Some Beasts and Insects 
pected until the destruction of the object is ac¬ 
complished. In the storeroom at Ejahyay there 
were some trunks containing valuable cloths and 
pelts. I frequently opened the door to see if they 
were intact and found everything in apparently 
good order. One day I opened one and found 
that it contained nothing but earth. All the 
others were in the same condition. They had 
devoured hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. 
They never come to the light but approach every¬ 
thing through secret passages covered with earth. 
The roof and woodwork of the first house oc¬ 
cupied by Mr. Phillips were completely devoured 
by them before he ever suspected their presence. 
Having noticed some ridges of earth on the 
walls, he opened them and found that they were 
covered ways of the “ bugbugs ” leading from 
the ground to the woodwork above. An ex¬ 
amination disclosed the fact that the timbers of 
the roof and the ceiling were mere shells full of 
earth. The first strong wind would have brought 
the whole fabric down on his head. Fortunately 
there is a wood, called roko, too hard for this 
voracious mite, and out of this the natives con¬ 
struct the woodwork of their houses. Mission¬ 
aries learn to follow their example but not until 
they have paid dearly for the knowledge. Books, 
