THE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 339 



test with the greatest obstinacy, defending the ground 

 inch by inch. The labourers in the meantime are 

 not idle, for they block up the passages and galleries 

 and appear especially anxious to guard their sove- 

 reigns. With this intention, they fill up the waiting 

 rooms with the greatest possible celerity, and effect 

 their purpose so completely that Smeathman on 

 reaching the centre of one of these edifices, was un- 

 able to distinguish the royal chamber, which was 

 lost in the midst of a shapeless mass of clay. The 

 vicinity of this palace is however betrayed by the 

 crowd of labourers and soldiers, who are collected 

 around it, and who allow themselves to be crushed, 

 rather than abandon the spot. The cell itself always 

 contains several thousands of the community, who 

 have remained and suffered themselves to be im- 

 mured with the royal pair. Smeathman always 

 found that they readily allowed themselves to be 

 carried away with these objects of their devoted at- 

 tachment, and that they continued their services 

 in captivity, being incessantly engaged in moving 

 round the person of the queen, giving her food, and 

 removing her eggs, which, for want of nurseries, they 

 deposited behind broken pieces of clay, or in some 

 retired portion of the bowl which served as their 

 prison. 



It is scarcely possible to obtain a view of the 

 Termites without destroying their works. Chance 

 may, indeed, sometimes enable the traveller to see a 

 colony of these insects while they are proceeding 

 from one habitation to another, as in the case of 

 Smeathman, who had the pleasure of seeing one of 

 z 2 



