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135 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett
nearly one hundred groves, I have failed to get from the natives any statement as to the
order in which they should be placed.
In the case of the rivers, the order in which they were given me by the natives is that in
which they appear on the map; the order of the provinces on the other hand is
established by testimony only. In each case the order of the categories is preserved.
In the case of the trees the association with the categories seems to be less direct. The
connection between the virtues of Maloango and the trees on the one hand, and
between the categories and the virtues on the other, seems undeniable; but it is clear
that the area of choice is wide, when we endeavour to associate the trees with the
categories. It must, however, be remarked that the theory of Bavili philosophy here put
forward may be perfectly correct in its main outlines, even though many details remain
for future investigators. If the proof of the connection of the trees with the categories is
slight, the fault is rather in my lack of knowledge than-in any real absence of continuity
in native ideas.
At the end of the chapter on omens I have shown how the native connects with the
categories the senses, which are themselves connected by the natives with colours and
the rainbow snakes. It is important to notice that the order of the families is given in this
case by the order of the spectral colours; it is consequently as indisputable as the order
of the seasons.
In the case of the animals the connection with the categories is traced through the
prohibitions or categories of the law, which are the opposites of the categories of the
formula.
The relation of the king to the categories has already been traced on pp. 100, 135.
I have now set forth the information gathered from the Bavili. During the past few years
I have been in a different part of Africa, and I was naturally curious to see if I could
discover traces of the same ideas among the inhabitants of Benin city and its
neighbourhood. In the following chapters I develop what I have learnt of Bini
philosophy.
My first impression of the religious system of the Bini was that it was something
different from that of the Bavili.
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