INFANCY AND THE PREFIXES 



our 9th class, and another, or that of plural nouns such 

 as Zambiy 1 used in a singular sense. 



As Zambi, a developed idea of God, comes to mean 

 the Creator of heaven, the waters and the earth, as the 

 one in whom are all things, we will call this loth class 

 the " O " class, and in trying to explain the philosophy 

 of the classes and categories it shall be understood 

 that these Qth and loth classes stand outside the 

 intermediate 8 classes. 



The classes in this order now stand as under : 



" O " plural nouns with singular meanings, 

 i Va Mu 



2 Mu Mi 



3 Ki Bi or Yi or I 



4 -Li or E or Di plural Ma 



5 Lu Tu 



6 Ku Ma 



7 Bu Ma 



8 Mu Ba 



9 N or M plural Zi 



1 The word Zambi is derived from Zi plural sign : 



la = four 

 Zia or Za = fours 

 Imbi = personal essence 

 Zambi = God. 



Zambi is the personal essence of the "fours" which appear so 

 often in the Bavili philosophy. He is here in the loth class as the 

 one in whom are all things. In the same way among the Yoruba, 

 Olorun is the owner of the heavens, the origin of all the personalities 

 or dead ancestors figured by stars in the heavens. 



