410 THE INSECT WORLD. 
Not only can many men mount on them without shaking them, 
but buffaloes establish themselves upon them as watch-towers, 
from which they can see over the high grass which covers the 
plain, if the lion or the panther is threatening them. These 
edifices are hollow ; but their sides are from fifteen to twenty inches 
thick, and are as hard as a rock. They are hollowed out into 
galleries which connect them with the underground dwelling. 
Under the dome is a pretty large vacant space, a sort of top story 
or attic occupying one-third of the total height, and which keeps 
up in the edifice a more uniform temperature than if all the block 
had been filled up. On a level with the ground is the royal cell, 
oblong, with a flat floor and a rounded ceiling, and pierced with 
round windows. All round are distributed the offices; they are 
rooms also with rounded and vaulted ceilings, communicating with 
each other by corridors. On the sides rise the magazines, with 
their backs placed against the walls of the house; they are filled 
with gums and with vegetable juices solidified and in powder. On 
the ceiling of the royal chamber rise pillars of about two feet in 
height, which support the egg rooms. These are little cells with 
partitions of sawdust stuck together with gum, which separate at 
the opening the large chambers from the clay halls. Placed 
between the attics and the great nave surmounting the royal hall, 
the nursery is in the most desirable position possible for uniformity 
of temperature and for ventilation. 
The royal cell encloses an unique couple, objects of the most 
assiduous attentions, but kept in closest captivity, for the doors are 
too narrow to afford a passage to the monstrous queen, and even 
to the male, who keeps generally crouching by her side. Thousands 
of servants busy themselves round the mother; they feed her and 
carry away, night and day, the myriads of eggs which she lays. 
The eggs are placed in the egg houses, where they give birth to 
white larvee, resembling the workers, which nourish themselves at 
first on a sort of mouldy fungus which grows on the partitions of 
their cells. They then become pupz, then neuters, or males and 
females, the last two being provided with wings. 
On a stormy evening the males and females come out of their 
nest by millions to couple in the air; then immediately afterwards 
they fall to the ground and lose their wings, when they become an 
