372 THE PHILOSOPHY 



One remarkable circuaiftance regarding the nurferies muft 

 not be omitted. They are ahvays flightly overgrown with a 

 kind of jnonldy and plentifully fprinkled with white globules 

 about the fize of a fmall pin's head. Thefe globules, Mr. 

 Smeathman at firft conjectured to be the eggs ; but, when 

 examined by the microfcope, they evidently appeared to be 

 a fpecles of mufhroom, in (hape refembling our eatable mufli- 

 room when young. When entire, they are white like fnovy 

 a little melted and frozen again ; and, v/hen bruifed, they 

 feem to be compofed of an infinite number of pellucid parti- . 

 cles, approaching to oval forms, and are with difficulty fepa- 

 rated from each other. The mouldinefs feems likewife to 

 confift of the fame kind of fubftance*. 



The nurferies are enclofed in chambers of clay, like thofe 

 which contain the provifions ; but they are much larger. In 

 the early ftate of the neft, they are not bigger than an hazel 

 nut -, but, in great hills, they are often as large as a child's 

 head of a year old. 



The royal chamber is fituated nearly on a level with the 

 furface of the ground, at an equal diftance from all the lides 

 of the building, and diredlly under the apex of the hill. On 

 all fides, both above and below, it is furrounded by what are 

 called tlifi royal apartments ^ which contain only labourers and 

 foldiers, who can be intended" for no other purpofe than to 

 continue in the neft either to guard or ferve their common 

 father and mother^ on whofe fafety the happinefs, and, in the 

 eftimation of the Negroes, the exigence of the whole com- 

 munity depends. Thefe apartments compofe an intricate 



* Mr Konig, who examined the termites nefts in the Eaft-Indies, conje(5tures, 

 that tliefe mufhrooms are the food of the young infers. This fuppofition 

 implies, tiiat the old ones have a method of providing for and promoting the 

 growth of the muOiroom ; ' a circumftance,' Mr. Smeathman remarks, 'which, 

 'however ftrange ta thofc unacquainted with the fagacity of thofe infeds, I 



• will venture to fay, from many ojthcr extraordinary facSls I have feen of them, 



• is not very improbable.' ^ 



