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]