CHAPTER XIV 



HOW ANIMALS LEARNT TO CLIMB 



AMONG the forest tribes of India there is one " parish " 

 which elects its chief on principles not mentioned in 

 the most exhaustive treatise on village communities. 

 It is set deep in the forest, and in the centre of the 

 clearing stands one enormous tree, with a branchless 

 trunk running up straight for some 150 feet. This 

 giant tree supplies what may be called the communal 

 fund of the tribe, for among its branches the wild bees 

 have built their combs for generations, and as the tree 

 and the village grow older together, and the claimants 

 on the fund increase, so do the number and weight 

 of the combs from the labour of the procreant bees. 

 The only human work needed to gather the harvest 

 of wax the honey they value little is that required 

 to climb the towering tree, and when once there, to 

 smoke the bees and shake down the wax. Con- 

 sequently, the election of the headman is deter- 

 mined in the first instance by his skill as a climber ; 

 and though after election he usually succeeds in in- 

 vesting his office with religious or magical sanction, 

 and endeavours to bequeath it to his son, there is 

 no reason why the post should not be put up to free 

 competition, and awarded, at least in its qualifying 



