334 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



the curiosity to explore the interior structure of their 

 edifices, which is also increased by the mutual de- 

 pendance of the walls and archways, and the 

 activity of the labourers in building up with almost 

 magical celerity the parts broken down. The soldiers, 

 Smeathman tells us, "fight to the very last, dis- 

 puting every inch of ground so well, as often to 

 drive away the negroes, who are without shoes, and to 

 make the white people bleed plentifully through their 

 stockings. Neither can we let a building stand 

 so as to get a view of the interior parts without in- 

 terruption ; for, while the soldiers are defending the 

 out-works, the labourers keep barricading all the 

 way against us, stopping up the different galleries 

 and passages which lead to the various apartments, 

 particularly the royal chamber, all the entrances to 

 which they fill so artfully as not to let it be distin- 

 guishable while the work remains moist ; and, exter- 

 nally, it has no other appearance than that of a 

 shapeless lump of clay. It is, however, easily found, 

 from its situation with respect to the other parts of 

 the building, and by the crowds of labourers and 

 soldiers which surround it, and which exhibit their 

 loyalty and fidelity by dying under its walls. The 

 royal chamber is often capacious enough to hold 

 many hundreds of the attendants, besides the royal 

 pair, and is always found as full of these as it can 

 hold. These faithful subjects never abandon their 

 charge, even in the last distress ; for, whenever I 

 took out the royal chamber, as I often did, and pre- 

 served it for some time in a large glass bowl, all the 

 attendants continued to run round the king and 

 queen with the utmost solicitude, some of them 

 stopping at the head of the latter, as if to give her 

 something*." 



* Phil. Trans, vol. Ixxi. 



