FRENCH CAMEROONS 163 
lot down neat. I soon found that he was a sort of human sponge 
where whiskey was concerned, and with some difficulty I eventu- 
ally induced him to leave the house. He went away full of 
promises (and whiskey), saying that he would instruct all his 
people to search for Giant Frogs. One of his head men told me 
that to catch them the natives dammed up a small forest stream 
so that a fairly large deep pool was formed. A number of these 
were made in different parts of the forest and then left for any 
length of time, or sometimes permanently, until Giant Frogs 
had been attracted to them and made them their home. Then 
they were drained off, and a number of natives got into the 
shallow water and caught the frogs with baskets. 
The Chief turned out to be a worthless old bounder, and it was 
obvious that his main idea was to get as much whiskey as possible 
out of me. His visits became more and more frequent, each time 
with trifling excuses as to why no one had brought any frogs, 
and each time asking me if I could spare him some whiskey. 
Finally I made it quite clear that until some Giant Frogs arrived 
there would be no more whiskey. This evidently spurred him into 
action, for about a week later three half-grown ones were brought 
in. Unfortunately they had been injured and soon died. Anyway 
it was a start. Later I got three more, one of which was full 
grown. It was a fine specimen, about a foot long, with tremendous 
power in its hind legs, and was very difficult to hold. I let it loose 
in an unfurnished spare room where it could jump quite easily 
from one end to the other and even over my head. I kept a large 
round shallow bath in the room which was filled with water and 
a lot of floating weed for the frogs to hide under. One day I was 
stooping down trying to find the big fellow, when he shot out 
from under the weed and hit me in the chest with such force 
that he knocked me flat on my back. Allowing for the fact that I 
was in a position to be easily overbalanced, this yet gives some 
indication of their strength. They are much sought after for food 
by the natives, who regard them as a great delicacy, so perhaps 
it is not surprising that I had difficulty in getting anyone to walk 
ten miles or more to bring me any—even for a good reward. 
Money means little or nothing to a bush native; a Giant Frog 
