Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/64

50 common gun 1 piece, a better gun 3 pieces, a demi-john of rum 4 pieces, and a case of trade gin 2 pieces, and so they work through the 150 pieces, of which 20 or 30 only may be paid in cloth. The native trader takes the goods back to his country, and sells them at profits of from 100 to 150 or more per cent. He must be a smart man to remember the cost of his rubber, the expenses of his journeys to and from the coast, the value of the goods he is taking to sell in his own district, and many other things, such as food for his caravan en route, taxes to the chiefs through whose towns he passes, and toll for bridges and canoes, or he will have a loss instead of a profit.

After the native trader has left with his caravan, the linguistere takes 70 pieces from the white man, the difference between what he agreed to pay for the rubber, 220 pieces, and the amount the linguistere drew on account to pay the native trader, viz. 150 pieces. These 70 help to refund him for his disbursements among his clients, for the expenses of his journey to and from their country, and for his trouble. Sometimes the native trader wants more than the linguistere can afford to give him, and he will go off to another white man and use another linguistere, who, having given him nothing at all, can afford to agree to a higher price for the rubber. The native trader is cute enough to work one linguistere against another. Sometimes a linguistere will know that the white man is not offering a fair price for the rubber, or that he has not a good assortment of goods in his store, or that the prices of the trade articles are above other traders, and he himself will take his client to another white trader. Linguisteres who do this are men who receive a commission on the amount of trade they introduce, no matter where they sell. There are others who are paid so much per month, who must use all their persuasive powers with the native traders to sell their produce to their masters only.