Efforts of the Residents have been to persuade unwilling tribes to accept the principle of taxation; to get in the thin edge of the wedge, as it were. Reasonable increase can be made as the British control becomes firmer. Taxation of the Pagans therefore ranges from a goat paid yearly by a village of between 700 and 800 inhabitants to 2s. 6d. annually per male adult of other villages. A taxation census is taken where that can be done without using troops. Only an approximate result is obtained. The Resident goes to a village and notes the compounds, asking how many men live in each. The people cannot count nor express themselves in numerals. They have names for figures up to 10 but do not give them with confidence after 5. They may be able to speak of 6, 7, 8 or 9, though not at all sure. At the figure of 10 they are, as that simply means two 5’s. The fingers of one hand keep the mind fresh up to the lower number. As Mr Stobart goes through the villages of the Bukuru division he collects at each village a small bag of stones and uses them as denomination for questions relating to figures. I saw an answer given in that form as to the number of wives a man had. Fortunately the bag of pebbles was ample for the expression. The same method is employed in conveying details of taxation. One day I was in the circular mud hut which Mr Stobart has as his Court and office and some taxes were brought in from Bukuru village. Village Chiefs are appointed for the collection, so that by degrees they may learn simple administration. They are given 10 per cent. of the amount gathered. Recalcitrant individuals are reported to the Resident, who takes measures to make them do as their neighbours. The usual method is to send a couple of native police early in the morning to bring in the defaulters. They are told that if payment be not forthcoming in a reasonable period certain of their goods, such as a goat or a horse, will be confiscated. Bukuru village is taxed at 1s. per adult annually. On the occasion referred to, the sections whose payments the two Chiefs had brought should have yielded £5. The amount counted on the ground, in shillings, was £1, 10s. short. The couple of worthy gatherers, who probably wondered why in their mature years they should be afflicted with the mental worries of revenue and finance, were made to understand by means of 30 small stones that there was that quantity of backsliders who must be made to toe the monetary line or the names given to the Resident. They went home, I believe animated by the honest desire to do their best. But this tax-gathering must be a sore trouble to the Pagan village Chiefs, who formerly never knew the need of money and who regarded wealth only as represented by horses, sheep, goats or oxen.