sion of the ground before the monks had es tablished themselves in the place, and so they ought not to be troubled; and so he appealed for them against the violence done them to the tribunal of the Divine Creator, who made the smallest as well as the great est, and had assigned to every one a guardian angel. He admitted that it was difficult for the defendants to contend against the human means employed by the plaintiffs; but, not withstanding all, the ants were resolved to continue their own style of living, as the earth and all it contained belonged to God, and not to the plaintiffs. Domini est terra et plenitudo ejus. (Apparently even in those days counsel threw in a little Latinity wher ever possible.) This argument for the defense was so strong that even the advocate for the friars had to admit that the ants had some right on their side. Then the judge carefully con sidered the evidence, and weighing the mat ter with an unbiased mind, that justice might be done in the premises, decreed that the friars should select a field in the neigh borhood of which the ants might have peaceable possession, and that the ants should remove at once, under pain of ex communication. The judge thought that neither party would be prejudiced by this decision : the friars had come to the country to sow the grain of the evangel, and their maintenance was agreeable to God, and the ants could easily obtain their food in the new place by their industry, and the cost would be less. When this judgment was pronounced, the judge sent a friar to proclaim it to the ants, and this he did by reading it, ore rotundo, near by the ant-hills. Then, mirabile dictu, evidently the Supreme Being was satisfied with the decision, et nigrum campis agmen : millions of ants came out of their homes, formed themselves into long and dense columns, and proceeded straight to the field assigned them, forsaking their old abodes forever. And the Minorites, released from
the fear of their enemies, sang Te Deums of praise and thanksgiving. Bernardes saw these pleadings and pro ceedings, and carefully read them in the monastery of St. Anthony, where they had been placed. Where they are now we would not like to say, as we find that in the same century a number of ants-— and white ones at that — had taken possession of a library in Peru and devoured a great number of books. These termites had actually to be excom municated before they would cease from carrying out the wise saw of Bacon, that some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Apropos of ant-hills, among the black Khonds of Orissa, in India, an intending wit ness is sometimes placed over an ant-hill and made to utter an imprecation that if he swears falsely he may be reduced to powder by the dwellers therein. Then he tells his tale. By the way, some of the jungle tribes have to hold on to the tail of a cow before they will tell theirs. (Lea's " Superstition and Force," p. 258.) The vicinity of Lausanne, in Switzerland, was in the year 1479 badly infested by cock chafers (Anglice, May-beetles). They were so numerous and destructive as to be a tho rough pest. M. Richardt, who was then chancellor of the city of Berne, advised that legal proceedings should be taken against them. His advice, judging from the experi ence of the preceding three or four hundred years, seemed reasonable, and so was fol lowed. In the first place there were some processions — why, where, and of whom we are not certain; next, the beetles were sum moned to appear in the Bishop's court. The citation did not seem to warrant a fair trial, or even a safe conduct; it was in this style : "Ye hideous and degraded creatures: ye grubs! There was nothing like ye in the ark of Noah. By orders of my august supe rior, the Archbishop of Lausanne, and in obedience to the Holy Church, I command
