TllE TERMITES. 199 



CHAPTER XVI. 

 TERMITES ABROAD. 



fTIHE Termites show even more intelligence in their activity 

 _jL abroad than in their home or family life, and this 

 activity makes them one of the heaviest and most dreaded 

 of scourges in the countries they inhabit. They are born 

 destroyers, and spare nothing that is not either of stone or 

 iron. Especially are all wooden things subject to their 

 attacks, and their inroads are the more dangerous because 

 they are not visible to the eye, and are, as a rule, first dis- 

 covered when it is too late to hinder them. Either from 

 the desire to remain undiscovered, or from their liking for 

 darkness, they have the remarkable habit of destroying and 

 gnawing everything from within outwards, and of leaving 

 the outside shell standing, so that from the outside appear- 

 ance the dangerous state of the inside is not perceptible. If, 

 for instance, they have destroyed a table or other piece of 

 household furniture, in which they always manage from the 

 ground upwards to hit exactly the places on which the feet 

 of the article rest, the table looks perfectly uninjured out- 

 side, and people are quite astonished when it breaks down 

 under the slightest pressure. The whole inside is eaten 

 away, and only the thinnest shell is left standing. If fruits 

 are lying on the table they also are eaten out from the 

 exact spot on which they rest on the surface of the table. 



In similar fashion things consisting wholly of wood, such 

 as wooden ships, trees, etc., are destroyed by them so that 

 they finally break in without anyone having noticed the 

 mischief. Yet it is said that they go so prudently to work 

 in their destruction that the mainbeams, the sudden break- 

 age of which would threaten the whole building and them- 

 selves therewith, are either spared, or else so fastened 

 together again with a cement made out of clay and earth 

 that their strength is greater than ever ! (?) Hagen also 



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