million years hence. When beginning her nightly climb, +Vega drew a thin, trembling thread of argent over the still water, +just as in other years she had laid for me a slender silver strand of +wire across frozen snow, and on one memorable night traced the ghost +of a reflection over damp sand near the Nile--pale as the wraiths of +the early Pharaohs. + +Low on the eastern horizon, straight outward from my beach, was the +beginning and end of the great zodiac band--the golden Hamal of Aries +and the paired stars of Pisces; and behind, over the black jungle, +glowed the Southern Cross. But night after night, as I watched on the +beach, the sight which moved me most was the dull speck of emerald +mist, a merest smudge on the slate of the heavens,--the spiral nebula +in Andromeda,--a universe in the making, of a size unthinkable to +human minds. + +The power of my jungle beach to attract and hold attention was not +only direct and sensory,--through sight and sound and scent,--but +often indirect, seemingly by occult means. Time after time, on an +impulse, I followed some casual line of thought and action, and found +myself at last on or near the beach, on a lead that eventually would +take me to the verge or into the water. + +Once I did what for me was a most unusual thing. I woke in the middle +of the night without apparent reason. The moonlight was pouring in a +white flood through the bamboos, and the jungle was breathless and +silent. Through my window I could see Jennie, our pet monkey, lying +aloft, asleep on her little verandah, head cushioned on both hands, +tail curled around her dangling chain, as a spider guards her +web-strands for hint of disturbing vibrations. I knew that the +slightest touch on that chain would awaken her, and indeed it seemed +as if the very thought of it had been enough; for she opened her eyes, +sent me the highest of insect-like notes and turned over, pushing her +head within the shadow of her little house. I wondered if animals, +too, were, like the Malays and so many savage tribes, afraid of the +moonlight--the "luna-cy" danger in those strange color-strained rays, +whose power must be greater than we realize. Beyond the monkey roosted +Robert, the great macaw, wide-awake, watching me with all that +broadside of intensive gaze of which only a parrot is capable. + +The three of us seemed to be the only living things in the world, and +for a long time we--monkey, macaw, and man--listened. Then all but the +man became uneasy. The monkey raised herself and listened, uncurled +her tail, shifted, and listened. The macaw drew himself up, feathers +close, forgot me, and listened. They, unlike me, were not merely +listening--they were hearing something. Then there came, very slowly +and deliberately, as if reluctant to break through the silent +moonlight, a sound, low and constant, impossible to identify, but +clearly audible even to my ears. For just an instant longer it held, +sustained and quivering, then swiftly rose into a crashing roar--the +sound of a great tree falling. I sat up and heard the whole long +descent; but at the end, after the moment of silence, there was no +deep boom--the sound of the mighty bole striking and rebounding from +the earth itself. I wondered about this for a while; then the monkey +and I went to sleep, leaving the macaw alone conscious in the +moonlight, watching through the night with his great round, yellow +orbs, and thinking the thoughts that macaws always think in the +moonlight. + +The next day the macaw and the monkey had forgotten all about the +midnight sound, but I searched and found why there was no final boom. +And my search ended at my beach. A bit of overhanging bank had given +way and a tall tree had fallen headlong into the water, its roots +sprawling helplessly in mid-air. Like rats deserting a sinking ship, a +whole Noah's ark of tree-living creatures was hastening along a single +cable shorewards: tree-crickets; ants laden with eggs and larvae; +mantids gesticulating as they walked, like old men who mumble to +themselves; wood-roaches, some green and leaf-like, others, facsimiles +of trilobites--but fleet of foot and with one goal. + +What was a catastrophe for a tree and a shift of home for the tenants +was good fortune for me, and I walked easily out along the trunk and +branches and examined the strange parasitic growths and the homes +which were being so rapidly deserted. The tide came up and covered the +lower half of the prostrate tree, drowning what creatures had not +made their escape and quickening the air-plants with a false rain, +which in course of time would rot their very hearts. + +But the first few days were only the overture of changes in this shift +of conditions. Tropic vegetation is so tenacious of life that it +struggles and adapts itself with all the cunning of a Japanese +wrestler. We cut saplings and thrust them into mud or the crevices of +rocks at low tide far from shore, to mark our channel, and before long +we have buoys of foliage banners waving from the bare poles above +water. We erect a tall bamboo flagpole on the bank, and before long +our flag is almost hidden by the sprouting leaves, and the pulley so +blocked that we have occasionally to lower and lop it. + +So the fallen tree, still gripping the nutritious bank with a moiety +of roots, turned slowly in its fibrous stiffness and directed its life +and sap and hopes upward. During the succeeding weeks I watched trunk +and branches swell and bud out new trunks, new branches, guided, +controlled, by gravity, light, and warmth; and just beyond the reach +of the tides, leaves sprouted, flowers opened and fruit ripened. Weeks +after the last slow invertebrate plodder had made his escape +shorewards, the taut liana strand was again crowded with a mass of +passing life--a maze of vines and creepers, whose tendrils and suckers +reached and curled and pressed onward, fighting for gangway to shore, +through days and weeks, as the animal life which preceded them had +made the most of seconds and minutes. + +The half-circle of exposed raw bank became in its turn the center of a +myriad activities. Great green kingfishers began at once to burrow; +tiny emerald ones chose softer places up among the wreckage of +wrenched roots; wasps came and chopped out bits for the walls and +partitions of their cells; spiders hung their cobwebs between ratlines +of rootlets; and hummingbirds promptly followed and plucked them from +their silken nets, and then took the nets to bind their own tiny +air-castles. Finally, other interests intervened, and like Jennie and +Robert, I gradually forgot the tree that fell without an echo. + +In the jungle no action or organism is separate, or quite apart, and +this thing which came to the three of us suddenly at midnight led by +devious means to another magic phase of the shore. + +A little to the south along my beach is the Edge of the World. At +least, it looks very much as I have always imagined that place must +look, and I have never been beyond it; so that, after listening to +many arguments in courts of law, and hearing the reasoning of +bolsheviki, teetotalers, and pacifists, I feel that I am quite +reasonable as human beings go. And best of all, it hurts no one, and +annoys only a few of my scientific friends, who feel that one cannot +indulge in such ideas at the wonderful hour of twilight, and yet at +eight o'clock the following morning describe with impeccable accuracy +the bronchial semi-rings, and the intricate mosaic of cartilage which +characterizes and supports the _membranis tympaniformis_ of _Attila +thamnophiloides_; a dogma which halves life and its interests. + +The Edge of the World has always meant a place where usual things are +different; and my southern stretch of beach was that, because of +roots. Whenever in digging I have come across a root and seen its +living flesh, perhaps pink or rose or pale green, so far underground, +I have desired to know roots better; and now I found my opportunity. I +walked along the proper trail, through right and usual trees, with +reasonable foliage and normal trunks, and suddenly I stepped down over +the Edge. Overhead and all around there was still the foliage. It shut +out the sun except for greenish, moderated spots and beams. The +branches dipped low in front over the water, shutting out the sky +except along the tops of the cross-river jungle. Thus a great +green-roofed chamber was formed; and here, between jungle and the +water-level of the world, was the Kingdom of the Roots. + +Great trees had in their youth fallen far forward, undermined by the +water, then slowly taken a new reach upward and stretched forth great +feet and hands of roots, palms pressing against the mud, curved backs +and thews of shoulders braced against one another and the drag of the +tides. Little by little the old prostrate trunks were entirely +obliterated by this fantastic network. There were no fine fibers or +rootlets here; only great beams and buttresses, bridges and up-ended +spirals, grown together or spreading wide apart. Root merged with +trunk, and great boles became roots and then boles again in this +unreasonable land. For here, in place of damp, black mold and soil, +water alternated with dark-shadowed air; and so I was able for a time +to live the life of a root, resting quietly among them, watching and +feeling them, and moving very slowly, with no thought of time, as +roots must. + +I liked to wait until the last ripple had lapped against the sand +beneath, and then slip quietly in from the margin of the jungle and +perch--like a great tree-frog--on some convenient shelf. Seumas and +Brigid would have enjoyed it, in spite of the fact that the +Leprechauns seemed to have just gone. I found myself usually in a +little room, walled with high-arched, thin sheets of living roots, +some of which would form solid planks three feet wide and twelve long, +and only an inch or two in thickness. These were always on edge, and +might be smooth and sheer, or suddenly sprout five stubby, mittened +fingers, or pairs of curved and galloping legs--and this thought gave +substance to the simile which had occurred again and again: these +trees reminded me of centaurs with proud, upright man torsos, and +great curved backs. In one, a root dropped down and rested on the +back, as a centaur who turns might rest his hand on his withers. + +When I chanced upon an easy perch, and a stray idea came to mind, I +squatted or sat or sprawled, and wrote, and strange things often +happened to me. Once, while writing rapidly on a small sheet of paper, +I found my lines growing closer and closer together until my fingers +cramped, and the consciousness of the change overlaid the thoughts +that were driving hand and pen. I then realized that, without +thinking, I had been following a succession of faint lines, +cross-ruled on my white paper, and looking up, I saw that a +leaf-filtered opening had reflected strands of a spider-web just above +my head, and I had been adapting my lines to the narrow spaces, my +chirography controlled by cobweb shadows. + +The first unreality of the roots was their rigidity. I stepped from +one slender tendon of wood to the next, expecting a bending which +never occurred. They might have been turned to stone, and even little +twigs resting on the bark often proved to have grown fast. And this +was the more unexpected because of the grace of curve and line, fold +upon fold, with no sharp angles, but as full of charm of contour as +their grays and olives were harmonious in color. Photographs showed a +little of this; sketches revealed more; but the great splendid things +themselves, devoid of similes and human imagination, were +soul-satisfying in their simplicity. + +I seldom sat in one spot more than a few minutes, but climbed and +shifted, tried new seats, couches, perches, grips, sprawling out along +the tops of two parallel monsters, or slipping under their bellies, +always finding some easy way to swing up again. Two openings just +permitted me to squeeze through, and I wondered whether, in another +year, or ten, or fifty, the holes would have grown smaller. I became +imbued with the quiet joy of these roots, so that I hated to touch the +ground. Once I stepped down on the beach after something I had +dropped, and the soft yielding of the sand was so unpleasant that I +did not afterwards leave this strange mid-zone until I had to return. +Unlike Antaeus, I seemed to gain strength and poise by disassociation +with the earth. + +Here and there were pockets in the folds of the sweeping draperies, +and each pocket was worth picking. When one tried to paint the roots, +these pockets seemed made expressly to take the place of palette cups, +except that now and then a crab resented the infusion of Hooker's +green with his Vandyke brown puddle, and seized the end of the brush. +The crabs were worthy tenants of such strange architecture, with +comical eyes twiddling on the end of their stalks, and their +white-mittened fists feinting and threatening as I looked into their +little dark rain or tide-pools. + +I found three pockets on one wall, which seemed as if they must have +been "salted" for my benefit; and in them, as elsewhere on my beach, +the two extremes of life met. The topmost one, curiously enough, +contained a small crab, together with a large water-beetle at the +farther end. Both seemed rather self-conscious, and there was no hint +of fraternizing. The beetle seemed to be merely existing until +darkness, when he could fly to more water and better company; and the +crab appeared to be waiting for the beetle to go. + +The next pocket was a long, narrow, horizontal fold, and I hoped to +find real excitement among its aquatic folk; but to my surprise it had +no bottom, but was a deep chute or socket, opening far below to the +sand. However, this was not my discovery, and I saw dimly a weird +little head looking up at me--a gecko lizard, which called this +crevice home and the crabs neighbors. I hailed him as the only other +backboned friend who shared the root-world with me, and then listened +to a high, sweet tone, which came forth in swinging rhythm. It took +some time for my eyes to become accustomed to the semi-darkness, and +then I saw what the gecko saw--a big yellow-bodied fly humming in this +cavern, and swinging in a small orbit as she sang. Now and then she +dashed out past me and hovered in mid-air, when her note sank to a +low, dull hum. Back again, and the sound rose and fell, and gained ten +times in volume from the echo or reverberations. Each time she passed, +the little lizard licked his chops and swallowed--a sort of vicarious +expression of faith or desire; or was he in a Christian Science frame +of mind, saying, "My, how good that fly tasted!" each time the +dipteron passed? The fly was just as inexplicable, braving danger and +darkness time after time, to leave the sunshine and vibrate in the +dusk to the enormously magnified song of its wings. + +With eyes that had forgotten the outside light, I leaned close to the +opening and rested my forehead against the lichens of the wall of +wood. The fly was frightened away, the gecko slipped lower, seemingly +without effort, and in a hollowed side of the cavernous root I saw a +mist, a quivering, so tenuous and indistinct that at first it might +have been the dancing of motes. I saw that they were living +creatures--the most delicate of tiny crane-flies--at rest looking like +long-legged mosquitoes. Deep within this root, farther from the light +than even the singing fly had ventured, these tiny beings whirled +madly in mid-air--subterranean dervishes, using up energy for their +own inexplicable ends, of which one very interested naturalist could +make nothing. + +Three weeks afterward I happened to pass at high tide in the canoe and +peered into this pocket. The gecko was where geckos go in the space of +three weeks, and the fly also had vanished, either within or without +the gecko. But the crane-flies were still there: to my roughly +appraising eyes the same flies, doing the same dance in exactly the +same place. Three weeks later, and again I returned, this time +intentionally, to see whether the dance still continued; and it was in +full swing. That same night at midnight I climbed down, flashed a +light upon them, and there they whirled and vibrated, silently, +incredibly rapid, unceasingly. + +After a thousand hours all the surroundings had changed. New leaves +had sprouted, flowers faded and turned to fruit, the moon had twice +attained her full brightness, our earth and sun and the whole solar +system had swept headlong a full two-score million miles on the +endless swing toward Vega. Only the roots and the crane-flies +remained. A thousand hours had apparently made no difference to them. +The roots might have been the granite near by, fashioned by primeval +earth-flame, and the flies but vibrating atoms within the granite, +made visible by some alchemy of elements in this weird Rim of the +World. + +And so a new memory is mine; and when one of these insects comes to my +lamp in whatever part of the world, fluttering weakly, legs breaking +off at the slightest touch, I shall cease to worry about the +scientific problems that loom too great for my brain, or about the +imperfection of whatever I am doing, and shall welcome the crane-fly +and strive to free him from this fatal passion for flame, directing +him again into the night; for he may be looking for a dark pocket in a +root, a pocket on the Edge of the World, where crane-flies may vibrate +with their fellows in an eternal dance. And so, in some ordained way, +he will fulfil his destiny and I acquire merit. + + * * * * * + +To write of sunrises and moonlight is to commit literary harikiri; but +as that terminates life, so may I end this. And I choose the morning +and the midnight of the sixth of August, for reasons both greater and +less than cosmic. Early that morning, looking out from the beach over +the Mazacuni, as we called the union of the two great rivers, there +was wind, yet no wind, as the sun prepared to lift above the horizon. +The great soft-walled jungle was clear and distinct. Every reed at the +landing had its unbroken counterpart in the still surface. But at the +apex of the waters, the smoke of all the battles in the world had +gathered, and upon this the sun slowly concentrated his powers, until +he tore apart the cloak of mist, turning the dark surface, first to +oxidized, and then to shining quicksilver. Instantaneously the same +shaft of light touched the tips of the highest trees, and as if in +response to a poised baton, there broke forth that wonder of the +world--the Zoroastrian chorus of tens of thousands of jungle +creatures. + +Over the quicksilver surface little individual breezes wandered here +and there. I could clearly see the beginning and the end of them, and +one that drifted ashore and passed me felt like the lightest touch of +a breath. One saw only the ripple on the water; one thought of +invisible wings and trailing unseen robes. + +With the increasing warmth the water-mist rose slowly, like a last +quiet breath of night; and as it ascended,--the edges changing from +silvery gray to grayish white,--it gathered close its shredded +margins, grew smaller as it rose higher, and finally became a cloud. I +watched it and wondered about its fate. Before the day was past, it +might darken in its might, hurl forth thunders and jagged light, and +lose its very substance in down-poured liquid. Or, after drifting idly +high in air, the still-born cloud might garb itself in rich purple and +gold for the pageant of the west, and again descend to brood over the +coming marvel of another sunrise. + +The tallest of bamboos lean over our low, lazy spread of bungalow; and +late this very night, in the full moonlight, I leave my cot and walk +down to the beach over a shadow carpet of Japanese filigree. The air +over the white sand is as quiet and feelingless to my skin as +complete, comfortable clothing. On one side is the dark river; on the +other, the darker jungle full of gentle rustlings, low, velvety +breaths of sound; and I slip into the water and swim out, out, out. +Then I turn over and float along with the almost tangible moonlight +flooding down on face and water. Suddenly the whole air is broken by +the chorus of big red baboons, which rolls and tumbles toward me in +masses of sound along the surface and goes trembling, echoing on over +shore and jungle, till hurled back by the answering chorus of another +clan. It stirs one to the marrow, for there is far more in it than the +mere roaring of monkeys; and I turn uneasily, and slowly surge back +toward the sand, overhand now, making companionable splashes. + +And then again I stop, treading water softly, with face alone between +river and sky; for the monkeys have ceased, and very faint and low, +but blended in wonderful minor harmony, comes another chorus--from +three miles down the river: the convicts singing hymns in their cells +at midnight. And I ground gently and sit in the silvered shadows with +little bewildered shrimps flicking against me, and unlanguaged +thoughts come and go--impossible similes, too poignant phrases to be +stopped and fettered with words, and I am neither scientist nor man +nor naked organism, but just mind. With the coming of silence I look +around and again consciously take in the scene. I am very glad to be +alive, and to know that the possible dangers of jungle and water have +not kept me armed and indoors. I feel, somehow, as if my very daring +and gentle slipping-off of all signs of dominance and protection on +entering into this realm had made friends of all the rare but possible +serpents and scorpions, sting-rays and perai, vampires and electric +eels. For a while I know the happiness of Mowgli. + +And I think of people who would live more joyful lives in dense +communities, who would be more tolerant, and more certain of +straightforward friendship, if they could have as a background a +fundamental hour of living such as this, a leaven for the rest of +what, in comparison, seems mere existence. + +At last I go back between the bamboos and their shadows, from unreal +reality into a definiteness of cot and pajamas and electric torch. But +wild nature still keeps touch with me; for as I write these lines, +curled up on the edge of the cot, two vampires hawk back and forth so +close that the wind from their wings dries my ink. And the soundness +of my sleep is such that time does not exist between their last +crepuscular squeak and the first wiry twittering of a blue tanager, in +full sunshine, from a palm overhanging my beach. + + + + +V + +A BIT OF USELESSNESS + + +A most admirable servant of mine once risked his life to reach a +magnificent Bornean orchid, and tried to poison me an hour later when +he thought I was going to take the plant away from him. This does not +mean necessarily that we should look with suspicion upon all gardeners +and lovers of flowers. It emphasizes, rather, the fact of the +universal and deep-rooted appreciation of the glories of the vegetable +kingdom. Long before the fatal harvest time, I am certain that Eve +must have plucked a spray of apple blossoms with perfect impunity. + +A vast amount of bad poetry and a much less quantity of excellent +verse has been written about flowers, much of which follows to the +letter Mark Twain's injunction about Truth. It must be admitted that +the relations existing between the honeysuckle and the bee are basely +practical and wholly selfish. A butterfly's admiration of a flower is +no whit less than the blossom's conscious appreciation of its own +beauties. There are ants which spend most of their life making +gardens, knowing the uses of fertilizers, mulching, planting seeds, +exercising patience, recognizing the time of ripeness, and gathering +the edible fruit. But this is underground, and the ants are blind. + +There is a bird, however--the bower bird of Australia--which appears +to take real delight in bright things, especially pebbles and flowers +for their own sake. Its little lean-to, or bower of sticks, which has +been built in our own Zoological Park in New York City, is fronted by +a cleared space, which is usually mossy. To this it brings its +colorful treasures, sometimes a score of bright star blossoms, which +are renewed when faded and replaced by others. All this has, probably, +something to do with courtship, which should inspire a sonnet. + +From the first pre-Egyptian who crudely scratched a lotus on his dish +of clay, down to the jolly Feckenham men, the human race has given to +flowers something more than idle curiosity, something less than mere +earnest of fruit or berry. + +At twelve thousand feet I have seen one of my Tibetans with nothing +but a few shreds of straw between his bare feet and the snow, probe +around the south edge of melting drifts until he found brilliant +little primroses to stick behind his ears. I have been ushered into +the little-used, musty best-parlor of a New England farmhouse, and +seen fresh vases of homely, old-fashioned flowers--so recently placed +for my edification, that drops of water still glistened like dewdrops +on the dusty plush mat beneath. I have sat in the seat of honor of a +Dyak communal house, looked up at the circle of all too recent heads, +and seen a gay flower in each hollow eye socket, placed there for my +approval. With a cluster of colored petals swaying in the breeze, one +may at times bridge centuries or span the earth. + +And now as I sit writing these words in my jungle laboratory, a small +dusky hand steals around an aquarium and deposits a beautiful spray of +orchids on my table. The little face appears, and I can distinguish +the high cheek bones of Indian blood, the flattened nose and slight +kink of negro, and the faint trace of white--probably of some long +forgotten Dutch sailor, who came and went to Guiana, while New York +City was still a browsing ground for moose. + +So neither race nor age nor melange of blood can eradicate the love +of flowers. It would be a wonderful thing to know about the first +garden that ever was, and I wish that "Best Beloved" had demanded +this. I am sure it was long before the day of dog, or cow, or horse, +or even she who walked alone. The only way we can imagine it, is to go +to some wild part of the earth, where are fortunate people who have +never heard of seed catalogs or lawn mowers. + +Here in British Guiana I can run the whole gamut of gardens, within a +few miles of where I am writing. A mile above my laboratory up-river, +is the thatched _benab_ of an Akawai Indian--whose house is a roof, +whose rooms are hammocks, whose estate is the jungle. Degas can speak +English, and knows the use of my 28-gauge double barrel well enough to +bring us a constant supply of delicious bushmeat--peccary, deer, +monkey, bush turkeys and agoutis. But Grandmother has no language but +her native Akawai. She is a good friend of mine, and we hold long +conversations, neither of us bothering with the letter, but only the +spirit of communication. She is a tiny person, bowed and wrinkled as +only an old Indian squaw can be, always jolly and chuckling to +herself, although Degas tells me that the world is gradually +darkening for her. And she vainly begs me to clear the film which is +slowly closing over her eyes. She labors in a true landscape +garden--the small circle wrested with cutlass and fire from the great +jungle, and kept free only by constant cutting of the vines and lianas +which creep out almost in a night, like sinister octopus tentacles, to +strangle the strange upstarts and rejungle the bit of sunlit glade. + +Although to the eye a mass of tangled vegetation, an Indian's garden +may be resolved into several phases--all utterly practical, with color +and flowers as mere by-products. First come the provisions, for if +Degas were not hunting for me, and eating my rations, he would be out +with bow and blowpipe, or fish-hooks, while the women worked all day +in the cassava field. It is his part to clear and burn the forest, it +is hers to grub up the rich mold, to plant and to weed. Plots and beds +are unknown, for in every direction are fallen trees, too large to +burn or be chopped up, and great sprawling roots. Between these, +sprouts of cassava and banana are stuck, and the yams and melons which +form the food of these primitive people. Cassava is as vital to these +Indians as the air they breathe. It is their wheat and corn and rice, +their soup and salad and dessert, their ice and their wine, for +besides being their staple food, it provides _casareep_ which +preserves their meat, and _piwarie_ which, like excellent wine, +brightens life for them occasionally, or dims it if overindulged +in--which is equally true of food, or companionship, or the oxygen in +the air we breathe. + +Besides this cultivation, Grandmother has a small group of plants +which are only indirectly concerned with food. One is _kunami_, whose +leaves are pounded into pulp, and used for poisoning the water of +jungle streams, with the surprising result that the fish all leap out +on the bank and can be gathered as one picks up nuts. When I first +visited Grandmother's garden, she had a few pitiful little cotton +plants from whose stunted bolls she extracted every fiber and made a +most excellent thread. In fact, when she made some bead aprons for me, +she rejected my spool of cotton and chose her own, twisted between +thumb and finger. I sent for seed of the big Sea Island cotton, and +her face almost unwrinkled with delight when she saw the packets with +seed larger than she had ever known. + +Far off in one corner I make certain I have found beauty for beauty's +sake, a group of exquisite caladiums and amaryllis, beautiful flowers +and rich green leaves with spots and slashes of white and crimson. But +this is the hunter's garden, and Grandmother has no part in it, +perhaps is not even allowed to approach it. It is the _beena_ +garden--the charms for good luck in hunting. The similarity of the +leaves to the head or other parts of deer or peccary or red-gilled +fish, decides the most favorable choice, and the acrid, smarting juice +of the tuber rubbed into the skin, or the hooks and arrows anointed, +is considered sufficient to produce the desired result. Long ago I +discovered that this demand for immediate physical sensation was a +necessary corollary of doctoring, so I always give two medicines--one +for its curative properties, and the other, bitter, sour, acid or +anything disagreeable, for arousing and sustaining faith in my +ability. + +The Indian's medicine plants, like his true name, he keeps to himself, +and although I feel certain that Grandmother had somewhere a toothache +bush, or pain leaves--yarbs and simples for various miseries--I could +never discover them. Half a dozen tall tobacco plants brought from +the far interior, eked out the occasional tins of cigarettes in which +Degas indulged, and always the flame-colored little buck-peppers +lightened up the shadows of the _benab_, as hot to the palate as their +color to the eye. + +One day just as I was leaving, Grandmother led me to a palm nearby, +and to one of its ancient frond-sheaths was fastened a small brown +branch to which a few blue-green leaves were attached. I had never +seen anything like it. She mumbled and touched it with her shriveled, +bent fingers. I could understand nothing, and sent for Degas, who came +and explained grudgingly, "Me no know what for--_toko-nook_ just +name--have got smell when yellow." And so at last I found the bit of +uselessness, which, carried onward and developed in ages to come, as +it had been elsewhere in ages past, was to evolve into botany, and +back-yard gardens, and greenhouses, and wars of roses, and beautiful +paintings, and music with a soul of its own, and verse more than +human. To Degas the _toko-nook_ was "just name," "and it was nothing +more." But he was forgiven, for he had all unwittingly sowed the seeds +of religion, through faith in his glowing caladiums. But Grandmother, +though all the sunlight seemed dusk, and the dawn but as night, yet +clung to her little plant, whose glory was that it was of no use +whatsoever, but in months to come would be yellow, and would smell. + +Farther down river, in the small hamlets of the bovianders--the people +of mixed blood--the practical was still necessity, but almost every +thatched and wattled hut had its swinging orchid branch, and perhaps a +hideous painted tub with picketed rim, in which grew a golden splash +of croton. This ostentatious floweritis might furnish a theme for a +wholly new phase of the subject--for in almost every respect these +people are less worthy human beings--physically, mentally and +morally--than the Indians. But one cannot shift literary overalls for +philosophical paragraphs in mid-article, so let us take the little +river steamer down stream for forty miles to the coast of British +Guiana, and there see what Nature herself does in the way of gardens. +We drive twenty miles or more before we reach Georgetown, and the +sides of the road are lined for most of the distance with huts and +hovels of East Indian coolies and native Guiana negroes. Some are made +of boxes, others of bark, more of thatch or rough-hewn boards and +barrel staves, and some of split bamboo. But they resemble one +another in several respects--all are ramshackle, all lean with the +grace of Pisa, all have shutters and doors, so that at night they may +be hermetically closed, and all are half-hidden in the folds of a +curtain of flowers. The most shiftless, unlovely hovel, poised ready +to return to its original chemical elements, is embowered in a mosaic +of color, which in a northern garden would be worth a king's +ransom--or to be strictly modern, should I not say a labor foreman's +or a comrade's ransom! + +The deep trench which extends along the front of these sad dwellings +is sometimes blue with water hyacinths; next the water disappears +beneath a maze of tall stalks, topped with a pink mist of lotus; then +come floating lilies and more hyacinths. Wherever there is sufficient +clear water, the wonderful curve of a cocoanut palm is etched upon it, +reflection meeting palm, to form a dendritic pattern unequaled in +human devising. + +Over a hut of rusty oil-cans, bougainvillia stretches its glowing +branches, sometimes cerise, sometimes purple, or allamanders fill the +air with a golden haze from their glowing search-lights, either hiding +the huts altogether, or softening their details into picturesque +ruins. I remember one coolie dwelling which was dirtier and less +habitable than the meanest stable, and all around it were hundreds +upon hundreds of frangipanni blooms--the white and gold temple flowers +of the East--giving forth of scent and color all that a flower is +capable, to alleviate the miserable blot of human construction. Now +and then a flamboyant tree comes into view, and as, at night, the +head-lights of an approaching car eclipse all else, so this tree of +burning scarlet draws eye and mind from adjacent human-made squalor. +In all the tropics of the world I scarcely remember to have seen more +magnificent color than in these unattended, wilful-grown gardens. + +In tropical cities such as Georgetown, there are very beautiful +private gardens, and the public one is second only to that of Java. +But for the most part one is as conscious of the very dreadful borders +of brick, or bottles, or conchs, as of the flowers themselves. Some +one who is a master gardener will some day write of the possibilities +of a tropical garden, which will hold the reader as does desire to +behold the gardens of Carcassonne itself. + + + + +VI + +GUINEVERE THE MYSTERIOUS + + +Again the Guiana jungle comes wonderfully to the eye and mysteriously +to the mind; again my khakis and sneakers are skin-comfortable; again +I am squatted on a pleasant mat of leaves in a miniature gorge, miles +back of my Kartabo bungalow. Life elsewhere has already become +unthinkable. I recall a place boiling with worried people, rent with +unpleasing sounds, and beset with unsatisfactory pleasures. In less +than a year I shall long for a sight of these worried people, my ears +will strain to catch the unpleasing sounds, and I shall plunge with +joy into the unsatisfactory pleasures. To-day, however, all these have +passed from mind, and I settle down another notch, head snuggled on +knees, and sway, elephant-fashion, with sheer joy, as a musky, +exciting odor comes drifting, apparently by its own volition, down +through the windless little gorge. + +If I permit a concrete, scientific reaction, I must acknowledge the +source to be a passing bug,--a giant bug,--related distantly to our +malodorous northern squash-bug, but emitting a scent as different as +orchids' breath from grocery garlic. But I accept this delicate +volatility as simply another pastel-soft sense-impression--as an +earnest of the worthy, smelly things of old jungles. There is no +breeze, no slightest shift of air-particles; yet down the gorge comes +this cloud,--a cloud unsensible except to nostrils,--eddying as if +swirling around the edges of leaves, riding on the air as gently as +the low, distant crooning of great, sleepy jungle doves. + +With two senses so perfectly occupied, sight becomes superfluous and I +close my eyes. And straightway the scent and the murmur usurp my whole +mind with a vivid memory. I am still squatting, but in a dark, +fragrant room; and the murmur is still of doves; but the room is in +the cool, still heart of the Queen's Golden Monastery in northern +Burma, within storm-sound of Tibet, and the doves are perched among +the glitter and tinkling bells of the pagoda roofs. I am squatting +very quietly, for I am tired, after photographing carved peacocks and +junglefowl in the marvelous fretwork of the outer balconies, There +are idols all about me--or so it would appear to a missionary; for my +part, I can think only of the wonderful face of the old Lama who sits +near me, a face peaceful with the something for which most of us would +desert what we are doing, if by that we could attain it. Near him are +two young priests, sitting as motionless as the Buddha in front of +them. + +After a half-hour of the strange thing that we call time, the Lama +speaks, very low and very; softly: + +"The surface of the mirror is clouded with a breath." + +Out of a long silence one of the neophytes replies, "The mirror can be +wiped clear." + +Again the world becomes incense and doves,--in the silence and peace +of that monastery, it may have been a few minutes or a decade,--and +the second Tibetan whispers, "There is no need to wipe the mirror." + +When I have left behind the world of inharmonious colors, of polluted +waters, of soot-stained walls and smoke-tinged air, the green of +jungle comes like a cooling bath of delicate tints and shades. I think +of all the green things I have loved--of malachite in matrix and +table-top; of jade, not factory-hewn baubles, but age-mellowed +signets, fashioned by lovers of their craft, and seasoned by the +toying yellow fingers of generations of forgotten Chinese +emperors--jade, as Dunsany would say, of the exact shade of the right +color. I think too, of dainty emerald scarves that are seen and lost +in a flash at a dance; of the air-cooled, living green of curling +breakers; of a lonely light that gleams to starboard of an unknown +passing vessel, and of the transparent green of northern lights that +flicker and play on winter nights high over the garish glare of +Broadway. + +Now, in late afternoon, when I opened my eyes in the little gorge, the +soft green vibrations merged insensibly with the longer waves of the +doves' voices and with the dying odor. Soon the green alone was +dominant; and when I had finished thinking of pleasant, far-off green +things, the wonderful emerald of my great tree-frog of last year came +to mind,--Gawain the mysterious,--and I wondered if I should ever +solve his life. + +In front of me was a little jungle rainpool. At the base of the +miniature precipice of the gorge, this pool was a thing of clay. It +was milky in consistence, from the roiling of suspended clay; and +when the surface caught a glint of light and reflected it, only the +clay and mud walls about came to the eye. It was a very regular pool, +a man's height in diameter, and, for all I knew, from two inches to +two miles deep. I became absorbed in a sort of subaquatic mirage, in +which I seemed to distinguish reflections beneath the surface. My eyes +refocused with a jerk, and I realized that something had unconsciously +been perceived by my rods and cones, and short-circuited to my duller +brain. Where a moment before was an unbroken translucent surface, were +now thirteen strange beings who had appeared from the depths, and were +mumbling oxygen with trembling lips. + +In days to come, through all the months, I should again and again be +surprised and cheated and puzzled--all phases of delight in the beings +who share the earth's life with me. This was one of the first of the +year, and I stiffened into one large eye. + +I did not know whether they were fish, fairy shrimps, or frogs; I had +never seen anything like them, and they were wholly unexpected. I so +much desired to know what they were, that I sat quietly--as I enjoy +keeping a treasured letter to the last, or reserving the frosting +until the cake is eaten. It occurred to me that, had it not been for +the Kaiser, I might have been forbidden this mystery; a chain of +occurrences: Kaiser--war--submarines--glass-shortage for +dreadnoughts--mica port-holes needed--Guiana prospector--abandoned +pits--rainy season--mysterious tenants--me! + +When I squatted by the side of the pool, no sign of life was visible. +Far up through the green foliage of the jungle I could see a solid +ceiling of cloud, while beneath me the liquid clay of the pool was +equally opaque and lifeless. As a seer watches the surface of his +crystal ball, so I gazed at my six-foot circle of milky water. My +shift forward was like the fall of a tree: it brought into existence +about it a temporary circle of silence and fear--a circle whose +periphery began at once to contract; and after a few minutes the gorge +again accepted me as a part of its harmless self. A huge bee zoomed +past, and just behind my head a hummingbird beat the air into a froth +of sound, as vibrant as the richest tones of a cello. My concentrated +interest seemed to become known to the life of the surrounding glade, +and I was bombarded with sight, sound, and odor, as if on purpose to +distract my attention. But I remained unmoved, and indications of rare +and desirable beings passed unheeded. + +A flotilla of little water-striders came rowing themselves along, +racing for a struggling ant which had fallen into the milky quicksand. +These were in my line of vision, so I watched them for a while, +letting the corner of my eye keep guard for the real aristocrats of +the milky sea--whoever they were. My eye was close enough, my +elevation sufficiently low to become one with the water-striders, and +to become excited over the adventures of these little petrels; and in +my absorption I almost forgot my chief quest. As soaring birds seem at +times to rest against the very substance of cloud, as if upheld by +some thin lift of air, so these insects glided as easily and skimmed +as swiftly upon the surface film of water. I did not know even the +genus of this tropical form; but insect taxonomists have been +particularly happy in their given names--I recalled _Hydrobates_, +_Aquarius_, and _remigis_. + +The spur-winged jacanas are very skilful in their dainty treading of +water-lily leaves; but here were good-sized insects rowing about on +the water itself. They supported themselves on the four hinder legs, +rowing with the middle pair, and steering with the hinder ones, while +the front limbs were held aloft ready for the seizing of prey. I +watched three of them approach the ant, which was struggling to reach +the shore, and the first to reach it hesitated not a moment, but +leaped into the air from a take-off of mere aqueous surface film, +landed full upon the drowning unfortunate, grasped it, and at the same +instant gave a mighty sweep with its oars, to escape from its +pursuing, envious companions. Off went the twelve dimples, marking the +aquatic footprints of the trio of striders; and as the bearer of the +ant dodged one of its own kind, it was suddenly threatened by a small, +jet submarine of a diving beetle. At the very moment when the pursuit +was hottest, and it seemed anybody's ant, I looked aside, and the +little water-bugs passed from my sight forever--for scattered over the +surface were seven strange, mumbling mouths. Close as I was, their +nature still eluded me. At my slightest movement all vanished, not +with the virile splash of a fish or the healthy roll and dip of a +porpoise, but with a weird, vertical withdrawing--the seven +dissolving into the milk to join their six fellows. + +This was sufficient to banish further meditative surmising, and I +crept swiftly to a point of vantage, and with sweep-net awaited their +reappearance. It was five minutes before faint, discolored spots +indicated their rising, and at least two minutes more before they +actually disturbed the surface. With eight or nine in view, I dipped +quickly and got nothing. Then I sank my net deeply and waited again. +This time ten minutes passed, and then I swept deep and swiftly, and +drew up the net with four flopping, struggling super-tadpoles. They +struggled for only a moment, and then lay quietly waiting for what +might be sent by the guardian of the fate of tadpoles--surely some +quaint little god-relation of Neptune, Pan, and St. Vitus. Gently +shunted into a glass jar, these surprising tads accepted the new +environment with quiet philosophy; and when I reached the laboratory +and transferred them again, they dignifiedly righted themselves in the +swirling current, and hung in mid-aquarium, waiting--forever waiting. + +It was difficult to think of them as tadpoles, when the word brought +to mind hosts of little black wrigglers filling puddles and swamps of +our northern country. These were slow-moving, graceful creatures, +partly transparent, partly reflecting every hue of the spectrum, with +broad, waving scarlet and hyaline fins, and strange, fish-like mouths +and eyes. Their habits were as unpollywoglike as their appearance. I +visited their micaceous pool again and again; and if I could have +spent days instead of hours with them, no moment of ennui would have +intervened. + +My acquaintanceship with tadpoles in the past had not aroused me to +enthusiasm in the matter of their mental ability; as, for example, the +inmates of the next aquarium to that of the Redfins, where I kept a +herd or brood or school of Short-tailed Blacks--pollywogs of the Giant +Toad (_Bufo marinus_). At earliest dawn they swam aimlessly about and +mumbled; at high noon they mumbled and still swam; at midnight they +refused to be otherwise occupied. It was possible to alarm them; but +even while they fled they mumbled. + +In bodily form my Redfins were fish, but mentally they had advanced a +little beyond the usual tadpole train of reactions, reaching forward +toward the varied activities of the future amphibian. One noticeable +thing was their segregation, whether in the mica pools, or in two +other smaller ones near by, in which I found them. Each held a pure +culture of Redfins, and I found that this was no accident, but aided +and enforced by the tads themselves. Twice, while I watched them, I +saw definite pursuit of an alien pollywog,--the larva of the +Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker (_Phyllobates inguinalis_),--which fled +headlong. The second time the attack was so persistent that the lesser +tadpole leaped from the water, wriggled its way to a damp heap of +leaves, and slipped down between them. For tadpoles to take such +action as this was as reasonable as for an orchid to push a fellow +blossom aside on the approach of a fertilizing hawk-moth. This +momentary co-operation, and the concerted elimination of the undesired +tadpole, affected me as the thought of the first consciousness of +power of synchronous rhythm coming to ape men: it seemed a spark of +tadpole genius--an adumbration of possibilities which now would end in +the dull consciousness of the future frog, but which might, in past +ages, have been a vital link in the development of an ancestral +Ereops. + +My Redfins were assuredly no common tadpoles, and an intolerant +pollywog offers worthy research for the naturalist. Straining their +medium of its opacity, I drew off the clayey liquid and replaced it +with the clearer brown, wallaba-stained water of the Mazaruni; and +thereafter all their doings, all their intimacies, were at my mercy. I +felt as must have felt the first aviator who flew unheralded over an +oriental city, with its patios and house-roofs spread naked beneath +him. + +It was on one of the early days of observation that an astounding +thought came to me--before I had lost perspective in intensive +watching, before familiarity had assuaged some of the marvel of these +super-tadpoles. Most of those in my jar were of a like size, just +short of an inch; but one was much larger, and correspondingly +gorgeous in color and graceful in movement. As she swept slowly past +my line of vision, she turned and looked, first at me, then up at the +limits of her world, with a slow deliberateness and a hint of +expression which struck deep into my memory. Green came to +mind,--something clad in a smock of emerald, with a waist-coat of +mother-of-pearl, and great sprawling arms,--and I found myself +thinking of Gawain, our mystery frog of a year ago, who came without +warning, and withheld all the secrets of his life. And I glanced again +at this super-tad,--as unlike her ultimate development as the grub is +unlike the beetle,--and one of us exclaimed, "It is the same, or +nearly, but more delicate, more beautiful; it must be Guinevere." And +so, probably for the first time in the world, there came to be a pet +tadpole, one with an absurd name which will forever be more +significant to us than the term applied by a forgotten herpetologist +many years ago. + +And Guinevere became known to all who had to do with the laboratory. +Her health and daily development and color-change were things to be +inquired after and discussed; one of us watched her closely and made +notes of her life, one painted every radical development of color and +pattern, another photographed her, and another brought her delectable +scum. She was waited upon as sedulously as a termite queen. And she +rewarded us by living, which was all we asked. + +It is difficult for a diver to express his emotions on paper, and +verbal arguments with a dentist are usually one-sided. So must the +spirit of a tadpole suffer greatly from handicaps of the flesh. A +mumbling mouth and an uncontrollable, flagellating tail, connected by +a pinwheel of intestine, are scant material wherewith to attempt new +experiments, whereon to nourish aspirations. Yet the Redfins, as +typified by Guinevere, have done both, and given time enough, they may +emulate or surpass the achievements of larval axolotls, or the +astounding egg-producing maggots of certain gnats, thus realizing all +the possibilities of froghood while yet cribbed within the lowly +casing of a pollywog. + +In the first place Guinevere had ceased being positively thigmotactic, +and, writing as a technical herpetologist, I need add no more. In +fact, all my readers, whether Batrachologists or Casuals, will agree +that this is an unheard-of achievement. But before I loosen the +technical etymology and become casually more explicit, let me hold +this term in suspense a moment, as I once did, fascinated by the sheer +sound of the syllables, as they first came to my ears years ago in a +university lecture. There is that of possibility in being positively +thigmotactic which makes one dread the necessity of exposing and +limiting its meaning, of digging down to its mathematically accurate +roots. It could never be called a flower of speech: it is an over-ripe +fruit rather: heavy-stoned, thin-fleshed--an essentially practical +term. It is eminently suited to its purpose, and so widely used that +my friend the editor must accept it; not looking askance as he did at +my definition of a vampire as a vespertilial anaesthetist, or breaking +into open but wholly ineffectual rebellion, at the past tense of the +verb to candelabra. I admit that the conjugation + + I candelabra + You candelabra + He candelabras + +arouses a ripple of confusion in the mind; but it is far more +important to use words than to parse them, anyway, so I acclaim +perfect clarity for "The fireflies candelabraed the trees!" + +Not to know the precise meaning of being positively thigmotactic is a +stimulant to the imagination, which opens the way to an entire essay +on the disadvantages of education--a thought once strongly aroused by +the glorious red-and-gold hieroglyphic signs of the Peking +merchants--signs which have always thrilled me more than the utmost +efforts of our modern psychological advertisers. + +Having crossed unconsciously by such a slender etymological bridge +from my jungle tadpole to China, it occurs to me that the Chinese are +the most positively thigmotactic people in the world. I have walked +through block after block of subterranean catacombs, beneath city +streets which were literally packed full of humanity, and I have seen +hot mud pondlets along the Min River wholly eclipsed by shivering +Chinamen packed sardinewise, twenty or thirty in layers, or radiating +like the spokes of a great wheel which has fallen into the mud. + +From my brood of Short-tailed Blacks, a half-dozen tadpoles wandered +off now and then, each scum-mumbling by himself. Shortly his +positivism asserted itself and back he wriggled, twisting in and out +of the mass of his fellows, or at the approach of danger nuzzling into +the dead leaves at the bottom, content only with the feeling of +something pressing against his sides and tail. His physical make-up, +simple as it is, has proved perfectly adapted to this touch system of +life: flat-bottomed, with rather narrow, paddle-shaped tail-fins +which, beginning well back of the body, interfere in no way with the +pollywog's instincts, he can thigmotact to his heart's content. His +eyes are also adapted to looking upward, discerning dimly dangers +from above, and whatever else catches the attention of a bottom-loving +pollywog. His mouth is well below, as best suits bottom mumbling. + +Compared with these _polloi_ pollywogs, Redfins were as hummingbirds +to quail. Their very origin was unique; for while the toad tadpoles +wriggled their way free from egg gelatine deposited in the water +itself, the Redfins were literally rained down. Within a folded leaf +the parents left the eggs--a leaf carefully chosen as overhanging a +suitable ditch, or pit, or puddle. If all signs of weather and season +failed and a sudden drought set in, sap would dry, leaf would shrivel, +and the pitiful gamble for life of the little jungle frogs would be +lost; the spoonful of froth would collapse bubble by bubble, and, +finally, a thin dry film on the brown leaf would in turn vanish, and +Guinevere and her companions would never have been. + +But untold centuries of unconscious necessity have made these +tree-frogs infallible weather prophets, and the liberating rain soon +sifted through the jungle foliage. In the streaming drops which +funneled from the curled leaf, tadpole after tadpole hurtled downward +and splashed headlong into the water; their parents and the rain and +gravitation had performed their part, and from now on fate lay with +the super-tads themselves--except when a passing naturalist brought +new complications, new demands of Karma, as strange and unpredictable +as if from another planet or universe. + +Only close examination showed that these were tadpoles, not fish, +judged by the staring eyes, and broad fins stained above and below +with orange-scarlet--colors doomed to oblivion in the native, milky +waters, but glowing brilliantly in my aquarium. Although they were +provided with such an expanse of fin, the only part used for ordinary +progression was the extreme tip, a mere threadlike streamer, which +whipped in never-ending spirals, lashing forward, backward, and +sideways. So rapid was this motion, and so short the flagellum, that +the tadpole did not even tremble or vibrate as it moved, but forged +steadily onward, without a tremor. + +The head was buffy yellow, changing to bittersweet orange back of the +eyes and on the gills. The body was dotted with a host of minute +specks of gold and silver. On the sides and below, this gave place to +a rich bronze, and then to a clear, iridescent silvery blue. The eye +proper was silvery white, but the upper part of the eyeball fairly +glowed with color. In front it was jet black flecked with gold, +merging behind into a brilliant blue. Yet this patch of jeweled tissue +was visible only rarely as the tadpole turned forward, and in the +opaque liquid of the mica pool must have ever been hidden. And even if +plainly seen, of what use was a shred of rainbow to a sexless tadpole +in the depths of a shady pool! + +With high-arched fins, beginning at neck and throat, body compressed +as in a racing yacht, there could be no bottom life for Guinevere. +Whenever she touched a horizontal surface,--whether leaf or twig,--she +careened; when she sculled through a narrow passage in the floating +algae, her fins bent and rippled as they were pressed bodywards. So she +and her fellow brood lived in mid-aquarium, or at most rested lightly +against stem or glass, suspended by gentle suction of the complex +mouth. Once, when I inserted a long streamer of delicate water-weed, +it remained upright, like some strange tree of carboniferous memory. +After an hour I found this the perching-place of fourteen Redfin tads, +and at the very summit was Guinevere. The rest were arranged nearly +in altitudinal size--two large tadpoles being close below Guinevere, +and a bevy of six tiny chaps lowest down. All were lightly poised, +swaying in mid-water, at a gently sloping angle, like some unheard-of, +orange-stained, aquatic autumn foliage. + +For two weeks Guinevere remained almost as I have described her, +gaining slightly in size, but with little alteration of color or +pattern. Then came the time of the great change: we felt it to be +imminent before any outward signs indicated its approach. And for four +more days there was no hint except the sudden growth of the hind legs. +From tiny dangling appendages with minute toes and indefinite knees, +they enlarged and bent, and became miniature but perfect frog's limbs. + +She had now reached a length of two inches, and her delicate colors +and waving fins made her daily more marvelous. The strange thing about +the hind limbs was that, although so large and perfect, they were +quite useless. They could not even be unflexed; and other mere +pollywogs near by were wriggling toes, calves, and thighs while yet +these were but imperfect buds. When she dived suddenly, the toes +occasionally moved a little; but as a whole, they merely sagged and +drifted like some extraneous things entangled in the body. + +Smoothly and gracefully Guinevere moved about the aquarium. Her gills +lifted and closed rhythmically--twice as slowly as compared with the +three or four times every second of her breathless young tadpolehood. +Several times on the fourteenth day, she came quietly to the surface +for a gulp of air. + +Looking at her from above, two little bulges were visible on either +side of the body--the ensheathed elbows pressing outward. Twice, when +she lurched forward in alarm, I saw these front limbs jerk +spasmodically; and when she was resting quietly, they rubbed and +pushed impatiently against their mittened tissue. + +And now began a restless shifting, a slow, strange dance in mid-water, +wholly unlike any movement of her smaller companions; up and down, +slowly revolving on oblique planes, with rhythmical turns and +sinkings--this continued for an hour, when I was called for lunch. And +as if to punish me for this material digression and desertion, when I +returned, in half an hour, the miracle had happened. + +Guinevere still danced in stately cadence, with the other Redfins at a +distance going about their several businesses. She danced alone--a +dance of change, of happenings of tremendous import, of symbolism as +majestic as it was age-old. Here in this little glass aquarium the +tadpole Guinevere had just freed her arms--she, with waving scarlet +fins, watching me with lidless white and staring eyes, still with +fish-like, fin-bound body. She danced upright, with new-born arms +folded across her breast, tail-tip flagellating frenziedly, stretching +long fingers with disks like cymbals, reaching out for the land she +had never trod, limbs flexed for leaps she had never made. + +A few days before and Guinevere had been a fish, then a helpless +biped, and now suddenly, somewhere between my salad and coffee, she +became an aquatic quadruped. Strangest of all, her hands were mobile, +her feet useless; and when the dance was at an end, and she sank +slowly to the bottom, she came to rest on the very tips of her two +longest fingers; her legs and toes still drifting high and useless. +Just before she ceased, her arms stretched out right froggily, her +weird eyes rolled about, and she gulped a mighty gulp of the strange +thin medium that covered the surface of her liquid home. + +At midnight of this same day only three things existed in the +world--on my table I turned from the _Bhagavad-Gita_ to Drinkwater's +_Reverie_ and back again; then I looked up to the jar of clear water +and watched Guinevere hovering motionless. At six the next morning she +was crouched safely on a bit of paper a foot from the aquarium. She +had missed the open window, the four-foot drop to the floor, and a +neighboring aquarium stocked with voracious fish: surely the gods of +pollywogs were kind to me. The great fins were gone--dissolved into +blobs of dull pink; the tail was a mere stub, the feet drawn close, +and a glance at her head showed that Guinevere had become a frog +almost within an hour. Three things I hastened to observe: the pupils +of her eyes were vertical, revealing her genus _Phyllomedusa_ (making +apt our choice of the feminine); by a gentle urging I saw that the +first and second toes were equal in length; and a glance at her little +humped back showed a scattering of white calcareous spots, giving the +clue to her specific personality--_bicolor_: thus were we introduced +to _Phyllomedusa bicolor_, alias Guinevere, and thus was established +beyond doubt her close relationship to Gawain. + +During that first day, within three hours, during most of which I +watched her closely, Guinevere's change in color was beyond belief. +For an hour she leaped from time to time; but after that, and for the +rest of her life, she crept in strange unfroglike fashion, raised high +on all four limbs, with her stubby tail curled upward, and reaching +out one weird limb after another. If one's hand approached within a +foot, she saw it and stretched forth appealing, skinny fingers. + +At two o'clock she was clad in a general cinnamon buff; then a shade +of glaucous green began to creep over head and upper eyelids, onward +over her face, finally coloring body and limbs. Beneath, the little +pollyfrog fairly glowed with bright apricot orange, throat and tail +amparo purple, mouth green, and sides rich pale blue. To this maze of +color we must add a strange, new expression, born of the prominent +eyes, together with the line of the mouth extending straight back with +a final jeering, upward lift; in front, the lower lip thick and +protruding, which, with the slanting eyes, gave a leering, devilish +smirk, while her set, stiff, exact posture compelled a vivid thought +of the sphinx. Never have I seen such a remarkable combination. It +fascinated us. We looked at Guinevere, and then at the tadpoles +swimming quietly in their tank, and evolution in its wildest +conceptions appeared a tame truism. + +This was the acme of Guinevere's change, the pinnacle of her +development. Thereafter her transformations were rhythmical, +alternating with the day and night. Through the nights of activity she +was garbed in rich, warm brown. With the coming of dawn, as she +climbed slowly upward, her color shifted through chestnut to maroon; +this maroon then died out on the mid-back to a delicate, dull +violet-blue, which in turn became obscured in the sunlight by +turquoise, which crept slowly along the sides. Carefully and +laboriously she clambered up, up to the topmost frond, and there +performed her little toilet, scraping head and face with her hands, +passing the hinder limbs over her back to brush off every grain of +sand. The eyes had meanwhile lost their black-flecked, golden, +nocturnal iridescence, and had gradually paled to a clear silvery +blue, while the great pupil of darkness narrowed to a slit. + +Little by little her limbs and digits were drawn in out of sight, and +the tiny jeweled being crouched low, hoping for a day of comfortable +clouds, a little moisture, and a swift passage of time to the next +period of darkness, when it was fitting and right for Guineveres to +seek their small meed of sustenance, to grow to frog's full estate, +and to fulfil as well as might be what destiny the jungle offered. To +unravel the meaning of it all is beyond even attempting. The breath of +mist ever clouds the mirror, and only as regards a tiny segment of the +life-history of Guinevere can I say, "There is no need to wipe the +mirror." + + + + +VII + +A JUNGLE LABOR-UNION + + +Pterodactyl Pups led me to the wonderful Attas--the most astounding of +the jungle labor-unions. We were all sitting on the Mazaruni bank, the +night before the full moon, immediately in front of my British Guiana +laboratory. All the jungle was silent in the white light, with now and +then the splash of a big river fish. On the end of the bench was the +monosyllabic Scot, who ceased the exquisite painting of mora +buttresses and jungle shadows only for the equal fascination of +searching bats for parasites. Then the great physician, who had come +six thousand miles to peer into the eyes of birds and lizards in my +dark-room, working with a gentle hypnotic manner that made the little +beings seem to enjoy the experience. On my right sat an army captain, +who had given more thought to the possible secrets of French +chaffinches than to the approaching barrage. There was also the +artist, who could draw a lizard's head like a Japanese print, but +preferred to depict impressionistic Laocoon roots. + +These and others sat with me on the long bench and watched the +moonpath. The conversation had begun with possible former life on the +moon, then shifted to Conan Doyle's _The Lost World_, based on the +great Roraima plateau, a hundred and fifty miles west of where we were +sitting. Then we spoke of the amusing world-wide rumor, which had +started no one knows how, that I had recently discovered a +pterodactyl. One delightful result of this had been a letter from a +little English girl, which would have made a worthy chapter-subject +for _Dream Days_. For years she and her little sister had peopled a +wood near her home with pterodactyls, but had somehow never quite seen +one; and would I tell her a little about them--whether they had +scales, or made nests; so that those in the wood might be a little +easier to recognize. + +When strange things are discussed for a long time, in the light of a +tropical moon, at the edge of a dark, whispering jungle, the mind +becomes singularly imaginative and receptive; and, as I looked through +powerful binoculars at the great suspended globe, the dead craters and +precipices became very vivid and near. Suddenly, without warning, +there flapped into my field, a huge shapeless creature. It was no +bird, and there was nothing of the bat in its flight--the wings moved +with steady rhythmical beats, and drove it straight onward. The wings +were skinny, the body large and of a pale ashy hue. For a moment I was +shaken. One of the others had seen it, and he, too, did not speak, but +concentrated every sense into the end of the little tubes. By the time +I had begun to find words, I realized that a giant fruit bat had flown +from utter darkness across my line of sight; and by close watching we +soon saw others. But for a very few seconds these Pterodactyl Pups, as +I nicknamed them, gave me all the thrill of a sudden glimpse into the +life of past ages. The last time I had seen fruit bats was in the +gardens of Perideniya, Ceylon. I had forgotten that they occurred in +Guiana, and was wholly unprepared for the sight of bats a yard across, +with a heron's flight, passing high over the Mazaruni in the +moonlight. + +The talk ended on the misfortune of the configuration of human +anatomy, which makes sky-searching so uncomfortable a habit. This +outlook was probably developed to a greater extent during the war +than ever before; and I can remember many evenings in Paris and London +when a sinister half-moon kept the faces of millions turned +searchingly upward. But whether in city or jungle, sky-scanning is a +neck-aching affair. + +The following day my experience with the Pterodactyl Pups was not +forgotten, and as a direct result of looking out for soaring vultures +and eagles, with hopes of again seeing a white-plumaged King and the +regal Harpy, I caught sight of a tiny mote high up in mid-sky. I +thought at first it was a martin or swift; but it descended, slowly +spiraling, and became too small for any bird. With a final, long, +descending curve, it alighted in the compound of our bungalow +laboratory and rested quietly--a great queen of the leaf-cutting Attas +returning from her marriage flight. After a few minutes she stirred, +walked a few steps, cleaned her antennae, and searched nervously about +on the sand. A foot away was a tiny sprig of indigo, the offspring of +some seed planted two or three centuries ago by a thrifty Dutchman. In +the shade of its three leaves the insect paused, and at once began +scraping at the sand with her jaws. She loosened grain after grain, +and as they came free they were moistened, agglutinated, and pressed +back against her forelegs. When at last a good-sized ball was formed, +she picked it up, turned around and, after some fussy indecision, +deposited it on the sand behind her. Then she returned to the very +shallow, round depression, and began to gather a second ball. + +I thought of the first handful of sand thrown out for the base of +Cheops, of the first brick placed in position for the Great Wall, of a +fresh-cut trunk, rough-hewn and squared for a log-cabin on Manhattan; +of the first shovelful of earth flung out of the line of the Panama +Canal. Yet none seemed worthy of comparison with even what little I +knew of the significance of this ant's labor, for this was earnest of +what would make trivial the engineering skill of Egyptians, of Chinese +patience, of municipal pride and continental schism. + +Imagine sawing off a barn-door at the top of a giant sequoia, growing +at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and then, with five or six children +clinging to it, descending the tree, and carrying it up the canyon +walls against a subway rush of rude people, who elbowed and pushed +blindly against you. This is what hundreds of leaf-cutting ants +accomplish daily, when cutting leaves from a tall bush, at the foot of +the bank near the laboratory. + +There are three dominant labor-unions in the jungle, all social +insects, two of them ants, never interfering with each other's field +of action, and all supremely illustrative of conditions resulting from +absolute equality, free-and-equalness, communalism, socialism carried +to the (forgive me!) anth power. The Army Ants are carnivorous, +predatory, militant nomads; the Termites are vegetarian scavengers, +sedentary, negative and provincial; the Attas, or leaf-cutting ants, +are vegetarians, active and dominant, and in many ways the most +interesting of all. + +The casual observer becomes aware of them through their raids upon +gardens; and indeed the Attas are a very serious menace to agriculture +in many parts of the tropics, where their nests, although underground, +may be as large as a house and contain millions of individuals. While +their choice among wild plants is exceedingly varied, it seems that +there are certain things they will not touch; but when any +human-reared flower, vegetable, shrub, vine, or tree is planted, the +Attas rejoice, and straightway desert the native vegetation to fall +upon the newcomers. Their whims and irregular feeding habits make it +difficult to guard against them. They will work all round a garden for +weeks, perhaps pass through it _en route_ to some tree that they are +defoliating, and then suddenly, one night, every Atta in the world +seems possessed with a desire to work havoc, and at daylight the next +morning, the garden looks like winter stubble--a vast expanse of stems +and twigs, without a single remaining leaf. Volumes have been written, +and a whole chemist's shop of deadly concoctions devised, for +combating these ants, and still they go steadily on, gathering leaves +which, as we shall see, they do not even use for food. + +Although essentially a tropical family, Attas have pushed as far north +as New Jersey, where they make a tiny nest, a few inches across, and +bring to it bits of pine needles. + +In a jungle Baedeker, we should double-star these insects, and paragraph +them as "_Atta_, named by Fabricius in 1804; the Kartabo species, +_cephalotes_; Leaf-cutting or Cushie or Parasol Ants; very abundant. +_Atta_, a subgenus of _Atta_, which is a genus of _Attii_, +which is a tribe of _Myrmicinae_, which is a subfamily of +_Formicidae_," etc. + +With a feeling of slightly greater intimacy, of mental possession, we +set out, armed with a name of one hundred and seventeen years' +standing, and find a big Atta worker carving away at a bit of leaf, +exactly as his ancestors had done for probably one hundred and +seventeen thousand years. + +We gently lift him from his labor, and a drop of chloroform banishes +from his ganglia all memory of the hundred thousand years of pruning. +Under the lens his strange personality becomes manifest, and we wonder +whether the old Danish zoologist had in mind the slender toe-tips +which support him, or in a chuckling mood made him a namesake of C. +Quintius Atta. A close-up shows a very comic little being, encased in +a prickly, chestnut-colored armor, which should make him fearless in a +den of a hundred anteaters. The front view of his head is a bit +mephistophelian, for it is drawn upward into two horny spines; but the +side view recalls a little girl with her hair brushed very tightly up +and back from her face. + +The connection between Atta and the world about him is furnished by +this same head: two huge, flail-shaped antennae arching up like aerial, +detached eyebrows--vehicles, through their golden pile, of senses +which foil our most delicate tests. Outside of these are two little +shoe-button eyes; and we are not certain whether they reflect to the +head ganglion two or three hundred bits of leaf, or one large mosaic +leaf. Below all is swung the pair of great scythes, so edged and hung +that they can function as jaws, rip-saws, scissors, forceps, and +clamps. The thorax, like the head of a titanothere, bears three pairs +of horns--a great irregular expanse of tumbled, rock-like skin and +thorn, a foundation for three pairs of long legs, and sheltering +somewhere in its heart a thread of ant-life; finally, two little +pedicels lead to a rounded abdomen, smaller than the head. This +Third-of-an-inch is a worker Atta to the physical eye; and if we catch +another, or ten, or ten million, we find that some are small, others +much larger, but that all are cast in the same mold, all +indistinguishable except, perhaps, to the shoe-button eyes. + +When a worker has traveled along the Atta trails, and has followed the +temporary mob-instinct and climbed bush or tree, the same +irresistible force drives him out upon a leaf. Here, apparently, +instinct slightly loosens its hold, and he seems to become individual +for a moment, to look about, and to decide upon a suitable edge or +corner of green leaf. But even in this he probably has no choice. At +any rate, he secures a good hold and sinks his jaws into the tissue. +Standing firmly on the leaf, he measures his distance by cutting +across a segment of a circle, with one of his hind feet as a center. +This gives a very true curve, and provides a leaf-load of suitable +size. He does not scissor his way across, but bit by bit sinks the tip +of one jaw, hook-like, into the surface, and brings the other up to +it, slicing through the tissue with surprising ease. He stands upon +the leaf, and I always expect to see him cut himself and his load +free, Irishman-wise. But one or two of his feet have invariably +secured a grip on the plant, sufficient to hold him safely. Even if +one or two of his fellows are at work farther down the leaf, he has +power enough in his slight grip to suspend all until they have +finished and clambered up over him with their loads. + +Holding his bit of leaf edge-wise, he bends his head down as far as +possible, and secures a strong purchase along the very rim. Then, as +he raises his head, the leaf rises with it, suspended high over his +back, out of the way. Down the stem or tree-trunk he trudges, head +first, fighting with gravitation, until he reaches the ground. After a +few feet, or, measured by his stature, several hundred yards, his +infallible instinct guides him around pebble boulders, mossy orchards, +and grass jungles to a specially prepared path. + +Thus in words, in sentences, we may describe the cutting of a single +leaf; but only in the imagination can we visualize the cell-like or +crystal-like duplication of this throughout all the great forests of +Guiana and of South America. As I write, a million jaws snip through +their stint; as you read, ten million Attas begin on new bits of leaf. +And all in silence and in dim light, legions passing along the little +jungle roads, unending lines of trembling banners, a political parade +of ultra socialism, a procession of chlorophyll floats illustrating +unreasoning unmorality, a fairy replica of "Birnam Forest come to +Dunsinane." + +In their leaf-cutting, Attas have mastered mass, but not form. I have +never seen one cut off a piece too heavy to carry, but many a +hard-sliced bit has had to be deserted because of the configuration +of the upper edge. On almost any trail, an ant can be found with a +two-inch stem of grass, attempting to pass under a twig an inch +overhead. After five or ten minutes of pushing, backing, and pulling, +he may accidentally march off to one side, or reach up and climb over; +but usually he drops his burden. His little works have been wound up, +and set at the mark "home"; and though he has now dropped the prize +for which he walked a dozen ant-miles, yet any idea of cutting another +stem, or of picking up a slice of leaf from those lying along the +trail, never occurs to him. He sets off homeward, and if any emotion +of sorrow, regret, disappointment, or secret relief troubles his +ganglia, no trace of it appears in antennae, carriage, or speed. I can +very readily conceive of his trudging sturdily all the way back to the +nest, entering it, and going to the place where he would have dumped +his load, having fulfilled his duty in the spirit at least. Then, if +there comes a click in his internal time-clock, he may set out upon +another quest--more cabined, cribbed, and confined than any member of +a Cook's tourist party. + +I once watched an ant with a piece of leaf which had a regular +shepherd's crook at the top, and if his adventures of fifty feet could +have been caught on a moving-picture film, Charlie Chaplin would have +had an arthropod rival. It hooked on stems and pulled its bearer off +his feet, it careened and ensnared the leaves of other ants, at one +place mixing up with half a dozen. A big thistledown became tangled in +it, and well-nigh blew away with leaf and all; hardly a foot of his +path was smooth-going. But he persisted, and I watched him reach the +nest, after two hours of tugging and falling and interference with +traffic. + +Occasionally an ant will slip in crossing a twiggy crevasse, and his +leaf become tightly wedged. After sprawling on his back and vainly +clawing at the air for a while, he gets up, brushes off his antennae, +and sets to work. For fifteen minutes I have watched an Atta in this +predicament, stodgily endeavoring to lift his leaf while standing on +it at the same time. The equation of push equaling pull is fourth +dimensional to the Attas. + +With all this terrible expenditure of energy, the activities of these +ants are functional within very narrow limits. The blazing sun causes +them to drop their burdens and flee for home; a heavy wind frustrates +them, for they cannot reef. When a gale arises and sweeps an exposed +portion of the trail, their only resource is to cut away all sail and +heave it overboard. A sudden downpour reduces a thousand banners and +waving, bright-colored petals to debris, to be trodden under foot. +Sometimes, after a ten-minute storm, the trails will be carpeted with +thousands of bits of green mosaic, which the outgoing hordes will +trample in their search for more leaves. On a dark night little seems +to be done; but at dawn and dusk, and in the moonlight or clear +starlight, the greatest activity is manifest. + +Attas are such unpalatable creatures that they are singularly free +from dangers. There is a tacit armistice between them and the other +labor-unions. The army ants occasionally make use of their trails when +they are deserted; but when the two great races of ants meet, each +antennaes the aura of the other, and turns respectfully aside. When +termites wish to traverse an Atta trail, they burrow beneath it, or +build a covered causeway across, through which they pass and repass at +will, and over which the Attas trudge, uncaring and unconscious of its +significance. + +Only creatures with the toughest of digestions would dare to include +these prickly, strong-jawed, meatless insects in a bill of fare. Now +and then I have found an ani, or black cuckoo, with a few in its +stomach: but an ani can swallow a stinging-haired caterpillar and +enjoy it. The most consistent feeder upon Attas is the giant marine +toad. Two hundred Attas in a night is not an uncommon meal, the exact +number being verifiable by a count of the undigested remains of heads +and abdomens. _Bufo marinus_ is the gardener's best friend in this +tropic land, and besides, he is a gentleman and a philosopher, if ever +an amphibian was one. + +While the cutting of living foliage is the chief aim in life of these +ants, yet they take advantage of the flotsam and jetsam along the +shore, and each low tide finds a column from some nearby nest +salvaging flowerets, leaves, and even tiny berries. A sudden wash of +tide lifts a hundred ants with their burdens and then sets them down +again, when they start off as if nothing had happened. + +The paths or trails of the Attas represent very remarkable feats of +engineering, and wind about through jungle and glade for surprising +distances. I once traced a very old and wide trail for well over two +hundred yards. Taking little Third-of-an-inch for a type (although he +would rank as a rather large Atta), and comparing him with a six-foot +man, we reckon this trail, ant-ratio, as a full twenty-five miles. +Belt records a leaf-cutter's trail half a mile long, which would mean +that every ant that went out, cut his tiny bit of leaf, and returned, +would traverse a distance of a hundred and sixteen miles. This was an +extreme; but our Atta may take it for granted, speaking antly, that +once on the home trail, he has, at the least, four or five miles ahead +of him. + +The Atta roads are clean swept, as straight as possible, and very +conspicuous in the jungle. The chief high-roads leading from very +large nests are a good foot across, and the white sand of their beds +is visible a long distance away. I once knew a family of opossums +living in a stump in the center of a dense thicket. When they left at +evening, they always climbed along as far as an Atta trail, dropped +down to it, and followed it for twenty or thirty yards. During the +rains I have occasionally found tracks of agoutis and deer in these +roads. So it would be very possible for the Attas to lay the +foundation for an animal trail, and this, _a la_ calf-path, for the +street of a future city. + +The part that scent plays in the trails is evidenced if we scatter an +inch or two of fresh sand across the road. A mass of ants banks +against the strange obstruction on both sides, on the one hand a solid +phalanx of waving green banners, and on the other a mob of empty-jawed +workers with wildly waving antennae. Scouts from both sides slowly +wander forward, and finally reach one another and pass across. But not +for ten minutes does anything like regular traffic begin again. + +When carrying a large piece of leaf, and traveling at a fair rate of +speed, the ants average about a foot in ten seconds, although many go +the same distance in five. I tested the speed of an Atta, and then I +saw that its leaf seemed to have a peculiar-shaped bug upon it, and +picked it up with its bearer. Finding the blemish to be only a bit of +fungus, I replaced it. Half an hour later I was seated by a trail far +away, when suddenly my ant with the blemished spot appeared. It was +unmistakable, for I had noticed that the spot was exactly that of the +Egyptian symbol of life. I paced the trail, and found that seventy +yards away it joined the spot where I had first seen my friend. So, +with occasional spurts, he had done two hundred and ten feet in thirty +minutes, and this in spite of the fact that he had picked up a +supercargo. + +Two parts of hydrogen and one of oxygen, under the proper stimulus, +invariably result in water; two and two, considered calmly and without +passion, combine into four; the workings of instinct, especially in +social insects, is so mechanical that its results can almost be +demonstrated in formula; and yet here was my Atta leaf-carrier +burdened with a minim. The worker Attas vary greatly in size, as a +glance at a populous trail will show. They have been christened +_macrergates, desmergates_ and _micrergates_; or we may call the +largest Maxims, the average middle class Mediums, and the tiny chaps +Minims, and all have more or less separate functions in the ecology of +the colony. The Minims are replicas in miniature of the big chaps, +except that their armor is pale cinnamon rather than chestnut. +Although they can bite ferociously, they are too small to cut through +leaves, and they have very definite duties in the nest; yet they are +found with every leaf-cutting gang, hastening along with their larger +brethren, but never doing anything, that I could detect, at their +journey's end. I have a suspicion that the little Minims, who are very +numerous, function as light cavalry; for in case of danger they are as +eager at attack as the great soldiers, and the leaf-cutters, absorbed +in their arduous labor, would benefit greatly from the immunity +ensured by a flying corps of their little bulldog comrades. + +I can readily imagine that these nestling Minims become weary and +foot-sore (like bank-clerks guarding a reservoir), and if instinct +allows such abominable individuality, they must often wish themselves +back at the nest, for every mile of a Medium is three miles to them. + +Here is where our mechanical formula breaks down; for, often, as many +as one in every five leaves that pass bears aloft a Minim or two, +clinging desperately to the waving leaf and getting a free ride at the +expense of the already overburdened Medium. Ten is the extreme number +seen, but six to eight Minims collected on a single leaf is not +uncommon. Several times I have seen one of these little banner-riders +shift deftly from leaf to leaf, when a swifter carrier passed by, as +a circus bareback rider changes steeds at full gallop. + +Once I saw enacted above ground, and in the light of day, something +which may have had its roots in an _anlage_ of divine discontent. If I +were describing the episode half a century ago, I should entitle it, +"The Battle of the Giants, or Emotion Enthroned." A quadruple line of +leaf-carriers was disappearing down a hole in front of the laboratory, +bumped and pushed by an out-pouring, empty-jawed mass of workers. As I +watched them, I became aware of an area of great excitement beyond the +hole. Getting down as nearly as possible to ant height, I witnessed a +terrible struggle. Two giants--of the largest soldier Maxim +caste--were locked in each other's jaws, and to my horror, I saw that +each had lost his abdomen. The antennae and the abdomen petiole are the +only vulnerable portions of an Atta, and long after he has lost these +apparently dispensable portions of his anatomy, he is able to walk, +fight, and continue an active but erratic life. These mighty-jawed +fellows seem never to come to the surface unless danger threatens; and +my mind went down into the black, musty depths, where it is the duty +of these soldiers to walk about and wait for trouble. What could have +raised the ire of such stolid neuters against one another? Was it +sheer lack of something to do? or was there a cell or two of the +winged caste lying fallow within their bodies, which, stirring at +last, inspired a will to battle, a passing echo of romance, of the +activities of the male Atta? + +Their unnatural combat had stirred scores of smaller workers to the +highest pitch of excitement. Now and then, out of the melee, a Medium +would emerge, with a tiny Minim in his jaws. One of these carried his +still living burden many feet away, along an unused trail, and dropped +it. I examined the small ant, and found that it had lost an antenna, +and its body was crushed. When the ball of fighters cleared, twelve +small ants were seen clinging to the legs and heads of the mutilated +giants, and now and then these would loosen their hold on each other, +turn, and crush one of their small tormenters. Several times I saw a +Medium rush up and tear a small ant away, apparently quite insane with +excitement. + +Occasionally the least exhausted giant would stagger to his four and +a half remaining legs, hoist his assailant, together with a mass of +the midgets, high in air, and stagger for a few steps, before falling +beneath the onrush of new attackers. It made me wish to help the great +insect, who, for aught I knew, was doomed because he was +different--because he had dared to be an individual. + +I left them struggling there, and half an hour later, when I returned, +the episode was just coming to a climax. My Atta hero was exerting his +last strength, flinging off the pile that assaulted him, fighting all +the easier because of the loss of his heavy body. He lurched forward, +dragging the second giant, now dead, not toward the deserted trail or +the world of jungle around him, but headlong into the lines of stupid +leaf-carriers, scattering green leaves and flower-petals in all +directions. Only when dozens of ants threw themselves upon him, many +of them biting each other in their wild confusion, did he rear up for +the last time, and, with the whole mob, rolled down into the yawning +mouth of the Atta nesting-hole, disappearing from view, and carrying +with him all those hurrying up the steep sides. It was a great battle. +I was breathing fast with sympathy, and whatever his cause, I was on +his side. + +The next day both giants were lying on the old, disused trail; the +revolt against absolute democracy was over; ten thousand ants passed +to and fro without a dissenting thought, or any thought, and the +Spirit of the Attas was content. + + + + +VIII + +THE ATTAS AT HOME + + +Clambering through white, pasty mud which stuck to our boots by the +pound, peering through bitter cold mist which seemed but a thinner +skim of mud, drenched by flurries of icy drops shaken from the +atmosphere by a passing moan and a crash, breathing air heavy with a +sweet, horrible, penetrating odor--such was the world as it existed +for an hour one night, while I and the Commandant of _Douaumont_ +wandered about completely lost, on the top of his own fort. We finally +stumbled on the little grated opening through which the lookout peered +unceasingly over the landscape of mud. The mist lifted and we +rediscovered the cave-like entrance, watched for a moment the ominous +golden dumb-bells rising from the premier ligne, scraped our boots on +a German helmet and went down again into the strangest sanctuary in +the world. + +This was the vision which flashed through my mind as I began vigil at +an enormous nest of Attas--the leaf-cutting ants of the British +Guiana jungle. In front of me was a glade, about thirty feet across, +devoid of green growth, and filled with a great irregular expanse of +earth and mud. Relative to the height of the Attas, my six feet must +seem a good half mile, and from this height I looked down and saw +again the same inconceivably sticky clay of France. There were the +rain-washed gullies, the half-roofed entrances to the vast underground +fortresses, clean-swept, perfect roads, as efficient as the arteries +of Verdun, flapping dead leaves like the omnipresent, worn-out +scare-crows of camouflage, and over in one corner, to complete the +simile, were a dozen shell-holes, the homes of voracious ant-lions, +which, for passing insects, were unexploded mines, set at hair +trigger. + +My Atta city was only two hundred feet away from the laboratory, in +fairly high jungle, within sound of the dinner triangle, and of the +lapping waves on the Mazaruni shore. To sit near by and concentrate +solely upon the doings of these ant people, was as easy as watching a +single circus ring of performing elephants, while two more rings, a +maze of trapezes, a race track and side-shows were in full swing. The +jungle around me teemed with interesting happenings and distracting +sights and sounds. The very last time I visited the nest and became +absorbed in a line of incoming ants, I heard the shrill squeaking of +an angry hummingbird overhead. I looked up, and there, ten feet above, +was a furry tamandua anteater slowly climbing a straight purpleheart +trunk, while around and around his head buzzed and swore the little +fury--a pinch of cinnamon feathers, ablaze with rage. The curved claws +of the unheeding anteater fitted around the trunk and the strong +prehensile tail flattened against the bark, so that the creature +seemed to put forth no more exertion than if walking along a fallen +log. Now and then it stopped and daintily picked at a bit of termite +nest. + +With such side-shows it was sometimes difficult to concentrate on the +Attas. Yet they offered problems for years of study. The glade was a +little world in itself, with visitors and tenants, comedy and tragedy, +sounds and silences. It was an ant-made glade, with all new growths +either choked by upflung, earthen hillocks, or leaves bitten off as +soon as they appeared. The casual visitors were the most conspicuous, +an occasional trogon swooping across--a glowing, feathered comet of +emerald, azurite and gold; or, slowly drifting in and out among the +vines and coming to rest with waving wings, a yellow and red spotted +Ithomiid,--or was it a Heliconiid or a Danaiid?--with such bewildering +models and marvelous mimics it was impossible to tell without capture +and close examination. Giant, purple tarantula-hawks hummed past, +scanning the leaves for their prey. + +Another class of glade haunters were those who came strictly on +business,--plasterers and sculptors, who found wet clay ready to their +needs. Great golden and rufous bees blundered down and gouged out +bucketsful of mud; while slender-bodied, dainty, ebony wasps, after +much fastidious picking of place, would detach a tiny bit of the +whitest clay, place it in their snuff-box holder, clean their feet and +antennae, run their rapier in and out and delicately take to wing. + +Little black trigonid bees had their special quarry, a small deep +valley in the midst of a waste of interlacing Bad Lands, on the side +of a precipitous butte. Here they picked and shoveled to their hearts' +content, plastering their thighs until their wings would hardly lift +them. They braced their feet, whirred, lifted unevenly, and sank back +with a jar. Then turning, they bit off a piece of ballast, and heaving +it over the precipice, swung off on an even keel. + +Close examination of some of the craters and volcanic-like cones +revealed many species of ants, beetles and roaches searching for bits +of food--the scavengers of this small world. But the most interesting +were the actual parasites, flies of many colors and sizes, humming +past like little planes and zeppelins over this hidden city, ready to +drop a bomb in the form of an egg deposited on the refuse heaps or on +the ants themselves. The explosion might come slowly, but it would be +none the less deadly. Once I detected a hint of the complexity of the +glade life--beautiful metallic green flies walking swiftly about on +long legs, searching nervously, whose eggs would be deposited near +those of other flies, their larvae to feed upon the others--parasites +upon parasites. + +As I had resolutely put the doings of the treetops away from my +consciousness, so now I forgot visitors and parasites, and armed +myself for the excavation of this buried metropolis. I rubbed +vaseline on my high boots, and about the tops bound a band of +teased-out absorbent cotton. My pick and shovel I treated likewise, +and thus I was comparatively insulated. Without precautions no living +being could withstand the slow, implacable attack of disturbed Attas. +At present I walked unmolested across the glade. The millions beneath +my feet were as unconscious of my presence as they were of the breeze +in the palm fronds overhead. + +At the first deep shovel thrust, a slow-moving flood of reddish-brown +began to pour forth from the crumbled earth--the outposts of the Atta +Maxims moving upward to the attack. For a few seconds only workers of +various sizes appeared, then an enormous head heaved upward and there +came into the light of day the first Atta soldier. He was twice as +large as a large worker and heavy in proportion. Instead of being +drawn up into two spines, the top of his head was rounded, bald and +shiny, and only at the back were the two spines visible, shifted +downward. The front of the head was thickly clothed with golden hair, +which hung down bang-like over a round, glistening, single, median +eye. One by one, and then shoulder to shoulder, these Cyclopean +Maxims lumbered forth to battle, and soon my boots were covered in +spite of the grease, all sinking their mandibles deep into the +leather. + +When I unpacked these boots this year I found the heads and jaws of +two Attas still firmly attached, relics of some forgotten foray of the +preceding year. This mechanical, vise-like grip, wholly independent of +life or death, is utilized by the Guiana Indians. In place of +stitching up extensive wounds, a number of these giant Atta Maxims are +collected, and their jaws applied to the edges of the skin, which are +drawn together. The ants take hold, their bodies are snipped off, and +the row of jaws remains until the wound is healed. + +Over and around the out-pouring soldiers, the tiny workers ran and bit +and chewed away at whatever they could reach. Dozens of ants made +their way up to the cotton, but found the utmost difficulty in +clambering over the loose fluff. Now and then, however, a needle-like +nip at the back of my neck, showed that some pioneer of these shock +troops had broken through, when I was thankful that Attas could only +bite and not sting as well. At such a time as this, the greatest +difference is apparent between these and the Eciton army ants. The +Eciton soldier with his long, curved scimitars and his swift, nervous +movements, was to one of these great insects as a fighting d'Artagnan +would be to an armored tank. The results were much the same +however,--perfect efficiency. + +I now dug swiftly and crashed with pick down through three feet of +soil. The great entrance arteries of the nest branched and bifurcated, +separated and anastomosed, while here and there were chambers varying +in size from a cocoanut to a football. These were filled with what +looked like soft grayish sponge covered with whitish mold, and these +somber affairs were the _raison d'etre_ for all the leaf-cutting, the +trails, the struggles through jungles, the constant battling against +wind and rain and sun. + +But the labors of the Attas are only renewed when a worker disappears +down a hole with his hard-earned bit of leaf. He drops it and goes on +his way. We do not know what this way is, but my guess is that he +turns around and goes after another leaf. Whatever the nests of Attas +possess, they are without recreation rooms. These sluggard-instructors +do not know enough to take a vacation; their faces are fashioned for +biting, but not for laughing or yawning. I once dabbed fifteen Mediums +with a touch of white paint as they approached the nest, and within +five minutes thirteen of them had emerged and started on the back +track again. + +The leaf is taken in charge by another Medium, hosts of whom are +everywhere. Once after a spadeful, I placed my eye as close as +possible to a small heap of green leaves, and around one oblong bit +were five Mediums, each with a considerable amount of chewed and +mumbled tissue in front of him. This is the only time I have ever +succeeded in finding these ants actually at this work. The leaves are +chewed thoroughly and built up into the sponge gardens, being used +neither for thatch nor for food, but as fertilizer. And not for any +strange subterranean berry or kernel or fruit, but for a fungus or +mushroom. The spores sprout and proliferate rapidly, the gray mycelia +covering the garden, and at the end of each thread is a little knobbed +body filled with liquid. This forms the sole food of the ants in the +nest, but a drop of honey placed by a busy trail will draw a circle of +workers at any time--both Mediums and Minims, who surround it and +drink their fill. + +When the fungus garden is in full growth, the nest labors of the +Minims begin, and until the knobbed bodies are actually ripe, they +never cease to weed and to prune, thus killing off the multitude of +other fungi and foreign organisms, and by pruning they keep their +particular fungus growing, and prevent it from fructifying. The fungus +of the Attas is a particular species with the resonant, Dunsanyesque +name of _Rozites gongylophora_. It is quite unknown outside of the +nests of these ants, and is as artificial as a banana. + +Only in Calcutta bazaars at night, and in underground streets of +Pekin, have I seen stranger beings than I unearthed in my Atta nest. +Now and then there rolled out of a shovelful of earth, an unbelievably +big and rotund Cicada larva--which in the course of time, whether in +one or in seventeen years, would emerge as the great marbled winged +_Cicada gigas_, spreading five inches from tip to tip. Small +tarantulas, with beautiful wine-colored cephalothorax, made their home +deep in the nest, guarded, perhaps, by their dense covering of hair; +slender scorpions sidled out from the ruins. They were bare, with +vulnerable joints, but they had the advantage of a pair of hands, and +long, mobile arms, which could quickly and skilfully pluck an +attacking ant from any part of their anatomy. + +The strangest of all the tenants were the tiny, amber-colored roaches +which clung frantically to the heads of the great soldier ants, or +scurried over the tumultuous mounds, searching for a crevice +sanctuary. They were funny, fat little beings, wholly blind, yet +supremely conscious of the danger that threatened, and with only the +single thought of getting below the surface as quickly as possible. +The Attas had very few insect guests, but this cockroach is one which +had made himself perfectly at home. Through century upon century he +had become more and more specialized and adapted to Atta life, eyes +slipping until they were no more than faint specks, legs and antennae +changing, gait becoming altered to whatever speed and carriage best +suited little guests in big underground halls and galleries. He and +his race had evolved unseen and unnoticed even by the Maxim policemen. +But when nineteen hundred humanly historical years had passed, a man +with a keen sense of fitness named him Little Friend of the Attas; and +so for a few more years, until scientists give place to the next +caste, _Attaphila_ will, all unconsciously, bear a name. + +Attaphilas have staked their whole gamble of existence on the +continued possibility of guest-ship with the Attas. Although they +lived near the fungus gardens they did not feed upon them, but +gathered secretions from the armored skin of the giant soldiers, who +apparently did not object, and showed no hostility to their diminutive +masseurs. A summer boarder may be quite at home on a farm, and safe +from all ordinary dangers, but he must keep out of the way of scythes +and sickles if he chooses to haunt the hay-fields. And so Attaphila, +snug and safe, deep in the heart of the nest, had to keep on the qui +vive when the ant harvesters came to glean in the fungus gardens. +Snip, snip, snip, on all sides in the musty darkness, the keen +mandibles sheared the edible heads, and though the little Attaphilas +dodged and ran, yet most of them, in course of time, lost part of an +antenna or even a whole one. + +Thus the Little Friend of the Leaf-cutters lives easily through his +term of weeks or months, or perhaps even a year, and has nothing to +fear for food or mate, or from enemies. But Attaphilas cannot all +live in a single nest, and we realize that there must come a crisis, +when they pass out into a strange world of terrible light and +multitudes of foes. For these pampered, degenerate roaches to find +another Atta nest unaided, would be inconceivable. In the big nest +which I excavated I observed them on the back and heads not only of +the large soldiers, but also of the queens which swarmed in one +portion of the galleries; and indeed, of twelve queens, seven had +roaches clinging to them. This has been noted also of a Brazilian +species, and we suddenly realize what splendid sports these humble +insects are. They resolutely prepare for their gamble--_l'aventure +magnifique_--the slenderest fighting chance, and we are almost +inclined to forget the irresponsible implacability of instinct, and +cheer the little fellows for lining up on this forlorn hope. When the +time comes, the queens leave, and are off up into the unheard-of sky, +as if an earthworm should soar with eagle's feathers; past the +gauntlet of voracious flycatchers and hawks, to the millionth chance +of meeting an acceptable male of the same species. After the mating, +comes the solitary search for a suitable site, and only when the +pitifully unfair gamble has been won by a single fortunate queen, +does the Attaphila climb tremblingly down and accept what fate has +sent. His ninety and nine fellows have met death in almost as many +ways. + +With the exception of these strange inmates there are very few tenants +or guests in the nests of the Attas. Unlike the termites and Ecitons, +who harbor a host of weird boarders, the leaf-cutters are able to keep +their nest free from undesirables. + +Once, far down in the nest, I came upon three young queens, recently +emerged, slow and stupid, with wings dull and glazed, who crawled with +awkward haste back into darkness. And again twelve winged females were +grouped in one small chamber, restless and confused. This was the only +glimpse I ever had of Atta royalty at home. + +Good fortune was with me, however, on a memorable fifth of May, when +returning from a monkey hunt in high jungle. As I came out into the +edge of a clearing, a low humming attracted my attention. It was +ventriloquial, and my ear refused to trace it. It sounded exactly like +a great aerodrome far in the distance, with a score or more of planes +tuning up. I chanced to see a large bee-like insect rising through +the branches, and following back along its path, I suddenly perceived +the rarest of sights--an Atta nest entrance boiling with the +excitement of a flight of winged kings and queens. So engrossed were +the ants that they paid no attention to me, and I was able to creep up +close and kneel within two feet of the hole. The main nest was twenty +feet away, and this was a special exit made for the occasion--a +triumphal gateway erected far away from the humdrum leaf traffic. + +The two-inch, arched hole led obliquely down into darkness, while +brilliant sunshine illumined the earthen take-off and the surrounding +mass of pink Mazaruni primroses. Up this corridor was coming, slowly, +with dignity, as befitted the occasion, a pageant of royalty. The king +males were more active, as they were smaller in size than the females, +but they were veritable giants in comparison with the workers. The +queens seemed like beings of another race, with their great bowed +thorax supporting the folded wings, heads correspondingly large, with +less jaw development, but greatly increased keenness of vision. In +comparison with the Minims, these queens were as a human being one +hundred feet in height. + +I selected one large queen as she appeared and watched her closely. +Slowly and with great effort she climbed the steep ascent into the +blazing sunlight. Five tiny Minims were clinging to her body and +wings, all scrubbing and cleaning as hard as they could. She chose a +clear space, spread her wings, wide and flat, stood high upon her six +legs and waited. I fairly shouted at this change, for slight though it +was, it worked magic, and the queen Atta was a queen no more, but a +miniature, straddle-legged aeroplane, pushed into position, and +overrun by a crowd of mechanics, putting the finishing touches, +tightening the wires, oiling every pliable crevice. A Medium came +along, tugged at a leg and the obliging little plane lifted it for +inspection. For three minutes this kept up, and then the plane became +a queen and moved restlessly. Without warning, as if some +irresponsible mechanic had turned the primed propellers, the four +mighty wings whirred--and four Minims were hurled head over heels a +foot away, snapped from their positions. The sound of the wings was +almost too exact an imitation of the snarl of a starting plane--the +comparison was absurd in its exactness of timbre and resonance. It was +only a test, however, and the moment the queen became quiet the upset +mechanics clambered back. They crawled beneath her, scraped her feet +and antennae, licked her eyes and jaws, and went over every shred of +wing tissue. Then again she buzzed, this time sending only a single +Minim sprawling. Again she stopped after lifting herself an inch, but +immediately started up, and now rose rather unsteadily, but without +pause, and slowly ascended above the nest and the primroses. Circling +once, she passed through green leaves and glowing balls of fruit, into +the blue sky. + +Thus I followed the passing of one queen Atta into the jungle world, +as far as human eyes would permit, and my mind returned to the mote +which I had detected at an equally great height--the queen descending +after her marriage--as isolated as she had started. + +We have seen how the little blind roaches occasionally cling to an +emerging queen and so are transplanted to a new nest. But the queen +bears something far more valuable. More faithfully than ever virgin +tended temple fires, each departing queen fills a little pouch in the +lower part of her mouth with a pellet of the precious fungus, and +here it is carefully guarded until the time comes for its propagation +in the new nest. + +When she has descended to earth and excavated a little chamber, she +closes the entrance, and for forty days and nights labors at the +founding of a new colony. She plants the little fungus cutting and +tends it with the utmost solicitude. The care and feeding in her past +life have stored within her the substance for vast numbers of eggs. +Nine out of ten which she lays she eats to give her the strength to go +on with her labors, and when the first larvae emerge, they, too, are +fed with surplus eggs. In time they pupate and at the end of six weeks +the first workers--all tiny Minims--hatch. Small as they are, born in +darkness, yet no education is needed. The Spirit of the Attas infuses +them. Play and rest are the only things incomprehensible to them, and +they take charge at once, of fungus, of excavation, of the care of the +queen and eggs, the feeding of the larvae, and as soon as the huskier +Mediums appear, they break through into the upper world and one day +the first bit of green leaf is carried down into the nest. + +The queen rests. Henceforth, as far as we know, she becomes a mere +egg-producing machine, fed mechanically by mechanical workers, the +food transformed by physiological mechanics into yolk and then +deposited. The aeroplane has become transformed into an incubator. + +One wonders whether, throughout the long hours, weeks and months, in +darkness which renders her eyes a mockery, there ever comes to her +dull ganglion a flash of memory of The Day, of the rushing wind, the +escape from pursuing puff-birds, the jungle stretching away for miles +beneath, her mate, the cool tap of drops from a passing shower, the +volplane to earth, and the obliteration of all save labor. Did she +once look behind her, did she turn aside for a second, just to feel +the cool silk of petals? + +As we have seen, an Atta worker is a member of the most implacable +labor-union in the world: he believes in a twenty-four hour day, no pay, no +play, no rest--he is a cog in a machine-driven +Good-for-the-greatest-number. After studying these beings for a week, one +longs to go out and shout for kaisers and tsars, for selfishness and +crime--anything as a relief from such terrible unthinking altruism. All +Atta workers are born free and equal--which is well; and they remain +so--which is what a Buddhist priest once called "gashang"--or so it +sounded, and which he explained as a state where plants and animals and men +were crystal-like in growth and existence. What a welcome sight it would be +to see a Medium mount a bit of twig, antennae a crowd of Minims about him, +and start off on a foray of his own! + +We may jeer or condemn the Attas for their hard-shell existence, but +there comes to mind again and again, the wonder of it all. Are the +hosts of little beings really responsible; have they not evolved into +a pocket, a mental cul-de-sac, a swamping of individuality, pooling +their personalities? And what is it they have gained--what pledge of +success in food, in safety, in propagation? They are not separate +entities, they have none of the freedom of action, of choice, of +individuality of the solitary wasps. They are the somatic cells of the +body politic, while deep within the nest are the guarded sexual +cells--the winged kings and queens, which from time to time, exactly +as in isolated organisms, are thrown off to propagate, and to found +new nests. They, no less than the workers, are parts of something +more subtle than the visible Attas and their material nest. Whether I +go to the ant as sluggard, or myrmocologist, or accidentally, via +Pterodactyl Pups, a day spent with them invariably leaves me with my +whole being concentrated on this mysterious Atta Ego. Call it +Vibration, Aura, Spirit of the nest, clothe ignorance in whatever term +seems appropriate, we cannot deny its existence and power. + +As with the Army ants, the flowing lines of leaf-cutters always +brought to mind great arteries, filled with pulsating, tumbling +corpuscles. When an obstruction appeared, as a fallen leaf, across the +great sandy track, a dozen, or twenty or a hundred workers +gathered--like leucocytes--and removed the interfering object. If I +injured a worker who was about to enter the nest, I inoculated the +Atta organism with a pernicious, foreign body. Even the victim himself +was dimly aware of the law of fitness. Again and again he yielded to +the call of the nest, only to turn aside at the last moment. From a +normal link in the endless Atta chain, he had become an +outcast--snapped at by every passing ant, self-banished, wandering off +at nightfall to die somewhere in the wilderness of grass. When well, +an Atta has relations but no friends, when ill, every jaw is against +him. + +As I write this seated at my laboratory table, by turning down my lamp +and looking out, I can see the star dust of Orion's nebula, and +without moving from my chair, Rigel, Sirius, Capella and +Betelgeuze--the blue, white, yellow and red evolution of so-called +lifeless cosmic matter. A few slides from the aquarium at my side +reveal an evolutionary sequence to the heavenly host--the simplest of +earthly organisms playing fast and loose with the borderland, not only +of plants and animals, but of the one and of the many-celled. First a +swimming lily, Stentor, a solitary animal bloom, twenty-five to the +inch; Cothurnia, a double lily, and Gonium, with a quartet of cells +clinging tremulously together, progressing unsteadily--materially +toward the rim of my field of vision--in the evolution of earthly life +toward sponges, peripatus, ants and man. + +I was interrupted in my microcosmus just as it occurred to me that +Chesterton would heartily approve of my approximation of Sirius and +Stentor, of Capella and Cothurnia--the universe balanced. My attention +was drawn from the atom Gonium--whose brave little spirit was striving +to keep his foursome one--a primordial struggle toward unity of self +and division of labor; my consciousness climbed the microscope tube +and came to rest upon a slim glass of amber liquid on my laboratory +table: a servant had brought a cocktail, for it was New Year's Eve. +(Now the thought came that there were a number of worthy people who +would also approve of this approximation!) I looked at the small +spirituous luxury, and I thought of my friends in New York, and then +of the Attas in front of the laboratory. With my electric flash I went +out into the starlight, and found the usual hosts struggling nestward +with their chlorophyll burdens, and rushing frantically out into the +black jungle for more and yet more leaves. My mind swept back over +evolution from star-dust to Kartabo compound, from Gonium to man, and +to these leaf-cutting ants. And I wondered whether the Attas were any +the better for being denied the stimulus of temptation, or whether I +was any the worse for the opportunity of refusing a second glass. I +went back into the house, and voiced a toast to tolerance, to +temperance, and--to pterodactyls--and drank my cocktail. + + + + +IX + +HAMMOCK NIGHTS + + +There is a great gulf between pancakes and truffles: an eternal, +fixed, abysmal canyon. It is like the chasm between beds and hammocks. +It is not to be denied and not to be traversed; for if pancakes with +syrup are a necessary of life, then truffles with anything must be, by +the very nature of things, a supreme and undisputed luxury, a regal +food for royalty and the chosen of the earth. There cannot be a shadow +of a doubt that these two are divided; and it is not alone a mere +arbitrary division of poverty and riches as it would appear on the +surface. It is an alienation brought about by profound and fundamental +differences; for the gulf between them is that gulf which separates +the prosaic, the ordinary, the commonplace, from all that is colored +and enlivened by romance. + +The romance of truffles endows the very word itself with a halo, an +aristocratic halo full of mystery and suggestion. One remembers the +hunters who must track their quarry through marshy and treacherous +lands, and one cannot forget their confiding catspaw, that desolated +pig, created only to be betrayed and robbed of the fungi of his +labors. He is one of the pathetic characters of history, born to +secret sorrow, victimized by those superior tastes which do not become +his lowly station. Born to labor and to suffer, but not to eat. To +this day he commands my sympathy; his ghost--lean, bourgeois, +reproachful--looks out at me from every market-place in the world +where the truffle proclaims his faithful service. + +But the pancake is a pancake, nothing more. It is without inherent or +artificial glamour; and this unfortunately, when you come right down +to it, is true of food in general. For food, after all, is one of the +lesser considerations; the connoisseur, the gourmet, even the +gourmand, spends no more than four hours out of the day at his table. +From the cycle, he may select four in which to eat; but whether he +will or not, he must set aside seven of the twenty-four in which to +sleep. + +Sleeping, then, as opposed to eating, is of almost double importance, +since it consumes nearly twice as much time--and time, in itself, is +the most valuable thing in the world. Considered from this angle, it +seems incredible that we have no connoisseurs of sleep. For we have +none. Therefore it is with some temerity that I declare sleep to be +one of the romances of existence, and not by any chance the simple +necessary it is reputed to be. + +However, this romance, in company with whatever is worthy, is not to +be discovered without the proper labor. Life is not all truffles. +Neither do they grow in modest back-yards to be picked of mornings by +the maid-of-all-work. A mere bed, notwithstanding its magic camouflage +of coverings, of canopy, of disguised pillows, of shining brass or +fluted carven posts, is, pancake like, never surrounded by this aura +of romance. No, it is hammock sleep which is the sweetest of all +slumber. Not in the hideous, dyed affairs of our summer porches, with +their miserable curved sticks to keep the strands apart, and their +maddening creaks which grow in length and discord the higher one +swings--but in a hammock woven by Carib Indians. An Indian hammock +selected at random will not suffice; it must be a Carib and none +other. For they, themselves, are part and parcel of the romance, +since they are not alone a quaint and poetic people, but the direct +descendants of those remote Americans who were the first to see the +caravels of Columbus. Indeed, he paid the initial tribute to their +skill, for in the diary of his first voyage he writes,-- + +"A great many Indians in canoes came to the ship to-day for the +purpose of bartering their cotton, and _hamacas_ or nets in which they +sleep." + +It is supposed that this name owes its being to the hamack tree, from +the bark of which they were woven. However that may be, the modern +hammock of these tropical Red Men is so light and so delicate in +texture that during the day one may wear it as a sash, while at night +it forms an incomparable couch. + +But one does not drop off to sleep in this before a just and proper +preparation. This presents complexities. First, the hammock must be +slung with just the right amount of tautness; then, the novice must +master the knack of winding himself in his blanket that he may slide +gently into his aerial bed and rest at right angles to the tied ends, +thus permitting the free side-meshes to curl up naturally over his +feet and head. This cannot be taught. It is an art; and any art is +one-tenth technique, and nine-tenths natural talent. However, it is +possible to acquire a certain virtuosity, which, after all is said, is +but pure mechanical skill as opposed to sheer genius. One might, +perhaps, get a hint by watching the living chrysalid of a potential +moon-moth wriggle back into its cocoon--but little is to be learned +from human teaching. However, if, night after night, one observes his +Indians, a certain instinctive knowledge will arise to aid and abet +him in his task. Then, after his patient apprenticeship, he may reap +as he has sowed. If it is to be disaster, it is as immediate as it is +ignominious; but if success is to be his portion, then he is destined +to rest, wholly relaxed, upon a couch encushioned and resilient beyond +belief. He finds himself exalted and supreme above all mundane +disturbances, with the treetops and the stars for his canopy, and the +earth a shadowy floor far beneath. This gentle aerial support is +distributed throughout hundreds of fine meshes, and the sole contact +with the earth is through twin living boles, pulsing with swift +running sap, whose lichened bark and moonlit foliage excel any +tapestry of man's devising. + +Perhaps it is atavistic--this desire to rest and swing in a hamaca. +For these are not unlike the treetop couches of our arboreal +ancestors, such a one as I have seen an orang-utan weave in a few +minutes in the swaying crotch of a tree. At any rate, the hammock is +not dependent upon four walls, upon rooms and houses, and it partakes +altogether of the wilderness. Its movement is aeolian--yielding to +every breath of air. It has even its own weird harmony--for I have +often heard a low, whistling hum as the air rushed through the cordage +mesh. In a sudden tropical gale every taut strand of my hamaca has +seemed a separate, melodious, orchestral note, while I was buffeted to +and fro, marking time to some rhythmic and reckless tune of the wind +playing fortissimo on the woven strings about me. The climax of this +musical outburst was not without a mild element of danger--sufficient +to create that enviable state of mind wherein the sense of security +and the knowledge that a minor catastrophe may perhaps be brought +about are weighed one against the other. + +Special, unexpected, and interesting minor dangers are also the +province of the hamaca. Once, in the tropics, a great fruit fell on +the elastic strands and bounced upon my body. There was an ominous +swish of the air in the sweeping arc which this missile described, +also a goodly shower of leaves; and since the fusillade took place at +midnight, it was, all in all, a somewhat alarming visitation. However, +there were no honorable scars to mark its advent; and what is more +important, from all my hundreds of hammock nights, I have no other +memory of any actual or threatened danger which was not due to human +carelessness or stupidity. It is true that once, in another continent, +by the light of a campfire, I saw the long, liana-like body of a +harmless tree-snake wind down from one of my fronded bed-posts and, +like a living woof following its shuttle, weave a passing pattern of +emerald through the pale meshes. But this heralded no harm, for the +poisonous reptiles of that region never climb; and so, since I was +worn out by a hard day, I shut my eyes and slept neither better nor +worse because of the transient confidence of a neighborly serpent. + +As a matter of fact, the wilderness provides but few real perils, and +in a hammock one is safely removed from these. One lies in a stratum +above all damp and chill of the ground, beyond the reach of crawling +tick and looping leech; and with an enveloping _mosquitaro_, or +mosquito shirt, as the Venezuelans call it, one is fortified even in +the worst haunts of these most disturbing of all pests. + +Once my ring rope slipped and the hammock settled, but not enough to +wake me up and force me to set it to rights. I was aware that +something had gone wrong, but, half asleep, I preferred to leave the +matter in the lap of the gods. Later, as a result, I was awakened +several times by the patting of tiny paws against my body, as small +jungle-folk, standing on their hind-legs, essayed to solve the mystery +of the swaying, silent, bulging affair directly overhead. I was unlike +any tree or branch or liana which had come their way before; I do not +doubt that they thought me some new kind of ant-nest, since these +structures are alike only as their purpose in life is identical--for +they express every possible variation in shape, size, color, design, +and position. As for their curiosity, I could make no complaint, for, +at best, my visitors could not be so inquisitive as I, inasmuch as I +had crossed one ocean and two continents with no greater object than +to pry into their personal and civic affairs as well as those of +their neighbors. To say nothing of their environment and other +matters. + +That my rope slipped was the direct result of my own inefficiency. The +hammock protects one from the dangers of the outside world, but like +any man-made structure, it shows evidences of those imperfections +which are part and parcel of human nature, and serve, no doubt, to +make it interesting. But one may at least strive for perfection by +being careful. Therefore tie the ropes of your hammock yourself, or +examine and test the job done for you. The master of hammocks makes a +knot the name of which I do not know--I cannot so much as describe it. +But I would like to twist it again--two quick turns, a push and a +pull; then, the greater the strain put upon it, the greater its +resistance. + +This trustworthiness commands respect and admiration, but it is in the +morning that one feels the glow of real gratitude; for, in striking +camp at dawn, one has but to give a single jerk and the rope is +straightened out, without so much as a second's delay. It is the +tying, however, which must be well done--this I learned from bitter +experience. + +It was one morning, years ago, but the memory of it is with me still, +vivid and painful. One of the party had left her hammock, which was +tied securely since she was skilful in such matters, to sit down and +rest in another, belonging to a servant. This was slung at one end of +a high, tropical porch, which was without the railing that surrounds +the more pretentious verandahs of civilization, so that the hammock +swung free, first over the rough flooring, then a little out over the +yard itself. A rope slipped, the faulty knot gave way, and she fell +backward--a seven-foot fall with no support of any kind by which she +might save herself. A broken wrist was the price she had to pay for +another's carelessness--a broken wrist which, in civilization, is +perhaps, one of the lesser tragedies; but this was in the very heart +of the Guiana wilderness. Many hours from ether and surgical skill, +such an accident assumes alarming proportions. Therefore, I repeat my +warning: tie your knots or examine them. + +It is true, that, when all is said and done, a dweller in hammocks may +bring upon himself any number of diverse dangers of a character never +described in books or imagined in fiction. A fellow naturalist of +mine never lost an opportunity to set innumerable traps for the lesser +jungle-folk, such as mice and opossums, all of which he religiously +measured and skinned, so that each, in its death, should add its mite +to human knowledge. As a fisherman runs out set lines, so would he +place his traps in a circle under his hammock, using a cord to tie +each and every one to the meshes. This done, it was his custom to lie +at ease and wait for the click below which would usher in a new +specimen,--perhaps a new species,--to be lifted up, removed, and +safely cached until morning. This strategic method served a double +purpose: it conserved natural energy, and it protected the catch. For +if the traps were set in the jungle and trustfully confided to its +care until the break of day, the ants would leave a beautifully +cleaned skeleton, intact, all unnecessarily entrapped. + +Now it happened that once, when he had set his nocturnal traps, he +straightway went to sleep in the midst of all the small jungle people who +were calling for mates and new life, so that he did not hear the click +which was to warn him that another little beast of fur had come unawares +upon his death. But he heard, suddenly, a disturbance in the low ferns +beneath his hammock. He reached over and caught hold of one of the cords, +finding the attendant trap heavy with prey. He was on the point of feeling +his way to the trap itself, when instead, by some subconscious prompting, +he reached over and snapped on his flashlight. And there before him, +hanging in mid-air, striking viciously at his fingers which were just +beyond its reach, was a young fer-de-lance--one of the deadliest of +tropical serpents. His nerves gave way, and with a crash the trap fell to +the ground where he could hear it stirring and thrashing about among the +dead leaves. This ominous rustling did not encourage sleep; he lay there +for a long time listening,--and every minute is longer in the +darkness,--while his hammock quivered and trembled with the reaction. + +Guided by this, I might enter into a new field of naturalizing and say +to those who might, in excitement, be tempted to do otherwise, "Look +at your traps before lifting them." But my audience would be too +limited; I will refrain from so doing. + +It is true that this brief experience might be looked upon as one +illustration of the perils of the wilderness, since it is not +customary for the fer-de-lance to frequent the city and the town. But +this would give rise to a footless argument, leading nowhere. For +danger is everywhere--it lurks in every shadow and is hidden in the +bright sunlight, it is the uninvited guest, the invisible pedestrian +who walks beside you in the crowded street ceaselessly, without +tiring. But even a fer-de-lance should rather add to the number of +hammock devotees than diminish them; for the three feet or more of +elevation is as good as so many miles between the two of you. And +three miles from any serpent is sufficient. + +It may be that the very word danger is subjected to a different +interpretation in each one of our mental dictionaries. It is elastic, +comprehensive. To some it may include whatever is terrible, +terrifying; to others it may symbolize a worthy antagonist, one who +throws down the gauntlet and asks no questions, but who will make a +good and fair fight wherein advantage is neither taken nor given. I +suppose, to be bitten by vampires would be thought a danger by many +who have not graduated from the mattress of civilization to this +cubiculum of the wilderness. This is due, in part, to an ignorance, +which is to be condoned; and this ignorance, in turn, is due to that +lack of desire for a knowledge of new countries and new experiences, +which lack is to be deplored and openly mourned. Many years ago, in +Mexico, when I first entered the vampire zone, I was apprised of the +fact by the clotted blood on my horse's neck in the early morning. In +actually seeing this evidence, I experienced the diverse emotions of +the discoverer, although as a matter of fact I had discovered nothing +more than the verification of a scientific commonplace. It so happened +that I had read, at one time, many conflicting statements of the +workings of this aerial leech; therefore, finding myself in his native +habitat, I went to all sorts of trouble to become a victim to his +sorceries. The great toe is the favorite and stereotyped point of +attack, we are told; so, in my hammock, my great toes were +conscientiously exposed night after night, but not until a decade +later was my curiosity satisfied. + +I presume that this was a matter of ill luck, rather than a personal +matter between the vampire and me. Therefore, as a direct result of +this and like experiences, I have learned to make proper allowances +for the whims of the Fates. I have learned that it is their pleasure +to deluge me with rainstorms at unpropitious moments, also to send me, +with my hammock, to eminently desirable countries, which, however, are +barren of trees and scourged of every respectable shrub. That the +showers may not find me unprepared, I pack with my hamaca an extra +length of rope, to be stretched taut from foot-post to head-post, that +a tarpaulin or canvas may be slung over it. When a treeless country is +presented to me in prospect, I have two stout stakes prepared, and I +do not move forward without them. + +It is a wonderful thing to see an experienced hammocker take his +stakes, first one, then the other, and plunge them into the ground +three or four times, measuring at one glance the exact distance and +angle, and securing magically that mysterious "give" so essential to +well-being and comfort. Any one can sink them like fence-posts, so +that they stand deep and rigid, a reproach and an accusation; but it +requires a particular skill to judge by the pull whether or not they +will hold through the night and at the same time yield with gentle and +supple swing to the least movement of the sleeper. A Carib knows, +instantly, worthy and unworthy ground. I have seen an Indian sink his +hamaca posts into sand with one swift, concentrated motion, +mathematical in its precision and surety, so that he might enter at +once into a peaceful night of tranquil and unbroken slumber, while I, +a tenderfoot then, must needs beat my stakes down into the ground with +tremendous energy, only to come to earth with a resounding thwack the +moment I mounted my couch. + +The Red Man made his comment, smiling: "Yellow earth, much squeeze." +Which, being translated, informed me that the clayey ground I had +chosen, hard though it seemed, was more like putty in that it would +slip and slip with the prolonged pressure until the post fell inward +and catastrophe crowned my endeavor. + +So it follows that the hammock, in company with an adequate tarpaulin +and two trustworthy stakes, will survive the heaviest downpour as well +as the most arid and uncompromising desert. But since it is man-made, +with finite limitations, nature is not without means to defeat its +purpose. The hammock cannot cope with the cold--real cold, that is, +not the sudden chill of tropical night which a blanket resists, but +the cold of the north or of high altitudes. This is the realm of the +sleeping-bag, the joy of which is another story. More than once I have +had to use a hammock at high levels, since there was nothing else at +hand; and the numbness of the Arctic was mine. Every mesh seemed to +invite a separate draught. The winds of heaven--all four--played +unceasingly upon me, and I became in due time a swaying mummy of ice. +It was my delusion that I was a dead Indian cached aloft upon my +arboreal bier--which is not a normal state of mind for the sleeping +explorer. + +Anything rather than this helpless surrender to the elements. Better +the lowlands and that fantastic shroud, the mosquitaro. For even to +wind one's self into this is an experience of note. It is ingenious, +and called the mosquito shirt because of its general shape, which is +as much like a shirt as anything else. A large round center covers the +hammock, and two sleeves extend up the supporting strands and inclose +the ends, being tied to the ring-ropes. If at sundown swarms of +mosquitoes become unbearable, one retires into his netting funnel, and +there disrobes. Clothes are rolled into a bundle and tied to the +hammock, that one may close one's eyes reasonably confident that the +supply will not be diminished by some small marauder. It is then that +a miracle is enacted. For one is at last enabled, under these +propitious circumstances, to achieve the impossible, to control and +manipulate the void and the invisible, to obey that unforgotten advice +of one's youth, "Oh, g'wan--crawl into a hole and pull the hole in +after you!" At an early age, this unnatural advice held my mind, so +that I devised innumerable means of verifying it; I was filled with a +despair and longing whenever I met it anew. But it was an ambition +appeased only in maturity. And this is the miracle of the tropics: +climb up into the hamaca, and, at this altitude, draw in the hole of +the mosquitaro funnel, making it fast with a single knot. It is done. +One is at rest, and lying back, listens to the humming of all the +mosquitoes in the world, to be lulled to sleep by the sad, minor +singing of their myriad wings. But though I have slung my hammock in +many lands, on all the continents, I have few memories of netting +nights. Usually, both in tropics and in tempered climes, one may +boldly lie with face uncovered to the night. + +And this brings us to the greatest joy of hammock life, admission to +the secrets of the wilderness, initiation to new intimacies and +subtleties of this kingdom, at once welcomed and delicately ignored +as any honored guest should be. For this one must make unwonted +demands upon one's nocturnal senses. From habit, perhaps, it is +natural to lie with the eyes wide open, but with all the faculties +concentrated on the two senses which bring impressions from the world +of darkness--hearing and smell. In a jungle hut a loud cry from out of +the black treetops now and then reaches the ear; in a tent the faint +noises of the night outside are borne on the wind, and at times the +silhouette of a passing animal moves slowly across the heavy cloth; +but in a hamaca one is not thus set apart to be baffled by hidden +mysteries--one is given the very point of view of the creatures who +live and die in the open. + +Through the meshes which press gently against one's face comes every +sound which our human ears can distinguish and set apart from the +silence--a silence which in itself is only a mirage of apparent +soundlessness, a testimonial to the imperfection of our senses. The +moaning and whining of some distant beast of prey is brought on the +breeze to mingle with the silken swishing of the palm fronds overhead +and the insistent chirping of many insects--a chirping so fine and +shrill that it verges upon the very limits of our hearing. And these, +combined, unified, are no more than the ground surge beneath the +countless waves of sound. For the voice of the jungle is the voice of +love, of hatred, of hope, of despair--and in the night-time, when the +dominance of sense-activity shifts from eye to ear, from retina to +nostril, it cries aloud its confidences to all the world. But the +human mind is not equal to a true understanding of these; for in a +tropical jungle the birds and the frogs, the beasts and the insects +are sending out their messages so swiftly one upon the other, that the +senses fail of their mission and only chaos and a great confusion are +carried to the brain. The whirring of invisible wings and the movement +of the wind in the low branches become one and the same: it is an +epic, told in some strange tongue, an epic filled to overflowing with +tragedy, with poetry and mystery. The cloth of this drama is woven +from many-colored threads, for Nature is lavish with her pigment, +reckless with life and death. She is generous because there is no need +for her to be miserly. And in the darkness, I have heard the working +of her will, translating as best I could. + +In the darkness, I have at times heard the tramping of many feet; in +a land traversed only by Indian trails I have listened to an +overloaded freight train toiling up a steep grade; I have heard the +noise of distant battle and the cries of the victor and the +vanquished. Hard by, among the trees, I have heard a woman seized, +have heard her crying, pleading for mercy, have heard her choking and +sobbing till the end came in a terrible, gasping sigh; and then, in +the sudden silence, there was a movement and thrashing about in the +topmost branches, and the flutter and whirr of great wings moving +swiftly away from me into the heart of the jungle--the only clue to +the author of this vocal tragedy. Once, a Pan of the woods tuned up +his pipes--striking a false note now and then, as if it were his whim +to appear no more than the veriest amateur; then suddenly, with the +full liquid sweetness of his reeds, bursting into a strain so +wonderful, so silvery clear, that I lay with mouth open to still the +beating of blood in my ears, hardly breathing, that I might catch +every vibration of his song. When the last note died away, there was +utter stillness about me for an instant--nothing stirred, nothing +moved; the wind seemed to have forsaken the leaves. From a great +distance, as if he were going deeper into the woods, I heard him once +more tuning up his pipes; but he did not play again. + +Beside me, I heard the low voice of one of my natives murmuring, +"_Muerte ha pasado_." My mind took up this phrase, repeating it, +giving it the rhythm of Pan's song--a rhythm delicate, sustained, full +of color and meaning in itself. I was ashamed that one of my kind +could translate such sweet and poignant music into a superstition, +could believe that it was the song of death,--the death that +passes,--and not the voice of life. But it may have been that he was +wiser in such matters than I; superstitions are many times no more +than truth in masquerade. For I could call it by no name--whether bird +or beast, creature of fur or feather or scale. And not for one, but +for a thousand creatures within my hearing, any obscure nocturnal +sound may have heralded the end of life. Song and death may go hand in +hand, and such a song may be a beautiful one, unsung, unuttered until +this moment when Nature demands the final payment for what she has +given so lavishly. In the open, the dominant note is the call to a +mate, and with it, that there may be color and form and contrast, +there is that note of pure vocal exuberance which is beauty for beauty +and for nothing else; but in this harmony there is sometimes the cry +of a creature who has come upon death unawares, a creature who has +perhaps been dumb all the days of his life, only to cry aloud this +once for pity, for mercy, or for faith, in this hour of his extremity. +Of all, the most terrible is the death-scream of a horse,--a cry of +frightful timbre,--treasured, according to some secret law, until this +dire instant when for him death indeed passes. + +It was years ago that I heard the pipes of Pan; but one does not +forget these mysteries of the jungle night: the sounds and scents and +the dim, glimpsed ghosts which flit through the darkness and the +deepest shadow mark a place for themselves in one's memory, which is +not erased. I have lain in my hammock looking at a tapestry of green +draped over a half-fallen tree, and then for a few minutes have turned +to watch the bats flicker across a bit of sky visible through the dark +branches. When I looked back again at the tapestry, although the dusk +had only a moment before settled into the deeper blue of twilight, a +score of great lustrous stars were shining there, making new patterns +in the green drapery; for in this short time, the spectral blooms of +the night had awakened and flooded my resting-place with their +fragrance. + +And these were but the first of the flowers; for when the brief tropic +twilight is quenched, a new world is born. The leaves and blossoms of +the day are at rest, and the birds and insects sleep. New blooms open, +strange scents pour forth. Even our dull senses respond to these; for +just as the eye is dimmed, so are the other senses quickened in the +sudden night of the jungle. Nearby, so close that one can reach out +and touch them, the pale Cereus moons expand, exhaling their +sweetness, subtle breaths of fragrance calling for the very life of +their race to the whirring hawkmoths. The tiny miller who, through the +hours of glare has crouched beneath a leaf, flutters upward, and the +trail of her perfume summons her mate perhaps half a mile down wind. +The civet cat, stimulated by love or war, fills the glade with an odor +so pungent that it seems as if the other senses must mark it. + +Although there may seem not a breath of air in motion, yet the tide of +scent is never still. One's moistened finger may reveal no cool side, +since there is not the vestige of a breeze; but faint odors arrive, +become stronger, and die away, or are wholly dissipated by an onrush +of others, so musky or so sweet that one can almost taste them. These +have their secret purposes, since Nature is not wasteful. If she +creates beautiful things, it is to serve some ultimate end; it is her +whim to walk in obscure paths, but her goal is fixed and immutable. +However, her designs are hidden and not easy to decipher; at best, one +achieves, not knowledge, but a few isolated facts. + +Sport in a hammock might, by the casual thinker, be considered as +limited to dreams of the hunt and chase. Yet I have found at my +disposal a score of amusements. When the dusk has just settled down, +and the little bats fill every glade in the forest, a box of beetles +or grasshoppers--or even bits of chopped meat--offers the possibility +of a new and neglected sport, in effect the inversion of baiting a +school of fish. Toss a grasshopper into the air and he has only time +to spread his wings for a parachute to earth, when a bat swoops past +so quickly that the eyes refuse to see any single effort--but the +grasshopper has vanished. As for the piece of meat, it is drawn like +a magnet to the fierce little face. Once I tried the experiment of a +bit of blunted bent wire on a long piece of thread, and at the very +first cast I entangled a flutter-mouse and pulled him in. I was aghast +when I saw what I had captured. A body hardly as large as that of a +mouse was topped with the head of a fiend incarnate. Between his red +puffed lips his teeth showed needle-sharp and ivory-white; his eyes +were as evil as a caricature from _Simplicissimus_, and set deep in +his head, while his ears and nose were monstrous with fold upon fold +of skinny flaps. It was not a living face, but a mask of frightful +mobility. + +I set him free, deeming anything so ugly well worthy of life, if such +could find sustenance among his fellows and win a mate for himself +somewhere in this world. But he, for all his hideousness and unseemly +mien, is not the vampire; the blood-sucking bat has won a mantle of +deceit from the hands of Nature--a garb that gives him a modest and +not unpleasing appearance, and makes it a difficult matter to +distinguish him from his guileless confreres of our summer evenings. + +But in the tropics,--the native land of the hammock,--not only the +mysteries of the night, but the affairs of the day may be legitimately +investigated from this aerial point of view. It is a fetish of belief +in hot countries that every unacclimatized white man must, sooner or +later, succumb to that sacred custom, the siesta. In the cool of the +day he may work vigorously, but this hour of rest is indispensable. To +a healthful person, living a reasonable life, the siesta is sheer +luxury. However, in camp, when the sun nears the zenith and the hush +which settles over the jungle proclaims that most of the wild +creatures are resting, one may swing one's hammock in the very heart +of this primitive forest and straightway be admitted into a new +province, where rare and unsuspected experiences are open to the +wayfarer. This is not the province of sleep or dreams, where all +things are possible and preeminently reasonable; for one does not go +through sundry hardships and all manner of self-denial, only to be +blindfolded on the very threshold of his ambition. No naturalist of a +temperament which begrudges every unused hour will, for a moment, +think of sleep under such conditions. It is not true that the rest and +quiet are necessary to cool the Northern blood for active work in the +afternoon, but the eye and the brain can combine relaxation with +keenest attention. + +In the northlands the difference in the temperature of the early dawn +and high noon is so slight that the effect on birds and other +creatures, as well as plants of all kinds, is not profound. But in the +tropics a change takes place which is as pronounced as that brought +about by day and night. Above all, the volume of sound becomes no more +than a pianissimo melody; for the chorus of birds and insects dies +away little by little with the increase of heat. There is something +geometrical about this, something precise and fine in this working of +a natural law--a law from which no living being is immune, for at +length one unconsciously lies motionless, overcome by the warmth and +this illusion of silence. + +The swaying of the hammock sets in motion a cool breeze, and lying at +full length, one is admitted at high noon to a new domain which has no +other portal but this. At this hour, the jungle shows few evidences of +life, not a chirp of bird or song of insect, and no rustling of leaves +in the heat which has descended so surely and so inevitably. But from +hidden places and cool shadows come broken sounds and whisperings, +which cover the gamut from insects to mammals and unite to make a +drowsy and contented murmuring--a musical undertone of amity and +goodwill. For pursuit and killing are at the lowest ebb, the stifling +heat being the flag of truce in the world-wide struggle for life and +food and mate--a struggle which halts for naught else, day or night. + +Lying quietly, the confidence of every unconventional and adventurous +wanderer will include your couch, since courage is a natural virtue when +the spirit of friendliness is abroad in the land. I felt that I had +acquired merit that eventful day when a pair of hummingbirds--thimblefuls +of fluff with flaming breastplates and caps of gold--looked upon me with +such favor that they made the strands of my hamaca their boudoir. I was not +conscious of their designs upon me until I saw them whirring toward me, two +bright, swiftly moving atoms, glowing like tiny meteors, humming like a +very battalion of bees. They betook themselves to two chosen cords and, +close together, settled themselves with no further demands upon existence. +A hundred of them could have rested upon the pair of strands; even the +dragon-flies which dashed past had a wider spread of wing; but for these +two there were a myriad glistening featherlets to be oiled and arranged, +two pairs of slender wings to be whipped clean of every speck of dust, two +delicate, sharp bills to be wiped again and again and cleared of +microscopic drops of nectar. Then--like the great eagles roosting high +overhead in the clefts of the mountainside--these mites of birds must needs +tuck their heads beneath their wings for sleep; thus we three rested in the +violent heat. + +On other days, in Borneo, weaver birds have brought dried grasses and +woven them into the fabric of my hammock, making me indeed feel that +my couch was a part of the wilderness. At times, some of the larger +birds have crept close to my glade, to sleep in the shadows of the low +jungle-growth. But these were, one and all, timid folk, politely +incurious, with evident respect for the rights of the individual. But +once, some others of a ruder and more barbaric temperament advanced +upon me unawares, and found me unprepared for their coming. I was +dozing quietly, glad to escape for an instant the insistent screaming +of a cicada which seemed to have gone mad in the heat, when a low +rustling caught my ear--a sound of moving leaves without wind; the +voice of a breeze in the midst of breathless heat. There was in it +something sinister and foreboding. I leaned over the edge of my +hammock, and saw coming toward me, in a broad, irregular front, a +great army of ants, battalion after battalion of them flowing like a +sea of living motes over twigs and leaves and stems. I knew the danger +and I half sat up, prepared to roll out and walk to one side. Then I +gaged my supporting strands; tested them until they vibrated and +hummed, and lay back, watching, to see what would come about. I knew +that no creature in the world could stay in the path of this horde and +live. To kill an insect or a great bird would require only a few +minutes, and the death of a jaguar or a tapir would mean only a few +more. Against this attack, claws, teeth, poison-fangs would be idle +weapons. + +In the van fled a cloud of terrified insects--those gifted with flight +to wing their way far off, while the humbler ones went running +headlong, their legs, four, six, or a hundred, making the swiftest +pace vouchsafed them. There were foolish folk who climbed up low +ferns, achieving the swaying, topmost fronds only to be trailed by the +savage ants and brought down to instant death. + +Even the winged ones were not immune, for if they hesitated a second, +an ant would seize upon them, and, although carried into the air, +would not loosen his grip, but cling to them, obstruct their flight, +and perhaps bring them to earth in the heart of the jungle, where, cut +off from their kind, the single combat would be waged to the death. +From where I watched, I saw massacres innumerable; terrible battles in +which some creature--a giant beside an ant--fought for his life, +crushing to death scores of the enemy before giving up. + +They were a merciless army and their number was countless, with host +upon host following close on each other's heels. A horde of warriors +found a bird in my game-bag, and left of it hardly a feather. I +wondered whether they would discover me, and they did, though I think +it was more by accident than by intention. Nevertheless a half-dozen +ants appeared on the foot-strands, nervously twiddling their antennae +in my direction. Their appraisal was brief; with no more than a +second's delay they started toward me. I waited until they were well +on their way, then vigorously twanged the cords under them harpwise, +sending all the scouts into mid-air and headlong down among their +fellows. So far as I know, this was a revolutionary maneuver in +military tactics, comparable only to the explosion of a set mine. But +even so, when the last of this brigade had gone on their menacing, +pitiless way, and the danger had passed to a new province, I could not +help thinking of the certain, inexorable fate of a man who, unable to +move from his hammock or to make any defense, should be thus exposed +to their attack. There could be no help for him if but one of this +great host should scent him out and carry the word back to the rank +and file. + +It was after this army had been lost in the black shadows of the +forest floor, that I remembered those others who had come with +them--those attendant birds of prey who profit by the evil work of +this legion. For, hovering over them, sometimes a little in advance, +there had been a flying squadron of antbirds and others which had come +to feed, not on the ants, but on the insects which had been +frightened into flight. At one time, three of these dropped down to +perch on my hammock, nervous, watchful, and alert, waiting but a +moment before darting after some ill-fated moth or grasshopper which, +in its great panic, had escaped one danger only to fall an easy victim +to another. For a little while, the twittering and chirping of these +camp-followers, these feathered profiteers, was brought back to me on +the wind; and when it had died away, I took up my work again in a +glade in which no voice of insect reached my ears. The hunting ants +had done their work thoroughly. + +And so it comes about that by day or by night the hammock carries with +it its own reward to those who have learned but one thing--that there +is a chasm between pancakes and truffles. It is an open door to a new +land which does not fail of its promise, a land in which the prosaic, +the ordinary, the everyday have no place, since they have been +shouldered out, dethroned, by a new and competent perspective. The god +of hammocks is unfailingly kind, just, and generous to those who have +found pancakes wanting and have discovered by inspiration, or +what-not, that truffles do not grow in back-yards to be served at +early breakfast by the maid-of-all-work. Which proves, I believe, that +a mere bed may be a block in the path of philosophy, a commonplace, +and that truffles and hammocks--hammocks unquestionably--are twin +doors to the land of romance. + +The swayer in hammocks may find amusement and may enrich science by +his record of observations; his memory will be more vivid, his caste +the worthier, for the intimacy with wild things achieved when swinging +between earth and sky, unfettered by mattress or roof. + + + + +X + +A TROPIC GARDEN + + +Take an automobile and into it pile a superman, a great evolutionist, +an artist, an ornithologist, a poet, a botanist, a photographer, a +musician, an author, adorable youngsters of fifteen, and a tired +business man, and within half an hour I shall have drawn from them +superlatives of appreciation, each after his own method of emotional +expression--whether a flood of exclamations, or silence. This is no +light boast, for at one time or another, I have done all this, but in +only one place--the Botanical Gardens of Georgetown, British Guiana. +As I hold it sacrilege to think of dying without again seeing the Taj +Mahal, or the Hills from Darjeeling, so something of ethics seems +involved in my soul's necessity of again watching the homing of the +herons in these tropic gardens at evening. + +In the busy, unlovely streets of the waterfront of Georgetown, one is +often jostled; in the markets, it is often difficult at times to make +one's way; but in the gardens a solitary laborer grubs among the +roots, a coolie woman swings by with a bundle of grass on her head, +or, in the late afternoon, an occasional motor whirrs past. Mankind +seems almost an interloper, rather than architect and owner of these +wonder-gardens. His presence is due far more often to business, his +transit marked by speed, than the slow walking or loitering which real +appreciation demands. + +A guide-book will doubtless give the exact acreage, tell the mileage +of excellent roads, record the date of establishment, and the number +of species of palms and orchids. But it will have nothing to say of +the marvels of the slow decay of a Victoria Regia leaf, or of the +spiral descent of a white egret, or of the feelings which Roosevelt +and I shared one evening, when four manatees rose beneath us. It was +from a little curved Japanese bridge, and the next morning we were to +start up-country to my jungle laboratory. There was not a ripple on +the water, but here I chose to stand still and wait. After ten minutes +of silence, I put a question and Roosevelt said, "I would willingly +stand for two days to catch a good glimpse of a wild manatee." And +St. Francis heard, and, one after another, four great backs slowly +heaved up; then an ill-formed head and an impossible mouth, with the +unbelievable harelip, and before our eyes the sea-cows snorted and +gamboled. + +Again, four years later, I put my whole soul into a prayer for +manatees, and again with success. During a few moments' interval of a +tropical downpour, I stood on the same little bridge with Henry +Fairfield Osborn. We had only half an hour left in the tropics; the +steamer was on the point of sailing; what, in ten minutes, could be +seen of tropical life! I stood helpless, waiting, hoping for anything +which might show itself in this magic garden, where to-day the foliage +was glistening malachite and the clouds a great flat bowl of oxidized +silver. + +The air brightened, and a tree leaning far across the water came into +view. On its under side was a long silhouetted line of one and twenty +little fish-eating bats, tiny spots of fur and skinny web, all so much +alike that they might well have been one bat and twenty shadows. + +A small crocodile broke water into air which for him held no moisture, +looked at the bats, then at us, and slipped back into the world of +crocodiles. A cackle arose, so shrill and sudden, that it seemed to +have been the cause of the shower of drops from the palm-fronds; and +then, on the great leaves of the Regia, which defy simile, we +perceived the first feathered folk of this single tropical +glimpse--spur-winged jacanas, whose rich rufus and cool lemon-yellow +no dampness could deaden. With them were gallinules and small green +herons, and across the pink mist of lotos blossoms just beyond, three +egrets drew three lines of purest white--and vanished. It was not at +all real, this onrush of bird and blossom revealed by the temporary +erasing of the driven lines of gray rain. + +Like a spendthrift in the midst of a winning game, I still watched +eagerly and ungratefully for manatees. Kiskadees splashed rather than +flew through the drenched air, an invisible black witch bubbled +somewhere to herself, and a wren sang three notes and a trill which +died out in a liquid gurgle. Then came another crocodile, and finally +the manatees. Not only did they rise and splash and roll and +indolently flick themselves with their great flippers, but they stood +upright on their tails, like Alice's carpenter's companion, and one +fondled its young as a water-mamma should. Then the largest stretched +up as far as any manatee can ever leave the water, and caught and +munched a drooping sprig of bamboo. Watching the great puffing lips, +we again thought of walruses; but only a caterpillar could emulate +that sideways mumbling--the strangest mouth of any mammal. But from +behind, the rounded head, the shapely neck, the little baby manatee +held carefully in the curve of a flipper, made legends of mermaids +seem very reasonable; and if I had been an early _voyageur_, I should +assuredly have had stories to tell of mer-kiddies as well. As we +watched, the young one played about, slowly and deliberately, without +frisk or gambol, but determinedly, intently, as if realizing its duty +to an abstract conception of youth and warm-blooded mammalness. + +The earth holds few breathing beings stranger than these manatees. +Their life is a slow progression through muddy water from one bed of +lilies or reeds to another. Every few minutes, day and night, year +after year, they come to the surface for a lungful of the air which +they must have, but in which they cannot live. In place of hands they +have flippers, which paddle them leisurely along, which also serve to +hold the infant manatee, and occasionally to scratch themselves when +leeches irritate. The courtship of sea-cows, the qualities which +appeal most to their dull minds, the way they protect the callow +youngsters from voracious crocodiles, how or where they sleep--of all +this we are ignorant. We belong to the same class, but the line +between water and air is a no man's land which neither of us can pass +for more than a few seconds. + +When their big black hulks heaved slowly upward, it brought to my mind +the huge glistening backs of elephants bathing in Indian streams; and +this resemblance is not wholly fantastic. Not far from the oldest +Egyptian ruins, excavations have brought to light ruins millions of +years more ancient--the fossil bones of great creatures as strange as +any that live in the realm of fairyland or fiction. Among them was +revealed the ancestry of elephants, which was also that of manatees. +Far back in geological times the tapir-like Moeritherium, which +wandered through Eocene swamps, had within itself the prophecy of two +diverse lines. One would gain great tusks and a long, mobile trunk and +live its life in distant tropical jungles; and another branch was to +sink still deeper into the swamp-water, where its hind-legs would +weaken and vanish as it touched dry land less and less. And here +to-day we watched a quartette of these manatees, living contented +lives and breeding in the gardens of Georgetown. + +The mist again drifted its skeins around leaf and branch, gray things +became grayer, drops formed in mid-air and slipped slowly through +other slower forming drops, and a moment later rain was falling +gently. We went away, and to our mind's eye the manatees behind that +gray curtain still munch bamboos, the spur-wings stretch their +colorful wings cloudward, and the bubble-eyed crocodiles float +intermittently between two watery zones. + +To say that these are beautiful botanical gardens is like the +statement that sunsets are admirable events. It is better to think of +them as a setting, focusing about the greatest water-lily in the +world, or, as we have seen, the strangest mammal; or as an exhibit of +roots--roots as varied and as exquisite as a hall of famous sculpture; +or as a wilderness of tapestry foliage, in texture from cobweb to +burlap; or as a heaven-roofed, sun-furnaced greenhouse of blossoms, +from the tiniest of dull-green orchids to the fifty-foot spike of +taliput bloom. With this foundation of vegetation recall that the +Demerara coast is a paradise for herons, egrets, bitterns, gallinules, +jacanas, and hawks, and think of these trees and foliage, islands and +marsh, as a nesting and roosting focus for hundreds of such birds. +Thus, considering the gardens indirectly, one comes gradually to the +realization of their wonderful character. + +The Victoria Regia has one thing in common with a volcano--no amount +of description or of colored plates prepares one for the plant itself. +In analysis we recall its dimensions, colors, and form. Standing by a +trench filled with its leaves and flowers, we discard the records of +memory, and cleansing the senses of pre-impressions, begin anew. The +marvel is for each of us, individually, an exception to evolution; it +is a special creation, like all the rainbows seen in one's life--a +thing to be reverently absorbed by sight, by scent, by touch, absorbed +and realized without precedent or limit. Only ultimately do we find it +necessary to adulterate this fine perception with definitive words and +phrases, and so attempt to register it for ourselves or others. + +I have seen many wonderful sights from an automobile,--such as my +first Boche barrage and the tree ferns of Martinique,--but none to +compare with the joys of vision from prehistoric _tikka gharries_, +ancient victorias, and aged hacks. It was from the low curves of these +equine rickshaws that I first learned to love Paris and Calcutta and +the water-lilies of Georgetown. One of the first rites which I perform +upon returning to New York is to go to the Lafayette and, after +dinner, brush aside the taxi men and hail a victoria. The last time I +did this, my driver was so old that two fellow drivers, younger than +he and yet grandfatherly, assisted him, one holding the horse and the +other helping him to his seat. Slowly ascending Fifth Avenue close to +the curb and on through Central Park is like no other experience. The +vehicle is so low and open that all resemblance to bus or taxi is +lost. Everything is seen from a new angle. One learns incidentally +that there is a guild of cab-drivers--proud, restrained, jealous. A +hundred cars rush by without notice. Suddenly we see the whip brought +up in salute to the dingy green top-hat, and across the avenue we +perceive another victoria. And we are thrilled at the discovery, as +if we had unearthed a new codex of some ancient ritual. + +And so, initiated by such precedent, I have found it a worthy thing to +spend hours in decrepit cabs loitering along side roads in the +Botanical Gardens, watching herons and crocodiles, lilies and +manatees, from the rusty leather seats. At first the driver looked at +me in astonishment as I photographed or watched or wrote; but later he +attended to his horse, whispering strange things into its ears, and +finally deserted me. My writing was punctuated by graceful flourishes, +resulting from an occasional lurch of the vehicle as the horse stepped +from one to another patch of luscious grass. + +Like Fujiyama, the Victoria Regia changes from hour to hour, +color-shifted, wind-swung, and the mechanism of the blossoms never +ceasing. In northern greenhouses it is nursed by skilled gardeners, +kept in indifferent vitality by artificial heat and ventilation, with +gaged light and selected water; here it was a rank growth, in its +natural home, and here we knew of its antiquity from birds whose toes +had been molded through scores of centuries to tread its great +leaves. + +In the cool fragrance of early morning, with the sun low across the +water, the leaves appeared like huge, milky-white platters, with now +and then little dancing silhouettes running over them. In another +slant of light they seemed atolls scattered thickly through a dark, +quiet sea, with new-blown flowers filling the whole air with +slow-drifting perfume. Best of all, in late afternoon, the true colors +came to the eye--six-foot circles of smooth emerald, with up-turned +hem of rich wine-color. Each had a tell-tale cable lying along the +surface, a score of leaves radiating from one deep hidden root. + +Up through mud and black trench-water came the leaf, like a tiny fist +of wrinkles, and day by day spread and uncurled, looking like the +unwieldy paw of a kitten or cub. The keels and ribs covering the +under-side increased in size and strength, and finally the great leaf +was ironed out by the warm sun into a mighty sheet of smooth, emerald +chlorophyll. Then, for a time,--no one has ever taken the trouble to +find out how long,--it was at its best, swinging back and forth at its +moorings with deep upright rim, a notch at one side revealing the +almost invisible seam of the great lobes, and serving, also, as +drainage outlet for excess of rain. + +A young leaf occasionally came to grief by reaching the surface amid +several large ones floating close together. Such a leaf expanded, as +usual, but, like a beached boat, was gradually forced high and dry, +hardening into a distorted shape and sinking only with the decay of +the underlying leaves. + +The deep crimson of the outside of the rim was merely a reflection +tint, and vanished when the sun shone directly through; but the masses +of sharp spines were very real, and quite efficient in repelling +boarders. The leaf offered safe haven to any creature that could leap +or fly to its surface; but its life would be short indeed if the +casual whim of every baby crocodile or flipper of a young manatee met +with no opposition. + +Insects came from water and from air and called the floating leaf +home, and, from now on, its surface was one of the most interesting +and busy arenas in this tropical landscape. + +In late September I spread my observation chair at the very edge of +one of the dark tarns and watched the life on the leaves. Out at the +center a fussy jacana was feeding with her two spindly-legged babies, +while, still nearer, three scarlet-helmeted gallinules lumbered about, +now and then tipping over a silvery and black infant which seemed +puzzled as to which it should call parent. Here was a clear example, +not only of the abundance of life in the tropics, but of the keen +competition. The jacana invariably lays four eggs, and the gallinule, +at this latitude, six or eight, yet only a fraction of the young had +survived even to this tender age. + +As I looked, a small crocodile rose, splashed, and sank, sending +terror among the gallinules, but arousing the spur-wing jacana to a +high pitch of anger. It left its young and flew directly to the +widening circles and hovered, cackling loudly. These birds have ample +ability to cope with the dangers which menace from beneath; but their +fear was from above, and every passing heron, egret, or harmless hawk +was given a quick scrutiny, with an instinctive crouch and half-spread +wings. + +But still the whole scene was peaceful; and as the sun grew warmer, +young herons and egrets crawled out of their nests on the island a few +yards away and preened their scanty plumage. Kiskadees splashed and +dipped along the margin of the water. Everywhere this species seems +seized with an aquatic fervor, and in localities hundreds of miles +apart I have seen them gradually desert their fly-catching for surface +feeding, or often plunging, kingfisher-like, bodily beneath, to emerge +with a small wriggling fish--another certain reflection of +overpopulation and competition. + +As I sat I heard a rustle behind me, and there, not eight feet away, +narrow snout held high, one tiny foot lifted, was that furry fiend, +Rikki-tikki. He was too quick for me, and dived into a small clump of +undergrowth and bamboos. But I wanted a specimen of mongoose, and the +artist offered to beat one end of the bush. Soon I saw the gray form +undulating along, and as the rustling came nearer, he shot forth, +moving in great bounds. I waited until he had covered half the +distance to the next clump and rolled him over. Going back to my +chair, I found that neither jacana, nor gallinules, nor herons had +been disturbed by my shot. + +While the introduction of the mongoose into Guiana was a very +reckless, foolish act, yet he seems to be having a rather hard time of +it, and with islands and lily-pads as havens, and waterways in every +direction, Rikki is reduced chiefly to grasshoppers and such small +game. He has spread along the entire coast, through the cane-fields +and around the rice-swamps, and it will not be his fault if he does +not eventually get a foothold in the jungle itself. + +No month or day or hour fails to bring vital changes--tragedies and +comedies--to the network of life of these tropical gardens; but as we +drive along the broad paths of an afternoon, the quiet vistas show +only waving palms, weaving vultures, and swooping kiskadees, with +bursts of color from bougainvillea, flamboyant, and queen of the +flowers. At certain times, however, the tide of visible change swelled +into a veritable bore of life, gently and gradually, as quiet waters +become troubled and then pass into the seething uproar of rapids. In +late afternoon, when the long shadows of palms stretched their +blue-black bars across the terra-cotta roads, the foliage of the green +bamboo islands was dotted here and there with a scattering of young +herons, white and blue and parti-colored. Idly watching them through +glasses, I saw them sleepily preening their sprouting feathers, making +ineffectual attempts at pecking one another, or else hunched in +silent heron-dream. They were scarcely more alive than the creeping, +hour-hand tendrils about them, mere double-stemmed, fluffy petaled +blossoms, no more strange than the nearest vegetable blooms--the +cannon-ball mystery, the sand-box puzzle, sinister orchids, and the +false color-alarms of the white-bracted silver-leaf. Compared with +these, perching herons are right and seemly fruit. + +As I watched them I suddenly stiffened in sympathy, as I saw all +vegetable sloth drop away and each bird become a detached individual, +plucked by an electric emotion from the appearance of a thing of sap +and fiber to a vital being of tingling nerves. I followed their united +glance, and overhead there vibrated, lightly as a thistledown, the +first incoming adult heron, swinging in from a day's fishing along the +coast. It went on and vanished among the fronds of a distant island; +but the calm had been broken, and through all the stems there ran a +restless sense of anticipation, a zeitgeist of prophetic import. One +felt that memory of past things was dimming, and content with present +comfort was no longer dominant. It was the future to which both the +baby herons and I were looking, and for them realization came quickly. +The sun had sunk still lower, and great clouds had begun to spread +their robes and choose their tints for the coming pageant. + +And now the vanguard of the homing host appeared,--black dots against +blue and white and salmon,--thin, gaunt forms with slow-moving wings +which cut the air through half the sky. The little herons and I +watched them come--first a single white egret, which spiralled down, +just as I had many times seen the first returning Spad eddy downward +to a cluster of great hump-backed hangars; then a trio of tricolored +herons, and six little blues, and after that I lost count. It seemed +as if these tiny islands were magnets drawing all the herons in the +world. + +Parrakeets whirl roostwards with machine-like synchronism of flight; +geese wheel down in more or less regular formation; but these herons +concentrated along straight lines, each describing its individual +radius from the spot where it caught its last fish or shrimp to its +nest or the particular branch on which it will spend the night. With a +hemicircle of sufficient size, one might plot all of the hundreds upon +hundreds of these radii, and each would represent a distinct line, if +only a heron's width apart. + +At the height of the evening's flight there were sometimes fifty +herons in sight at once, beating steadily onward until almost +overhead, when they put on brakes and dropped. Some, as the little +egrets, were rather awkward; while the tricolors were the most +skilful, sometimes nose-diving, with a sudden flattening out just in +time to reach out and grasp a branch. Once or twice, when a fitful +breeze blew at sunset, I had a magnificent exhibition of aeronautics. +The birds came upwind slowly, beating their way obliquely but +steadily, long legs stretched out far behind the tail and swinging +pendulum-like whenever a shift of ballast was needed. They apparently +did not realize the unevenness of the wind, for when they backed air, +ready to descend, a sudden gust would often undercut them and over +they would go, legs, wings, and neck sprawling in mid-air. After one +or two somersaults or a short, swift dive, they would right +themselves, feathers on end, and frantically grasp at the first leaf +or twig within reach. Panting, they looked helplessly around, +reorientation coming gradually. + +At each arrival, a hoarse chorus went up from hungry throats, and +every youngster within reach scrambled wildly forward, hopeful of a +fish course. They received but scant courtesy and usually a vicious +peck tumbled them off the branch. I saw a young bird fall to the +water, and this mishap was from no attack, but due to his tripping +over his own feet, the claws of one foot gripping those of the other +in an insane clasp, which overbalanced him. He fell through a thin +screen of vines and splashed half onto a small Regia leaf. With neck +and wings he struggled to pull himself up, and had almost succeeded +when heron and leaf sank slowly, and only the bare stem swung up +again. A few bubbles led off in a silvery path toward deeper water, +showing where a crocodile swam slowly off with his prey. + +For a time the birds remained still, and then crept within the +tangles, to their mates or nests, or quieted the clamor of the young +with warm-storage fish. How each one knew its own offspring was beyond +my ken, but on three separate evenings scattered through one week, I +observed an individual, marked by a wing-gap of two lost feathers, +come, within a quarter-hour of six o'clock, and feed a great awkward +youngster which had lost a single feather from each wing. So there +was no hit-or-miss method--no luck in the strongest birds taking toll +from more than two of the returning parents. + +Observing this vesper migration in different places, I began to see +orderly segregation on a large scale. All the smaller herons dwelt +together on certain islands in more or less social tolerance; and on +adjoining trees, separated by only a few yards, scores of hawks +concentrated and roosted, content with their snail diet, and wholly +ignoring their neighbors. On the other side of the gardens, in +aristocratic isolation, was a colony of stately American egrets, +dainty and graceful. Their circumference of radiation was almost or +quite a circle, for they preferred the ricefields for their daily +hunting. Here the great birds, snowy white, with flowing aigrettes, +and long, curving necks, settled with dignity, and here they slept and +sat on their rough nests of sticks. + +When the height of homing flight of the host of herons had passed, I +noticed a new element of restlessness, and here and there among the +foliage appeared dull-brown figures. There occurred the comic +explanation of white herons who had crept deep among the branches, +again emerging in house coat of drab! These were not the same, +however, and the first glance through binoculars showed the thick-set, +humped figures and huge, staring eyes of night herons. + +As the last rays of the sun left the summit of the royal palms, +something like the shadow of a heron flashed out and away, and then +the import of these facts was impressed upon me. The egret, the night +heron, the vampire--here were three types of organisms, characterizing +the actions and reactions in nature. The islands were receiving and +giving up. Their heart was becoming filled with the many day-feeding +birds, and now the night-shift was leaving, and the very branch on +which a night heron might have been dozing all day was now occupied, +perhaps, by a sleeping egret. With eyes enlarged to gather together +the scanty rays of light, the night herons were slipping away in the +path of the vampires--both nocturnal, but unlike in all other ways. +And I wondered if, in the very early morning, infant night herons +would greet their returning parents; and if their callow young ever +fell into the dark waters, what awful deathly alternates would night +reveal; or were the slow-living crocodiles sleepless, with cruel eyes +which never closed so soundly but that the splash of a young night +heron brought instant response? + + + + +XI + +THE BAY OF BUTTERFLIES + + +Butterflies doing strange things in very beautiful ways were in my +mind when I sat down, but by the time my pen was uncapped my thoughts +had shifted to rocks. The ink was refractory and a vigorous flick sent +a shower of green drops over the sand on which I was sitting, and as I +watched the ink settle into the absorbent quartz--the inversions of +our grandmothers' blotters--I thought of what jolly things the lost +ink might have been made to say about butterflies and rocks, if it +could have flowed out slowly in curves and angles and dots over +paper--for the things we might have done are always so much more +worthy than those which we actually accomplish. When at last I began +to write, a song came to my ears and my mind again looped backward. At +least, there came from the very deeps of the water beyond the +mangroves a low, metallic murmur; and my Stormouth says that in +Icelandic _sangra_ means to murmur. So what is a murmur in Iceland +may very well be a song in Guiana. At any rate, my pen would have to +do only with words of singing catfish; yet from butterflies to rock, +to fish, all was logical looping--mental giant-swings which came as +relaxation after hours of observation of unrelated sheer facts. + +The singing cats, so my pen consented to write, had serenaded me while +I crossed the Cuyuni in a canoe. There arose deep, liquid, vibrating +sounds, such as those I now heard, deep and penetrating, as if from +some submarine gong--a gong which could not be thought of as wet, for +it had never been dry. As I stopped paddling the sound became absolute +vibration, the canoe itself seemed to tremble, the paddle tingled in +my hands. It was wholly detached; it came from whatever direction the +ear sought it. Then, without dying out, it was reinforced by another +sound, rhythmical, abrupt, twanging, filling the water and air with a +slow measure on four notes. The water swirled beside the canoe, and a +face appeared--a monstrous, complacent face, such as Bocklin would +love--a face inhuman in possessing the quality of supreme contentment. +Framed in the brown waters, the head of the great, grinning catfish +rose, and slowly sank, leaving outlines discernible in ripples and +bubbles with almost Cheshire persistency. One of my Indians, passing +in his dugout, smiled at my peering down after the fish, and murmured, +"Boom-boom." + +Then came a day when one of these huge, amiable, living smiles +blundered into our net, a smile a foot wide and six feet long, and +even as he lay quietly awaiting what fate brought to great catfish, he +sang, both theme and accompaniment. His whole being throbbed with the +continuous deep drumming as the thin, silky walls of his swim-bladder +vibrated in the depths of his body. The oxygen in the air was slowly +killing him, and yet his swan song was possible because of an inner +atmosphere so rich in this gas that it would be unbreathable by a +creature of the land. Nerve and muscle, special expanse of circling +bones, swim-bladder and its tenuous gas--all these combined to produce +the aquatic harmony. But as if to load this contented being with +largesse of apparently useless abilities, the two widespreading fin +spines--the fins which correspond to our arms--were swiveled in +rough-ridged cups at what might have been shoulders, and when moved +back and forth the stridulation troubled all the water, and the air, +too, with the muffled, twanging, _rip_, _rip_, _rip_, _rip_. The two +spines were tuned separately, the right being a full tone lower, and +the backward drawing of the bow gave a higher note than its forward +reach. So, alternately, at a full second tempo, the four tones rose +and fell, carrying out some strange Silurian theme: a muffled cadence +of undertones, which, thrilled with the mystery of their author and +cause, yet merged smoothly with the cosmic orchestra of wind and +ripples and distant rain. + +So the great, smooth, arching lift of granite rocks at our bungalow's +shore, where the giant catfish sang, was ever afterward Boom-boom +Point. And now I sat close by on the sand and strove to think anew of +my butterflies, for they were the reason of my being there that +brilliant October afternoon. But still my pen refused, hovering about +the thing of ultimate interest as one leaves the most desired book to +the last. For again the ear claimed dominance, and I listened to a new +little refrain over my shoulder. I pictured a tiny sawhorse, and a +midget who labored with might and main to cut through a never-ending +stint of twigs. I chose to keep my image to the last, and did not +move or look around, until there came the slightest of tugs at my +knee, and into view clambered one of those beings who are so beautiful +and bizarre that one almost thinks they should not be. My second +singer was a beetle--an awkward, enormous, serious, brilliant beetle, +with six-inch antennae and great wing covers, which combined the hues +of the royal robes of Queen Thi, tempered by thousands of years of +silent darkness in the underground tombs at Sakhara, with the grace of +curve and angle of equally ancient characters on the hill tombs of +Fokien. On a background of olive ochre there blazed great splashes and +characters of the red of jasper framed in black. Toward the front +Nature had tried heavy black stippling, but it clouded the pattern and +she had given it up in order that I might think of Egypt and Cathay. + +But the thing which took the beetle quite out of a world of reasonable +things was his forelegs. They were outrageous, and he seemed to think +so, too, for they got in his way, and caught in wrong things and +pulled him to one side. They were three times the length of his other +limbs, spreading sideways a full thirteen inches, long, slender, +beautifully sculptured, and forever reaching out in front for +whatever long-armed beetles most desire. And his song, as he climbed +over me, was squeaky and sawlike, and as he walked he doddered, head +trembling as an old man's shakes in final acquiescence in the futility +of life. + +But in this great-armed beetle it was a nodding of necessity, a +doddering of desire, the drawing of the bow across the strings in a +hymn of hope which had begun in past time with the first stridulation +of ancient insects. To-day the fiddling vibrations, the Song of the +Beetle, reached out in all directions. To the majority of jungle ears +it was only another note in the day's chorus: I saw it attract a +flycatcher's attention, hold it a moment, and then lose it. To me it +came as a vitally interesting tone of deep significance, for whatever +emotions it might arouse in casual ears, its goal was another +Great-armed Beetle, who might or might not come within its radius. +With unquestioning search the fiddler clambered on and on, over me and +over flowers and rocks, skirting the ripples and vanishing into a +maelstrom of waving grass. Long after the last awkward lurch, there +came back zizzing squeaks of perfect faith, and I hoped, as I passed +beyond the periphery of sound, that instinct and desire might direct +their rolling ball of vibrations toward the one whose ear, whether in +antenna, or thorax or femoral tympanum had, through untold numbers of +past lives, been attuned to its rhythm. + +Two thousand miles north of where I sat, or ten million, five hundred +and sixty thousand feet (for, like Bunker Bean's book-keeper, I +sometimes like to think of things that way), I would look out of the +window one morning in days to come, and thrill at the sight of falling +flakes. The emotion would very probably be sentiment--the memory of +wonderful northland snowstorms, of huge fires, of evenings with +Roosevelt, when discussions always led to unknowable fields, when book +after book yielded its phrase or sentence of pure gold thought. On one +of the last of such evenings I found a forgotten joy-of-battle-speech +of Huxley's, which stimulated two full days and four books +re-read--while flakes swirled and invisible winds came swiftly around +the eaves over the great trophies--_poussant des soupirs_,--we longing +with our whole souls for an hour of talk with that splendid old +fighting scientist. + +These are thoughts which come at first-snow, thoughts humanly narrow +and personal compared to the later delights of snow itself--crystals +and tracks, the strangeness of freezing and the mystery of melting. +And they recurred now because for days past I had idly watched +scattered flurries of lemon-yellow and of orange butterflies drift +past Kartabo. Down the two great Guiana rivers they came, steadily +progressing, yet never hurrying; with zigzag flickering flight they +barely cleared the trees and shrubs, and then skimmed the surface, +vanishing when ripples caught the light, redoubled by reflection when +the water lay quiet and polished. For month after month they passed, +sometimes absent for days or weeks, but soon to be counted at earliest +sunup, always arousing renewed curiosity, always bringing to mind the +first flurry of winter. + +We watch the autumn passing of birds with regret, but when the +bluebirds warble their way southward we are cheered with the hope and +the knowledge that some, at least, will return. Here, vast stretches +of country, perhaps all Guiana, and how much of Brazil and Venezuela +no one knows, poured forth a steady stream of yellow and orange +butterflies. They were very beautiful and they danced and flickered +in the sunlight, but this was no temporary shifting to a pleasanter +clime or a land of more abundant flowers, but a migration in the grim +old sense which Cicero loved, _non dubitat_ ... _migrare de vita_. No +butterfly ever turned back, or circled again to the glade, with its +yellow cassia blooms where he had spent his caterpillarhood. Nor did +he fly toward the north star or the sunset, but between the two. +Twelve years before, as I passed up the Essequibo and the Cuyuni, I +noticed hundreds of yellow butterflies each true to his little compass +variation of NNW. + +There are times and places in Guiana where emigrating butterflies turn +to the north or the south; sometimes for days at a time, but sooner or +later the eddies straighten out, their little flotillas cease tacking, +and all swing again NNW. + +To-day the last of the migration stragglers of the year--perhaps the +fiftieth great-grandsons of those others--held true to the Catopsilian +lodestone. + +My masculine pronouns are intentional, for of all the thousands and +tens of thousands of migrants, all, as far as I know, were males. +Catch a dozen yellows in a jungle glade and the sexes may be equal. +But the irresistible maelstrom impels only the males. Whence they come +or why they go is as utterly unknown to us as why the females are +immune. + +Once, from the deck of a steamer, far off the Guiana coast, I saw +hosts of these same great saffron-wings flying well above the water, +headed for the open sea. Behind them were sheltering fronds, nectar, +soft winds, mates; before were corroding salt, rising waves, lowering +clouds, a storm imminent. Their course was NNW, they sailed under +sealed orders, their port was Death. + +Looking out over the great expanse of the Mazaruni, the fluttering +insects were usually rather evenly distributed, each with a few yards +of clear space about it, but very rarely--I have seen it only twice--a +new force became operative. Not only were the little volant beings +siphoned up in untold numbers from their normal life of sleeping, +feeding, dancing about their mates, but they were blindly poured into +an invisible artery, down which they flowed in close association, +_veritables corpuscules de papillons_, almost touching, forming a +bending ribbon, winding its way seaward, with here and there a +temporary fraying out of eddying wings. It seemed like a wayward +cloud still stained with last night's sunset yellow, which had set out +on its own path over rivers and jungles to join the sea mists beyond +the uttermost trees. + +Such a swarm seemed imbued with an ecstasy of travel which surpassed +discomfort. Deep cloud shadows might settle down, but only dimmed the +painted wings; under raindrops the ribbon sagged, the insects flying +closer to the water. On the other hand, the scattered hosts of the +more ordinary migrations, while they turned neither to the north nor +to the west, yet fled at the advent of clouds and rain, seeking +shelter under the nearest foliage. So much loitering was permitted, +but with the coming of the sun again they must desert the pleasant +feel of velvet leaves, the rain-washed odors of streaming blossoms, +and set their antennae unquestioningly upon the strange last turn of +their wheel of life. + +What crime of ancestors are they expiating? In some forgotten +caterpillardom was an act committed, so terrible that it can never be +known, except through the working out of the karma upon millions of +butterflies? Or does there linger in the innumerable little ganglion +minds a memory of long-lost Atlantis, so compelling to masculine +Catopsilias that the supreme effort of their lives is an attempt to +envisage it? "Absurd fancies, all," says our conscious entomological +sense, and we agree and sweep them aside. And then quite as readily, +more reasonable scientific theories fall asunder, and we are left at +last alone with the butterflies, a vast ignorance, and a great +unfulfilled desire to know what it all means. + +On this October day the migration of the year had ceased. To my coarse +senses the sunlight was of equal intensity, the breeze unchanged, the +whole aspect the same--and yet something as intangible as thought, as +impelling as gravitation, had ceased to operate. The tension once +slackened, the butterflies took up their more usual lives. But what +could I know of the meaning of "normal" in the life of a butterfly--I +who boasted a miserable single pair of eyes and no greater number of +legs, whose shoulders supported only shoulder blades, and whose youth +was barren of caterpillarian memories! + +As I have said, migration was at an end, yet here I had stumbled upon +a Bay of Butterflies. No matter whether one's interest in life lay +chiefly with ornithology, teetotalism, arrowheads, politics, botany, +or finance, in this bay one's thoughts would be sure to be +concentrated on butterflies. And no less interesting than the +butterflies were their immediate surroundings. The day before, I had +sat close by on a low boulder at the head of the tiny bay, with not a +butterfly in sight. It occurred to me that my ancestor, Eryops, would +have been perfectly at home, for in front of me were clumps of +strange, carboniferous rushes, lacking leaves and grace, and sedges +such as might be fashioned in an attempt to make plants out of green +straw. Here and there an ancient jointed stem was in blossom, a +pinnacle of white filaments, and hour after hour there came little +brown trigonid visitors, sting-less bees, whose nests were veritable +museums of flower extracts--tubs of honey, hampers of pollen, barrels +of ambrosia, hoarded in castles of wax. Scirpus-sedge or orchid, all +was the same to them. + +All odor evaded me until I had recourse to my usual olfactory crutch, +placing the flower in a vial in the sunlight. Delicate indeed was the +fragrance which did not yield itself to a few minutes of this +distillation. As I removed the cork there gently arose the scent of +thyme, and of rose petals long pressed between the leaves of old, old +books--a scent memorable of days ancient to us, which in past lives of +sedges would count but a moment. In an instant it passed, drowned in +the following smell of bruised stem. But I had surprised the odor of +this age-old growth, as evanescent as the faint sound of the breeze +sifting through the cluster of leafless stalks. I felt certain that +Eryops, although living among horserushes and ancient sedges, never +smelled or listened to them, and a glow of satisfaction came over me +at the thought that perhaps I represented an advance on this funny old +forebear of mine; but then I thought of the little bees, drawn from +afar by the scent, and I returned to my usual sense of human futility, +which is always dominant in the presence of insect activities. + +I leaned back, crowding into a crevice of rock, and strove to realize +more deeply the kinship of these fine earth neighbors. Bone of my bone +indeed they were, but their quiet dignity, their calmness in storm and +sun, their poise, their disregard of all small, petty things, whether +of mechanics, whether chemical or emotional--these were attributes to +which I could only aspire, being the prerogatives of superiors. + +These rocks, in particular, seemed of the very essence of earth. Three +elements fought over them. The sand and soil from which they lifted +their splendid heads sifted down, or was washed up, in vain effort to +cover them. More subtly dead tree trunks fell upon them, returned to +earth, and strove to encloak them. For six hours at a time the water +claimed them, enveloping them slowly in a mantle of quicksilver, or +surging over with rough waves. Algal spores took hold, desmids and +diatoms swam in and settled down, little fish wandered in and out of +the crevices, while large ones nosed at the entrances. + +Then Mother Earth turned slowly onward; the moon, reaching down, +beckoned with invisible fingers, and the air again entered this no +man's land. Breezes whispered where a few moments before ripples had +lapped; with the sun as ally, the last remaining pool vanished and +there began the hours of aerial dominion. The most envied character of +our lesser brethren is their faith. No matter how many hundreds of +thousands of tides had ebbed and flowed, yet to-day every pinch of +life which was blown or walked or fell or flew to the rocks during +their brief respite from the waves, accepted the good dry surface +without question. + +Seeds and berries fell, and rolled into hollows rich in mulcted earth; +parachutes, buoyed on thistle silk, sailed from distant jungle plants; +every swirl of breeze brought spores of lichens and moss, and even the +retreating water unwittingly aided, having transported hither and +dropped a cargo of living things, from tiniest plant to seeds of +mightiest mora. Though in the few allotted hours these might not +sprout, but only quicken in their heart, yet blue-winged wasps made +their faith more manifest, and worked with feverish haste to gather +pellets of clay and fashion cells. I once saw even the beginning of +storage--a green spider, which an hour later was swallowed by a +passing fish instead of nourishing an infant wasp. + +Spiders raised their meshes where shrimps had skipped, and flies +hummed and were caught by singing jungle vireos, where armored catfish +had passed an hour or two before. + +So the elements struggled and the creatures of each strove to fulfil +their destiny, and for a little time the rocks and I wondered at it +together. + +In this little arena, floored with sand, dotted with rushes and +balconied with boulders, many hundreds of butterflies were gathered. +There were five species, all of the genius _Catopsilia_, but only +three were easily distinguishable in life, the smaller, lemon yellow +_statira_, and the larger, orange _argente_ and _philea_. There was +also _eubele_, the migrant, keeping rather to itself. + +I took some pictures, then crept closer; more pictures and a nearer +approach. Then suddenly all rose, and I felt as if I had shattered a +wonderful painting. But the sand was a lodestone and drew them down. I +slipped within a yard, squatted, and mentally became one of them. +Silently, by dozens and scores, they flew around me, and soon they +eclipsed the sand. They were so closely packed that their outstretched +legs touched. There were two large patches, and a smaller area +outlined by no boundary that I could detect. Yet when these were +occupied the last comers alighted on top of the wings of their +comrades, who resented neither the disturbance nor the weight. Two +layers of butterflies crammed into small areas of sand in the midst +of more sand, bounded by walls of empty air--this was a strange thing. + +A little later, when I enthusiastically reported it to a professional +lepidopterist he brushed it aside. "A common occurrence the world +over, Rhopalocera gathered in damp places to drink." I, too, had +observed apparently similar phenomena along icy streams in Sikkim, and +around muddy buffalo-wallows in steaming Malay jungles. And I can +recall many years ago, leaning far out of a New England buggy to watch +clouds of little sulphurs flutter up from puddles beneath the creaking +wheels. + +The very fact that butterflies chose to drink in company is of intense +interest, and to be envied as well by us humans who are temporarily +denied that privilege. But in the Bay of Butterflies they were not +drinking, nor during the several days when I watched them. One of the +chosen patches of sand was close to the tide when I first saw them, +and damp enough to appease the thirst of any butterfly. The other two +were upon sand, parched by hours of direct tropical sun, and here the +two layers were massed. + +The insects alighted, facing in any direction, but veered at once, +heading upbreeze. Along the riverside of markets of tropical cities I +have seen fleets of fishing boats crowded close together, their gay +sails drying, while great ebony Neptunes brought ashore baskets of +angel fish. This came to mind as I watched my flotillas of +butterflies. + +I leaned forward until my face was hardly a foot from the outliers, +and these I learned to know as individuals. One sulphur had lost a bit +of hind wing, and three times he flew away and returned to the same +spot. Like most cripples, he was unamiable, and resented a close +approach, pushing at the trespasser with a foreleg in a most +unbutterfly-like way. Although I watched closely, I did not see a +single tongue uncoiled for drinking. Only when a dense group became +uneasy and pushed one another about were the tongue springs slightly +loosened. Even the nervous antennae were quiet after the insects had +settled. They seemed to have achieved a Rhopaloceran Nirvana, content +to rest motionless until caught up in the temporary whirlwinds of +restlessness which now and then possessed them. + +They came from all directions, swirling over the rocks, twisting +through nearby brambles, and settling without a moment's hesitation. +It was as though they had all been here many times before, a +rendezvous which brooked not an instant's delay. From time to time +some mass spirit troubled them, and, as one butterfly, the whole +company took to wing. Close as they were when resting, they fairly +buffeted one another in mid-air. Their wings, striking one another and +my camera and face, made a strange little rustling, crisp and +crackling whispers of sounds. As if a pile of Northern autumn leaves, +fallen to earth, suddenly remembered days of greenness and humming +bees, and strove to raise themselves again to the bare branches +overhead. + +Down came the butterflies again, brushing against my clothes and eyes +and hands. All that I captured later were males, and most were fresh +and newly emerged, with a scattering of dimmed wings, frayed at edges, +who flew more slowly, with less vigor. Finally the lower patch was +washed out by the rising tide, but not until the water actually +reached them did the insects leave. I could trace with accuracy the +exact reach of the last ripple to roll over the flat sand by the +contour of the remaining outermost rank of insects. + +On and on came the water, and soon I was forced to move, and the +hundreds of butterflies in front of me. When the last one had left I +went away, returning two hours later. It was then that I witnessed the +most significant happening in the Bay of Butterflies--one which shook +to the bottom the theory of my lepidopterist friend, together with my +thoughtless use of the word normal. Over two feet of restless brown +water covered the sand patches and rocked the scouring rushes. A few +feet farther up the little bay the remaining sand was still exposed. +Here were damp sand, sand dotted with rushes, and sand dry and white +in the sun. About a hundred butterflies were in sight, some +continually leaving, and others arriving. Individuals still dashed +into sight and swooped downward. But not one attempted to alight on +the exposed sand. There was fine, dry sand, warm to a butterfly's +feet, or wet sand soaked with draughts of good Mazaruni water. But +they passed this unheeding, and circled and fluttered in two swarms, +as low as they dared, close to the surface of the water, exactly over +the two patches of sand which had so drawn and held them or their +brethren two hours before. Whatever the ultimate satisfaction may +have been, the attraction was something transcending humidity, +aridity, or immediate possibility of attainment. It was a definite +cosmic point, a geographical focus, which, to my eyes and +understanding, was unreasonable, unsuitable, and inexplicable. + +As I watched the restless water and the butterflies striving to find a +way down through it to the only desired patches of sand in the world, +there arose a fine, thin humming, seeping up through the very waves, +and I knew the singing catfish were following the tide shoreward. And +as I considered my vast ignorance of what it all meant, of how little +I could ever convey of the significance of the happenings in the Bay +of Butterflies, I felt that it would have been far better for all of +my green ink to have trickled down through the grains of sand. + + + + +XII + +SEQUELS + + +Tropical midges of sorts live less than a day--sequoias have felt +their sap quicken at the warmth of fifteen hundred springs. Somewhere +between these extremes, we open our eyes, look about us for a time and +close them again. Modern political geography and shifts of government +give us Methusalistic feelings--but a glance at rocks or stars sends +us shuddering among the other motes which glisten for a moment in the +sunlight and then vanish. + +We who strive for a little insight into evolution and the meaning of +things as they are, forever long for a glimpse of things as they were. +Here at my laboratory I wonder what the land was like before the dense +mat of vegetation came to cover every rock and grain of sand, or how +the rivers looked when first their waters trickled to the sea. + +All our stories are of the middles of things,--without beginning or +end; we scientists are plunged suddenly upon a cosmos in the full +uproar of eons of precedent, unable to look ahead, while to look +backward we must look down. + +Exactly a year ago I spent two hours in a clearing in the jungle back +of Kartabo laboratory, and let my eyes and ears have full swing.[2] +Now in August of the succeeding year I came again to this clearing, +and found it no more a clearing. Indeed so changed was it, that for +weeks I had passed close by without a thought of the jungle meadow of +the previous year, and now, what finally turned me aside from my usual +trail, was a sound. Twelve months ago I wrote, "From the monotone of +under-world sounds a strange little rasping detached itself, a +reiterated, subdued scraping or picking. It carried my mind instantly +to the throbbing theme of the Niebelungs, onomatopoetic of the little +hammers forever busy in their underground work. I circled a small bush +at my side, and found that the sound came from one of the branches +near the top; so with my glasses I began a systematic search." This +was as far as I ever got, for a flock of parrakeets exploded close at +hand and blew the lesser sound out of mind. If I had stopped to guess +I would probably have considered the author a longicorn beetle or some +fiddling orthopter. + +[Footnote 2: See page 34.] + +Now, a year later, I suddenly stopped twenty yards away, for at the +end of the silvery cadence of a woodhewer, I heard the low, measured, +toneless rhythm which instantly revived to mind every detail of the +clearing. I was headed toward a distant palm frond beneath whose tip +was a nest of Rufous Hermits, for I wished to see the two atoms of +hummingbirds at the moment when they rolled from their _petit pois_ +egg-shells. I gave this up for the day and turned up the hill, where +fifty feet away was the stump and bush near which I had sat and +watched. Three times I went past the place before I could be certain, +and even at the last I identified it only by the relative position of +the giant tauroneero tree, in which I had shot many cotingas. The +stump was there, a bit lower and more worn at the crevices, leaking +sawdust like an overloved doll--but the low shrub had become a tall +sapling, the weeds--vervain, boneset, velvet-leaf--all had been topped +and killed off by dense-foliaged bushes and shrubs, which a year +before had not raised a leaf above the meadow level. The old vistas +were gone, the landscape had closed in, the wilderness was shutting +down. Nature herself was "letting in the jungle." I felt like Rip Van +Winkle, or even more alien, as if the passing of time had been +accelerated and my longed-for leap had been accomplished, beyond the +usual ken of mankind's earthly lease of senses. + +All these astounding changes had come to pass through the heat and +moisture of a tropical year, and under deliberate scientific +calculation there was nothing unusual in the alteration. I remembered +the remarkable growth of one of the laboratory bamboo shoots during +the rainy season--twelve and a half feet in sixteen days, but that was +a single stem like a blade of grass, whereas here the whole landscape +was altered--new birds, new insects, branches, foliage, flowers, where +twelve short months past, was open sky above low weeds. + +In the hollow root on the beach, my band of crane-flies had danced for +a thousand hours, but here was a sound which had apparently never +ceased for more than a year--perhaps five thousand hours of daylight. +It was a low, penetrating, abruptly reiterated beat, occurring about +once every second and a half, and distinctly audible a hundred feet +away. The "low bush" from which it proceeded last year, was now a +respectable sapling, and the source far out of reach overhead. I +discovered a roundish mass among the leaves, and the first stroke of +the ax sent the rhythm up to once a second, but did not alter the +timbre. A few blows and the small trunk gave way and I fled for my +life. But there was no angry buzzing and I came close. After a +cessation of ten or fifteen seconds the sound began again, weaker but +steady. The foliage was alive with small Azteca ants, but these were +tenants of several small nests near by, and at the catastrophe overran +everything. + +The largest structure was the smooth carton nest of a wasp, a +beautiful species, pale yellowish-red with wine-colored wings. Only +once did an individual make an attempt to sting and even when my head +was within six inches, the wasps rested quietly on the broken combs. +By careful watching, I observed that many of the insects jerked the +abdomen sharply downward, butting the comb or shell of smooth paper a +forceful blow, and producing a very distinct noise. I could not at +first see the mass of wasps which were giving forth the major rhythm, +as they were hidden deep in the nest, but the fifty-odd wasps in +sight kept perfect time, or occasionally an individual skipped one or +two beats, coming in regularly on every alternate or every third beat. +Where they were two or three deep, the uppermost wasps struck the +insects below them with their abdomens in perfect rhythm with the nest +beat. For half an hour the sound continued, then died down and was not +heard again. The wasps dispersed during the night and the nest was +deserted. + +It reminded me of the telegraphing ants which I have often heard in +Borneo, a remarkable sweeping roll, caused by the host of insects +striking the leaves with their heads, and produced only when they are +disturbed. It appeared to be of the nature of a warning signal, giving +me opportunity to back away from the stinging legions which filled the +thicket against which I pushed. + +The rhythm of these wasps was very different. They were peaceable, not +even resenting the devastation of their home, but always and always +must the inexplicable beat, beat, beat, be kept up, serving some +purpose quite hidden from me. During succeeding months I found two +more nests, with similar fetish of sound vibrations, which led to +their discovery. From one small nest, which fairly shook with the +strength of their beats, I extracted a single wasp and placed him in a +glass-topped, metal box. For three minutes he kept up the rhythmic +beat. Then I began a more rapid tattoo on the bottom of the box, and +the changed tempo confused him, so that he stopped at once, and would +not tap again. + +A few little Mazaruni daisies survived here and there, blossoming +bravely, trying to believe that the shade was lessening, and not daily +becoming more dense. But their leaves were losing heart, and paling in +the scant light. Another six months and dead leaves and moss would +have obliterated them, and the zone of brilliant flowers and gorgeous +butterflies and birds would shift many feet into the air, with the +tops of the trees as a new level. + +As long as I remained by my stump my visitors were of the jungle. A +yellow-bellied trogon came quite close, and sat as trogons do, very +straight and stiff like a poorly mounted bird, watching passing +flycatchers and me and the glimpses of sky. At first he rolled his +little cuckoo-like notes, and his brown mate swooped up, saw me, +shifted a few feet farther off and perched full of curiosity, craning +her neck and looking first with one eye, then the other. Now the male +began a content song. With all possible variations of his few and +simple tones, on a low and very sweet timbre, he belied his unoscine +perch in the tree of bird life, and sang to himself. Now and then he +was drowned out by the shrilling of cicadas, but it was a delightful +serenade, and he seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. A few days +before, I had made a careful study of the syrinx of this bird, whom we +may call rather euphoniously _Trogonurus curucui_, and had been struck +by the simplicity both of muscles and bones. Now, having summoned his +mate in regular accents, there followed this unexpected whisper song. +It recalled similar melodies sung by pheasants and Himalayan +partridges, usually after they had gone to roost. + +Once the female swooped after an insect, and in the midst of one of +the sweetest passages of the male trogon, a green grasshopper shifted +his position. He was only two inches away from the singer, and all +this time had been hidden by his chlorophyll-hued veil. And now the +trogon fairly fell off the branch, seizing the insect almost before +the tone died away. Swallowing it with considerable difficulty, the +harmony was taken up again, a bit throaty for a few notes. Then the +pair talked together in the usual trogon fashion, and the sudden +shadow of a passing vulture, drew forth discordant cat calls, as both +birds swooped from sight to avoid the fancied hawk. + +A few minutes later the vocal seal of the jungle was uttered by a +quadrille bird. When the notes of this wren are heard, I can never +imagine open, blazing sunshine, or unobstructed blue sky. Like the +call of the wood pewee, the wren's radiates coolness and shadowy +quiet. No matter how tropic or breathless the jungle, when the +flute-like notes arise they bring a feeling of freshness, they arouse +a mental breeze, which cools one's thoughts, and, although there may +be no water for miles, yet we can fairly hear the drip of cool drops +falling from thick moss to pools below. First an octave of two notes +of purest silver, then a varying strain of eight or ten notes, so +sweet and powerful, so individual and meaningful that it might stand +for some wonderful motif in a great opera. I shut my eyes, and I was +deaf to all other sounds while the wren sang. And as it dwelt on the +last note of its phrase, a cicada took it up on the exact tone, and +blended the two final notes into a slow vibration, beginning gently +and rising with the crescendo of which only an insect, and especially +a cicada, is master. Here was the eternal, hypnotic tom-tom rhythm of +the East, grafted upon supreme Western opera. For a time my changed +clearing became merely a sounding box for the most thrilling of jungle +songs. I called the wren as well as I could, and he came nearer and +nearer. The music rang out only a few yards away. Then he became +suspicious, and after that each phrase was prefaced by typical wren +scolding. He could not help but voice his emotions, and the harsh +notes told plainly what he thought of my poor imitation. Then another +feeling would dominate, and out of the maelstrom of harshness, of +tumbled, volcanic vocalization would rise the pure silver stream of +single notes. + +The wren slipped away through the masses of fragrant Davilla blossoms, +but his songs remained and are with me to this moment. And now I +leaned back, lost my balance, and grasping the old stump for support, +loosened a big piece of soft, mealy wood. In the hollow beneath, I +saw a rainbow in the heart of the dead tree. + +This rainbow was caused by a bug, and when we stop to think of it, +this shows how little there is in a name. For when we say bug, or for +that matter bogy or bugbear, we are garbling the sound which our very, +very forefathers uttered when they saw a specter or hobgoblin. They +said it _bugge_ or even _bwg_, but then they were more afraid of +specters in those days than we, who imprison will-o'-the-wisps in Very +lights, and rub fox-fire on our watch faces. At any rate here was a +bug who seemed to ill-deserve his name, although if the Niblelungs +could fashion the Rheingold, why could not a bug conceive a rainbow? + +Whenever a human, and especially a house-human thinks of bugs, she +thinks unpleasantly and in superlatives. And it chances that +evolution, or natural selection, or life's mechanism, or fate or a +creator, has wrought them into form and function also in superlatives. +Cicadas are supreme in longevity and noise. One of our northern +species sucks in silent darkness for seventeen years, and then, for a +single summer, breaks all American long-distance records for insect +voices. To another group, known as Fulgorids, gigantic heads and +streamers of wax have been allotted. Those possessing the former +rejoice in the name of Lantern Flies, but they are at present +unfaithful vestal bugs, though it is extremely doubtful if their wicks +were ever trimmed or lighted. To see a big wax bug flying with +trailing ribbons slowly from tree to tree in the jungle is to recall +the streaming trains of a flock of peacocks on the wing. + +The membracids must of all deserve the name of "bugges" for no elf or +hobgoblin was ever more bizarre. Their legs and heads and bodies are +small and aphid-like, but aloft there spring minarets and handles and +towers and thorns and groups of hairy balls, out of all reason and +sense. Only Stegosaurus and Triceratops bear comparison. Another group +of five-sided bugs are the skunks and civet-cats among insects, +guarding themselves from danger by an aura of obnoxious scent. + +Not the least strange of this assemblage is the author of our rainbow +in the stump. My awkwardness had broken into a hollow which opened to +the light on the other side of the rotten bole. A vine had tendriled +its way into the crevice where the little weaver of rainbows had +found board and lodging. We may call him toad-hopper or spittle-bug, +or as Fabre says, "_Contentons-nous de Cicadelle, qui respecte le +tympan._" Like all of its kindred, the Bubble Bug finds Nirvana in a +sappy green stem. It has neither strong flight, nor sticky wax, thorny +armature nor gas barrage, so it proceeds to fashion an armor of +bubbles, a cuirass of liquid film. This, in brief, was the rainbow +which caught my eye when I broke open the stump. Up to that moment no +rainbow had existed, only a little light sifting through from the +vine-clad side. But now a ray of sun shattered itself on the pile of +bubbles, and sprayed itself out into a curved glory. + +Bubble Bugs blow their froth only when immature, and their bodies are +a distillery or home-brew of sorts. No matter what the color, or +viscosity or chemical properties of sap, regardless of whether it +flows in liana, shrub, or vine, yet the Bug's artesian product is +clear, tasteless and wholly without the possibility of being blown +into bubbles. When a large drop has collected, the tip of the abdomen +encloses a retort of air, inserts this in the drop and forces it out. +In some way an imponderable amount of oil or dissolved wax is +extruded and mixed with the drop, an invisible shellac which toughens +the bubble and gives it an astounding glutinous endurance. As long as +the abdominal air-pump can be extended into the atmosphere, so long +does the pile of bubbles grow until the insect is deep buried, and to +penetrate this is as unpleasant an achievement for small marauders as +to force a cobweb entanglement. I have draped a big pile of bubbles +around the beak of an insect-eating bird, and watched it shake its +head and wipe its beak in evident disgust at the clinging oily films. +In the north we have the bits of fine white foam which we +characteristically call frog-spittle, but these tropic relatives have +bigger bellows and their covering is like the interfering mass of +films which emerges from the soap-bubble bowl when a pipe is thrust +beneath the surface and that delicious gurgling sound produced. + +The most marvelous part of the whole thing is that the undistilled +well which the Bubble Bug taps would often overwhelm it in an instant, +either by the burning acidity of its composition, or the rubber +coating of death into which it hardens in the air. Yet with this +current of lava or vitriol, our Bug does three wonderful things, it +distills sweet water for its present protective cell of bubbles, it +draws purest nourishment for continual energy to run its bellows and +pump, and simultaneously it fills its blood and tissues with a pungent +flavor, which in the future will be a safeguard against the attacks of +birds and lizards. Little by little its wings swell to full spread and +strength, muscles are fashioned in its hind legs, which in time will +shoot it through great distances of space, and pigment of the most +brilliant yellow and black forms on its wing covers. When at last it +shuts down its little still and creeps forth through the filmy veil, +it is immature no longer, but a brilliant frog-hopper, sitting on the +most conspicuous leaves, trusting by pigmental warning to advertise +its inedibility, and watchful for a mate, so that the future may hold +no dearth of Bubble Bugs. + +On my first tramp each season in the tropical jungle, I see the +legionary army ants hastening on their way to battle, and the +leaf-cutters plodding along, with chlorophyll hods over their +shoulders, exactly as they did last year, and the year preceding, and +probably a hundred thousand years before that. The Colony Egos of +army and leaf-cutters may quite reasonably be classified according to +Kingdom. The former, with carnivorous, voracious, nervous, vitally +active members, seems an intangible, animal-like organism; while the +stolid, vegetarian, unemotional, weather-swung Attas, resemble the +flowing sap of the food on which they subsist--vegetable. + +Yet, whatever the simile, the net of unconscious precedent is too +closely drawn, the mesh of instinct is too fine to hope for any +initiative. This was manifested by the most significant and +spectacular occurrence I have ever observed in the world of insects. +One year and a half ago I studied and reported upon, a nest of Ecitons +or army ants.[3] Now, eighteen months later, apparently the same army +appeared and made a similar nest of their own bodies, in the identical +spot near the door of the outhouse, where I had found them before. +Again we had to break up the temporary colony, and killed about +three-quarters of the colony with various deadly chemicals. + +[Footnote 3: See page 58.] + +In spite of all the tremendous slaughter, the Ecitons, in late +afternoon, raided a small colony of Wasps-of-the-Painted-Nest. These +little chaps construct a round, sub-leaf carton-home, as large as a +golf ball, which carries out all the requirements of counter shading +and of ruptive markings. The flattened, shadowed under surface was +white, and most of the sloping walls dark brown, down which extended +eight white lines, following the veins of the leaf overhead. The side +close to the stem of the leaf, and consequently always in deep shadow, +was pure white. The eaves catching high lights were black. All this +marvelous merging with leaf tones went for naught when once an advance +Eciton scout located the nest. + +As the deadly mob approached, the wasplets themselves seemed to +realize the futility of offering battle, and the entire colony of +forty-four gathered in a forlorn group on a neighboring leaf, while +their little castle was rifled--larvae and pupae torn from their cells +and rushed down the stems to the chaos which was raging in Eciton's +own home. The wasps could guard against optical discovery, but the +blind Ecitons had senses which transcended vision, if not even scent. + +Late that night, our lanterns showed the remnants of the Eciton army +wandering aimlessly about, making near approach impossible, but +apparently lacking any definite concerted action. + +At six o'clock the following morning I started out for a swim, when at +the foot of the laboratory steps I saw a swiftly-moving, broad line of +army ants on safari, passing through the compound to the beach. I +traced them back under the servants' quarters, through two clumps of +bamboos to the outhouse. Later I followed along the column down to the +river sand, through a dense mass of underbrush, through a hollow log, +up the bank, back through light jungle--to the outhouse again, and on +a large fallen log, a few feet beyond the spot where their nest had +been, the ends of the circle _actually came together_! It was the most +astonishing thing, and I had to verify it again and again before I +could believe the evidence of my eyes. It was a strong column, six +lines wide in many places, and the ants fully believed that they were +on their way to a new home, for most were carrying eggs or larvae, +although many had food, including the larvae of the Painted Nest +Wasplets. For an hour at noon during heavy rain, the column weakened +and almost disappeared, but when the sun returned, the lines rejoined, +and the revolution of the vicious circle continued. + +There were several places which made excellent points of observation, +and here we watched and marveled. Careful measurement of the great +circle showed a circumference of twelve hundred feet. We timed the +laden Ecitons and found that they averaged two to two and +three-quarter inches a second. So a given individual would complete +the round in about two hours and a half. Many guests were plodding +along with the ants, mostly staphylinids of which we secured five +species, a brown histerid beetle, a tiny chalcid, and several Phorid +flies, one of which was winged. + +The fat Histerid beetle was most amusing, getting out of breath every +few feet, and abruptly stopping to rest, turning around in its tracks, +standing almost on its head, and allowing the swarm of ants to run up +over it and jump off. Then on it would go again, keeping up the +terrific speed of two and a half inches a second for another yard. Its +color was identical with the Ecitons' armor, and when it folded up, +nothing could harm it. Once a worker stopped and antennaed it +suspiciously, but aside from this, it was accepted as one of the line +of marchers. Along the same route came the tiny Phorid flies, wingless +but swift as shadows, rushing from side to side, over ants, leaves, +debris, impatient only at the slowness of the army. + +All the afternoon the insane circle revolved; at midnight the hosts +were still moving, the second morning many had weakened and dropped +their burdens, and the general pace had very appreciably slackened. +But still the blind grip of instinct held them. On, on, on they must +go! Always before in their nomadic life there had been a goal--a +sanctuary of hollow tree, snug heart of bamboos--surely this terrible +grind must end somehow. In this crisis, even the Spirit of the Army +was helpless. Along the normal paths of Eciton life he could inspire +endless enthusiasm, illimitable energy, but here his material units +were bound upon the wheel of their perfection of instinct. Through sun +and cloud, day and night, hour after hour there was found no Eciton +with individual initiative enough to turn aside an ant's breadth from +the circle which he had traversed perhaps fifteen times: the masters +of the jungle had become their own mental prey. + +Fewer and fewer now came along the well worn path; burdens littered +the line of march, like the arms and accoutrements thrown down by a +retreating army. At last a scanty single line struggled past--tired, +hopeless, bewildered, idiotic and thoughtless to the last. Then some +half dead Eciton straggled from the circle along the beach, and threw +the line behind him into confusion. The desperation of total +exhaustion had accomplished what necessity and opportunity and normal +life could not. Several others followed his scent instead of that +leading back toward the outhouse, and as an amoeba gradually flows +into one of its own pseudopodia, so the forlorn hope of the great +Eciton army passed slowly down the beach and on into the jungle. Would +they die singly and in bewildered groups, or would the remnant draw +together, and again guided by the super-mind of its Mentor lay the +foundation of another army, and again come to nest in my outhouse? + +Thus was the ending still unfinished, the finale buried in the +future--and in this we find the fascination of Nature and of Science. +Who can be bored for a moment in the short existence vouchsafed us +here; with dramatic beginnings barely hidden in the dust, with the +excitement of every moment of the present, and with all of cosmic +possibility lying just concealed in the future, whether of Betelgeuze, +of Amoeba or--of ourselves? _Vogue la galere!_ + + + + +APPENDIX OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES + + +Page Line + + 4 26 Moriche Oriole; _Icterus chrysocephalus_ (Linne) + + 8 10 Toad; _Bufo guttatus Schneid_. + + 18 3 Bat; _Furipterus horrens_ (F. Cuv.) + + 4 Large Bats; _Vampyrus spectrum_ (Linne) + + 6 Vampire Bats; _Desmodus rotundus_ (Geoff.) + + 22 5 Giant Catfish, Boom-boom; _Doras granulosus_ Valen. + + 23 5 Kiskadee; _Pitangus s. sulphuratus_ (Linne) + + 25 26 Parrakeets; _Touit batavica_ (Bodd.) + + 26 Great Black Orioles; _Ostinops d. decumanus_ (Pall.) + + 26 5 House Wrens; _Troglodytes musculus clarus_ Berl. and Hart + + 29 5 Coati-mundi; _Nasua n. nasua_ (Linne) + + 32 2 Frog; _Phyllomedusa_ sp. + + 34 18 Mazaruni Daisies; _Sipanea pratensis_ Aubl. + + 20 Button Weed; _Spermacoce_ sp. + + 36 23 Melancholy Tyrant; _Tyrannus melancholicus satrapa_ + (Cab. and Hein.) + + 37 2 Monarch; _Anosia plexippus_ (Linne) + + 38 7 Red-breasted Blue Chatterer; _Cotinga cotinga_ Linne + + 18 Yellow Papilio; _Papilio thoas_ Linne + + 49 26 Parrakeets; _Touit batavica_ (Bodd.) + + 52 3 Purple-throated Cotinga; _Cotinga cayana_ (Linne) + + 53 15 Dark-breasted Mourner; _Lipaugus simplex_ Licht. + + 54 26 Toucans; _Ramphastus vitellinus_ Licht. + + 59 6 White-fronted Ant-bird; _Pithys albifrons_ (Linne) + + 60 16 Army Ants; _Eciton burchelli_ Westwood + + 97 10 Great Green Kingfisher; _Chloroceryle amazona_ (Lath.) + + 11 Tiny Emerald Kingfisher; _Chloroceryle americana_ (Gmel.) + +103 25 Gecko; _Thecadactylus rapicaudus_ (Houtt.) + +109 8 Howling Monkeys; _Alouatta seniculus macconnelli_ Elliot + +113 7 Bower Bird; _Ptilonorhynchus violaceus_ (Vieill.) + +116 24 Cassava; _Janipha manihot_ Kth. + +126 20 Frog, Gawain; _Phyllomedusa_ sp. + +132 17 Marine Toad; _Bufo marinus_ (Linne) + +133 8 Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker; _Phyllobates inguinalis_. + +149 2 Attas, Leaf-cutting Ants; _Atta cephalotes_ (Fab.) + +151 12 Fruit Bats; _Vampyrus spectrum_ (Linne) + +152 11 King Vulture; _Gypagus papa_ (Linne) + + 11 Harpy Eagle; _Harpia harpyja_ (Linne) + +163 3 Ani; _Crotophaga ani_ Linne + + 7 Marine Toad; _Bufo marinus_ (Linne) + +164 19 White-faced Opossum; _Metachirus o. opossum_ (Linne) + +173 1 Attas, Leaf-cutting Ants; _Atta cephalotes_ (Fab.) + + 5 Hummingbird; _Phoethornis r. ruber_ (Linne) + +174 7 Tamandua; _Tamandua t. tetradactyla_ (Linne) + +175 1 Trogon; _Trogon s. strigilatus_ (Linne) + + 9 Tarantula Hawks; _Pepsis_ sp. + +181 17 Cicada larvae; _Quesada gigas_ Oliv. + +182 5 Roaches; _Attaphila_ sp. + +231 26 Manatee; _Trichechus manatus_ Linne + +232 24 Crocodile; _Caiman sclerops_ (Schneid.) + +233 6 Jacana; _Jacana j. jacana_ (Linne) + + 8 Gallinule; _Ionornis martinicus_ (Linne) + + 9 Green Herons; _Butorides striata_ Linne + + 10 Egrets; _Leucophoyx t. thula_ (Molina) + +233 17 Kiskadees; _Pitangus sulphuratus_ (Linne) + + 19 Black Witch; _Crotophaga ani_ (Linne) + + 19 House Wren; _Troglodytes musculus clarus_ Berl. and Hart + + 22 Manatee; _Trichechus manatus_ (Linne) + +242 1 Jacana; _Jacana j. jacana_ (Linne) + + 3 Gallinule; _Ionornis martinicus_ (Linne) + +243 15 Mongoose; _Mungos mungo_ (Gmel.) + +246 11 Little Egret; _Leucophoyx t. thula_ (Molina) + + 14 Tri-colored Heron; _Hydranassa tricolor_ (P. L. S. Mull.) + + 15 Little Blue Heron; _Florida c. caerulea_ (Linne) + +249 14 White Egret; _Casmerodius egretta_ (Gmel.) + +250 10 Night Heron; _Nyctanassa violacea cayennensis_ (Linne) + +254 1 Giant Catfish, Boom-boom; _Doras granulosus_ Valen. + +256 6 Long-armed Beetle; _Acrocinus longimanus_ (Linne) + +276 10 Rufus Hummingbird; _Phoethornis r. ruber_ (Linne) + +278 16 Tapping Wasp; _Synoeca irina_ Spinola + +280 10 Mazaruni Daisy; _Sipanea pratensis_ Aubl. + + 21 Trogons; _Trogonurus c. curucui_ (Linne) + +282 10 Quadrille Bird; _Leucolepis musica musica_ (Bodd.) + +284 3 Bubble Bugs; _Cercopis ruber_ + +289 16 Army Ants; _Eciton burchelli_ Westwood + + + + +INDEX + + +A + +_Acrocinus longimanus_, 255-258 + +Allamander, 121 + +_Alouatta seniculus macconnelli_, 109 + +Ani, 163, 233 + +_Anosia plexippus_, 37 + +Antbirds, white-fronted, 59, 227 + +Antlions, 27, 28 + +Ants, Army, 58, 60, 154, 282, 289; + attack on wasps, 290; + circular marching of, 291-294; + cleaning of, 79-81; + cleaning of ground, 77; + crippled, 70, 71, 81, 82; + enemies, 72; + foraging lines, 64; + guests, 88, 292; + labor, division of, 67; + larvae, 87; + nest, 59-61, 74, 83, 289; + nest entrance, 74; + observing, methods of, 63; + odor, 62, 64; + parasites, 292; + prey of, 67; + rain, reaction to, 65, 66; + refuse heaps, 77, 78; + scavengers of nest piles, 78; + speed of, 68, 69, 292; + spinning, 84-86; + vitality, 69 + +Ants, _Azteca_, 278 + +Ants, Borneo telegraph, 279 + +Ants, Leaf-cutting, 7, 152, 173, 289; + at home, 172, 194; + attack, method of guarding against, 177; + attack, method of, 177-179; + battle of giant soldiers, 168-171; + castes, 166; + enemies, 162-163; + flight of kings and queens, 185-188; + fungus, 180, 181; + gardens, fungus, 179-181, 189; + instinct, 190-192; + leaf-chewing in nest, 180; + leaves, carrying, 158-162; + leaves, method of cutting, 158; + name, origin of, 156; + nest, 172; + nest, foundation of, 152, 153, 189, 190; + parasites, external, 176; + paths, 163-165; + queen, 152, 153; + queens, young, in nest, 185; + raids on garden, 154-155; + scavengers of nest, 176; + speed of, 165-166; + soldier, description of, 177-178; + trails, 163-165; + visitors at nest, 174-176; + worker, description of, 156, 157 + +_Attaphila_, 182-185 + +Attas. See Ants, Leaf-cutting. + +_Atta cephalotes_, 155, 173 + + +B + +Bamboos, 9, 13, 23-25 + +Bats, 17-19 + +Bats, fruit, 151 + +Bats, vampire, 4, 18-21, 111, 208 + +Beach, Jungle, 90-111 + +Beena, 118 + +Bees, 35-37, 175 + +Beetle, 23 + +Beetle, Histerid, 292 + +Beetle, long-armed, 256-258 + +Beetle, rove, 72-73 + +Beetle, Staphylinid, 292 + +Beetle, water, in roots, 103 + +Boom-boom, 22, 252-255 + +Botanical Gardens, 122 + +Bower Bird, Purple, 113 + +Bougainvillia, 121 + +Boviander, flowers of, 120 + +_Bufo guttatus_, 8 + +_Bufo marinus_, 132, 163 + +Bugs, bubble, 284-288 + +Bugs, doodle, 28 + +_Butorides striata_, 233 + +Butterfly, 37, 125 + +Butterfly, beryl and jasper, 42 + +Butterfly, migrating, 259-263 + +Butterfly, Monarch, 37 + +Butterfly, Morpho, 51 + +Butterfly, Social gathering of, 268-273 + +Butterfly, Yellow papilio, 38 + +Button weed, 34 + + +C + +_Caiman sclerops_, 232 + +Caladium, 118 + +Casareep, 117 + +Cashew trees, 4 + +_Casmerodius egretta_, 249 + +Cassava, 116 + +Cassia, 44 + +Catfish, Giant. See Boom-boom, 22, 253, 254, 273 + +_Catopsilia_, species of, 268 + +_Cercopis ruber_, 284 + +_Cereus_, night blooming, 218 + +Chanties, 6 + +Chatterer, Red-breasted Blue, 38 + +_Chloroceryle amazona_, 97 + +Chloroceryle americana, 97 + +Cicada, 36, 37 + +Cicada, song of, 283 + +Cicada, larvae. See _Quesada gigas_. + +Clearing, Jungle, 34-57, 275 + +Clearing, after interval of year, 276 + +Coati-mundi, 29 + +Color, 53, 54 + +Convicts, 5, 7 + +Convicts, singing hymns, 109 + +_Cotinga cayana_, 52, 53 + +_Cotinga cotinga_, 38 + +Cotinga, Purple-throated, 52, 53 + +Cotton, Indian, 117 + +Cotton, Sea Island, 117 + +Crabs, in roots, 103 + +Crocodile, 232 + +_Crotophaga ani_, 163, 233 + +Cuyuni River, 9 + + +D + +Daisies, Mazaruni, 34, 280 + +Devilla blossoms, 283 + +Doodle-bugs, 28 + +_Doras granulosus_, 22, 254 + + +E + +Eagle, Harpy, 152 + +Eciton. See Army Ants + +_Eciton burchelli_, 60, 289 + +Eggs, Butterfly, 41-43 + +Egrets, 233, 246, 249 + +_Ereops_, 264, 265 + + +F + +Fer-de-lance, 206 + +Flamboyant, 122 + +Flies, Chalcid, 292 + +Flies, Crane, in roots, 104-106 + +Flies, Phorid, 292 + +Flies, as scavengers, 78 + +_Florida c. caerulea_, 246 + +Flowers of boviander, 120 + +Flycatcher, Kiskadee, 23, 233 + +Flycatcher, Melancholy Tyrant, 36 + +Frangipani, 122 + +Frog, Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker, 133 + +Frog, Tree, 32, 132 + +_Furipterus horrens_, 17, 18 + + +G + +Gallinule, 233, 242 + +Galis, 45-47 + +Garden, Akawai Indian, 115-119 + +Garden, Boviander, 120 + +Garden, Coolie and Negro, 120 + +Garden, Georgetown Botanical, 122, 230 + +Garden, Tropic, 230-251 + +Gawain, 31-33, 126 + +Gecko, 103, 104 + +Ghost, Kartabo, 25 + +God-birds, 26 + +Guests, Army Ant, 72 + +Guinevere, 123-148 + +_Gypagus papa_, 152 + + +H + +Hammocks, 195 + accident in, 204; + capturing bats from, 218-220; + Carib, 197, 198; + environment and dangers, 200, 201; + hummingbirds on, 223, 224; + slinging of, 198, 199, 203, 209, 210; + sounds and scents, 213-215; + trapping from, 205, 206; + watching army ants from, 225, 228; + weaver-birds nesting on, 224 + +_Harpia harpyja_, 152 + +Herons, green, 233 + +Herons, little blue, 246 + +Herons, night, 250 + +Herons, rookery, 244-251 + +Herons, tricolored, 246 + +Hope, 16 + +Hummingbirds, 97, 174, 223, 276 + +Hyacinth, water, 121 + +_Hydranassa tricolor_, 246 + + +I + +_Icterus chrysocephalus_, 4 + +_Ionornis martinicus_, 233, 242 + + +J + +Jacana, 233, 242 + +_Jacana j. jacana_, 233, 242 + +_Janipha manihot_, 116 + + +K + +Kalacoon, 1 + +Kartabo, 1 + +Kartabo, history, 10-12 + +Kartabo, inmates, 21 + +Kartabo, morning at, 23 + +Kib, 29 + +Kibihee, 29 + +Kingfisher, Great Green, 97 + +Kingfisher, Tiny Emerald, 97 + +Kiskadee, 23, 233, 243 + +Kunami, 117 + +Kyk-over-al, 11, 12 + + +L + +_Leucolepis m. musica_, 282 + +_Leucophoyx t. thula_, 233, 246 + +Lilies, water, 121 + +_Lipaugus simplex_, 58 + +Lotus, 121 + + +M + +Manatee, 231-236 + +Martins, 4 + +"Mazacuni" River, 107 + +Mazaruni River, 9 + +_Metachirus o. opossum_, 164 + +Monarch Butterfly, 37 + +Mongoose, 248 + +Monkeys, 25 + +Monkeys, Howling, 109 + +Mosquitoes, 202, 211 + +Mourner, Dark-breasted, 53 + +_Mungos mungo_, 243 + + +N + +_Nasua n. nasua_, 29 + +Niebelungs, 49 + + +O + +Opossum, 164 + +Orchid, Toko-nook, 119 + +Oriole, Great Black, 25 + +Oriole, Moriche, 4 + +_Ostinops d. decumanus_, 25 + + +P + +Paddlers, 5 + +Palm, Cocoanut, 121 + +_Papilio thoas_, 38 + +Parasite, egg, 43, 44 + +Parrakeets, 25, 49-51 + +_Pepsis_, sp., 175 + +Pets, 28-33 + +_Phoethornis r. ruber_, 174, 276 + +_Phyllomedusa_, 32, 126 + +_Phyllomedusa bicolor_, 145 + +_Phyllobates inguinalis_, 133 + +_Pitangus s. sulphuratus_, 23, 233, 243 + +_Pithys albifrons_, 59 + +Piwari, 117 + +Pool, Jungle Rain, 126-132 + +_Ptilonorhynchus violaceus_, 113 + + +Q + +Quadrille Bird, 282, 283 + +_Quesada gigas_, 181 + + +R + +_Ramphastus vitellinus_, 54, 55 + +Roach, 182 + +Rocks, tidal, 265, 266 + +Roots, 98-106, 236 + +_Rozites gongylophora_, 181 + +Rushes, 264 + + +S + +Scorpions, 181 + +Sedges, Scirpus, 264, 265 + +Servants, negro, 14, 15 + +_Sipanea pratensis_, 34, 280 + +Snake, tree, in hammock, 201 + +_Spermacoce_ sp., 34 + +Springtails, in army ants' nest, 88 + +Striders, water, 129, 130 + +Sunrise, 107, 108 + +Swimming at night, 108-111 + +_Synoeca irina_, 278-280 + + +T + +Tadpoles, 127, 130-148 + +Tadpoles, colors of, 146, 147 + +Tadpoles, red-fins, 132, 133, 136, 139, 141, 144 + +Tadpoles, short-tailed blacks, 132, 138 + +Tamandua, 174 + +_Tamandua t. tetradactyla_, 174 + +Tanager, Blue, 111 + +Tarantula, 23 + +Tarantula Hawks, 175 + +Termites, 154, 162 + +_Thecadactylus rapicauda_, 103 + +_Thraupis episcopus_, 111 + +Tidal, area, ecology of, 266-268 + +Toad, 7, 8 + +Toad, Marine, 132, 163 + +Toko-nook, Orchid, 119 + +Toucans, 25, 54, 55, 56 + +_Touit batavica_, 25, 49 + +Tree, Fallen, 95 + +Tree, Prostrate, reactions of, 96, 97 + +Treetop, Fauna of, 95 + +_Trichechus manatus_, 231, 233 + +_Troglodytes musculus clarus_, 26, 233 + +Trogon, 175, 280-282 + +_Trogan s. strigilatus_, 175 + +_Trogonurus c. curucui_, 280 + +Tyrant, Melancholy, 36 + +_Tyrannus melancholicus satrapa_, 36 + + +V + +_Vampyrus spectrum_, 18 + +Vervain, 35 + +_Victoria regia_, 231, 237, 240, 241 + +Vulture, King, 152 + + +W + +Wasps, Ebony, 175 + +Wasps, Painted Nest, 289-291 + +Wasps, Tapping, 278-280 + +Wind, Voice of, 21 + +Witch, Black, 233 + +Wrens, House, 26, 27, 233 + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Edge of the Jungle, by William Beebe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDGE OF THE JUNGLE *** + +***** This file should be named 25888.txt or 25888.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/8/8/25888/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Mark C. 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