Ant Stories

Speaking of ants, began Pliny the Elder, I recall a story I recorded in my Natural Histories about the ants of India.

Oh really? I said. Tell me the story.

These ants have giant horns. They are the colour of a cat and about the size of an Egyptian wolf.

Quite large then, I said.

Oh yes. These ants excavate gold from holes in the ground in northern India. The people there try to take the gold in the summer when the ants are underground escaping from the heat. But the ants, catching the scent of the Indians, sally forth and frequently tear them to pieces.

The Indians? I asked. They tear the Indians to pieces?

Yes, even though the Indians are provided with the swiftest of camels for the purpose of flight.

With camels! I echoed. Well, that is a most wonderful story. Ants certainly are the most interesting of creatures. That reminds me, I heard a story about ants only this morning, from my son.

Tell me the story, said Pliny.

Well, he arrived home yesterday in the late afternoon and went out into his back garden. He saw what he thought was a black mist in the central section of his back fence. On getting closer he realised that the black mist was actually thousands, if not millions, of ants, marching up and down the fence, having paid a visit to a certain pot that was lying on the ground nearby.

And what was in the pot? asked Pliny.

That was the strange thing, I answered. Nothing but dirt, according to my son. And the ants were not carrying any pieces of food, neither on their way up nor on their way down.

Most mysterious, agreed Pliny. What did your son do then?

He went inside and got some Ant Rid, I said. He sprinkled it around, and half an hour later there wasn't an ant in sight. He said he was sorry he hadn't taken a photograph of the black mist.

Indeed, said Pliny. It is always wise to collect evidence of unusual events. Or people might be disinclined to believe that they happened.

Was there any evidence for your giant Indian ants? I asked.

There was, said Pliny, a pair of horns of miraculous size, suspended in the Temple of Hercules, at Erythrae.