BUILDINGS AND BUNGALOWS. 145 



of some species such as " kino " or black wood, teak 

 or Pterocarpus marsupium, not liable to shrink, warp, 

 or be destroyed by the ever-present white ants. As 

 far as the latter go, however, no wood is absolutely 

 safe against their persistent efforts. Something may 

 be done by charring ends of beams, steeping them 

 in creosote, tar, or kerosene, the latter strongly 

 recommended ; but after all these precautions, ants 

 will still find their way into the wood, and increase 

 and multiply. It does not follow that, when they 

 have entered, a house is henceforth unsafe or unin- 

 habitable by human tenants. Neither termites nor 

 rats will willingly endanger the place of their resi- 

 dence. Though rats have swarmed on board ships 

 probably since commerce began, no case is known 

 in which they have sunk a vessel by deliberately 

 letting the sea through her sides. In the same way 

 white ants, though they fill beams with passages, 

 instinctively leave enough wood to ensure the sup- 

 port doing its duty. The kneaded clay of a " wattle 

 and daub" house is in itself very strong after the 

 sun-scorching of a hot season. In constructing it, 

 the squared corner pieces, having been gone over 

 with preservative liquid, are sunk a couple of feet or 

 more in the ground. Other posts, similar to these, 

 embedded equally deep, should come at four or five 

 feet apart, and between each pair, again, a couple of 

 other uprights, that need not, perhaps, be sawn or 

 buried deeply in the soil. There will thus be spaces 

 of about a foot between the supports. Across these, 



