332 SAVAGE SUDAN 



the sheathing stood well over 2 feet above ground- 

 level. 1 



Give the termite and his confederates a couple more 

 days and that glutinous encrustation would have reached 

 the roof-pole. Thereupon the unseen army within would 

 commence to devour the tent-pole itself since dead wood 

 forms their exclusive menu and presently down would 

 come the whole outfit in common ruin. Whatever 

 termites decide to devour so it be in sight they first 

 conceal in this encasement of plastic soil ere commencing 

 a ligneous meal. And ere that meal is finished' so 

 thorough-going are their methods there will remain 

 nothing more than a hollow cylinder, the simulacrum 

 of what had been a tent-pole, or tree, or a telegraph 

 post! 



Despite his gigantic achievements in construction, the 

 termite is an exceeding feeble folk ; very immobile, and 

 (except during a transient winged phase) stone-blind. 

 His sole safety is subterranean; never does he appear 

 on the surface whether by day or by night, and even in 

 darkness, his work albeit done above-ground as yet 

 subterranean. The paradox is explained by his patient 

 processes of sapping and mining, while camouflaged all 

 the time by that particle of earth's subsoil that he bears 

 aloft, umbrella-like, in his jaws. 



One evening the corner of a leather guncase had been 

 left haplessly projecting some 4 inches beyond the pro- 

 tection of a green canvas ground-sheet (this material being 

 ant -proof). By morning the termites had completely 

 eaten away those overlapping inches, besides devouring a 

 corresponding length of stout leather strap. Kit-bags, 

 boots, everything in fact, if left within their reach, will 

 inevitably be destroyed. A few lines above, I specified 

 dead wood as their exclusive menu. That was a slip, for 



1 So strong is this glutinous secretion in the material of ant-hills that, 

 when worked up with water, it forms an excellent surface for a hard 

 tennis-court. 



