WHITE ANTS. 
507 
suffer themselves to be pulled away leg by leg, 
and piece after piece, without the least attempt to 
escape. On the other hand, keep out of their way, 
and give them no interruption, and they will in less 
than half an hour retire into the nest, as if they 
supposed the wonderful monster that damaged their 
castle to be gone beyond their reach. Before they 
are all got in, you will see the labourers in motion, 
and hastening in various directions towards the 
breach ; every one with a burthen of mortar in his 
mouth ready tempered. This they stick upon the 
breach as fast as they come up, and do it with so 
much dispatch and facility, that although there are 
thousands, and I may say millions of them, they 
never stop or embarrass one another ; and vou are 
most agreeably deceived when, after an apparent 
scene of hurry and confusion, a regular wall arises, 
gradually filling up the chasm. While they are 
thus employed, almost all the soldiers are retired 
quite out of sight, except here and there one, who 
saunters about among six hundred or a thousand of 
the labourers, but never touches the mortar either 
to lift or carry it ; one in particular places himself 
close to the wall they are building. This soldier 
will turn himself leisurely on all sides, and every 
now and then, at intervals of a minute or two, lift 
up his head, and with his forceps beat upon the 
building, and make the vibrating noise before men- 
tioned ; on which immediatelv a loud hiss, which 
appears to come from all the labourers, issues from 
within side the dome, and all the subterraneous ca- 
