ants, for Dr. King informs me that the Hindoos in Rajputana, a province in which the old traditions and superstitions retain especial hold, have a custom of scattering dry rice and sugar for the ants, and thus apparently recognise both their love of sweet things and their habit of collecting seeds. It may be that this custom is now little more than a meaningless rite; but in the past it probably had its origin, either in a wish to propitiate the good will and avert the destructive attacks of creatures which are the scourge and dread of entire districts, or in a sentiment of combined fear and admiration—fear of the power, and admiration of the energy, forethought, perseverance, and sense of duty to the community displayed by these marvellous insects.
That the latter feeling may have had some share in prompting this act is suggested by another custom which is stated[1] to prevail in Arabia, in accordance with which an ant is placed in the hand of a newly-born child, in order that its virtues may pass into and possess the infant.
Among the many curious and obscure features in the economy of ants, one of the most interesting is the occasional presence in their nests of different creatures which live among and often in harmony with them, the nature of the relations between host and guest being for the most part quite unknown.
When examining the contents of some granaries from an extensive nest of Atta structor at Mentone last spring (1874), I found large numbers of a
- ↑ Freytag, paragraph under the Arabic word for Ant, in his Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, vol. iv. p. 339, where he quotes from a local dictionary.
