What is "emmets"

Usage examples of "emmets".

Yama realized that there were men on the roof of the House of the Twelve Front Rooms, small as emmets against the glare of the mirrors.

Accordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my play-fellows, and working with them diligently like so many emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and built our little wharff.