Atta (1953) by Francis Rufus Bellamy

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  our four enemies.

  “Then why don’t we knock off work and go get a few?”

  I suggested.

  “Only because I don’t know how to milk one,” he confessed rather shamefacedly. “I don’t belong to that class.”

  ’“Well, I do,” I asserted. “In my country any man can

  milk anything from an aphid to a dragon.”

  In that case, he agreed, there was no reason why we

  should not undertake another scouting expedition; and I

  soon suspected that the prospect was as attractive to him,

  after his days of hard labor, as it was to me. Indeed, he

  A T T A

  53

  spent the rest of the afternoon polishing and burnishing

  his armor; and the next morning it was he who woke me

  at sunrise so that we might get off to an early start.

  “Oh,” I said, “so you really want to go?”

  “I can’t let you go alone/’ he said. “You might never return.”

  I smiled to myself, for his eyes were bright, and I knew

  that he liked nothing better than distant forays in the

  jungle. Yet I must do him the justice to admit that his

  words were not all pretense. He was devotedly attached

  to me, and in the end he proved it in a manner I cannot

  forget. Indeed I am old now, and it is forty years since

  Atta was my companion in the adventures that these

  pages are chronicling; yet not a day passes that I do

  not think of him and of those old adventurous days with

  regret and longing. How gladly would I set out again as

  I did that bright summer morning, with my ax on my

  shoulder and Atta by my side, into the jungle teeming

  with mysterious life! How gaily even the sun shone, and

  with what high spirits we went forward to meet whatever the day had in store for us of good' or evil!

  I had now, in addition to my ax and bow, a very passable lasso, coiled over my shoulder so as to leave my hands free, as well as a dagger with a wooden handle,

  the razor-blade a sharp crystal seven inches long. This

  I kept thrust through my belt, ready to hand. I had also

  filled my pockets with mushrooms enough to last three

  days, lest we be delayed in our return. I felt well fortified

  against misadventure.

  It was a hot, dry day and the trees rasped and scraped

  together with a continuous sharp sound in the breeze.

  We had had no rain for two weeks, and the tree spears

  seemed to have become very dry and brittle in the hot

  sun. But Atta had assured me that we need not expect

  rain for at least two days more, and I felt exceedingly

  cheerful. For I had nearly as high a respect for his

  weather predictions as for the character and power of

  the storms themselves. Reassured by his prediction, I

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  A T T A

  entertained no fears; and so volatile is man’s spirit, even

  in adversity, that I am willing to confess that I even sang

  as we plunged into the jungle beyond our low thistle

  hedge.

  We traveled rapidly this time, too, without rope or baggage to encumber us, and we reached the plateau long before noon, as the shadows attested. One of Atta’s reasons for wanting to start early had been a wish to explore the steep stone cliff in both directions, that we might

  find some easy way of getting down it. For Atta was quite

  sure not only that our best eventual path out lay through

  the jungle valley but also that only in the green uplands

  on its far side should we find any aphids.

  Whatever the validity of this conjecture, our first view

  of the cliffs was not a reassuring one. Again, as far as the

  eye could reach, they stretched on both sides of us above

  the gorgeously colored carpet of the valley below. Again

  the valley itself presented its yellows and reds and

  browns. Only the violets and purples were missing now -

  sad signs, I supposed, of the passing of early summer.

  Otherwise the scene was unchanged, even to the green

  meadows on the rising upland mountains opposite and

  the incredible cuplike gargantuan trees that topped the

  far-distant ridge. It was a vista of magnificent proportions, trembling on the edge of memory and yet familiar once more, bringing into sharp relief the moment when

  it had burst upon me as I stood in front of my metal

  shelter. Even this was still where I had left it—still resembled a giant thimble slightly weathered and discolored on the rims where rain and sun had touched it.

  But of a way down the cliffs there was none.

  “We’d better take a look from the ravine,” Atta suggested.

  The suggestion repelled me slightly, with the picture

  it brought up of the black stranger lying crushed beneath

  me beside the boulder and my own perspiring hands still

  clutching my crystal ax. But I could think of no good

  reason for not discovering what lay beneath the ledge

  A T T A

  55

  above the valley, and we walked back to where the cleft

  began and descended the declivity slowly, eyes alert for

  any signs of our former enemies. No living thing was in

  sight; there was no trace of our recent battle, and to my

  surprise even the corpses of our antagonists were gone.

  Only the glass crystals glittered slightly in the rubbish

  beyond the boulder, and at the bottom of the ravine the

  green light of the jungle valley trees shone on the ledge.

  When we reached this and paused and sitting on its

  edge looked out and down, an expression of what I can

  only name anticipation flitted across Atta’s features. This

  was called forth by the character of the cliff beneath us.

  Only for some twenty feet did it fall away sheer. Then

  came another ledge; and this seemed almost supported

  by the apex of a huge mound of rock and debris that

  spread down below the trees to the ground at an angle

  sharp but climbable. It was as if in ages past the ravine

  behind us had poured rock and sand from its open mouth

  until the residue had almost reached its parent. Anyone

  who could reach the secondary ledge twenty feet below

  could easily descend into the valley.

  “This is the sort of thing for which ropes were made,”

  I remarked, and began uncoiling my lasso, intending to

  fasten one end of it around a boulder and slide down to

  the ledge below.

  But Atta would have none of it.

  For days he had been urging me to permit him to carry

  me over rough spots, just to show how easily it could be

  done. Now he saw his opportunity, and he did not intend to be robbed of it. “We don’t need ropes,” he exclaimed. “I’ll carry you.” And before I could remonstrate or resist he had seized me about the waist and, despite

  my protests, was carrying me over the ledge and straight

  down the wall.

  Never shall I forget my sensations as we went over

  the edge and down the almost perpendicular cliff. I had

  sense enough to seize the loose coils of my lasso and hold

  them tight, and I stopped struggling almost immediately,

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  A T T A

  but I assure you that my heart leaped into my mouth

  and every hair on my head stood on end.

  It did not last long, however. Atta w
ent down as fast

  as his sure-footed legs could cany him, which was considerably faster than a horse can trot, and he deposited me unharmed and slightly ashamed at the far bottom of

  the conelike heap of rubbish in less time than I should

  have taken to lower myself to the first ledge, now far

  above us. “There,” he said rather smugly, “you were

  perfectly safe, and we have saved good rope and time.”

  Now that I was secure on level ground and had had

  time To get over my first alarm I had to admit that he

  was right. I did so with as good grace as I could muster.

  “Very pretty,” I said, “if you’ll tell me how we are to get

  up there again.”

  That was simplicity itself, he said; he would merely

  take my rope in his beak, climb the wall, and pull me up

  after him! This was such a triumph of sagacity after the

  fact that I had much ado not to burst out laughing. But

  it put me in a good humor again with my companion, and

  eventually with myself, and soon we were traversing the

  valley floor as if nothing had happened.

  Here, however, I had another kind of difficulty. The

  land in the valley bottom, fairly level when seen from the

  top of the cliffs, proved at close range to be a loose rubble

  of earth clods and small stones very lightly packed. It

  offered no trouble to Atta, but for me it was far more

  difficult to traverse than the dense jungles and rough

  boulder-strewn glades about our house. I toiled and

  struggled along it, hampered by my heavy as and the

  coil of rope about my shoulder, until at last, as I was

  hurrying over a smoother bit in a vain endeavor to catch

  up with Atta, a piece of treacherous crust gave way and

  I fell flat on my face into a small underground cavern.

  I had shouted to Atta as I fell, and he came running back

  and dragged me out, unhurt but thoroughly discouraged.

  “There’s no use my going any farther,” I said. “I can’t

  A T T A

  57

  make a mile an hour over this country. We had better

  give it up.”

  But Atta would not hear of this. “We have only a

  short way to go,” he objected. He pointed ahead through

  a break in the roof of huge pale-green leaves to where

  the ground rose toward the uplands covered with green

  meadows and dotted with dark masses of red and brown

  vegetation. “Look!” he exclaimed. “Ten to one we’ll find

  aphids there. Why not let me carry you? I would have

  offered before, but I thought you didn’t like it.”

  “Of course I don’t like it,” I replied irritably. “Being

  carried around is too silly for words. Suppose some one

  should see us--- ”

  I stopped suddenly, remembering what small likelihood there was of our being seen by any creatures even remotely resembling human beings. Indeed, I asked myself, was I not a hundred times more ridiculous as well as a thousand times more uncomfortable, floundering

  along alone in my awkwardness than I should be were

  Atta to carry me?

  “Very well,” I said, as he continued to urge the quite

  obvious unreasonableness of my objections, “carry me

  if you insist. But the quicker we get there the better, for

  I certainly don’t enjoy it.”

  Without more ado he picked me up and bore me rapidly and without a single false step over the uneven floor of the valley toward the western uplands. They loomed

  ever higher before us as we proceeded, all the different

  colors of their surface now thrown into bold relief where

  the rays of the sun struck slightly slantwise across them.

  In some places they were of an exceedingly bright green,

  and this reassured me. For the vegetation in the valley

  was quite evidently all of the same kind, with nowhere

  any signs of bushes bearing fruit or berries or anything

  upon which aphids might feed.

  Presently, however, the ground began to slope gently

  upward, covered with occasional green creepers over

  huge jagged rocks that barred the way; and beside one

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  A T T A

  of these Atta at length set me down. It had taken him

  less than a quarter of an hour to cross the valley, a distance of nearly two miles; he had not paused or hesitated once, yet he seemed in no need of rest, and without a

  word of explanation to me he set off at once to skirt the

  foot of the uplands and find a place that offered easy

  ascent.

  From where I stood I could no longer see the red and

  brown hills, but the ground was more open than before

  immediately around me, and in one place a great green

  creeper four or five feet thick hung down from a rock,

  reaching from top to bottom and trailing for several yards

  along the earth in front of me. As I looked I thought I

  could make out something moving on it, and I approached

  it cautiously, my ax held ready in my hands.

  Above, the bark was heavy and the creeper thick, but

  as it neared the ground the bark grew thinner until toward the ends of the fronds it was smooth and of a uniform light green color, with irregularly shaped leaves like huge, twenty-foot painters' palettes and occasional sharp

  thorns a foot or two long. As I came nearer one of these

  thorns suddenly moved several feet down the trunk, and

  I stopped a moment in alarm, wondering if the whole

  creeper was alive. Anything was possible in this country.

  But nothing more happened, and I went on again, still

  cautiously, until I was within three yards of it. Then I

  saw that what I had supposed to be a thorn was in reality

  a small light-green creature with long, very slender legs

  and a small round body, who was busily boring into the

  stock of the creeper with a long bill something like a

  woodcock’s. He paid no attention to me as I came up,

  and I saw that there were fifteen or twenty more like

  him, all motionless and, as I supposed, sucking up the

  juices of the plant through their bills. I was still watching them in astonishment when Atta returned to tell me he had found a path toward the uplands. He called to me

  as he came, and I had no chance to direct his attention

  to my find. For just as I was about to ask him if these

  A T T A

  59

  creatures were not his vaunted aphids, I caught a glint

  of polished black armor in the jungle in back of him, and

  I pulled him quickly behind another rock, where we

  crouched in silence, waiting to see what was coming.

  Presently, out of the jungle, a long line of black Formi-

  cans appeared. They approached rapidly, following

  roughly the trail up which we had come, and doing it

  with the greatest of ease. There were fifteen or twenty of

  them, and when they reached the ground below us they

  turned and came directly toward us.

  It seemed impossible that they could have seen us, for

  we had remained motionless behind our rock, and only

  my head could have been visible as I peered around at

  them. Yet, even if they did not intend to attack, they

  could scarcely miss us now, for their present line of

  march would take them within a few feet of the rock behind whic
h we were hidden. Fortunately there was an irregular hollow under the boulder—a small cave, in fact,

  in which, if, as seemed likely, they were in a hurry and

  did not stop to reconnoiter, we might escape detection.

  We crawled in and awaited the .event, I could hear

  them chattering together as they came on, and the crunch

  of loose pebbles under their feet. Nearer and nearer they

  came. And then, just as I was crouching lower, expecting

  any moment to see their shadows across the mouth of

  our hiding place, they stopped. For several minutes we

  lay perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe. Perhaps, I

  thought, they had discovered where we were and were

  silently creeping up to surround the rock.

  I unsiung my bow and fitted an arrow to the string,'

  resolved to make short work of the first who should

  darken the opening. But none came; there was no sound

  of stealthy movements; and at last I crept on hands and

  knees to the edge of the cave and looked out. There was

  nothing in sight, and I rose cautiously and peered over

  the top of the boulder.

  To my surprise nearly all the Formicans had disappeared somewhere. The rest, four or five, had climbed up

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  A T T A

  on the green trunk of the creeper and were walking up

  and down among the slender-legged green creatures, apparently milking them, and stopping now and then to stroke them gently with their feelers. Presently all five,

  having satisfied their thirst, climbed down from the

  creeper and also disappeared behind the huge rock,

  where, Atta guessed, the entrance to their camp must

  be, he having crept out beside me in the meantime.

  This meant, Atta whispered, that the best thing for us

  to do was to get away as quickly as we could.

  He said this very urgently, but for once I did not agree.

  “I came out to get a couple of aphids,” I objected in a low

  tone. “Aren’t these aphids?”

  Yes, they were aphids, Atta admitted, but these Formi-

  eans were savages and in too great numbers for us to

  stand off if we were caught making off with their cattle.

  “Maybe we shan’t get caught,” I said. “You watch here

  while I go and investigate the rock.”

 

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