The Ethnology of Yoruba and Benin.

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ANYTHING which Mr. Dennett writes in connection with the Black man is bound to be of interest and importance to ethnologists; for even if they disagree with his ultimate theories and deductions they are ready to acknowledge the truth, and often the novelty, of the facts and observations he places on record. In many respects the book under review, which deals mainly with the Yoruba people of the western part of southern Nigeria, is superior to any he has as yet written, in that it contains more undoubted facts and accurate observations than deductions which set one's teeth on edge (as in “At the Back of the Black Man's Mind ”), because they are based on insufficient evidence or lack of comparative study of other African races or languages. In fact, it may be said at once without too many qualifications that this work of Mr. Dennett on the Yoruba people is a remarkable book of permanent value to the ethnologist and to the student of Africa. It is, indeed, a special insight into the religious ideas of this highly developed negro people, from whom undoubtedly sprang the closely related art and civilisation of Benin, and most of the religious ideas to be found throughout southern Nigeria from Dahome to the Camerooijs.