JUNGLE LORE 225 



hot tub on return to camp is the best bath in the Indian 

 jungle if one wants to keep fit. This experience apphes to 

 the Central Provinces and Bengal. Before I went to other 

 parts of India I had learnt neither to drink their water nor 

 bathe in their streams. 



A great deal could be written about the forest lore of the 

 insect world in India, on which subject we are only at the 

 commencement of our study. I have written upon it else- 

 where and it does not fall within the purview of the present 

 consideration of jungle life. But to those who dip into the 

 study I can confidently promise a fascinating pursuit. For 

 mammal and bird form but a fraction of the teeming 

 hfe of the Indian forests. Hidden beneath the bark and 

 in the wood of dead and dying trees, feeding on the 

 leaves and in the fruits and seeds of healthy hving 

 trees, or hving in the humus of the forest floor, a vast 

 concourse of insect hfe is to be found, a considerable pro- 

 portion of which is probably unknown to science, whose 

 habits and modes of existence are so infinitely varied and 

 marvellous as to take one into a veritable Wonderland. 

 And but the fringe of the veil which enshrouds them has as 

 yet been Hfted. And here you meet again the inexorable 

 rule of the jungle of the oppressor and the oppressed. For 

 there are an infinite variety of insects which prey upon their 

 fellows. 



In conclusion I wiU mention one other insect occupant of 

 the forest which will be commonly known to the shikari man 

 as it is known to the dweller in the Stations throughout the 

 plains of India — I allude to the termite or white ant. Its 

 great pyramidal earthen heaps form one of the commonest 

 sights of the forest. The termite is not a true ant, though 

 it has the appearance of one and possesses many of its 

 habits. They are wonderful erections, these ant heaps, 

 six or more feet in height and extending in ramifying tunnels 

 and chambers deep into the soil. The termite does not five 

 in daylight. Wherever it goes it builds an earth tunnel to 

 keep out the light. The bark of the great trees may often 

 be seen coated with these tunnels, carried up by the 

 ants to reach some great dead bough many feet overhead. 

 This bough they will hollow out completely, leaving only 

 just sufficient supports here and there to prevent the super- 

 structure caving in on top of them, the wood material taken 

 out being replaced by earth. This action on the part of the 



