Consider Her Ways by Frederick Philip Grove

As a matter of fact, we held a general review on the fourth day and departed within the next twenty-four hours. We still went straight east; and for a number of days we passed one Pogonomyrmex colony after the other. There was constant battle; wherever we appeared, we were attacked; and this warfare of attrition did not cease till we were beyond the range of these ants. Whenever we came within 2,400 antlengths of any clearing of theirs, we were in contact with their scouts; and at last we established a regular routine in getting past. We trained a shock-troop of some 500 picked fighters who met the attacking column and, gradually swinging to the right or the left, as the case might be, so as to cover our flank, they kept the enemy engaged while we marched past; when we had done so, they defended our rear till we were disengaged. No doubt the records of these numerous colonies boast to this day of an unbroken series of victories over an invading army of giants.

It goes without saying that such actions could not be fought without losses; and while they were comparatively slight on our side, they counted more heavily against us than those a hundred times as large counted against our enemies. The worst of it was that we soon came to the point where we had to leave our wounded behind. At first we made an attempt to carry them with us; but we found that we were unconscionably delayed by them and that the efficiency of our army was seriously impaired by such a burden. Assa-ree claimed that our wounded were the direct cause of further losses; for, if we marched unencumbered, we passed each hostile colony in half the time; and our losses were directly proportional to the time required for doing so. Still another consideration had to be urged in favour of the unantly expedient of abandoning our casualties to the untender mercies of our enemies: only about half of them recovered ultimately. Only too often did we find that we had carried an ant along for four or five days in order to have her die anyway at the last. I even found that, in Assa-ree's ranks, there were those who found themselves unable, in spite of all warnings, to resist the temptation of cannibalism; and all those who partook of these ghoulish feasts were promptly taken ill themselves, some of them with fatal results. I was in despair. Expediency demanded that I should do what no Atta had ever done before; and I was to do it on the motion of Assa-ree! The whole expedition had now entered a phase in which we could consider nothing but the ultimate aim: not to let the ever increasing sum of our findings perish with ourselves.