THE ANTS OF TIMOTHY THUMMEL F ANTAS TIC story in the style of Gullivers A Travels or Erewhon, but founded upon the marvellous social life of the ants. A naturalist finds in Central Africa, in a huge ants' nest, dry leaves bearing curious spots. Another scientist, Timothy Thummel, astounds the world with the theory that they may be a kind of script written by ants themselves. He is confined in a lunatic asylum, where he succeeds in deciphering the hieroglyphics as Chronicles of a prehistoric Ant Race. A legendary Giant Ant laid the eggs of the primeval ancestors, and commanded them to work incessantly. Social upheavals take place, resulting in two privileged castes being founded- the "Holy-Ants" and the "Lord-Ants." The story reaches its climax dn the narration of the great Ant World-War, foµght between the three principle races on an area of the size of Lincoln's Inn Fields. The dnts of Timothy 'I'hiimmel 7s. 6d. net THE ANTS OF TIMOTHY TH0MMEL MOTTO : Historia formicarum, si omnia commemorare velim, longior futura sit Iliade. ERASMUS EBNERUS : " Encomium Formicarum 11 (in Lib. Declamationum Melanchthonis), A.D. 1541. The Ants of Timothy Thtimmel by Arpad Ferenczy Jonathan Cape Ltd Eleven Gower Street, London FIRST PUBLISHED 19:24 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITH THREE DRAWINGS BY T. H. ROBINSON PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BUTLER AND TANNER LTD., FROME AND LONDON TO HORACE DONISTHORPE Introduction H_E .few years whi~h have elapsed since the T tragic death of Timothy Thiimmel, Ph.D., Privat-Docent of Entomology, late Custodian of the Insect House at the Zoological Gardens in Budapest, have been sufficient to silence .all the army of his scientific opponents, at the head of whom was Professor Armstrong, the famous African traveller and naturalist. Many of his antagonists have found themselves brought to open retractation, or even to apology. At that time, however, now more than a lustrum, when Thiimmel's first reports on the ARUWIMI ANTS appeared in the leading zoological journals of the world (first of all in the Hungarian Termeszet­ Tudomanyi Kozlony and in the British Entomological Review), they created a sensation not only in the small circle of zoologists, but throughout the whole world, among all cultivated minds. But Thiimmel then reaped only scorn and an unanimous re­ jection. He also lost the reputation which he had won so laboriously by his scientific travels, extending over several years, in New Guinea, whence he had returned, already a physically broken man, with a most marvellous collection of Coleo- and H ymenoptera. Instead of the well­ merited chair, the Professorship of Zoology in the Budapest University, and the coveted recognition and applause, his share was public ridicule, the common lot of so many original minds and great pioneers of human knowledge. That he, enfeebled by tropical fever and his immense exer- 7 INTRODUCTION tions in defending his views and scientific reputa­ tion, soon afterwards departed voluntarily from a life which had lost, for him, all charm, bereft of public esteem and recognition-who could wonder? In the closely written quarto diary books, found among his papers after his most lamentable death by his own hand on the 16th May 1916 in the Kurhaus of Elm, Switzerland, the truth for which he died, and which was not allowed himself to communicate to the world, and to see triumph, is preserved, fortunately. To the last, what was to him an absolute certainty-that his theory on the brain and intelligence of the ANTS was founded, not on mere surmise or conjecture, hypothesis or phantasy, but on well-authenticated scientific data-is now a well-known fact to many of his fellow-scientists, and will soon be so to every cultivated layman throughout the world. Thiimmel was the first scientist to formulate the extraordinary theory that the cerebral ganglia of the Hymenoptera are relatively more developed than those of the Mammalia, and consequently, that the chief representatives of the former genus, the ants, are far more intelligent beings, in their sphere, than any of the mammalia, such as dogs, apes, or even-human beings! Hence the superiority and marvellous progress of these tiny insects in economics and moral and social life ! His startling theory, once so boldly formulated, wa~ followed by the strange proposal at the Inter­ nat10nal Congress of Zoology at Jena, to revise the whole antiquated nomenclature of Linnreus, and transfer the misleading title of" sapiens" from Man to the-Ant ! Though his resolution found not even 8 INTRODUCTION a seconder, much less a supporter, and was unani­ mously rejected by that learned Conference, he soon afterwards acted on it, as if it had been carried unanimously at Jena. In the next edition of his small Text-Book of Zoology for Secondary Schools he called MAN "HOMO immoralis semisapiens" and the ANT "FORMICA sapiens diligens" (founded, as he had explained in a foot-note, on the most conspicuous characteristics of the two species). But his book was confiscated, and he was deprived of his Lectureship and his living as Custodian of Insects, by the reactionary clerical government in Hungary at that period. · One day we are sure all his views will be univers­ ally accepted, and envelop his memory in the golden rays of a posthumous glory, and place his name among those of the greatest discoverers and thinkers of mankind, in Zoology and Sociology, since Darwin and Spencer. For to-day it is evident that the proofs produced by him in corroboration of his strange theory were not concocted in levity by himself, as some of his malignant opponents had __affirmed. Those yellow-spotted leaves, at that time so vehemently discussed, which were collected on the Congo by Professor Ixli in the nineties, and deciphered many years after his death by Dr. Thiimmel, have been reproduced since in many facsimilia by zoological periodicals in Europe and America, and have made it evident that they were unquestionably authentic records of the pre­ historic, social and intellectual development of certain ant-tribes existing even at present in Central Africa, and are veritable documents of -HISTORY. 9 INTRODUCTION To us, to whom fell the sad privilege of carrying out the last will of our departed friend, and of administering his literary estate, there remains only one duty to discharge : to transmit to posterity the genial, lifelong work of our friend unaltered, without addition or subtraction, as we found it at Elm. We now perform this duty in the full conviction that we thereby not only accomplish the complete rehabilitation of our late friend, but also add a valuable gem to the literary treasures of humanity. Let the reader draw his conclusions, however, not from our eulogies, but from Dr. Timothy Thiim­ mel's own reports. IO Contents INTRODUCTION FIRST PART CHAPTER THE MYSTIC TREE PAGES THE ARUWIMI ANT-COUNTRY-THE FABULOUS JOURNEY OF MYE-MYE-HIS WISE LAWS AND THE INTRODUCTION OF LABOUR AMONG ANTS 19-28 CHAPTER II THE GIANT-ANT CONCERNING THE MARVELLOUS TREE-CLIMBING OF KYE-KYE-THE SACRED NAME OF TYE-VYE-NYE AND THE ORIGIN OF THE HOLY-ANTS 29-40 CHAPTER III THE SACRED NESTS THE SACRED ANT-NESTS AND THE FAT-BELLIES­ THE HOSTILITIES CAUSED BY THE SACRED NAME OF THE GIANT-ANT-THE DEPLORABLE FATE OF THE ANT-LARVlE IN CAPTIVITY CHAPTER IV THE BIG-HEADS THE INGENIOUS IDEA OF AN IDLE BUT VALIANT WARRIOR-THE ROBBER-ANTS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE BIG-HEADS, OR LORD-ANTS 47-56 II CONTENTS PAGES CHAPTER V THE MARRIAGE-FLIGHT OF THE KING'S DAUGHTER THE VARIOUS NATIONS OF THE ARUWIMI ANTS­ THE SURPASSING BEAUTY OF A KING'S DAUGH­ TER, CALLED TYE-NYE, AND HER ABDUCTION­ BLOODY WAR BETWEEN THE BROWN-ANTS AND THE RED-ANTS ON ACCOUNT OF THE KIDNAP- PING OF THE BEAUTEOUS PRINCESS 57-63 CHAPTER VI THE MYSTERIOUS FOOTPRINTS THE EPIC POEMS OF THE ARUWIMI ANTS AND THEIR PERPETUATION THROUGH THE WORLD-FAMED DISCOVERY OF A HOLY-ANT-THE FIRST FOOT­ HIEROGLYPHICS OF THE ANTS-THE MOST ANCIENT ANT-CHRONICLES CHAPTER VII " AN UNLAID EGG IS NO EGG " MENTAL CULTURE AND SPIRITUALITY AMONG THE ANTS-PHILOSOPHY, SOCIOLOGY, AND META­ PHYSICS-COSMIC POSITION OF THE ANT­ FREEDOM OF THOUGHT-ARCHITECTURE AND 2ESTHETICS 72-78 CHAPTER VIII THE HOLY INTOXICATION THE MIRACULOUS POOL AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE SACRED BERRY-JUICE-THE ANT-CASKS AND THE FIRST SIGNS OF AN ANT-INDUSTRY CHAPTER IX AGRICULTURE THE ANT-COWS-HUSBANDRY AND CATTLE-BREED­ ING--THE DISCOVERY OF THE ANT-RICE AND THE REMARKABLE INVENTION OF MUSHROOM­ HORTICULTURE 88-93 I2 CONTENTS PAGES CHAPTER X THE LIVING HONEY-POTS AN ANT IS NOT A BEE-THE STRANGE IDEA OF A SLAVE-ANT-THE MYSTERIOUS ALLIES-IN­ VENTION OF THE ANT-POTTERY 94-roo CHAPTER XI THE WEAVING INDUSTRY A NEW BRANCH OF INDUSTRY-THE INGENIOUS ANT HERDSMAN AND HIS VISIT TO THE CHAMBER OF THE LARV~ AND PUP~-DESCRIPTION OF AN ANT-NURSERY-THE MARVELLOUS INVENTION OF' THE ANT-TEXTILE-INDUSTRY l0I-I06 CHAPTER XII THE DECIPHERED ANT-HIEROGLYPHICS WHAT CAUSED THE GOOD-NATURED KING TYE-MYE TO REFORM THE SYSTEM OF ANTENNARY VIBRATION OF THE SMALL-HEADS, THE SLAVE­ ANTS, AND TO GRANT THEM THE TITLE OF " FREE ANTS "-THE POSTHUMOUS WORKS OF THE LEARNED PROFESSOR IXLI, AND THE REMARKABLE DISCOVERY OF THE ELM ANT­ FOOT-HIEROGLYPHICS 107-122 SECOND PART CHAPTER XIII THE BETRAYAL THE MARVELLOUS TREE-CLIMBING OF THE PIOUS KYE-PSZYE-THE BETRAYAL OF THE SACRED NAME OF THE GIANT-ANT AND THE DESTRUC­ TION OF THE SACRED NESTS-THE NEW EGG­ LAPPERS, LARV~-EDUCATORS AND HONEY- POTS OF THE BIG-HEADS 125-134 r3 CONTENTS PAGES CHAPTER XIV THE ARUWIMI ANT-COUNTRY AND ITS INHABITANTS GENERAL CULTURAL CONDITION OF THE ARUWIMI ANT PEOPLE PREVIOUS