TERMITE STRUCTURES 485 



"The ants and the various kinds of cupim own the country. It Is note- 

 worthy that while their hives, or houses, vary in form according to the local- 

 ity, they retain a certain uniformity of construction, having one shape here, 

 another one there, and a diJBferent one somewhere else. I am unable to deter- 

 mine whether these differences depend on the soil and the materials of which 

 they are constructed or upon the difference in the species of the constructors. 

 It is certain, though, that in the vicinity of Cambara the country is covered 

 with cylindrical columns called tacurus by the Indians. These are sometimes 

 two metres high, and resemble the marks or columns known as stone friars. 

 In some places, as below Corixa, on the Lixal and Burgres plateaus, they look 

 like miniature castles half a metre high, with loopholes, gates, towers, and 

 terraces. In other localities, such as Palma Real and Petas, they are lower, 

 but thicker, sometimes isolated, and sometimes built against trees, but always 

 very hard and made with a kind of bituminous cement that is impermeable to 

 water." 



Dr. Henry Drummond has tlie following on the white ants in tropical 

 Africa :^* 



"The material excavated from these underground galleries and from the 

 succession of domed chambers — used as nurseries or granaries — to which they 

 lead, has to be thrown out upon the surface. And it is from these materials 

 that the huge ant-hills are reared which form so distinctive a feature of the 

 African landscape. These heaps and mounds are so conspicuous that they 

 may be seen for miles, and so numerous are they and so useful as cover to the 

 sportsman that without them in certain districts hunting would be impossible. 

 The first things, indeed, to strike the traveller in entering the interior are the 

 mounds of the white ant, now dotting the plain in groups like a small ceme- 

 tery, now rising into mounds, singly or in clusters, each thirty or forty feet in 

 diameter and ten or fifteen in height; or, again, standing out against the sky 

 like obelisks, their bare sides carved and fluted into all sorts of fantastic 

 shapes (see figure 9). In India these ant-heaps seldom attain a height of 

 more than a couple of feet, but in Central Africa they form veritable hills, 

 and contain many tons of earth. The brick houses of the Scotch mission 

 station at Lake Nyassa have all been built out of a single ants' nest, and the 

 quarry from which the material has been derived forms a pit beside the settle- 

 ment some dozen feet in depth. A supply of bricks as large again could prob- 

 ably stUl be taken from this convenient depot, and the missionaries on Lake 

 Tanganyika and onwards to Victoria Nyanza have been similarly indebted to 

 the labors of the termites. In South Africa the Zulus and Kaflirs pave all 

 their huts with white-ant earth, and during the Boer war our troops in 

 Praetoria, by scooping out the interior from the smaller beehive-shaped ant- 

 heaps and covering the top with clay, constantly used them as ovens. These 

 ant-heaps may be said to abound over the whole interior of Africa, and there 

 are several distinct species. The most peculiar as well as the most ornate is 

 a small variety from one to two feet in height, which occurs in myriads along 

 the shores of Lake Tanganyika. It is built in symmetrical tiers, and resem- 

 bles a pile of small rounded hats, one above another, the rims depending like 



M Henry Drummond : Tropical Africa, pp. 89-90, New York, 1891. 



