Show hanew amey A antar A wy f 1 el aw 41 vak W N I 1 the ants clinging to the ceiling are filled with honey prepared by national geographic society washington D C service ot of tourists visit the THOUSANDS teach garden of the gods in colorado each year they stand in awe before fiery red pinnacles etched against the blue sky they marvel at those fantastic rock formations formation s the gods of mythology with their human shapes some of their hats most of their spears and a few of their cathedral spires towering about them in red sandstone they are unaware un aware of an ancient dramatic civilization living under their feet yet here in the sandstone ridges dwell creatures who might themselves have stepped from living myths crea tures with yellow heads and large in dated translucent bodies who are per haps the most self sacrificing beings I 1 known in fairy tales boys and girls are fat bened by witches so that they may later be eaten with gusto in this race dwelling in darkness in the garden of the gods children are fed enormously so that a few may become over capa clous and hang in underground cellars for months for years as living casks of honey this would be terrifying were these creatures human instead they are honey ants honey ants are and unlike any other insects in their translation of themselves into honey pots gather a honey not uncil e that of bees and store it in round thin casks that let the beautiful amber of honey shine through but the casks possess living trunks living heads living legs they hang by living claws to the cellar roof and open a living spigot when an lin biber tiber comes to drink for this chil dren are fed to enormous size and chambered in eternal darkness here and there across the tufts of grama grass and wild sunflower heads gleam little mounds of red sandstone and bright colored quartz craters cut into rock the red loose stones roll out on all sides to a diameter of about thirty inches with each mound rising to three or four inches pierced by a large central entrance hole outs de all 1001 s simple but inside a descending shaft runs vertically for a while before carrying off sharply to a long gallery and other shafts forming galleries under galleries all running in the same direction then seldom far from the surface usually up or down a few steps from a main gallery single or in suites are the wine eel lars the honey chambers the for ever homes of the swollen members of the race wonderful honey chambers the honey chambers where they ban hang are virtually death chambers except that life flows from them freely the severed casks of honey in the burial grounds form a nightmare thing cask rolled beside cask but beauty exists in the ants refusal to touch a honey cask after its owner has died the ut tie ile crammed honey pots stand idle and untouched once they are rolled into the cemeteries be an alice in wonderland in such a home if you will come down thit wide central stair having ducked into the rabbit hole passed sentinels at the gate and given the essential salute all Is dusky dim only that glimmering round of daylight above tou you turn left down a long ion narrow passage which leads into deeper and deeper darkness but tl ti e floor glints up a firm pol ish the floor deliberately made smooth not merely worn smooth bv the passing of innumerable feet and ando he walls are smooth and straight a sort of guide in the dark little feet rustle by ants laden with earth excavating a new room far at fhe the end of the passage all that mound above was formed by similar excava eions each pebble each shining bit of quartz was carried along galleries up the main stairs and out um mm in in I 1 an act licks her mandl bles giving off a vague sweet scent honey I 1 somewhere near Is a honey cellar the ant has paused in working to take a good stiff drink A shaft de ascends darkly to the left cautiously down down to a great vaulted globe lighted room the vaulted root roof Is clustered with enorma enormous us banging hanging lamps no not lamps pale amber spheres hanging hang ng about midway into the room occupying half the cellar spice the globes glow with the light that lives in honey their pale old color Is the richness of honey that scent rising from them Is the warm flavor of honey each globe Is a living jewel nothing more nor less than the d body of a living ant filled almost to bursting with limpid honey clutched to the roof by its claws they crowd the arched ceiling stir restlessly twist their yellow heads sq squirm airm their shoulders but do not loos en hold below them the clean walls slope to the level floor which Is swept polished made smooth but the root roof Is gritty purposely left rough for the claws to maintain perch the roof arches half again the height of the walls a cellar made deliberately libera tely for honey casks to allow free passage beneath space for keeping the honey cales clean and the cellar free from mold an ant takes a drink there are little soft sounds as the great globes stir shift an arm or foot foots sway a little nearer to a neighbor careful I 1 don t dare lean ton you might break me I 1 and one turns a pointed yellow head toward another s the globes are not all clear amber queer dark planes streak them their trans lucent part Is inner skin stretched to balloon proportions pushing apart the dark planes of the outer body forming islands on a globe map of strange world seas suddenly an ant enters to drink she looks like these hanging I 1 ants yellow headed yellow but she wears no inflated balloon her antennae lift inquisitively already the foretaste of honey Is in III her mouth she stands almost erect climbs to the hanging ant leans to its little close mouth open please obediently its mouth opens up comes a clear drop of honey pushed up by some inner move ment to hang a moment glistening on the cask casks s lower mandible before drop ping into the waiting ant s mouth she takes one two even three drops thank you you may close she climbs down and the little spigot mouth closes before the ant leaves she daintily wipes her mouth against the back of her hand down her back hair then trots off groomed well fed another ant enters another another each climbs to a chosen sphere says open please with that leaning of mouth to mouth and the mouth opens all and d up comes the honey drop but suppose they enter to deposit honey rather than receive it what then painfully slowly this time because so laden they are almost honey casks themselves the ants climb to the hanging casks place mouth to mouth open please I 1 and with an jennae held back out of the way let drops of honey form on their mandl bles to enter the obedient casks this new honey Is almost white in its freshness As long as drops are there to fall in the little spigot mouth holds open then the emptied ant relieved turns away and ana taie globe clinging to the roof gleams larger more bulbous still with the added content it scarcely dares draw a full breath move an arm or shift a leg for fear this new weight and full ness will make it burst or fall developed into honey casks poor little doomed creatures creature sl I 1 what determined such a fate when young they resembled other ants they had the same two stomachs one private the other for communal use much that en their mouths they never t tasted asted for it passed at once to the communal crop to be fed later to the queen whose duties are ike 1 ke those of the queen bee to males resembling drones in a hive to workers or to baby ants but some showed an enormous capacity for food how they begged their pale mouths open all the time I 1 now these are honey casks late dusk in the garden of the gods the sandstone gods are cold and dark they have had their play of light all day while the red mounds of the ants stayed quiet with gates clos closed ed seemingly all inside were asleep yet few ants slept being busy most of them with underground tasks now ants push out of that round tubular hold so fast they cover the mound it if this were daylight no red rock would shine yellow ants are everywhere by hundreds by thousands A ring of sentinels begins pacing the outer edges of the mound others guard the gate their heads beads thrusting up like soldiers with bayonets still others move about the narrow platform surrounding the aate while one ant then twenty then a whole column of ants move off over the ridge preparing for a march in the vales between the ridges far far away low scrub oaks in the light of the moon thrust up their dark thick leaves the ants know these dwarf oal s they move through straggly ly bunches of grass on a familiar path with scant deviation reaching the oak copse in fifteen minutes moonlight pierces the leaves lemes sharply revealing the ants straddling up the stems clambering out over leaves searching endlessly sometimes fruitlessly for new oak galls with their tiny flashes of shin shia ing sweet i |