The colored specie distinctions of the ants and spiders appeared to be as great a source of inveterate hatred between its caste representatives, as the antagonisms of race in form. This necessitated the separation of the white from the red, and the red from the black ants, with a like disposal of the tarantulas from specie representatives of opposing colors. The first encounter that we witnessed was between white and red ants; the former being universally successful with the odds of nine to one against them, and with the blacks twenty to one. The cause of this concentration of multiplied ability in the white, to cope with red and black antagonism, became soon apparent from their studied aforethought for the serried separation and disposal of their foes before they could effect united opposition. The deadly devices of the whites to lure their foes, with the stupid blindness of the red and black ants in accepting the proffered baits without consideration, afforded a relative study for detecting the cause of the instinctive superiority that rules with white humanity. When the whites in an encounter against overwhelming odds had gained decisive advantage, the cathedral bells of Saint Peter sounded from the chief dovecot beneath our place of concealment; its funeral peals announced a new phase in the strange enactments of the day, which had appeared to us so perverse as sources of amusement that we were at no loss to discover the Giga creed origin of hell. Fearful that the long-waited-for crisis was approaching, our eyes were upon the alert.
As the yellow tints from the sun’s fading rays grew hazy with the twilight heraldings of darkness, the folding doors of a large building of ominous appearance opened, and from its portals issued a procession of Dominican friars. In the midst of these inquisitorial representatives of the human sacrificial order, were the unfortunate tits supported by familiars of the Holy Office, with their limbs dragging helplessly upon the pavement, and their heads half revolving on their shoulders without the power of muscular control. The sight aroused the indignation of the tribune and his companions, who with difficulty restrained us from extending to them our immediate aid and sympathy. This was no slight undertaking on their part, for we were unused to a knowledge of the existence of such heartlessness, and would have adventured their deliverance if the odds had been an hundred fold greater; but we finally yielded to the wisdom of their discretion.