doing their work. I always noticed that when one
was in difficulty and others ran to the rescue there generally ensued
what seemed to be a row, and the new arrivals hurriedly left--either
disgusted or angry, I could not tell which by their minute expression.

Then there were extraordinarily fat lady ants, lying flat upon their
backs, and with many attendants around them doing massage and general
nursing with the greatest possible gentleness and care. If one wanted to
see a great commotion one only had to introduce into one of the chambers
a larger ant of a different kind. What struck me was that the moment the
fray was over the termites at once--if perhaps a little more
excitedly--resumed their work.

What astonished me more than anything was that they would go on working
at all--as if nothing had happened--when I split open one of their
dwellings and many of the channels, which must have been normally in the
dark--were now exposed to the light. This made me suspect that their
vision was either missing altogether or was very defective.

Nature is a wonderful organizer. The majority of termites--including
warriors and workers--were sexless; that was perhaps why they were such
good workers, as they had nothing to distract them. The males and females
whose duty was merely to propagate and improve the race were provided
temporarily with wings, so that they could fly away from the colony and
disseminate their love among other winged termites of other colonies. The
relation between different colonies was friendly. When their task was
accomplished and flight was no more necessary for them, they conveniently
and voluntarily shed their wings, leaving merely a small section of the
wing root attached to the thorax.

The local name for all kinds of termites was _cupim_, but technically
they are known in the Order of _Neoroptera_ as _Termes album_. Another
variety of insect, the _Psocus domesticus_, was also as destructive as
the _Termes album_.

We frequently met with plants of _caju_, or _acaju_ or _acajueiro_
(_Anacardium Occidentale_ L.) on our course. They belonged to the
_Terebinthaceae_ group. In a preceding chapter I have already described
the red or yellow delicious fruit of this tree. Then we found other
interesting trees, such as the _oleo_, the tall and handsome _poinna_,
and numerous specimens of the small but good-looking palm _pindova_.

There were not many flowers in that particular spot, barring perhaps an
oc