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in the wealthy provinces, he realizes enormous profits. And hence, sometimes, he becomes carried away by pride, and makes his son a physician.^[1]

After the mascate and the muleteer, the formigueiro has also, as we have said, his allotted place among the useful guests of a fazenda. The formiga is a pest to many of these habitations. The ants of the tropics do not resemble the timid insects of our cool climate, which avoid mankind, and content themselves with making their nests in the trunk of a tree or under a stone, and at most cheating the domestic fowls of a few particles of grain. They are a hardy set, confident in their strength and intelligence, and make themselves inaccessible retreats. Before the arrival of the white man, the formiga was the true queen of the forest. The savage beings, who then represented humanity in this region, had rather a vague instinct of congregation than the true spirit of association. The idea of labor and solidarity, for example, was entirely wanting with them. A prisoner was to them only a victim condemned to serve as a feast. The ant early learned to cultivate higher notions.

At the present day it remains in Brazil one of the most perfect illustrations of those strange laws which introduce into the world of nature, under the form of instinct, certain forces of the moral world, The habitation of the formiga of Brazil is a citadel closed in on every side, communicating with the outer world only by secret passages. If there are any wood-lice in the vicinity, the formiga pursues them, takes them to its habitation, and thus forms itself a sort of farm-yard. A regular distribution of fresh leaves suffices to render captivity supportable to the prisoners, and no attempt at escape is thenceforth to be feared. Some species of ants, given to idleness, commit raids upon the more feeble races, and seize their eggs. The larvæ which are hatched from these, become so many slaves. These slaves with mandibles accept their fate, and perform service to the aristocratic race. It is a veritable subterranean fazenda, equally based on servitude, but without chicote or feitor.

When the workers go to forage in the fields, and the task is hard or pressing, the column is divided into two sections. The most active climb the trunk of the tree which is to be plundered, run out upon the branches to the base of the leaves, and cut off the stems with their serrated teeth. In an hour the foliage has disappeared. The tree seems as if blasted by lightning. In the mean time, those that remained upon the ground seize the leaves as they fall, and carry them away. If the burden is too heavy, this column separates into two groups, one of which separates the leaf into segments, while the other takes it away and stores it. Gardeners especially dread their ravages. If they neglect to surround their fields with a ditch filled with water, or if the latter dries up, good-by to flowers, fruits, and legumes—all disappear in a night. A well-filled ditch does not always suffice to keep such watchful and enterprising marauders at a distance. It is necessary