52 



ANT9. 



some sinister views in the men, or from preju- 

 dices which they had imbibed. Therefore, con- 

 trary to the advice of his workmen and of bis 

 friends, he purchased any kinds of timber which 

 were presented to him for sale, not attending 

 to the quality, but to the price. The house 

 was built, and he had already either removed to 

 it or was upon the point of so doing, when it 

 was discovered that the copim had attacked 

 some of the principal timbers ; and at last it 

 was judged expedient to pull down a consider- 

 able part of the building, without which the 

 whole would have fallen a sacrifice to the in- 

 sects. A solution of the substance of which 

 the nest of the copim is formed, is used as an 

 injection by the peasants in aguish disorders. * 



I have not yet mentioned all the persecutors ; 

 for besides those which have been here named, 



* Labat says, " Cet insecte engraisse les volailles." I know 

 that fowls are fond of the insect ; but the peasants of Per- 

 nambuco prevent the poultry from eating it, because they 

 say that such food gives a bad taste to the flesh ; this is, I 

 think, by no means improbable, for the copim has a most 

 disagreeable smell. This author afterwards continues the 

 same subject, saying, " II y a deux sortes de bois qui ne sont 

 pas de lear gout ; V acajou ct le bois amer. Cela vient de ct 

 que le sue et le bois de ces deux arbres est extrbnement amer.'' 

 Nouveau Voyage, torn. ii. p. 389 and 392. 



I do not know what tree he means by the bois amer, which 

 in another place he calls Simaroaba. I well know that the 

 red ant will not molest the leaves of the acaju tree ; but the 

 same occurs with regard to many other plants. The leaver 

 of the acaju arc certainly extremely bitter. 



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