308 
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
often frorrL six to eight feet high, and have large openings 
both at the top and around the sides to serve for entrances 
and communications. They often serve as a receptacle to 
much more dangerous animals, such as scorpions, and the 
covra capello snake ; on which account the natives are care- 
ful never to lie down or fall asleep near the ant-hills. The 
white-ants, in the space of one night, will demolish and 
eat up all the boots, shoes, and bottoms of trunks which 
come in their way, or are left on the ground. This is 
never done but by the carelessness of the black servants. 
In camp, the furniture of the tents is placed on inverted 
bottles, with their necks planted in the ground, which, on 
account of the slippery nature of the glass, cannot be 
climbed up by the ants. In the dwelling - houses, the 
trunks, chairs, and bed-posts are for the same reason placed in 
tin vessels full of water. I have frequently seen the large 
beams of a house almost eaten through by these insects, 
and ready to tumble down on the heads of the inhabitants. 
This destructive instinct, however, is not without the 
most singular utility, and is made by the Creator to serve 
the same benevolent purposes, which are conspicuous in 
every part of his plan. In the immense forests which they 
inhabit, and which are never subject to the hand of human 
cultivation, the constant accumulation of decayed timber 
would in time greatly impede, if not entirely choak vegeta- 
tion, were not these animals employed by Providence con-* 
iinually to devour it. 
5 
