CHAPTER XLV

THE BASHIKOUAY ANTS

Millions upon millions of bashikouay ants inhabit their subterranean dwellings; but no one to this day has been able to see how they live there, and what their home is like.

One day there was great excitement among them. They all shouted: “Let us go above the ground and make a raid. The forest is also our home; it is there that we get our living.”

They cried boastfully: “We are very small, it is true, and when we are alone we are powerless; but as an army we are the most formidable and dreaded creatures of the forest. Who can withstand our fierceness when we are on the war path, and are eager for attack! The big njokoo runs as fast as he can at our approach,” and they laughed when they thought of his big size and the capers he cut when they swarmed into his ears, and everywhere over his huge body. “The terrible and mighty ngina whose roarings fill the forest, runs away when warned by the multitude of insects and animals fleeing for life’s sake at our coming; but he is often caught while surrounded by our swarms, and his shrieks of pain ring through the forest as he flies, with many of our number covering his body and biting him. The sly and blood-thirsty njego has no time to look for prey, and flies, yelling, ‘The bashikouays are coming!’” Then all the bashikouays laughed at the same time, for they imagined the stampede created by their appearance.

Then they cried more boastfully still: “All the night prowlers,—the kambis, the ncheris, the omembas,—and all the living creatures of the great forest in which we live, insects and all, cry in great distress, ‘Let us flee for our lives, for the bashikouays are coming!’ The forest is filled with the buzz of the fleeing host, small and large; all are panic-stricken; the heavy tramping of the njokoo is heard above all. They do not all escape. Many of the animals leave their helpless young behind, to be eaten by us, and multitudes of insects are devoured by our hordes. The human beings fear and hate us. We are afraid only of three things,—fire, water, and the sun. The only creatures that are not afraid of us are those that live in the water and in the air.”

After the great uproar of their boasting had subsided, their chiefs said to them: “Be still; wait a while till our young get larger and stronger; for we cannot leave them behind.”

As with other ants, the great chiefs, acting as the generals of an army, are the largest and the least numerous of all. Their heads are furnished with ugly, powerful, long nippers, the head being as large as the rest of the body.

The officers are smaller than the chiefs, and much more numerous, and armed likewise with powerful nippers. They attend to the discipline of the great army; then come the soldiers forming the mass of the great army. The number of these is beyond computation. Their heads are square and their nippers are not as powerful as those of the others; but they can bite terribly also.

One day the chiefs decided that the time had arrived for the bashikouays to make their raid. They came out of the earth by multitudes of tunnels, close together in amazing numbers, forming themselves into a compact marching column, led by the chiefs and officers. For many hours the bashikouays poured out incessantly from their abode. They numbered countless millions. It was one of the largest armies that had ever come out of the earth. Their discipline was perfect. There were ruling brains among them, who gave orders and who kept their ranks in perfect formation. Officers, very alert in their movements, walked on both flanks, seeing that no one left the column.

If perchance any bashikouay left the ranks for one reason or another, the officer having charge of that squad at once went after the straggler, inquired what was the matter, or ordered him to go back to the ranks. If sick, he was left alone, to rejoin the host later on. If too sick, he was left to die.

The van of the army marched on, and still the main body was pouring out of its subterranean home. By and by the van came to a place which they had to cross where the sun was shining. Immediately tunnels were dug for the whole army to pass through and be protected from the sun. Farther on they came to a stream where two dead trunks of trees overlapped each other above the water, and immediately the advance guard of the column made a chain or tunnel by holding onto each other firmly with their legs, as bees do, forming a suspension bridge connecting with the tree underneath, and the whole body crossed to the other side and continued their march.

News came that the last of the host had come out from under the ground. There was great excitement among all the bashikouays at this news. How the news was flashed along the lines, only the bashikouays could tell. Suddenly the order came from the front to the rear to prepare for the attack. It passed along the line as quickly as if by telegraph. There was a tremendous uproar among the troops. By preconceived plan, the long line of bashikouays, miles in length, formed itself into several army corps which manœuvred in such a manner that some of them made a great circle, as if to corral their victims.

They broke ranks, advanced in large masses together in every direction, or in deployed columns, and attacked every living thing before them with great fury and the utmost bravery, fearless of danger or death, only having in view the conquest of their prey. They rushed upon their victims, who in an instant were covered with them, and then the strong pincers were fastened in the skin or body, cutting out a piece each time.

The news spread among all the living creatures that their dreaded enemy the bashikouays were advancing and attacking everything. A great panic seized the whole population of the forest; all cried at once, “Flee! Flee for your lives!” There was great confusion among the denizens of the forest; omembas, kambis, ncheris, njokoos, nginas, njegos, ngoas, and all other creatures fled to escape their dreaded enemy. No one attacked the other, for in their flight they were too frightened and too much in a hurry to get away and save their own lives. They had all lost their appetites.

Beautiful birds of all kinds followed the columns of bashikouays, picking up insects as they fled and often bashikouays themselves.

In one place the bashikouays had succeeded in surrounding a njokoo. In an instant myriads of them were on his body. They covered the inside of his trunk and ears, also his eyes. The poor njokoo fled for his life, and disappeared in the forest, tearing everything before him, making for a river.

Some of the men of the woods had narrow escapes. They received great bites and gave shrieks of pain. They had never run so fast in their lives, and did not stop until they thought they were out of danger. Here a njego was to be seen fleeing with her tiny little baby in her mouth, carrying him away from the bashikouays. She had been obliged to leave two little ones in her lair. When the bashikouays reached the lair, they precipitated themselves with great frenzy upon the little njegos, who soon were black with them. In a short time only their bones were left, and the bashikouays continued on their errand of destruction.

[Illustration: “_The poor njokoo fled for his life_”]

[Illustration: [Leopard]]

All the abodes of the night prowlers that were in the way of this great army were visited, and the young destroyed. Some of the old ones even fell victims to the bashikouays. Onward they went. During the night they reached a village where there were no human beings. They had all left for their plantation. The bashikouays swarmed into every house, attacked and overpowered the rats, mice, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, lizards, and the many cockroaches that were there, and when they went away not one of these was left. All had been devoured.

Farther on they entered another village. Here the human beings were fast asleep. The terrible bites of the bashikouays soon awoke them. “The bashikouays have come!” shouted the people. The women seized their helpless little babies, and the fathers their little children, otherwise they would have been overpowered and devoured by the bashikouays.

In haste the inhabitants lighted fires everywhere across the street down which the invading army came, and brought burning brands, hot ashes, etc., to burn the invaders, and poured boiling water upon them. One man who was bedridden was surrounded by hot ashes and burning brands; otherwise, he would have been eaten up, and in less than two hours his bones would have been all that was left of him.

Before daylight this attacking column was thoroughly disorganized, and entered the forest, for they knew that the sun was coming.

The chiefs and officers had the greatest trouble, and it required great genius to reform the scattered host into a solid column. The loss of life during the raid of the bashikouays had been very great.

After the raid, the tract of forest where the bashikouays had passed was deserted. The animals who afterward dared to go back to their lairs or burrows saw only the bones of their little ones.

When the bashikouays disappeared, no one in the forest could tell whether they had reformed their army column, where they had gone, or if they had entered once more into the bowels of the earth.