FRENCH CAMEROONS 159 
and illustrates the advantages of education. The ignorant client 
has no idea what the écrivain public has written on his behalf— 
if indeed such a letter is ever sent off—and he may be told in reply 
that the government or police have demanded payment of 100 
francs, failing which he will be put in prison. The écrivain may 
then wave a piece of paper under the boy’s nose, which may be a 
jam-tin label, or it may bear the legend Corned Beef, but in any 
case, as the poor fellow cannot read, he is none the wiser and is 
frightened into parting with the money. In most British posses- 
sions officials have to learn the local language, so it is not the 
general policy to make every native an English-speaking citizen. 
At the time of my visit there were some slight matrimonial 
complications among the natives owing to the system of levying 
a tax on both sexes. This meant that all the natives with unofficial 
wives promptly disowned them when taxes fell due. Thus thou- 
sands of natives returned to respectable bachelorhood annually 
until all taxes were paid. 
I gradually built up one of the best collections I ever had, thanks 
largely to the schoolboys, though I had to trap nearly all the forest- 
dwelling birds myself. The adult natives were of no assistance 
whatever. It is very noticeable among some tribes, especially in the 
very hot humid zones, that the youngsters are very bright, physi- 
cally and mentally, until they reach adolescence, and then they 
change completely. This probably coincides with their cohabita- 
tion with the opposite sex. 
I spent much time alone in the Cameroon forests climbing tall 
trees and setting nets. Birds that subsist on berries and fruits in 
the forest tree-tops are the hardest to get at. Hardly any trees have 
branches within fifty feet of the ground, which makes climbing 
difficult and hazardous, and every tree harbors colonies of biting 
ants which live in the crevices of the bark or in nests made among 
the leaves, according to species. These all viciously attack any 
intruder, and their bites can be very painful. They often defeated 
me by their incredible numbers. It can be well imagined that when 
one is clinging precariously to a tree trunk high above the earth, 
with no means of escape or defense, it is no joke to be attacked 
from all sides by swarms of furious ants. Their bites set up a 
violent irritation like prickly heat, and often fever, 
