they perform. They are much less numerous than the workers, being
somewhat in the proportion of one in one hundred. The duty of the
soldier-insects is to protect the nest when it is attacked. They are
furnished with long and slender jaws, and when enraged bite very
fiercely, and sometimes even drive off the negroes who may have attacked
them, and even white people suffer severely,--the bite bleeding profusely
even through the stocking. Some one who observed the colony alarmed, by
having part of the nest broken down, gives the following account of the
subsequent operations. One of the soldiers first makes his appearance, as
if to see if the enemy be gone, and to learn whence the attack proceeds.
By and by two or three others make their appearance, and soon afterwards
a numerous body rushes out, which increases in number so long as the
attack is continued. They are at this time in a state of the most violent
agitation; some employed in beating upon the building with their
mandibles, so as to make a noise which may be distinctly heard at the
distance of three or four feet. Whenever the attack is discontinued, the
soldiers retire first, and are quickly followed by the labourers, which
hasten in various directions towards the breach, each with a burden of
mortar ready tempered, and thus they soon repair the chasm. Besides the
duty of protecting the colony, the soldiers seem to act as overseers of
the work, one being generally in attendance on every six or eight
hundred; and another, who may be looked upon as commander in chief, takes
up his station close to the wall which they are repairing, and frequently
repeats the beating which I just mentioned, which is instantly answered
by a loud hiss from all the labourers within the dome,--those at work
labouring with redoubled energy."

"But, Uncle Thomas, what can be the use of such animals as white ants? I
really cannot see what use they are for."