_Uncle Philip tells the Children more about the White Ants._
"Now, boys, as I have told you about the kinds of different work which
these ants do, we will go on, and I will tell you about the inside
of the city. The first thing to be done is to build a house for the
king and queen. This is the first house built in the city, and always
stands in the centre, directly under the point of the roof or top of
the outside wall. It is built nearly on a level with the ground, and is
shaped very much like a long oven, or the half of an egg split through
the long way. The floor is exactly level, and about an inch thick; the
roof is about the same thickness. The doors are on a level with the
floor, and just large enough to let one of the labourers go in."
"Why, Uncle Philip, how do the king and queen ever get out then."
"They never do get out, boys; they live in that house always, and they
are not the first kings and queens who have found that a palace is
sometimes a prison. Just around this house of the king and queen are
other houses built of clay, arched at the top, and of different shapes.
These are for the servants or labouring ants, who remove the eggs of
the queen as fast as she discharges them. The soldiers also live in
these houses. Next to these are the magazines, that is, the houses where
they keep their food, such as dry juices of trees and gums; and mixed
up with these are the nurseries. These are made by the labourers, and
are different from all the other buildings, for they are made of wood
gnawed or broken into fine threads, and joined together with some kind
of gum, and around each of them there is a case of clay. These nurseries
are to carry the eggs into for the young ants to be hatched. Between
all these different houses or parts there are thousands of galleries
or ways, which run among them and separate them from each other, and
these may be called the streets of the city. These streets run in all
directions, and extend as far as the outside wall; and houses are built
on top of houses, and streets run over streets, until they reach up
as high as two-thirds of the inside wall. But under the top of their
outside case they always leave a large open place that is never filled
up with houses. And around this space they will build three or four
large arches, sometimes two or three feet high; these I suppose are to
prevent the houses from falling in towards the centre of the city, which
is an open space, and on the other side they are fastened to the outside
walls, so that these houses are very firm."
"And what is all this made of, Uncle Philip?"
"All of clay, except the nurseries, which I told you were made of wood
and gum. Over the house of the king and queen there is a sort of flat
floor, some distance above it, with nurseries and magazines between the
under side of it and the top of the queen's house. This floor will not
let the water through it, so as to wet the palace where the king and
queen live, but will turn it off into large trenches or gutters under
ground, of which I will speak directly. The bridge I told you of they
build from this floor in the open space, directly under the top or dome
of the outside wall; it rises up and is joined to some hole in the side
wall of the houses above it."
"How large is it, Uncle Philip?"
"Why, sometimes it is half an inch broad, a quarter of an inch thick,
and ten inches long; all made of clay, so that it is very strange how
they manage to join it to the wall without its falling down by its own
weight while they were building it."
"And what do you suppose this bridge is for, Uncle Philip?"
"Why, I think there can be no doubt what it is for. When the city has
been growing for some time, some of the nurseries will be very high up
above the queen's house; but the labourers have to carry her eggs into
them, no matter how far off they may be. If they carry them through all
the streets, they will have to walk as many as fifteen or twenty feet,
for it would be five or six feet in a perfectly straight line, and these
streets are very crooked; but if they make a bridge in the open space
in the centre, they can then go from the queen's house over the bridge,
and get to the upper nurseries without travelling more than two feet. So
they made the bridge to shorten the way, to be sure."
"This is very wonderful: but you said something about large trenches or
gutters underground; what are they, Uncle Philip?"
"These galleries lead from the city under ground, and are as large as
the bore of a large cannon; they are thirteen inches across, and more
than a hundred yards long. I have already told you that the labourers
never come out into the light, when they can help it; and these
underground ways are the great roads to the city, to fetch in clay, or
wood, or water, or provisions: and now I will tell you another thing
which shows a great deal of sense. As some of their houses are very high
up, you know they would find it very hard to climb up through all the
streets with a heavy load in a straight line; so when these large ways
underground reach the outside wall, they just come through and keep on
winding around the inside of it like a corkscrew all the way to the top;
and there are other galleries opening from it at different places into
the city. One thing has been noticed about these ants; they can scarcely
climb at all up a perpendicular wall. Therefore on the upright side of
any part of the city you may see a road made, standing out from the wall
like a ledge; it is flat on the top, and half an inch wide, and goes
up gradually like a stair-case, or like a road cut out on the side of a
mountain.
"Here is a picture of one of their cities cut straight down through the
middle. At the bottom, in the centre, is the queen's house; over it is a
floor, and the two crooked things you see rising up from the floor, are
bridges."
[Illustration]
"But, Uncle Philip, you said you would tell us about the soldiers and
labourers coming out when the city is attacked."
"Yes, I did. As soon as a hole is made in the outside wall, you will
see a soldier run out, and walk about as if to look around; but as he
is blind, it cannot be to see what the danger is. He may have some way
though of finding out without seeing. Presently he will go in, as if
to tell the others, and then out pour the soldiers in great numbers,
as fast as the hole will let them; and just as long as you strike the
outside wall, they will continue to rush out. They seem to be in a
terrible passion. They are in such a hurry that sometimes they slip, and
roll down the outside of the hill; but they jump up again instantly,
and begin to bite every thing they run against, for they are blind and
cannot tell a friend from an enemy."
"Do they bite hard, Uncle Philip?"
"Very hard indeed. They make their hooked jaws, which are like awls, you
know, meet at every bite; and if it should happen to be a man's leg they
get hold of, you would see upon his stocking a spot of blood an inch
long. At every bite too you may hear their jaws snapping together and
making quite a noise. Some of them too (perhaps they are the officers)
are constantly beating with their awls upon the outside wall, and make a
sound something quicker and sharper than the ticking of a watch. You may
hear it at a distance of three or four feet. When these biters lay hold,
nothing will make them let go; you must tear them away by pieces. After
you stop striking the wall, in about half an hour they seem to get over
their rage and go back into the city, and then out come the labourers.
While the noise continues you will not see one of them; they all fled
at the first appearance of danger. But now they come, each one with a
bundle of mortar in his mouth, ready made; and they stick it on the hole
so fast, and with such order, that though thousands and thousands are at
work they never interrupt each other. And while the labourers are busy,
if you look you may commonly see a soldier or two walking about; but
they never touch the mortar, nor help in any way to mend the hole. One
of these soldiers always stands near the spot where the labourers are at
work, and every now and then turns slowly around, and frequently lifts
up his head, and with his awls beats upon the building, and makes a
sort of hissing noise. As soon as that is done you may hear a loud hiss
from all the labourers, both on the outside of the wall and from the
inside of the city, and then the labourers run faster, and work as quick
again. If you attack the nest again, away run all the labourers as fast
as their legs will carry them, and out pour the soldiers as before; and
the same thing is always seen upon every attack, of soldiers to fight
and labourers to work."
"Well, Uncle Philip, this is a very strange story; much more interesting
than any we have yet heard."
"I thought it would please you, boys; but there are still stranger
things among animals, and perhaps you will say so when you know more.
"But it is now time to return home; so take in the kite and let us be
going."