i2o EVERYDAY LIFE ON A 



yesterday I took down my dress, which I had 

 only worn last Sunday, to find it covered from 

 hem to waistband with a raised zig-zag pattern 

 in red clay. This was all the work of white 

 ants who make their home in these little red 

 tunnels of clay. On further inspection I found 

 the grass matting riddled through and through, 

 and behind it quite an architectural structure, 

 which the ants had formed to help them to 

 climb the walls and thus reach the roof. It 

 wasn't the work of many minutes to tear down 

 the matting, scrape away the clay, and pour 

 Kerosine oil in all the crevices of the door, but 

 alas my poor dress required a longer process to 

 restore it to anything like a wearable condition, 

 and it will never quite recover from the 

 onslaught. We have to keep continually 

 watching the verandah posts, lest they may 

 some day suddenly collapse, turned into powder 

 by these depredators I believe there is one 

 wood, red toona, which withstands them. 



Not content with doing all the mischief they 

 can in the bungalow, they also attack the 

 roads, and it is not an uncommon sight to see a 

 large hole, or holes, in the very middle of the 

 roadway, where it has been undermined by ants 

 of one kind or another, so it behoves a horse- 

 man to keep a bright look out. 



This is one side of the question, but as in 

 most things there is another. Ants are 



