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the glasses fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as I left 
them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by 
the white ants; who had actually eat up the deal frames and back- 
boards, and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses 
upheld by the incrustation, or covered-way, which they had formed 
during their depredation. From the flat Dutch bottles, on which 
the drawers and boxes were placed, not having been wiped during 
my absence, the ants had ascended the bottles by means of the 
dust, eat through the bottom of a chest, and made some progress 
in perforating the books and linen. The chief’s lady with whom 1 
had been staying at Eddova, on returning to her apartments in 
the fort, found, from the same cause, a large chest, in which she 
had deposited shawls, muslins, and other articles, collected prepa- 
ratory to her leaving India, entirely destroyed by these voracious 
insects. 
The story of the termites demolishing a chest of dollars at Ben- 
coolen, is commonly told, if not commonly credited throughout 
India. Captain Williamson in a great degree clears up that sin- 
gular anecdote, by introducing another of a gentleman who hav- 
ing charge of a chest of money, unfortunately placed it on the 
floor in a damp situation; the chest was speedily attacked by the 
white ants, who had their burrow just under the place where the 
treasure stood. They soon annihilated the bottom, and were not 
more ceremonious in respect to the bags containing the specie; 
which being thus let loose, fell gradually into the hollows in the 
ants’ burrow. When the cash was called for, all were amazed 
at the wonderful powers, both of the teeth and stomachs, of the 
