Explore "The World of the Great Forest" by Paul B. Du Chaillu on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The giant nchellelays are so named as they are much larger than all the other species of nchellelays, or white ants. Their bodies are of a whitish yellow color, with very hard black heads, armed with most formidable pincers,-terrible weapons for fighting and biting. Their officers or overseers are smaller than the workers, but have more elongated bodies. As they are larger than all the other nchellelays, so their structures are much larger also. They vary from five to fifteen feet in height. Millions upon millions of grains of earth are required in their construction. Their mode of building these is wonderful and unlike that of other termites. How they live under the ground before their structure is built, no one can tell.
One day the giant nchellelays said: "Let us build a new structure for us to live in and be secured against our enemies, the air, the rain, and the sun."