To some readers it may seem strange that ants should be considered four- winged insects, whereas they may have never seen a winged individual among the thousands of ants they may have looked upon. The fact is, this tribe presents the curious anomaly (paralleled also in the Termites, or white ants, of an- other order) of three forms of individuals — we might almost saj-, three sexes. The males and females are furnished with four win^s on their leaving the chrys- alis state, but soon drop them spontaneously. These
Brown Ant (.Formica Erunnea).
1, Worker or neuter; 2, its natural size; 3, Cocoon ; 4, Male ; 6, Female ;
5, 7, Natural sizes of 4 and 6.
are comparatively few in number ; but there is an- other race, which are the workers, and which consti- tute the main body of the teeming population, which never have any wings at all. These are sexless, but are considered as imperfectly developed females.
The Arabians held the wisdom of the ant in such estimation, that they used to place one of these insects in the hands of a newly-born infant, repeating these words: 'May the boy "turn out clever and skilful." Hence, in Arabic, with the noun nemlek, "an ant," is connected the adjective nemV, "quick." "clever" (Bochart, Hieroz. Ill, -191). The Talmudists, too, at- tributed great wisdom to this insect. It was, say they, from beholding the wonderful ways of the ant that the following expression originated: "Thy jus- tice, 0 God, reaches to the heavens" (Chulin, 63).
It may not be out of place to adduce the parallel economy of a tribe of insects, which, though they be- long to another zoological order, so greatly resemble ants in their most remarkable peculiarities as to be popularly associated with them. "We refer to the white ants (Termites), so abundant in all tropical countries. These, too, form populous societies, living in common- wealth, in elaborate structures, which are constructed
by the united labors of the whole. "We have not any detailed accounts of the Oriental species ; but in the minute and careful description, by Snieathman, of the African kinds, he speaks of their magazines of stored
A
.'■••'X
Hills of Termites, or White Ants of Africa.
food. These are " chambers of clay, always well filled with provisions, which, to the naked eye, seem to con- sist of the raspings of wood, and plants which the ter- mites destroy, but are found b}- the microscope to be principally the gums and inspissated juices of plants. These are thrown together in little masses, some of which are finer than others, and resemble the sugar about preserved fruits ; others are like tears of gum, one quite transparent, another like amber, a third brown, and a fourth quite opaque, as Ave see often in parcels of ordinary gums." — Fairbairn, s. v.
It may be observed that the word chanamaV (b~3n), translated "frost" in our version of Psa. lxxviii, 47, is thought by many to refer to some spe- cies of ant or kindred insect destructive of trees.
Antaradus (Arranacoc, Ptol. v, 15, § 16; Hiero- cles, p. 716), a city of Phoenicia, situated on the main- land opposite the island of Aradus (whence its name), which latter is alone referred to in Scripture (Gen. x, 18 ; 1 Chron. i, 16). See Arvad. According to the A ntonine Itinerary and the Peutinger Tables, it was 24 Roman miles from Balanea and 50 from Tripolis (Re- land, Palcest. p. 216, 318). It was rebuilt, A.D. 346, by the Emperor Constantius, who named it Cunsfantia after himself (Cedren. Hist. p. 246), but it appears under its old name likewise in the subsequent Church councils. During the Crusades it was a populous and well fortified town (William of Tyre, vii, 15), and was known as Tortosa (Tasso, Genual, lib. i, 6 ; Wilken, Kreuzz. i, 253; ii, 200; vii, 340, 713). It is now a mean village of 241 taxable Moslems and 44 Greeks ( Bibliotk. Sacra, 1848, p. 247). The walls, of heavy bevelled stones, are still remaining (Mignot, Mem, sitr les Phen. in the A cad. des Belles Lettres, xxxiv, 239; Edrisi, p. 129, 130, ed. Jaubert).
Antediluvians, people who lived before the Del- uge (q. v.), which occurred A.M. 1657. See Age. All our authentic information respecting this long and in- teresting period is contained in forty-nine verses of Genesis (iv, 16-vi, 8), more than half of which are oc- cupied with a list of names and ages, invaluable for chronology, but conveying no particulars regarding the primeval state of man. The information thus af- forded, although so limited in extent, is, however, em- inently suggestive (see Clarkson, Antediluvian Re- searches, Lond. 1836; Boucher d. Perthes, Li Homme Antidiluvien, Par. 1860; Stein, De moribus ante dilu- vium, Wittenb. 1783; Purton, World before the flood, Lond. 1844 ; Redslob, De Antediluvianis, Hamb. 1*47 ; Willesch, Dephi/osophia antedilurianorum, Leipz. 1717 ; Jour, Sac. Lit. July, 1862, p. 376 sq.). Some addi- tional information, though less direct, may be safely deduced from the history of Noah and the first men after the Delude; for it is very evident that society did not begin afresh after that event, but that, through
ANTEDILUVIANS
247
ANTEDILUVIANS
Noah and his sons, the new families of men were in a condition to inherit, and did inherit, such sciences and arts as existed before the Flood. This enables us to understand how settled and civilized communities were established, and large and magnificent works un- dertaken within a few centuries after the Deluge.