SECOND EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA 109 
__ softening of putrefaction, which is well established in two days, — 
_ solacing themselves meantime with an eye or the inside of the 
mouth if they can get at it. 
In this neighbourhood and between Lake Kamadou and 
_the Zambesi the works of the ants are marvellous. One variety 
builds a dome-shaped nest, which makes a first-rate oven, for it 
is hollow inside, and by smoking out the inhabitants and 
lighting a fire it becomes thoroughly heated, and bakes well. 
So much has been written about the white ant that it needs no 
_ description from me ; but though I was in India for years I 
never remember seeing their earthworks half the size they are 
in Africa, where I have come across them ten to twelve feet high, 
and so large and firm that I have ridden about the roofs, in 
and out amongst the pinnacles and minarets, which give them 
an appearance, let us say, of Milan Cathedral on a small 
scale! And all this is the work of blind architects, who are 
obliged to protect themselves from the sun and from enemies 
by a covered way they build between their nests and any of 
‘the trees around, which may have dead wood or branches. 
How their instinct leads them my reason cannot tell, for they 
are eyeless. Where there are no chairs or stools, one sits and 
lies upon the earth, and sees much of the kingdoms and com- 
_ munities of the insect world. Here is the ant-lion lurking 
at the bottom of his inverted cone of a hole, ambushed and 
ready to spring upon the incautious insect that, stepping on 
_ the edge of his trap, is carried to the bottom by the loose, 
' unstable grains of sand; here. the hard-biting, plunger- 
looking red ant, whose holes have been stopped when the 
_ breakfast was prepared and the surface swept for the skins on 
“which we lie. Up he comes, having wired his way through 
is closed front door, sits on end, strokes what would be 
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| fellow-sufferers and friends, walks straight to the nest of a 
Targe black species of his own family, and each throwing one 
‘of the blacks — about twice his own size—over his back, away 
they go to their own holes, and, pointing out the work to be 
