THE ROYAL CHAMBER. 



the elevation of which was sufficient to enable him to obtain a 

 satisfactory view. 



29. The superior shell or dome by which the mound is sur- 

 mounted is not only of use to protect the interior buildings from 

 external violence and from the tropical rains, but, from its non- 

 conducting quality, to preserve that uniform temperature within,, 

 which is necessary for hatching the 'eggs and cherishing the 

 young. 



30. The royal chamber appropriated to the sovereigns engrosses 

 much of the attention and skill of their industrious subjects. It 

 is generally placed about the centre of the base of the mound, at 

 the level of the surrounding ground, and has the shape of half 

 an egg divided by a plane at right angles to its axis passing a 

 little below its centre. Thus the shape of this chamber is that 

 which architects call a surmounted dome. Its magnitude is pro- 

 portioned to that of the king and queen to whom it is appropriated.. 

 In the infant state of the colony, before the queen is advanced in 

 pregnancy, the diameter of this room does not exceed an inch, 

 but as the royal lady increases in the manner already described, 

 the workers continually enlarge the room, until at length it 

 attains a diameter of eight or nine inches. Its floor is perfectly 

 level, and formed of clay about an inch thick. The roof is formed 

 of a solid well-turned oval arch increasing in thickness from a 

 quarter of an inch at the sides where it rests upon the floor. 



31. The doors are cut in the wall, and made of a magnitude 

 suitable to the entrance and exit of the soldiers and workers who 

 attend on the royal pair, but much too small for the passage of the 

 royal personages themselves. 



32. This large chamber is surrounded by numerous others of 

 less dimensions, and various shapes, all of which have arched 

 roofs, some circular, and some elliptical. These chambers com- 

 municate with each other by doors and corridors. Those which 

 are immediately contiguous to the royal chamber are appropriated 

 to the soldiers, who are in immediate attendance on the sovereign,, 

 and to the workers, whose duty it is to supply and attend the royal 

 table, and to carry away the eggs as fast as they are laid by the 

 queen. 



33. Around these antechambers is another suite of apart- 

 ments, consisting of store-rooms for provisions, chambers for the 

 reception of the eggs, and nurseries for the young. The store- 

 rooms are constructed like other parts of the habitation, with walls 

 and partitions of clay, and are always amply supplied with provi- 

 sions, which, to the naked eye, seem to consist of the raspings of 

 wood and plants, which the workers destroy. Upon submitting 

 them to the microscope, however, they are found to consist prin- 



107 



