SLAVE-HOLDING ANTS— TERMITES. 



601 



guished by an enormous swelling of the abdomen, which is converted into a mass like 

 honey, and being unable, in their unwieldy condition, to seek food themselves, are fed 

 by the laborers, until they are doomed to die for the benefit of the community. Whether 

 this vast distension is the result of an intestinal rupture, caused by an excessive in- 

 dulgence of the appetite, or whether they are purposely selected, confined, and over- 

 fed, or wounded for the purpose, has not yet been ascertained. 



The Termites^ or white ants, as they are commonly called, though they in reality 

 belong to a totally different order of insects, are spread in countless numbers over all 

 the warmer regions of the earth, emulating on the dry land the bore-worm in the sea; 

 for when they have once penetrated into a building, no timber except ebony and iron- 

 wood, which are too hard, or such as is strongly impregnated with camphor and 

 aromatic oils, which they dislike, is capable of resisting their attacks. Their favorite 

 food is wood, and so great are their multitudes, so admirable their tools, that in a few 

 days they devour the timber work of a spacious apartment. Outwardly, the beams 

 and rafters may seem untouched, while their core is completely consumed, for these 

 destructive miners work in the dark, and seldom attack the outside until they have 

 previously concealed themselves and their operations by a coat of clay. Scarcely any 

 organic substance remains free from their attacks ; and forcing their resistless way into 

 trunks, chests, and wardrobes, they will often devour in one night all the shoes, boots, 

 clothes, and papers they may contain. It is principally owing to their destructions, 

 says Humboldt, that it is so rare to find papers in tropical America of an older date 

 than fifty or sixty years. Smeathman relates that a party of them once took a fancy 

 to a pipe of fine old Madeira, not for the sake of the wine, almost the whole of which 

 they let out, but of the staves, which, however, may not have proved less tasteful 

 from having imbibed some of the costly liquor. On surveying a room which had been 

 locked up during an absence of a few weeks, Forbes observed a number of advanced 

 works in various directions towards some prints and drawings in English frames ; the 

 glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered with dust. On 

 attempting to wipe it off, he was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall, not 

 suspended in frames as he left them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation 

 cemented by the white ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back- 

 boards and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld by the incrusta- 

 tion or covered way which they had formed during their depredations. 



On the small island of Goree, near Cape Yerde, the famous naturalist, Adanson, 

 lived in a straw hut, which, though quite new at the time he took up his residence in 

 it, became transparent in many places before the month was out. This might have 

 been endured, but the villainous termites ravaged his trunk, destroyed his books, 

 penetrated into his bed, and at last attacked the naturalist himself. Neither sweet 

 nor salt water, neither vinegar nor corrosive liquids, were able to drive them away, 

 and so Adanson thought it best to abandon the premises, and to look out for another 

 lodging. 



One night, in Brazil, Von Martins was awakened by a disagreeable feeling of cold 

 across his body. Groping in the dark, he found a cool greasy mass crawling right 

 over the bed, and on a light being brought, saw to his astonishment that his rest had 

 been disturbed by an innumerable host of white ants. The room having been unin- 



