THE ANT. 215 



termites : one happened to myself I left Anjengo in the rainy sea- 

 son, to pass a few weeks with the chief, at his country house at Ed- 

 dova, in a rural and sheltered situation : on my departure I locked 

 up a room, containing books, drawings, and a few valuables: as I 

 took the key with me the servant could not enter to clean the fur- 

 niture : the walls of the room were white-washed, adorned with 

 prints and drawings, in English frames and glasses ; returning home 

 in the evening, and taking a cursory view of my cottage by candle- 

 light, I found every thing apparently in the same order as I left it ; 

 but on a nearer inspection the next morning, I observed a number 

 of advanced works, in various directions, towards my pictures ; the 

 glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered 

 with dust: on attempting to wipe it offj I was astonished to find 

 the glasses fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as I left them, 

 but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the 

 white-ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back 

 boards, and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld 

 by the incrustations, or covered way, which they had formed dur- 

 ng their depredation. From the flat Dutch bottles, on which the 

 drawers and boxes were placed, not having been wiped during my 

 absence, the ants had ascended the bottles by means of the dust, 

 eaten through the bottom of a chest, and made some progress in 

 perforating the books arid linen. The chief's lady, with whom I 

 had been staying at Eddova, on returning to her apartments in the 

 fort/found, from the same cause, a large chest, in which she had 

 deposited shawls, muslins, and other articles, collected preparatory 

 to bejr leaving India, entirely destroyed by these voracious insects*' 



