While fome are employed in gutting the polls, others afcend
from them, entering a rafter, or fome-other part of the roof. I f
they once find the thatch, which feems to be a favourite food,
they foon bring up wet clay, and build their pipes, or galleries,
through the roof in various dire&ions, as long as it will fupport
them; fometimes eating the palm-tree leaves and branches o f
which it is compofed, and perhaps (for variety feems very plea ling
to them) the rattan, or other running plant, which is ufed as a
cord to tie the various parts of the roof together, and that to the
polls which fupport it. Thus, with the affiflance o f the rats,
who, during the rainy feafon, are apt to Ihelter themfelves there,
and to burrow through it, they very foon ruin the houfe, by
weakening the faflenings and expofing it to the wet. In the
mean time, the polls will be perforated in every direction, as
■ full o f holes as that timber in the bottoms o f Ihips, which has
-been bored by the worms ; the fibrous and knotty parts, which
are the hardefl, being left to the laH.
Thefe infe&s are not Jels expeditious in deflroying the lhelves,
wainfcotting, and other fixtures o f an houfe, than the houfe
ltfelf. They- are continually piercing and boring in all dire&ions,
and fometimes go out o f the broadfide o f one poll into that o f
another adjoining to it; but they prefer and always dellroy the
fofter fubltances the firfi, and are particularly fond o f pine and
fir-boards, which they excavate and carry away with wonderful
difpatch and aftonilhing cunning : for, except a fhelf has fome-
thing Handing upon it, as a book, or any thing elfe which may
tempt them, they will not perforate the furface, but artf ully pre-
ferve it quite whole, and eat away all the infide, except a few
fibres, which barely keep the two fides connected together; 16
6 that
3 l3
that a piece o f an inch-board, which appears folid to the eye
will not weigh much more than two Iheets o f pafteboard of equal
dimenfions, after thefe animals have been a little while in pof-
felfion o f it. In Ihort, the termites are fo infidious in their attacks,
that we cannot be too much on our guard againft them : they
will fometimes begin and raife their works, efpecially in new
houfes, through the floor. I f you dellroy the work fo begun,
and make a fire upon the fpot, the next night they will attempt
to rife through another part; and i f they happen to emerge under
a chelt, or trunk, early in tire night will pierce the bottom,
and dellroy or fpoil every thing in it before the morning. On
thefe accounts the inhabitants fet all their chells and boxes
upon Hones o f bricks, fo as to leave the bottoms o f fuch furniture
fome inches above the ground, which not only prevents
thefe infefts finding them out fo readily, but preferves the bottoms
from a corrofive damp, which would firike from the earth
through, and rot every thing therein: a vafi deal o f vermin
alfo would harbour under, fuch as cockroaches, centipedes, millepedes,
fcorpions, ants, and various other noifome infe&s.
Though the view we have given of the various proceedings o f
infe&s in forming their habitations, has already run to ffome
length, we cannot with propriety negleft taking fome further notice
o f the wonderful indufiry and art which is manifefied in thefe
refpe&s by the caterpillar; and more particularly fo, as it is by
it we obtained the foundations o f all our prefent knowledge o f
the natural hillory o f infefls.
Some fpecies o f caterpillars form a kind of hammock, in which
they eat and go through their varied changes; while others ere&
Q H a tent.