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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. www.globalgrey.co.uk
136 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett An altar to OYATA at OKPWEBO, made of clay surmounted with native pottery. I missed the class of fetishes into which nails are driven; I found temples near to the sacred groves, and altars not only in private houses, but also along many of their roads. But when I found the great dual division of ideas illustrated by the names ESHU and ESHU-SHU on the one hand, and EBAW, EBAMI, and OYISA on the other, equivalent to what I have described as NDONGOISM and NKICI-ISM among the BAVILI; and when I found traces of the "jujus" or fetishes into which nails are driven in some of their temples, swear "jujus" and family "jujus" on the one hand, and groves sacred to river spirits, trees, and animals on the other, I was driven to the conclusion that the apparent difference was rather an interesting development, which after all was a natural one and corresponded to the material progress from the rush huts or shimbecs of the Bavili to the solid mud houses of the Bini. www.globalgrey.co.uk
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