THE TERMITES. 241 



domen, which is converted into a mass like honey, and being 

 unable, in their unwieldly condition, to seek food themselves, 

 are fed by the labourers, until they are doomed to die for the 

 benefit of the community. Whether this vast distension is the 

 result of an intestinal rupture, caused by an excessive indul- 

 gence of the appetite, or whether they are purposely selected, 

 confined, and over-fed, or wounded for the purpose, has not yet 

 been ascertained. 



The termites, or white ants, as they are commonly called, 

 though they in reality belong to a totally different order of 

 insects, are spread in countless numbers over all the warmer 

 regions of the earth, emulating on the dry land the bore-worm 

 in the sea ; for when they have once penetrated into a building, 

 no timber except ebony and iron-wood, which are too hard, or 

 such as is strongly impregnated with camphor and aromatic 

 oils, which they dislike, is capable of resisting their attacks. 

 Their favourite food is wood, and so great are their multitudes, 

 so admirable their tools, that in a few days they devour the 

 timberwork of a spacious apartment. Outwardly, the beams 

 and rafters may seem' untouched, while their core is com- 

 pletely consumed, for these destructive miners work in the 

 Idark, and seldom attack the outside until they have previously 

 ^concealed themselves and their operations by a coat of clay. 

 Scarcely any organic substance remains free from their attacks ; 

 and forcing their resistless way into trunks, chests, and ward- 

 robes, they will often devour in one night all the shoes, boots, 

 ^clothes, and papers they may contain. It is principally owing 

 their destructions, says Humboldt, that it is so rare to find 

 Ipapers in tropical America of an older date than fifty or sixty 



rears. Smeathman relates, that a party of them once took a 

 fancy to a pipe of fine old Madeira, not for the sake of the wine, 

 almost the whole of which they let out, but of the staves, which, 

 ^however, may not have proved less tasteful from having im- 



)ibed some of " tthe costly liquor. On surveying a room which 

 [had been locked up during an absence of a few weeks, Forbes, 

 i^the author of the 'Oriental' Memoirs,' observed a number of 



idvanced works- in various directions towards some prints and 

 ^drawings in English frames ; the glasses appeared to be un- 

 ;.commonly dull, and the frames covered with dust. On attempt- 

 ^ing to wipe it off, he was astonished to find the glasses fixed to 



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