REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19 



lias collected interesting information as to the habits of thought and 

 action of the people, and their capacity for moral and intellectual 

 culture, which would have escaped the casual notice of the mere 

 traveller. 



Yoruba is a country of Western Africa, situated to the east of 

 Dahomey, and extending from the Bight of Benin, in a northerly 

 direction, nearly to the Niger. It is between the countries explored 

 by the distinguished travellers, Barth, on the north, and Livingstone, 

 on the south. The author describes it as a beautiful and fertile region, 

 densely inhabited by a population devoted to agricultural pursuits, 

 who do not dwell on the lands they cultivate, but live clustered 

 together in villages and towns, some of which contain from 20,000 to 

 Y0,000 inhabitants. The people are generally of a primitive, simple 

 and harmless character, and governed by institutions patriarchal 

 rather than despotic. In their appearance they resemble the Cau- 

 casian race, while their mental powers and general moral impulses 

 are considerably advanced in the scale of intelligence. They have, 

 indeed, already attained no inconsiderable degree of social organiza- 

 tion, while they have escaped some of the more depraved incidents of 

 an advanced civilisation. 



The language, which is said to be spoken by about two millions of 

 people, is represented by Professor Turner to be very homogeneous in 

 its structure, almost all of it being derived from some five hundred 

 primitive words. u Its articulations are sufficiently easy to imitate, 

 and there is a system of vocalic concords recurring through the whole, 

 which, together with the multiplicity of vowels, renders it decidedly 

 euphonious. The great difficulty is found in the tones and accents, 

 which can be discriminated only by a good ear, and must be uttered 

 correctly to make the speaker intelligible. The Yoruba has neither 

 article nor adjective, properly so called, and it is almost wholly des- 

 titute of inflection. The verbal root remains unchanged through all 

 the accidents of person, mood, and tense, which are indicated by 

 separate pronouns and particles. The plurality of nouns is also indi- 

 cated by the aid of a plural pronoun. The numerals are based on the 

 decimal system, yet many of them are formed by subtraction instead 

 of addition or multiplication, as with us. Thus 15 is literally 10 -{- 5 ; 

 but 16 = 20 — 4, 17 = 20 — 3, &c. Although this language is spoken 

 by a rude people, it abounds in abstract terms, and the missionary 

 finds no difficulty in expressing in it the ideas he desires to com- 

 municate." 



