74 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



ant was gone, the insect still there, but, alas ! he was 

 dead. 



At the time when I discovered this insect I had never 

 seen a queen of the white ants. Afterwards when I saw 

 one it seemed to me that this insect must have been 

 such. But later on I became doubtful. The queen of 

 the white ants has certainly the same ant-like head and 

 body, and the same enormous abdomen ; but then 

 none of them that I met with were able to move, much 

 less to burrow ; and, moreover, they were never found 

 alone or in a hole, but always within the voluminous 

 comb constructed for them by their subject ants — combs 

 filled with eggs and young white ants in every stage of 

 development. 



I afterwards made many other explorations. The 

 results of some I may record. One of the most in- 

 teresting, however, was made previously to the com- 

 mencement of the rains, a few days after the dust storm. 

 It was the afternoon, and I was proceeding as usual to 

 sit on the terrace. On my way I happened to notice in 

 the side of the path a hole very much resembling that 

 of a field-mouse ; some impulse moved me to have it 

 dug up. 



At the depth of not more than a foot we came on the 

 inhabitant ; he proved to be a spider. He was an 

 enormous creature, and of a most disgusting appearance: 

 he had a great brown-coloured, bloated body and long, 

 thick, hairy legs. As spiders cannot burrow, of course he 

 had not himself excavated his residence. It was really 

 the hole of a field-mouse ; the mouse for some reason 

 had abandoned it, and the spider had taken possession. 



