CH. VIII.] THE WHITE ANT. 147 



lential, are so thoroughly removed, that not a grain 

 of their substance is to be recognised. Not only is 

 the air freed from this corrupting matter, but the 

 plants destroyed by the shade of these bulky giants 

 of the vegetable world are thus permitted to shoot. 



In those countries, the white ants answer another 

 purpose ; they serve for food : in some parts of the 

 East Indies, the natives catch the winged insects 

 just before their period of emigration, in the fol- 

 lowing manner they make two holes, the one to 

 the windward, the other to the leeward : at the lee- 

 ward opening they place the mouth of a pot, the 

 inside of -which has been previously rubbed with an 

 aromatic herb, called Bergera: on the windward 

 side they make a fire of stinking materials, which 

 not only drives these insects, but frequently the 

 hooded snakes also, into the pots, on which account 

 they are obliged to be cautious in removing them. 

 By this method they catch great quantities, of which 

 they make with flour a variety of pastry, which they 

 can afford to sell very cheap to the poorer ranks of 

 people : when this sort of food is used too abun- 

 dantly, it produces cholera, " which kills in two or 

 three hours." 



It also seems that, in some form or other, these 

 insects are greedily eaten in other countries : thus, 

 when, after swarming, shoals of them fall into the 

 rivers, the Africans skim them off the surface with 

 calabashes, and bringing them to their habitations, 

 parch them in iron pots over a gentle fire, stirring 

 them about as is usually done in roasting coffee ; 

 in that state, without sauce or any other addition, 

 they consider them delicious food, putting them by 

 handfuls into their mouth as we do comfits. "I 

 have," says Smeathman, "eaten them dressed in 

 this way" several times, and think them delicate, 

 nourishing, and wholesome; they are something 

 sweeter, though not so fat and cloying, as the cat- 

 terpillar or maggot of the palm-tree snoutbeetle 



