Termitidæ—White-ants.
The Termites or White-ants (which are ants only by a misnomer) are found in both the Indies, in Africa, and in South America, where they do vast damage, in consequence of their eating and perforating wooden buildings, utensils, furniture, and indeed all kinds of household stuff, which are utterly destroyed by them if not timely prevented. They are found also in Europe, and, about thirty years ago, from the extent of their ravages in the West of France, and particularly at Rochelle, caused considerable alarm.[446]
There is a story commonly told, if not commonly credited throughout India, of the Termites demolishing a chest of dollars at Bencoolen, which is in a great degree cleared up by the following anecdote introduced by Mr. Forbes in his Memoirs: A gentleman having charge of a chest of money, unfortunately placed it on the floor in a damp situation; and, as a matter of course in that climate, the box was speedily attacked by the Termites, which had their burrow just under the place the treasure stood. Soon annihilating the bottom, these devouring insects were not any more ceremonious in respect to the bags containing the specie; which, being thus let loose, fell piece by piece gradually into the hollows in the Termites’ burrow. When the cash was demanded, and not to be found, all were greatly amazed at the wonderful powers, both of teeth and stomachs, of the little marauders, which were supposed to have consumed the silver and gold as well as the wood. But, after some years, however, the house requiring repair, the whole sum was found several feet deep in the earth; and, thanks, the
Termites were rescued from that obloquy which the supposed power of feasting on precious metals had cast on their whole race.[447]
Kempfer, during his stay at a Dutch fort on the coast of Malabar, one morning discovered some peculiar marks like arches upon his table, about the size of his little finger. Suspecting they were the work of Termites, he made an accurate examination, and, much to his surprise, found not only what he expected to be true, but that these voracious insects had pierced a passage of that thickness up one leg of the table, then across the table, and so down again through the middle of another leg into the floor! What made it the more wonderful was that it had all been done in the few hours that intervened between his retiring to rest and his rising.[448]
Mr. Forbes, on surveying a room which had been locked up during an absence of a few weeks, observed a number of advanced works in various directions toward some prints and drawings in English frames; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered with dust. “On attempting,” says he, “to wipe it off, I was astonished to find the glasses fixed on the wall, not suspended in frames as I left them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the White-ants, who had actually eaten 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.”[449]
It is even asserted, says Kirby and Spence, that the superb residence of the Governor-general at Calcutta, which cost the East India Company such immense sums, is now going rapidly to decay in consequence of the attacks of these insects. But not content with the dominions they have acquired, and the cities they have laid low on Terra Firma, encouraged by success, the White-ants have also aimed at the sovereignty of the ocean, and once had the hardihood to attack even a British ship of the line—the Albion; and, in spite of the efforts of her commander and his valiant crew, having boarded they got possession of her, and handled her
so roughly, that when brought into port, being no longer fit for service, she was obliged to be broken up.[450]
Lutfullah, in his Autobiography, relates the following: “I returned the couch kindly sent to me by a friend, with my thanks, and made my bed on the ground, placing my new desk of Morocco leather at the head to serve as a pillow, and went to bed. In the morning, when roused by the bugle, I found my bed strewed with damp dust, my skin excoriated in some parts, and my back irritated in others. I called my servant, who was saddling my horse. ‘Mahdilli,’ said I angrily, ‘you have been throwing dust all over my bed and self, in shaking the trappings of the horse near my bed in the tent.’—‘No, sir, I have done no such thing,’ was his reply. When I took up my cloak it fell to pieces in my hand; the blanket was in the same state, and the bottom of my desk, with some valuable papers, were destroyed. ‘What misfortune is this?’ cried I to Mahdilli, who immediately brought a burning stick to examine the cause, and coolly observed, ‘It is the White-ants, sir, and no misfortune, but a piece of bad luck, sir.’ Poor man! in all mishaps, I always found him attaching blame to destiny, and never to his own or my imprudence.”[451]
The Caffres, as we are informed by Mr. Latrobe, when first permitted to settle at Guadenthal, before they could build ovens, according to the custom of their country, availed themselves of the Ant-hills found in that neighborhood; for, having destroyed the inhabitants by fire and smoke, they scooped them out hollow, leaving a crust of a few inches in thickness, and used them for baking, putting in three loaves at a time.[452]
Mr. Southey says that in Brazil the Spaniards hollow out the nests of the Termites, and use them for ovens.[453] The authority of Messrs. Kidder and Fletcher is, that in Brazil, “the Termites’ dwelling is sometimes overturned by the slaves, the hollow scooped wider, and is then used as a bake-oven to parch Indian-corn.”[454]
Mr. Latrobe also tells us that the clay of which these
Ant-hills are formed, is so well prepared by the industrious Termites, Termes bellicosus, that it is used for the floors of rooms in South Africa both by the Hottentots and farmers.[455]
Mr. Southey states that in Brazil “the Spaniards pulverize the nests of the Termites, and with the powder form a flooring for their houses, which becomes as hard as stone, and on which it is said no fleas or other insects will harbor.”[456] The early Spanish settlers built the walls of their houses of the same earth; and some of which, which were erected in the seventeenth century, are said to be still in existence.[457]
Ant-hills, or rather the Termites which inhabit them, have also been used as an instrument of perhaps the most infernal torture the ingenuity of man has ever invented. For, in South Africa, at one time, the wretched victim, whether prisoner of war or offending subject, having been smeared with some oily substance, was partially interred in one of these heaps, and, if not first roasted to death by the burning sun, was literally devoured alive by the myriads of insects which have their habitation there. It has been asserted that even some Englishmen have met this dreadful fate.[458]
At Unyamwezi, in the lake regions of Central Africa, the natives chew the clay of Ant-hills as a substitute when their tobacco fails. They call this clay “sweet earth.” It is said the Arabs have also tried it without other effects than nausea.[459]
The goldsmiths of Ceylon employ the powdered clay of Ant-hills in preference to all other substances in the preparation of crucibles and moulds for their fine castings, for so delicate is the trituration to which the Termites subject this material;[460] and Knox says, “the people use this finer clay to make their earthen gods of, it is so pure and fine.”[461]
Termites, as an article of food, are eaten by the inhabitants of many countries. Mr. Kœnig, in his essay on the history of these insects, read before the Society of Naturalists
of Berlin, tells us, that to catch the Termites before their emigration, the natives of the East Indies make two holes in the nest, one to windward, and the other to leeward; at the latter aperture, they place a pot, rubbed with aromatic herbs. On the windward side they make a fire, the smoke of which drives these insects into the pots. By this method they take a great quantity, of which they make, with flour, a variety of pastry, which they sell to the poorer people. This author adds, that in the season in which this aliment is abundant, the abuse of it produces an epidemic colic and dysentery, which carries off the patient in two or three hours.[462]
The Africans, says Mr. Smeatham, are less ingenious in catching and preparing them. They content themselves in collecting those which fall into the water at the time of emigration. They skim them off the surface with calabashes, filling large caldrons with them, then grill them in iron pots, over a gentle fire, stirring them as coffee is stirred. They thus eat them by handfuls, without sauce, or any other preparation, and find them delicious. This gentleman has several times eaten them cooked in this manner, and thinks them delicate, nourishing, and wholesome, being sweeter than the grub of the palm-tree weevil (Calandra palmarum), and resembling in taste sugared cream or sweet almond paste.[463]
The Hottentots, Dr. Sparrman informs us, eat them greedily boiled and raw, and soon grow fat and plump upon this food.[464]
An idea may be formed of this dish by what once occurred to Dr. Livingstone on the banks of the Zouga, in South Africa. The Bayeiye chief Palani visiting this traveler while eating, he gave him a piece of bread and preserved apricots; and as the chief seemed to relish it much, he asked him if he had any food equal to that in his country. “Ah!” said the chief, “did you ever taste White-ants?” As the doctor never had, he replied, “Well, if you had, you never could have desired to eat anything better.”[465]
In the lake regions of Central Africa, says Burton, man
revenges himself upon the White-ant, and satisfies his craving for animal food, which in those regions oftentimes becomes a principle of action,—a passion,—by boiling the largest and fattest species, and eating them as a relish with his insipid porridge.[466]
Buchanan says the Termes, or White-ant, is a common article of food among one of the Hindoo tribes; Mr. Forbes says, of the low castes in Mysore, and the Carnatic.[467] Captain Green relates that, in the ceded districts of India, the natives place the branches of trees over the nests, and then by means of smoke drive out the insects; which attempting to fly, their wings are broken off by the mere touch of the branches.[468]
The female Termite, in particular, is supposed by the Hindoos to be endowed with highly nutritive properties, and, we are told by Mr. Broughton, was carefully sought after and preserved for the use of the debilitated Surjee Rao, Prime-minister of Scindia, chief of the Mahrattas.[469]
The Hottentots not only eat the Termites in their perfect state, but also, when their corn is consumed and they are reduced to the necessity, in their pupa. These pupæ, which they call “rice,” on account of their resemblance to that grain, they usually wash, and cook with a small quantity of water. Prepared in this way they are said to be palatable; and if the people find a place where they can obtain them in abundance, they soon become fat upon them, even when previously much reduced by hunger. A large nest will sometimes yield a bushel of pupæ.[470]
Termite queens in the East Indies are given alive to old men for strengthening the back.[471]