ved
to repopulate it, and for some time these tenacious insects could be
seen bringing back among the foliage Aphides captured elsewhere.[69]

[69] P. Huber, _Recherches_, etc., pp. 210-250; Lubbock, "On
the Habits of Ants," _Wiltshire Arch. and Nat. Hist. Mag._,
1879, pp. 49-62.

_Slavery among Ants._--The custom of making slaves is widely spread in
the ant world; I have already described the expeditions organised to
obtain them. We will now consider the relations of these insects among
themselves.

The _Formica sanguinea_ takes possession of the eggs of the _Formica
fusca_ and rears them with its own. When the slaves reach the adult
condition they live beside their masters and share their labours, for
the latter work, are skilful in all tasks, and can by their own
activity construct an ant-hill and keep it going. If they desire
servants, it is not in order to throw all the work on them, but to
have intelligent assistants. This is the primitive form of slavery as
it first existed among men. It was not until later that it became
modified, to become at last an institution against which the sentiment
of justice arose. Other species of Ants have pushed the exploitation
of slaves to a point Man has never reached. But the _Formica
sanguinea_ are companions to their helpers rather than masters, and
even show them great consideration. When the colony emigrates one may
see the owners of the nest, who are of larger size than the _Formica
fusca_, take these up in their jaws and carry them the entire way.

The Amazons (_Polyergus rufescens_) act otherwise. Very skilful in
obtaining slaves and powerfully armed for triumphant raids, their
nests always contain legions of servants, and the custom of being
waited upon has become so impressed on the race by heredity that it is
an instinct stronger even than personal preservation. The master ant
has not only lost the taste and the idea of work, but even the habit
of feeding himself, and would die of hunger beside a pile of honey or
sugar if a grey ant was not there to put it into his mouth. Thus
Huber, the earliest accurate observer of these ants, enclosed thirty
Amazons with several pupae and larvae of their own species, and twenty
negro pupae, in a glass box, the bottom of which was covered with a
thick layer of earth; honey was given to them, so that, although cut
off from their auxiliaries, the Amazons had both shelter and food. At
first they appeared to pay s