The Soul of the White Ant

133 Pages·2009·1.54 MB·English

THE SOUL OF THE WHITE ANT research and conclusions about the white ant, a
Eugène N Marais world famous European author took half
With a biographical note by his son Marais's life work and published it as his own.
Translated by This plagiarizing may well have been a major
Winifred de Kok factor in Marais's final collapse. Plagued for
many years by ill health and an addiction to
Eugène Marais was born in a farming morphine, he took his own life in March 1936.
community near Pretoria in 1872. Journalism
was his first career, but he later studied law in
London, and by 1910 was in Johannesburg
trying to establish himself as an advocate.
Increasing depression drove him to retreat to
Waterberg, a mountain fastness in northern
Transvaal. Settling near a large group of
chacma baboons, he became the first man to
conduct a prolonged study of primates in the
wild. It was this period that produced My
Friends the Baboons and provided the major
inspiration for The Soul of the Ape. He
returned to Pretoria to practise law, to resume
his career as a journalist, to continue his
animal studies and to write poetry in
Afrikaans. In 1926, the year after he had
published a definitive article on his original
CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
List of Illustrations Etiolated, newly hatched termite
List of Plates King and queen at the time of flight
Translator's Preface A queen at the beginning of the second stage of
Eugène N. Marais: A Biographical Note development
1 The Beginning of a Termitary A queen- substitute
2 Unsolved Secrets The life cycle of termites
3 Language in the Insect World A mandibulated worker
4 What is the Psyche? The head of a Eutermes worker seen from
5 Luminosity in the Animal Kingdom below showing the mouth parts
6 The Composite Animal A Eutermes nasicorn soldier with syringe
7 Somatic Death A Eutermes nasicorn soldier seen from above
8 The Development of the Composite The head of a Eutermes soldier seen from below
Animal Eutermes workers building an arch by gradual
9 The Birth of the Termite Community approximation of two pillars
10 Pain and Travail in Nature Eutermes workers building an arch, in this case
11 Uninherited Instincts a grass stalk is laid from pillar to pillar, and
12 The Mysterious Power which Governs covered with tiny pebbles
13 The Water Supply
14 The First Architects
15 The Queen in her Cell
LIST OF PLATES
Soldier and worker termites
Winged adult termites
Female termites after shedding their wings.
A queen termite full of eggs with two soldier
termites
A group of termites in which can be seen
workers, soldiers, and nymphs
Termitary materials
A close up of a fungus garden
A termitary split open to reveal the fungus
gardens
Termite damage in structural timber
A tower termitary
A pagoda, or mushroom, termitary
TRANSLATORS PREFACE During those years Eugène Marais was not
concerned with publicity in any form, but a
THE name of Eugène N. Marais is known to all
friend induced him to write an article for an
Afrikaans speaking South-Africans as a writer
Afrikaans periodical called Die Huisgenoot.
of short stories and verse. He himself,
This proved so popular that the author was
however, would wish to be remembered for his
besieged for more, and the articles continued
lifelong study of termites and apes. He began
for almost two years.
life after leaving college as a journalist, then
studied medicine for four years, but eventually His years of unceasing work on the veld led
took up law and was called to the bar by the Eugène Marais to formulate his theory that the
Inner Temple. A scholar and a man of culture, individual nest of the termites is similar in
he chose nevertheless to live for a period every respect to the organism of an animal,
extending over many years in a 'rondhavel' or workers and soldiers resembling red and white
hut in the lonely Waterberg mountains, blood corpuscles, the fungus gardens the
learning to know and make friends with a troop digestive organs, the queen functioning as the
of wild baboons, whose behaviour he wished brain, and the sexual flight being in every
to study. He tamed them to such a degree that aspect analogous to the escape of spermatozoa
he could move among them and handle them and ova.
with impunity. At the same time he busied
himself with the other end of the chain and
studied termite life, a study which often meant
tremendous drudgery and needed endless
patience.
EUGÈNE N. MARAIS: At the end of the 1880's he was back in Pretoria
A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE BY HIS SON and in a few years seemed definitely to have
adopted journalism as his profession. At first he
Eugène Nielen MARAIS was born on 9 January
was a parliamentary reporter of the Volksraad and
1872 in Pretoria. He was the son of Jan Christian
because of his caustic comments on the
Nielen Marais of Stellenbosch, who traced his
proceedings he had the distinction of being
descent through a few generations to a Charles
expressly excluded from the press gallery by a
Marais, a French Huguenot. Into this family had
resolution of the Volksraad. He became Editor of
married Baron van Rheede van Oudtshoorn, who
various papers, both English and Dutch, and his
had been sent out to be Governor of the Cape and
whole-hearted support of General Joubert against
who had died on board ship in Table Bay, and Dr
Kruger resulted in his being tried for high treason,
Nielen, an American doctor who had come out to
on which charge he was acquitted by the Supreme
South-Africa.
Court in Pretoria. During this period of his
Eugène Marais received his first definite residence in Pretoria he showed a great interest in
schooling in English from an Archdeacon Roberts animals and insects and was never without tame
in Pretoria in which school he won a prize for apes, snakes, scorpions, and the like. In 1894 he
divinity because he could recite the whole of the married Miss L. Beyers in Natal, but lost his
Catechism of the Church of England. After a wife the following year. The loss of his wife
journey by ox-wagon through the bushveld he had a profound effect on him and accentuated
was taken to Boshof in the Orange Free State, the sombre side of his nature which had
where he again went to an English school and already occasionally clouded an otherwise
later to the Paarl. bright-spirited temperament.
In 1895 he left for Europe with the intention of He was still interested in his newspaper Land
studying medicine, but he was persuaded by and Volk, for which he wrote in what was
friends in the Transvaal to take up law. He considered 'Afrikaans'. The poem 'Winter Nag'
made the change, much to his subsequent heralded the new Afrikaans movement.
regret, and at the Inner Temple in London
In 1910 Marais went to Johannesburg, where
qualified as an advocate. He studied medicine
he again practised as an advocate, but his
at the same time, however, and only the Boer
distaste for the work, coupled with increasing
War prevented him from qualifying. He was on
depression of spirits, made him give up his
parole in England during the Boer War until an
practice and move to the Waterberg district.
opportunity offered itself of going on an
There he made an intensive study of birds and
expedition to Central Africa, from where he
beasts. There was no natural phenomenon
intended to take medical supplies and explo-
which came amiss to his eager mind and he
sives which he had collected to the Boer
wrote an article for the Government Agricul-
Forces across the Limpopo. While still in
tural Journal on the drying up of Waterberg
Central Africa, where he contracted a severe
which was reproduced by the Smithsonian
attack of malaria fever, he heard of the
Institute in their annual report. At the same
conclusion of peace 1902 - the stores and
time he was contributing articles on snake
supplies were buried and he returned to
poison and stories to the Afrikaans press.
Pretoria via Delagoa Bay. During his travels he
had added greatly to his store of knowledge In the district he freely gave of his medical
about the habits of insects and animals. knowledge to help the poverty-stricken popu-
lation and acted for years as justice of the
In Pretoria he began to practise as an advocate
Peace.
and produced a book on Deeds Office Practice.
But by the end of 1915 his health was so bad zine in Afrikaans, he contributed to English
that he had to have careful attention, and he scientific journals in English.
was taken to Pretoria, with the happy result
Again in 1928 a breakdown in health brought
that after some months he was able to resume
him to Pretoria, where he kept up his
his practice as an advocate. He had chambers
journalistic work and endeavoured to give
near and was a close friend of the late Mr
form to his work on the termites and ants.
Tielman Roos. There was again a period of
There is much that he would have added and
literary activity, but constantly failing health
possibly much that he would have corrected in
made him give up his practice and then
the present work had his health permitted him
followed a period of practice as an attorney at
to give undivided attention to the work. But it
Bronkhorstspruit and Heidelberg in the
was not to be, and on 29 March 1936 he died
Transvaal. By this time he had completed the
on a farm near Pretoria.
draft of what he hoped would be his chief work
- 'The Soul of the Ape' - a study of the beha- Of a singularly attractive nature, he was adored
viour of apes and baboons and the comparison by and adored children, and especially in his
of their mental processes, as far as these could later years could almost always be found in
be gauged, with those of man. their company. He has a clear and assured niche
among the most noted writers in Afrikaans, and
His delight now was to use the new-fledged
his scientific work and theories written in
Afrikaans as a medium of expression, and the
English have received special notice in America
opening it offered for the coining of new words
and Europe.
and modes of expression was eagerly seized by
him. And while poems, stories and articles
flowed from his pen for newspaper and maga-
1 vation reveals new wonders every day. To
THE BEGINNING OF A TERMITARY mention one instance, the functioning of the
community or group-psyche of the termitary is
SOME years ago an article about 'White Ants',
just as wonderful and mysterious to a human
as termites are commonly but incorrectly
being, with a very different kind of psyche, as
called, appeared in a South-African journal.
telepathy or other functions of the human mind
Almost everything that naturalists tell us about
which border on the supernatural.
these insects is important and interesting, and
Dr Hesse's article was exceptionally so. But When one wishes to write of all these wonders,
the article also made another fact clear; how one is bewildered by the embarras de richess-
very little is done in our land to study the es. It is hard to know where to begin.
behaviour of animals, and how much has been
I want to tell you about the commonest of our
done and is being done in other countries.
termites or 'white ants', and what I am going to
Everything that Dr Hesse told us was the result
relate may be observed by anyone who wishes;
of long and patient observation in America and
he may even discover new wonders. Most of
Europe. None of his facts was exactly relevant
these facts have not been published before;
to our South-African termites.
indeed, I do not think they have been
The life-history of most of our South-African discovered by scientists.
ants and termites is in every respect just as
The common termite which is so destructive to
wonderful and interesting as anything that has
wood of all kinds, and builds 'ant-bills' or
been discovered in South America. Over a
termitaries on the open veld, is known through-
period of ten years I studied the habits of
out South-Africa. I will tell you a little about
termites in an investigation into animal
the beginning of its community life.
psychology. I then realized that such obser-
The beginning of a termitary dates from the
moment when the termites fly, after rain and
usually at dusk, in order to escape their
innumerable enemies. Even here we see a
remarkable instance of the wonder of instinct.
The termites beginning their thrilling flight
know nothing about enemies. They have never
been outside the nest before. The peril of
existence is to them a closed book, and yet
nine times out of ten they do not fly until the
birds are safely in their nests.
These flying termites are at least twenty times
as big as the others of the nest, and quite
different in colour and form. You must
consider a termitary as a single animal, whose
organs have not yet been fused together as in a
human being. Some of the termites form the
mouth and digestive system; others take the
place of weapons of defence like claws or
horns; others form the generative organs.
These flying termites are the generative organs
of the colony. Every one of these winged

A Tower Termitary