THE CATEGORIES 7 



given in my book " At the Back of the Black Man's 

 Mind." 



In the following pages I propose proving that these 

 categories can be shown to exist in the classes into 

 which the language of the Bavili is divided by certain 

 prefixes. After having set forth the prefixes, I shall 

 precede my studies in the classes themselves by a 

 short account of what I believe to have been the West 

 African's primitive life. 



Remember that I am dealing with a poetic and 

 imaginative people, and without the exercise on the 

 part of the reader of a certain amount of primitive 

 imagination what follows will hardly appeal to him. 



