THEIR LOYALTY. 



chamber from one of the hills, as he often did, and preserved it 

 for some time in a large glass bowl, all the attendants continued 

 running in one direction round the king and queen with the 

 utmost solicitude, some of them stopping in every circuit at the 

 head of the latter, as if to give her something ; when they came to 

 the extremity of the abdomen, they took the eggs from her, 

 carrying them away, and piled them carefully together in some 

 part of the chamber, or in the bowl under, or behind any pieces 

 of broken clay, which lay most convenient for the purpose. 



Some of these unhappy little creatures would ramble from the 

 chamber as if to explore the cause of such a horrid ruin and 

 catastrophe to their immense buildings, as it must appear to 

 them ; and after fruitless endeavours to get over the side of the 

 bowl, return and mix with the crowd that continued running 

 round their common parents to the last. Others, placing themselves 

 along her side, would get hold of the queen's vast matrix with 

 their jaws, and pull with all their strength, so as visibly to lift 

 up the part which they fix at ; but Mr. Smeathman who observed 

 this, was unable to determine whether this pulling was with an 

 intention to remove her body, or to stimulate her to move herself, 

 or for any other purpose. After many ineffectual tugs, they 

 would desist and join in the crowd running round, or assist some 

 of those who are cutting off clay from the external parts of the 

 chamber, or some of the fragments, and moistening it with the 

 juices of their bodies, to begin to work a thin arched shell over 

 the body of the queen, as if to exclude the air, or to hide her 

 from the observation of some enemy. These, if not interrupted, 

 before the next morning, completely cover her, leaving room 

 enough within for great numbers to run about her. 



The king, being very small in proportion to the queen, generally 

 conceals himself under one side of her abdomen, except when he 

 goes up to the queen's head, which he does now and then, but not 

 so frequently as the rest. 



70. If in your attack on the hill you stop short of the royal 

 chamber, and cut down about half of the building, and leave 

 open some thousands of galleries and chambers, they will all be 

 shut up with thin sheets of clay before next morning. If even 

 the whole is pulled down, and the different buildings are thrown 

 in a confused heap of ruins, provided the king and queen are not 

 destroyed or taken away, every interstice between the ruins, at 

 which either cold or wet can possibly enter, will be so covered as 

 to exclude both; and, if the animals are left undisturbed, in 

 about a year they will raise the building to near its pristine size 

 and grandeur. 



71. The marching Termites are not less curious in their order 



125 



