egin at once to repair the breach. When the work is completed,
another order is given, and the workmen retire, as will appear on
removing the soft freshly-built portion. We tried to sleep one rainy
might in a native hut, but could not because of attacks by the fighting
battalions of a very small species of formica, not more than
one-sixteenth of an inch in length. It soon became obvious that they
were under regular discipline, and even attempting to carry out the
skilful plans and stratagems of some eminent leader. Our hands and necks
were the first objects of attack. Large bodies of these little pests
were massed in silence round the point to be assaulted. We could hear
the sharp shrill word of command two or three times repeated, though
until then we had not believed in the vocal power of an ant; the instant
after we felt the storming hosts range over head and neck, biting the
tender skin, clinging with a death-grip to the hair, and parting with
their jaws rather than quit their hold. On our lying down again in the
hope of their having been driven off, no sooner was the light out, and
all still, than the manoeuvre was repeated. Clear and audible orders
were issued, and the assault renewed. It was as hard to sleep in that
hut as in the trenches before Sebastopol. The white ant, being a
vegetable feeder, devours articles of vegetable origin only, and leather,
which, by tanning, is imbued with a vegetable flavour. "A man may be
rich to-day and poor to-morrow, from the ravages of white ants," said a
Portuguese merchant. "If he gets sick, and unable to look after his
goods, his slaves neglect them, and they are soon destroyed by these
insects." The reddish ant, in the west called drivers, crossed our path
daily, in solid columns an inch wide, and never did the pugnacity of
either man or beast exceed theirs. It is a sufficient cause of war if
you only approach them, even by accident. Some turn out of the ranks and
stand with open mandibles, or, charging with extended jaws, bite with
savage ferocity. When hunting, we lighted among them too often; while we
were intent on the game, and without a thought of ants, they quietly
covered us from head to foot, then all began to bite at the same instant;
seizing a piece of the skin with their powerful pincers, they twisted
themselves round with it, as if determined to tear it out. Their bites
are so terribly sharp that the bravest must run, and then strip to pick
off t