332 SAVAGE SUDAN 
the sheathing stood well over 2 feet above ground- 
level. 1 
Give the termite and his confederates a couple more 
days and that glutinous encrustation would have reached 
the roof-pole. Thereupon the unseen army within would 
commence to devour the tent-pole itself—since dead wood 
forms their exclusive menu —and presently down would 
come the whole outfit in common ruin. Whatever 
termites decide to devour—so it be in sight—they first 
conceal in this encasement of plastic soil ere commencing 
a ligneous meal. And ere that meal is finished — so 
thorough-going are their methods -— there will remain 
nothing more than a hollow cylinder, the simulacrum 
of what had been a tent-pole, or tree, or a telegraph 
post! 
Despite his gigantic achievements in construction, the 
termite is an exceeding feeble folk; very immobile, and 
(except during a transient winged phase) stone-blind. 
His sole safety is subterranean; never does he appear 
on the surface whether by day or by night, and even in 
darkness, his work—albeit done above-ground—-is yet 
subterranean. The paradox is explained by his patient 
processes of sapping and mining, while camouflaged all 
the time by that particle of earth’s subsoil that he bears 
aloft, umbrella-like, in his jaws. 
One evening the corner of a leather guncase had been 
left haplessly projecting some 4 inches beyond the pro¬ 
tection of a green canvas ground-sheet (this material being 
ant-proof). By morning the termites had completely 
eaten away those overlapping inches, besides devouring a 
corresponding length of stout leather strap. Kit-bags, 
boots, everything in fact, if left within their reach, will 
inevitably be destroyed. A few lines above, I specified 
dead wood as their exclusive menu. That was a slip, for 
1 So strong is this glutinous secretion in the material of ant-hills that, 
when worked up with water, it forms an excellent surface for a hard 
tennis-court. 
