The head and nipper-like jaws of the chiefs, officers, or overseers are very hard, and of dark color, contrasting with the color of their bodies. These pincers are given to them for fighting, wounding, piercing, catching their enemies, and also tracing lines where the work has to be done.
One day some mushroom nchellelays said: “We need a new house, and we will build one which will last for years, through which neither rain nor sun can come, and through which our enemies cannot enter. We are small, it is true, but among the gifts that we have are patience, perseverance, industry, and a good thinking brain. With these four gifts we can accomplish a good deal and succeed.”
There was great excitement among the nchellelays when they made ready to commence their work. The chiefs gave orders to the officers or overseers, and these gave orders to the workers. The dry season is the time the nchellelays choose for building. They know the time of the two seasons, the rainy and the dry, perfectly well.
The workers, having received their orders, began work in great earnest. They made deep perpendicular tunnels to reach the blue clay, and, when they had reached it, they made other tunnels upward,—all these under the place chosen for building their house in.
It was a remarkable sight when they began their labor. The workers followed one another in a continuous stream, and ejected a quantity of thick, soft, semi-liquid clay, which they had eaten and which had been transformed during the digestive process into a gluey material. Each load was put side by side with wonderful precision. After this, they followed one another and disappeared under the ground. The column of workers never ceased for an instant. There did not seem to be any lazy ones among them; no one was shirking work and lagging behind. They marched like a well-drilled army of workers who knew what their duty was. Their system showed great intelligence. No bricklayer among the most civilized human beings could have laid bricks side by side with more skill than they did their loads. The officers were looking on and watching how the work was done.
Once in a while some of the nchellelays brought grains of earth and deposited them in the mortar. The structure rose as if by enchantment, and at last the making of the crown was begun, numerous cells or rooms communicating with one another. A large cell, much larger than any of the others, was built for their queen.
Every tunnel and cell was coated with a gluey, shining matter, coming from the bodies of the workers, to prevent them from giving way. At the base of the column they had built inside a round clay ball, divided into three parts which could be separated, full of very small cells for eggs to be deposited in. This ball communicated with the rest of the buildings by tunnels through which the eggs might be transported to the various cells.
After the building was completed, the nchellelays said, “Now we must go and store in many of the cells little grains of earth to use in our mortar.” So they went to work, and brought loads of these and stored them in the cells which the officers had selected.
When everything was in order, a new arrangement was made. The officers were scattered over the buildings and kept watch over the cells. The large cell for their queen had an entrance at each end communicating with all the corridors in the house. A large body of officers kept watch and surrounded her.
In the course of time the queen did nothing but lay eggs, and an enormous number of them.