154 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



collecting trip. Perhaps I would have to eke out the 

 salt currency with fifty or sixty pounds of beads in 

 some districts. That would be what you would call 

 " small change." Big money would consist of knives 

 and tomahawks. You would only pay out big money 

 for carrying work or collecting work. Perhaps a 

 knife would be paid as the wages for a journey, or a 

 looking-glass, or perhaps both. The biggest money 

 the native Bank of England 5 note, so to speak 

 is pearl shell, which the inland natives value very 

 highly. 



I am often asked how I make myself understood 

 among the natives. That I found to be easy enough 

 on the coast, where they have come into contact with 

 white men and the natives easily understand " pidgin " 

 English. Where they do not you can usually find an 

 interpreter. I speak, of course, a little of the native 

 dialects, and get on well enough with that, helped out 

 with " pidgin " English. A curious fact is that one 

 cannot without great effort talk " pidgin " English 

 to a white man, just as one never dreams of using 

 correct English to a native. 



Usually a boy is engaged for twelve months, during 

 which time you feed him and pay him at intervals 

 " in trade." When he gets back to his village he 

 usually has a box full of knives and clothing and 

 looking-glasses and native money. I made it a point, 

 whenever a boy had proved a good servant, of giving 

 him a bonus at the end of his term, usually a parcel 



