Chapter 81 Beasts are Neighbors - 3

I was also a witness to some of the less peaceful events.One day, as I was going out to my pile of logs, or roots, I observed two large ants, one red, the other much larger, almost Half an inch long, black, and fighting.As soon as they fought, none of them would let go, struggling, wrestling, and rolling on the wood chips non-stop.Looking further away, I was even more surprised to find that there were such fighters everywhere on the wood chips. It seemed that this was not a duel, but a war. The war between these two ant races. The red ants always fought with the black ants. Often there are two red ones against one black one.In the yard where I put the wood, there are pits and valleys full of these mimidons.The land is already covered with black and red dead and dying.It was the only war I ever saw, the only battle I ever saw at the front; a fratricidal war, with the red Republicans on one side and the black Imperials on the other.Both sides fought desperately, and though I could not hear some voices, never was a human war fought so firmly.I saw a pair of warriors clung to each other in a small valley between the chips under the bright sun, and it was noon, and they were ready to fight until sunset or their lives died away.The little red hero gripped his enemy's forehead like a vice.While writhing on the battlefield, he gnawed at the root of one of its tentacles without letting go, and had already bit off the other; while the stronger black ant bit the red ant from side to side. Shaking it back and forth, I took a closer look and saw that it had already gnawed away many parts of the red ants, and they beat them harder than vicious dogs.Neither side has the slightest reluctance to retreat.Apparently their war cry was "Give me victory or give me death." At the same time, from the top of the valley appeared a lone red ant, obviously very excited, and would have killed an enemy if it hadn't already killed an enemy. was not yet in battle; probably the latter reason, for he had not yet lost a leg; his mother wanted him to go back with his shield, or lie on it. Perhaps he was an Achilles-like hero, alone in Flaming aside, Patroclus, now coming to save him, or to avenge him. Seeing the unequal battle from afar—for the black ant is nearly twice as big as the red ant—it hastily He ran up until he was within half an inch of the pair of fighters, and then, seeing his chance, he pounced on the black fighter and began his military move on the heel of his forelegs, with no regard for the enemy. which part of itself it eats back; so the three are entangled together for life, as if inventing a new kind of glue, making any iron lock and cement incomparable to them. At this time, if you see that they have their own Nor should I be surprised that the marching bands, lined up on the more prominent pieces, blow their respective national anthems to cheer up those who lag behind, and cheer up those who are dying. I myself am quite agitated, as if they They are like human beings. The more you study, the more you feel that they are not different from human beings. At least in the history of Concord, not to mention the history of the United States, naturally there is no war that can be compared with this war. Whether in the number of combatants, or in the patriotism and heroism they displayed. In terms of numbers and carnage, this is a battle of Austerlitz, or a battle of Dresden. What a battle of Concord! Two patriots dead, and Luther Blanchard badly wounded! Ah, every ant here is a Potrick, chanting—"Shoot , for God's sake, shoot! "—Thousands of lives are like the fate of Davis and Horseman. There is not a single mercenary here. I do not doubt that they fight for principles, as my ancestors did, not to spare three The penny tax on tea, and the outcome of this great war, is so important to both parties that it must never be forgotten, at least as our Battle of Bunker Hill.

The three warriors whom I especially depicted fought on the same piece of wood which I brought into my house and placed on my window sill.Covered under a large cup, in order to examine the ending.Using this microscope, I first looked at the red ant mentioned at the beginning. I saw that although it bit the vicinity of the enemy's front legs and bit off the remaining tentacles, its own chest was completely torn by the black soldier. It fell off, revealing the entrails, while the black warrior's breastplate was too thick for it to pierce; and the black eyes of the victim shone with a ferocity that only war can inspire.They struggled under the cup for another half an hour, and when I looked again, the black warrior had separated the heads of its enemies from their bodies, but the two heads that were still alive were hanging on both sides of it , like two terrible trophies hanging from the side of the saddle, still clung to it.It was trying to struggle feebly, for it had no tentacles, and only the stump of one leg, and numerous other injuries, which it struggled to shake off; After hours, it finally worked.I removed the glass, and in this crippled state it crawled over the window sill.Whether he lived after this battle, and spent the rest of his life in the Legion of Honor, I don't know;I don't know which side was victorious, nor the cause of the war; but all day afterward my emotions seemed to be agitated and tormented by the sight of it, as if it were at my door. It was like a bloody battle of human beings.

Kirby and Spence tell us that the wars of the Ants have long been celebrated, and the dates of the great battles have been recorded in the annals, though, according to them, about the only modern writer, Hooper, seems to have witnessed the Ants Great battles, they say, "Innes Servius once described, after an exceptionally tenacious fight of large ants against small ones on the trunk of a pear tree," and added—"'This A battle took place under Pope Eugenius IV, and was observed by the eminent lawyer Nicholas Pistoliansis, who has faithfully recounted the whole story of the battle.' And a similar great ant The battle with the little ants was recorded by Eraus Magnus, and the little ants won. It is said that they buried the corpses of the little ant soldiers after the battle, but they did not bury the corpses of their big enemies who died in battle. Let Asuka enjoy it. This war history took place before Christian II was expelled from Sweden." As for the war I witnessed this time, it took place during Polk's presidency and was formulated in Webster. Five years before the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act.