March 23, 191 1] 



NATURE 



113 



■ U¥: ETHNOLOGY OF YORUBA AND BENIN.^ 



ANYTHING which Mr. Dennett writes in con- 

 , nection with the Black man is bound to be of 



nterest and importance to ethnologists ; for even if 

 he)' disagree with his ultimate theories and deduc- 

 pons they are ready to acknowledge the truth, and 

 >ften the novelty, of the facts and observations he 

 )laces on record. In many respects the book under 

 eview, which deals mainly with the Yoruba people 

 )f the western part of southern Nigeria, is superior 

 : lO any he has as yet written, in that it contains more 

 :. undoubted facts and accurate observations than deduc- 

 : lions which set one's teeth on edge (as in "At the Back 

 v^f the Black Man's Mind"), because they are based 

 E on insufficient evidence or lack of com- 

 1 parative study of other African races or 

 languages. In fact, it may be said at 

 ')nce without too many qualifications that 

 ,his work of Mr. Dennett on the Yoruba 

 Seople is a remarkable book of permanent 

 alue to the ethnologist and to the student 

 >f Africa. It is, indeed, a special insight 

 pio the religious ideas of this highly 

 lixeloped negro people, from whom un- 

 '■■ doubtedly sprang the closely related art 

 imd civilisation of Benin, and most of the 

 ■«:-eligious ideas to be found throughout 

 ^J^outhern Nigeria from Dahome to the 

 4pameroons. 



|( Yorubaland seems to have been invaded 

 I'at a relatively early date by northern in- 

 fifluence coming from Bornu, Hausaland. 

 fend the Fula and Songhai countries of 

 |;the Upper Niger. We know from the 

 '(interesting researches of Clapperton and 



■ Lander that in the early part of the nine- 

 teenth century the country of Borgu, 

 which borders Yorubaland on the north, 



: possessed amongst other evidences of 

 - northern influence a corrupted version of 

 I 'Christianity of some ancientness, said 

 traditionally to have been brought then 

 f by Tuaregs or Berbers from the Saharn 

 •Desert. Similar traditions (accompanied 

 by good collateral evidence) derived from 

 Bornu or northern Hausaland most of the 

 old dynasties of Borgu and other countries 

 bordering the Lower Niger. It is, there- 

 fore, no difficulty to go a step farther 

 and believe with Prof, von Luschan and 

 other authorities that European influence 

 penetrated far south into the Niger basin 

 ind the Cameroons before the times of 

 Islam and the Roman Empire. Von 

 Luschan can indicate in the Ethnograph- 

 ical Museum of Berlin very marked 

 •parallels between the art and the religious 

 '(emblems of the Benue, Lower Niger, and 

 ' iCamerons regions, and those of Crete 

 and ancient Greece. This analogy, again, quite 

 independently, is pointed out by Mr. Talbot 

 'in the December number (1910) of the Geographical 

 • Journal ("The Land of the Ekoi "). Similarly, in 

 (reading Mr. Dennett's extraordinarily interesting 

 : description of Yoruba religious ceremonials and tradi- 



■ itions, one is reminded of those of the Mediterranean 

 fpeoples two thousand years ago and more. On p. 163 

 Mr. Dennett gives in Latin the exact text of the 



«|3rotic songs declaimed by the women at a religious 

 ajfestival, which must have been very similar to the 



,.)'■' Nigerian Studies," or the Religious and Political System of the 

 'Voruba. Hy R. E. Dennett. Pp. XV4-235. (London: Macmillan and 



mysteries of Cybele and other similar phallic- and 

 nature-worship manifestations of religion among the 

 Greek and Latin peoples. 



All that Mr. Dennett writes on the subject of mar- 

 riage and totems (beginning on p. 176) is of great 

 interest, and so far as the reviewer's knowledge goes, 

 quite accurate. In connection with this, allusions 

 are made from time to time in the book to the ques- 

 tion of polygamy versus I'nonogamy, and Dr. E. W. 

 Blyden is quoted in defence of polygamy as being 

 the system best suited to the negro race. With these 

 opinions the reviewer differs. In his own books — 

 especially that which dealt with the researches of 

 George Grenfell on the Congo — he has given evidence 

 to show that th^re is a greater proportional increase 



^ , E. Dennett. Pp. 



-o., Ltd., iqio.) Price 8s. tii. net. 



NO. 2160, VOL. 



86] 



Tree planted over Grave which thus becomes sacred. From " Nigerian Studies." 



amongst negroes who practise monogam)' — namely, 

 cohabit with only one spouse, at any rate ostensibly 

 — than amongst those who avowedly practise poly- 

 gamy. The very conditions under which polygamy is 

 practised in Africa limit to very few the number of 

 children which each woman produces, nor does it 

 follow necessarily that these few children are any 

 healthier or better brought up than those which are 

 the outcome of a monogamous union. In any case, 

 this is almost indisputable : that the civilised negroes 

 of the New World who profess to be monogamous — 

 and are so, nearly as much as are the white people 

 of the same region — are increasing at a faster rate 

 than the polygamous peoples of .Africa ; are produc- 



