Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.458

c10.458

1679.—“But there is yet a far greater inconvenience in this Country, which proceeds from the infinite number of white Emmets, which though they are but little, have teeth so sharp, that they will eat down a wooden Post in a short time. And if great care be not taken in the places where you lock up your Bales of Silk, in four and twenty hours they will eat through a Bale, as if it had been saw’d in two in the middle.”—*Tavernier’s Tunquin*, E. T., p. 11.