ABSTRACT
The quantitative information given below was collected during April and May 1953 from along a stretch of the Niger between Giri in Illo District and Besse in Besse District. The figures relate to 100 households and their herds found along this sixty-mile section of the water-course. In the household census those individuals whose age was estimated to be over 20 years are classified as 'adults' and those younger than 20 are classified as 'minors'. Collecting data on the size of the herds is the most severe test of the ethnographer's ingenuity, tact, patience, and energy. Information on a herd was sought only through the owner and normally in private. The technique used varied somewhat from one informant to another, but each herd-owner knew that other Fulbe had given the same information and that the data would not be used for tax purposes or shared with other pastoralists.
