EATING INSECTS. 165 



The account which Percival gives of the white- 

 ants of Ceylon is precisely similar. *' The white- 

 ants," he says, *' in the space of one night, will 

 demolish and eat up all the boots, shoes, and bottoms 

 of trunks, which come in their way, or are left on 

 the ground. This is never done but by the careless- 

 ness of the black servants. In camp, the furniture of 

 the tents is placed on inverted bottles, with their necks 

 planted in the ground, which, on account of the slip- 

 pery nature of the glass, cannot- be climbed up by the 

 ants. In the dwelling-houses, the trunks, chairs, and 

 bed-posts, are for the same reason placed in tin vessels 

 full of water. I have frequently seen the large beams 

 of a house almost eaten through by these insects, and 

 ready to tumble down on the heads of the inhabitants. 

 " This destructive insect, however, is not without 

 the most singular utility, and is made by the Creator 

 to serve the same benevolent purposes which are con- 

 spicuous in every part of his plan. In the immense 

 forests which they inhabit, and which are never sub- 

 ject to the hand of cultivation, the constant accumu- 

 lation of decayed timber would in time greatly impede, 

 if not entirely choke vegetation, were not these animals 

 employed by Providence continually to devour it *.'* 



Insects, indeed, tiny and insignificant as they may 

 appear, are, in such cases, the principal scavengers of 

 nature ; and wherever decaying vegetable or animal 

 substances abound on land or in water, there myriads 

 of insects are certain to be met with, greedily devour- 

 ing what is most noxious in quality, and offensive to 

 our senses. At the same time, the multiplication of 

 their numbers, from this abundant supply of food, 

 provides an almost exhaustless store of prey for those 

 species of birds which feed upon insects. 



We shall subjoin one other extract from Smeath- 

 man's interesting paper : — 



* Percival's Ceylon, p. 308. 



