To Twentieth Century Urban Man Number Is a Tool, 8 Scale for Enumeration, a Gage for Measurement, a Code for Iden%Ification

To twentieth century urban man number is a tool, 8 scale for enumeration, a gage for measurement, a code for iden%ification. It ie a mathematical ab- etraction, an abstraction of order and quantity. It was not always eo. To nun-mathematical rnan numberrf is no abstraction for he does not necesearily diatinguish betweon number and that which fs numbered. Number cm be far more than a conventional aymbol; It can be rn entity with characteristics and propertiee of its Basjc to Pythagoras ' (582-500 B.C. ) philcsophy is the idea that numbers can be isofated and endowed with both biological and moral properties.2 For ByLhetgoras number was more than a symbol of quantity, more than a symbol of reality, it --w~s reality. Just ae other Greek philosophers had postulated fire, earth, and water as the element8 of exis- tence, Pythagoras idenllfied numbers ss the elements of reality. A less aetonishing and more recent case fox the non-mathematical significance of numbers was mdu by Carl ,lung (1875-1.961). This modern peychologist proposes that number is one of the fundamental categories of the human psyche, or - in hie terminology -- an archetype. Shortly before he died, he wrote,

The very numbers you use in counting are more than you take them to be. They are at the aame time mythological elements (for Pythagoras, they were divine) ; but you are certainly unaware of this when you use numbers far a practical purpose.3

But are numbers, In fact, anything more than codes for the man who uses them in calclLLators and computers? A street number, a Social Security code, a driver'e license are certainly in no way symbolic. me price on a pound of meat and the monthly telephone bill are codeft, nothing more. Yet, many an urban American avoirTrs the thirteenth fl.oor of hi^ apartment house. He at- tends church every seventh day and io recognized as an adult at twenty-one. Whether superstition, symbol, or ~impleconvention, certain numbers do play a decidedly important ro1.e irn his 1-lfe. Rrh~p~Jung over-stated the case by eiving numberrs archetypal significance; nevertheless he did point out an important fact: numbere used aon-mathematicaUy do foUw certain patterns of ueage. Freud was correct when he asserted that man uses numbers in a way which ha8 been strictly determined, more determined than might aeem possible. 4 Numbers are not ueed at random, but; according to a consistent, ascertainable pattern.

When euch a pattern appear8 among the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria, it is not because the Yoruba are unacquainted with the mathematical uses of numbers. Unlike many other African peoples, the Yoruba have long been an urban, mer- cantile nation; the city and mrtrk~tare centuries old inetitutions in Yoruba- . land. The demandis of trade and urban buxeaucracy long ago made numbere fami- liar tools of calculation. It ia m Inarult among ,the Yoruba of Abeokota to Bay, "0 daju danu, o ko mg essan mesaan [YOU don't know 9 x 91. "5 (Americans w set their standards of Ignorance much lower: "~ecan't put two and two together.") Moet Yorubars would probably sneer at Pythagoras hotion that numbers are divine.

Of courare %he Yoruba we of numbare ia not confined to tho market and the afin. The eame women who shrsdly bargain in the marketplace axe part of the community which tells and listens to traditional rtories, poeme, and songs. Number is an element, akthough not a predominant one, in thir lore. The quertions posed here are: How is number used in this tradition? Are rpecific numbers aseociated with particular genre8 or cantexCs? Do any numbers evince symbolic associations of any rort? And, parhaps most significantly, why are certain numbers wed consistently in the folklore in preference to otherr?

To attempt to anawer these quertions working only wia translated materials might seem romewhat spsciour. Numbers, however, pore far fewer problems of inaccurate or misleading translation than moat other elements of language. The words used for numbers arc most often unambiguous, single forme without synonyms or other linguistic asaociations. Although number-words probably owe their origin to some specific activity or object, these early associations near always drop away and numbers become isolated, easily identifi- able form63 Furthermore, number i18 a concept common to nearly every culture and, aa a result, parallel linguistic forms make number translation a relatively simple matter. Number, in short, is among the elements of language least likely to be distorted by tranalation.

Although individual Yoruba numbers have parallel forms in the European lan- guages, the traditional number ryrtem of the Yoruba is in some ways quite different from the European decimal eyetem. A survey of this traditional syatem ir prerequisite to understanding the ure of number in Yoruba society. It may well be that the structure of the number syatem affects, perhaps determines, the use of numbers in the lore.

It is difficult to diaeociate the European number nyotem from the written numerals which represent it. The Yoruba number r atem, on the other hand, posses~eano commonly accepted written ahorthand.7 Number is a verbal, not a written, form in West Africa. Merchandising, for example, is a verbal procesa, not a matter of ladgera and account booke. This is an important point of difference between the European and Yoruba systeme. The limits of mental calculation and verbal expreeaion impose certain conventions on the Yoruba system, conventions which will be deacribed below. Yet, the Yoruba eystem is by no means less complex than the decimal system. In fact, the Yoruba syetem is considerably more difficult to practically emplay than the re1ative.b nirnple European system.

Some anthropologiste assume that the Yorub number system, like nearly all known systems, began with digital counting8 ; man almost certainly began counting with hir fingers and tocde .\9 In the Yoruba system the bsaic numbers correspond to the finger8 the numbers one through ten. here is no mathematical concept of zsro.16) Theas numerals -- simple, unambiguous, and uncompounded forms -- are ten of the fourteen root numbers, or radical forms, from which all other numbere arc compounded. The number eleven, for example, in a compound form meaning one in addition to ten (1+10). The numbers eleven through fourteen are formed by adding the appropriate radical to ten. Fifteen through nineteen are formed not through addition, but subtraction. Fifteen, for example, is a compound meaning twenty minus five (20-5). Why the Yoruba emplay both addition and subtraction in these ele- mentary forms poaes an interesting problem. The numbers one through twenty could have bean counted simply enough on all the flngera and toes (as among the neighboring Vei). Why thie more complex system? Robert Armrtrong proposes an interesting hypothesis to answer this question: he euggesta that by using both addition and subtraction a man is able to count ten and its multiples on the fingers of one hand.?.= Ths accompanying drawings show how auch a counting opnvention might have worked. Uning the free hand to count off units of ten, a man might extend finger counting well beyond its apparent limits. Armstrong's proposal is, of course, only hypothetical, for Yoruba mathematical akill~long ago developed well beyond such basic counting.

Twenty, ogun (not to be confused with the oriaha bgh), is a most important root number, a radical basic to the form of most of the firat 200 numerale. Even multiples of twenty are formed aimply by multiplying ogun by another radical. Forty, for example, is 2 x 20. Other multiples of tan, not exact multiples of twenty, are formed by multiplication and subtraction. Fifty, for example, is a compound meaning (20 x 3)-10. he number thirty is an exception here; it is a radical form, although little used in compounds. ) Intermediate forme not multiples of ten are compounded according to the pattern of addition and eubtraction set by eleven through nineteen. This pattern of regular compounding is illuatrated below.

Thus, in contrast to tho European decimal system which forma compounds with addition and multiplication, the Yoruba eyatem cmpounde with addition, multiplication, and aubtraction. The result ia complex numeral form. Such a number system, although somewhat awkward with large numbera, would be more than satisfactory for a rural population with a barter economy. This system or one very sirnil-ar to it probably oufficed the Yoruba during their early history; but once the Yoruba nation adopted a currency as the means of exchange, this eystem proved inadaquate. Adopted by the Yoruba and some neighboring tribes, the cowry shell (cypraea moneta) was s true currency, portable, durable, and a universal medium of exchange among the Yoruba peoplea. Like all money, shell money demands quantification; to be ran effective money, the cowries had to be numbered, their value determined. The cowry count became so important that a special number form developed for just that purpose: bkan (I), for example, developed an alternate form, ookan (one cowry). Okbwo (okoC a string] owo[of cowriee] ),a number form re- presenting twenty cowrie8 eesme to indicate that c~wryshells were strung in groups of twenty. However, other sources (eources such as S. Johnson, the Yoruba historian) state that the 8hel.l~were strung in group6 of thirty- two, forty,12 sixty-six, or even 100.13 The number of cowries in theee initial groupbgs or strings Beeme, in short, to have been quite variable. Nonetheless, certain conventions of cowry usage did develop which suggested a way, using th baeic logic of the lower numerals, to expand the baeic number system.lt Unstrung covriea aeem to have been counted out in small groups of twenty or forty; when enough cowrie8 were thus counted, the small piles were puehed together into a heap of 200. From this convention a new root number was formed: igba (200) finds its origin in the word for "heap" or "pile. " With the exception of 400 (the largeet and laet radical form) , igba is the root form basic to moat numerale larger than 200 (as twenty is the radical basic to moat forms less than 200). Just as igba (which, although not a compound, might mathematically be considered 10 x 20) became an important root in higher compounds, so too doe6 10 x 200(2,000), ggb)wlb, become a base for compounde above 2,000. $gb)w6, however, is not a true radical; although a base for higher compounds, it is itself a compound. Continuing the pattern, 10 x 2,000 (20,000), becomes the base for even higher compounde. It war in this fashion that the basic counting aystem was expanded into a large, albeit complex, numerical system. This expansion was affected in no small way by the acceptance nnd use of catmy money. The basic units of the expanded number aystem correepond to the basic traditional units of cowry exchange: 200 cowriea are a "heap," a "head" of cowries numbers 2,000, a "bag" of cowries consists of ten heads, 20,000 cowries.

It was an important principle of carry exch e that prices asked and received be in conventionail unita or groups cowries were most con- veniently exchanged in simple strings, heads, or bags. Of course, carries were exchanged in Intermediate unite, but these too would be in common multiples and, therefore, easy to handle. 300 cowries, for example, might be an accleptable price; 562 cowries would not be a fair price. Aa great an improvement over barter as cowry currency was, it was nonetheless too bulky to be exchanged in other than conventional units.

It is difficult to eatimate the value or buying power of the cowry in traditional society- Not until British colonization in the nineteenth century do we have any notion of the exchange value of cowriee. In 1853 the exchange value (cowries to pounds) of one head of carrier was asti- mated at 46. ; ten yeus later fofgign importation of cowries had lowered the value of one head to 1s. 5d., Chly in the late nineteenth century was the exchange value of cowries etabili d, although at a greatly de- flated valyg : one bead was valued at 6defd (u. 8. dollar eguivslsnt, 1870- 1900, 12#. ), The convention that coxries be exchanged in traditional multiples or group5 affected their value; for example, although 300 cowries had a valw of ld., 500 cowries -- not 450 -- had the exchange value of 1&. (3#). These figure6 decidedly point out the meager Wue of small numbere of cowries; other records from the late nineteenth century support this obesrvation. In 1864 missionaries among the Yoruba negotiated an annual tuition of g& (eight bass; 160,000 cowries) for each child in the mirreion school.l9 An e~ulgeliatin Yorubaland of the 1800's was expected to plupport himself, hi8 wife, and as many as five children on a ralary of 236 (144 baga ) per year.20 It cost little to live in a Yoruba town, but any purchase would involve a considerable number of cawriee; cowries were doubtless exchanged in wry large numbers in the l~calmarket. A few strings ware of little value; ths wealthy man would ponsesa many, many bags of cmiea.

Early in the twentieth century British currency completely superaeded carry moneyq21 Ifa verses, however, still call for money aacrifica in quantitie6 of cowriee. Caversationsl3Ly, money is often referred to in oke (bag8 ), units of 58.22

The traditional number system of the Yoruba, in rhart, probably began with digital counting; the introduction of carny money forced the basic digital system to expand in order to accommodate the mathematiaal demand of mone- tary exchange. Although this expansion followed the basic logic of the luwer numerale, it was clearly affected by the conventions of cawry exchange. The fourteen radical forms (one through ten, twenty, thirty, 200, and 400) and the ccmjunctione of addition, subtraction, surd multiplication are the basis of all other numerals. Trsditiomlly, Yoruba numbers exirt only in verbal form; there ie no written "shor"l;heurrdW 'far Yorubar n~rmbars- 9ChQ number 330, fos sxarmpla, exist8 only as %ha verbal form brPn dh n4rbwb 616 dwu. Ccmwntionrslll psupbw~of cmisa do, howevtrr, provide a kind of ahorthnd for etandard mite ouch ar the haad (2,000). Numbass other than them conmntionaB, mite wa complex adperhagar difficult to form and me- Wherraj the 6uropesn deckd epylabrn iaa based upon unite of ten and the f'unctions of addition md muil.tiplicoltion, the Ywuba system is baaed upon units of both ten mA twenty, wet the functions of addition, multiplication, and s~btracdion~The raau3L.t ie a number 8y~temfa more complex than the decimal loyrrtetn. In one of the enrl.iest studies of the Yoruba number eyatem, Adolphus Wxsn draw an apt melolgy dtascriptiw of that syrtem:

We light, aa it were, on building, which, when viewed from baea to awiLp $B not behind om Europm systems in regularity and raymme.lry, while, the syr~tcameurpaases them in apLi%u.de of interlinking th@ sepm~temembers; it latande to them in ths same relation alrr the proiulaely omarnented Moosigh aey2.e steurrds to the more eobar Byzan- tine. 23

Only a few numbere, a small fraction of the entire numbar ~yatarn, are used in Ywuba traditional lore and belief. 8omo fow numbarls appear again and again, in poatay, in prose, in proverb; others appear seldom, if' ever. Numbers which appear no more than thrsa times in the translated corpus used here are not Included in the emybelow. The numbers one andl two have been excluded aa well; both we ba~$c,"natural" numbera easlential to simple description and the inoat balfiic kind of qwtification; their we as pattern numbers cannot validly be attributad to opc%ficculturtkZ valuee or patterns.

Carl Jung belicrtmd thak, four was mother nsuch "natwal" number- Pow, he points out, Ps on@ of man's ancient ~ymbola, a symbol probably as old as the Old S2ye Age;24 it is a aacml. number practically everywhere end in all 26 ager. It ~81- @ymProlL~&athe one-in-many, completenese, and harmony. Weeternera, far example, speak of four Reason$ and four evmgelirta. Peo- glee in many differant Wrte of the world de~lcribethe ~arthas having four corners. me Yoruba ~q.,''.T&m drin pli ai* nf" (The world hara four corners). From the four gateo of the! earth tradition ~aya,the gods and the apirite of good and evil apprmfh oao.2b The four-headed god, 0lhi ~erln, ia the diety of the worIdq~four corners; in olden times, four timea a year a four-day-old child w&a sacsifi~sdbefore hin four-headed imgee27 Four major orialha, on@ far each part of the atesth, are cloaely sseociatsd with the four parts of *,he, world. Qace day of me! traditkonaL four-day--weak ia dediaated to each of them four riah ha.^^

Although the trad1tiona.l. week conlsierta of' four days, the Yoruba traditionally count five days to the week. By counLing inclusively, that in, by counting both the first and last day, the: week ie counted five day8 long. his five-day week cmoiatir~gof four day8 was no end of confusion to the authors of the first book8 on the Ymuba. ) l3umt.l md periodic markets traditi0naU.y met, and atill me@t (according Lo the Western way of counting the week) at bCsnarala of four or rnuJtPpl~ls of four d~l;y~~.Although the reven-day week wae intz.oduced by European@ in %he! ].ate nineteenth century, a pebridlia wkei; of today might woU meet on ~onday/~riday/~uesda~r/$atur- dayletc 29 The traditional week ia ale0 a ritual period. Many diatiecr are worshiped ritually every four or eight days and have annual celebrationu lasting for four or eight d~e.3~For example, sacrifice is made to Olweri, a minor deity every eight da~s.3~Ijeba carvings are fed symbolically every four days .j2 Four ia clo~alys8sociatsd with ritual sacrifice. Ifa not infra- quently demanda sacrifice in quantities of four or its multiples, for ax- ample : "FOW rat8, four f iblh, and four mails. "33 !l%cl, afin at Owo has twelve courtyards set aaida ae ahrinee for ancestor %as; specific numbers of kola nute, all multiples of four, must be offered in these courtyards to commune with these anceetore.34

Just as the world has four gatea, 80 too doee the traditional Yoruba town conceptually have gates numbering four or ite multiples. Ibadan is re uted to have had sixteen gates; Abeokuta, tradition asya, had twelve gates.% (By way of cornpariaon, it is worth noting that imperia Rome me a city of four gates; esrcred Jerusalem, a city of twelve galew.3 2 )

Ojo observes that four uaa "the sacred Yoruba figure. "37 Four ia a number found in context6 -?hi& are nearly always religious; it b seldom found in folktales , proverbs, riadlea , or other "secular " f orma. Baacom, noting that the, Odu of Ifa number the orisha at 400, observes that "this is a uxya- tic number and can be taken only ae metuilng a great number. "38 400, although not a definitive numbering of the orisha, is a number associated with divinity. The structure of the number system does not deacribe 400 as a multiple of four, but the linguistic similarity of four (brin) and 400 (erinwo) is unmistakable.

Four fours, or sixteen, ia another particularly important number. Accord- ing to a creation story told at Ife Olodumare sent Oduduwa and sixteen assistant ch efs to form the earth;% thua, tradition says, Ife had sixteen loc 1 legenda tell of sixteen chiefa in Ibadan and sixteen chiefa in Ilagbplp.'l 8. Johnson remarked that the Ehiti tribal country was ruled by sixteen chiefs.42 Jung observed that "numbers not only serve our needs for everyday counting and measuring, but for centur es they have been our way of 'reading' many ancient forms of divination." h3 It is here that the number sixteen is moat important: it is the key fig e in forms of divination in Europe, Persia, India, Microne@ia, md Africa% It iis the essential figure for the aewral forms of divination ueed by the Yoruba: Islamic sand-cutting, agbigba (using four strings o four markers each), owo rnerindilogun (using sixteen cowries), and 1fa.$5 Tradition says that Ifa (Orunrails) sthered aixteen palm nuts from a aixtaen-branched palm tree an Ado rock.48 As his gift to man, Ifa taught him ow to divine with these sixteen nuts. Sixtea palm nuts are his symbol; h sixteen oil lamps burn during hie festival. BB the If8 syetem, the babalowa, using sixteen palm nutra (ikln) or eight half sheUe (ppplg), determines two columns of four markings each, columns which can be read as sixteen basic figures (Cdu) and 256 (16 x 16) derivative figmen. The figures of Ifa me thus based upon multlplea of four and sixteen. Although perhaps oversimplifying the complex Ifa aystem, Peter Morton Williams points out that:

Ifa symbolism ~howahow the paired di8tinctions can be matched and balanced to form patterna based on the sig of completion and perfection, that is, the number four. e9 Sixteen is associated with divinity and the occult as well as divination. Ijala chanters teU of "Full sixteen gods [who] successively implored me to be their c0ncubine."5~ Speaking of the head of the Egungun cult in Ogbin, tho hunters chant, "Pits and small enclosures,/~ixteen there were in the backyard of Ogbin./~n them all he engaged in occultist activitiecs. "51 It would be spurious to aasume that every pattern number found in the traditional. lore has symbolic asaociations. Some numbers may be no more than conventions of composition. Sixteen is part of what appears to be one of these purely conventional number patterns. The pattern, occasion- ally used, dividing sixteen objects into two parts of eight each is the eseential element in these verses from two oriki.

We dance to the sixteen drums that sound jingin, jfngin, To eight of the drums we dance bendi To eight of the drums we dance erect Sixteen wooden posts Their father Carved up and took to the Alaafin. Eight of them were csrved in the likeneers of royal wifes. 53 Eight of them were carved in the likeness of rqyal servants.... The number three is a primary symbol among initiates of the Ogboni cult. New in tiates wear a string of three cowries around their mint far three da~s.5~The Ogboni greet one another by bringing clenched fiats together three timee.55 When one o the Wboni dies, he is buried to drum8 rapeak- ing in patterns of thrse.5' The number three is the key to Qgbooi symbol- irm; the have a saying, "0gboni meji o di eta" (TWOOgboni, it becomes three).5v About the use of the number three, Peter Morton Williams writes: In the rest of Yoruba religion three is avoided; there is emphasis on dualism -- in, for example, the pairing of many of the gods -- and strese on the number four and its square, sixteen-...To offer three objects to a god in ritual or to a guest on secular occasions, is insulting and invites reprisal. 58

Mr. Williame, unfortunate;ly, oversimplifies the use of this number by the Yoruba. He contends that to offer three objects to a god is offenr~ive;yet, Ifa often cue for sacrifice in quantities of three, for example : '?Three pots, three h-8, and two pigeons. "59 Three appears in other religious contexts as well. At creation, one origin story Bays Olodumare sent three son8 -- Earth, fire, and Forest -- into the Traditional belief describ s the three souls in man: emi (breath), ojiji (shadow), and olori (head) .%lThus, although four and sixteen are the numbers moat frequently associated with religious concepts, three appears ocoasionally in myths and often in ritual sacrifice.

Yoruba folk tradition uses three moat often, however, in Ith, narratives. Common in the traditional talee are three sons, three brothers, three animals, or a period of three years. The rat, for example, ia said to have had -- elephant, buffalo, and ram -- each of whom fought the bird frogun.three a%s In the tale of the hunter and the fore t witch, the hunter ie sav- ed only becauae of the bravery of hia hree Ijala chants tell of the three birds which excell in 8 aa,tnes8,b and the three brothers who go to the king to settle their quarrel. 5 In the tale of The Twins, one of tho twins slays a six-headed monster and peacefully rules the kingdom for three years. 66 European folklorists have observed that the folk narratives of the Aryun and many other world cultures are subject to the "~awof" Three;" pattern in these narratives is nearly alw~ystied to the number three.that k? To place Yoruba ltb completely within this "~aw"would eeem to be an unwarranted generalization; nevertheless, three is a number distinctly associated with Yoruba narrative. On occaaion three ie associated with the number seven in Yoruba narrative tradition. For instance, the three quarr ing brothers are told the king will look to their problem in seven baye. % Seven is the number associated moet often with things of consequence, of importance. The king will solve the problem in seven day . The tadpole king, an animal tale saye, will be crowned in seven day~.~9The crossroad has always been an important place in Yoruba belief (supplicant8 are often directed to offer sacrifice at the croaaroade); a proverb speaks of "The croesroad with seven waye which confuses the stranger. "70 The plgfin of IFe is said to have had seven children, seven grandchildren, and seven great-grandohildren.71 According to one creation story, Oduduwa begat seven grandchildren, each of whom became a leader of one of the seven principle tribes of the ~oruba.7~ If the annual dry season was excessively long and drought threatened, pro- fesaional rain-makers (often gung gun) were aummoned and given seven daya in which to make rain. If afier seven days they had failed, ca atate of emergency was declared and the Orb cult called in.73 The annual Orb festival, incidentally, lasted seven days.74 According to one Yaruba tale, Oduduwa and Orishala agreed to stop the war between the gods on the condi- tion that they should have human sacrifice every seven months.75 Until recently, htunan sac ifice uaa offered under the seven-branched palm tree at Aiyetoro-Ekiti.Tg Seven is thus often ssaociatcd with sacrifice and, to a lesser degree, with divinity. Yet, it la a number seldom found in Ifa verses. In contrast, six ia used again and again in Ifa; Ifa often demands sacrifice in quantities of eix, for example:

Six of everything muat be sacrificed: six bunches of dried ratn, six bunches of dried fish, six cloths, six bag8 of money, nix ewes -- abx of everything -- and six drums.

In contexts other than Ifa, the number nix is most often associated with domestic situations or the details of domestic life. Olusegbe was a great general, later king, with six wives.78 Oluaqndeki '8 father had six wives, all of whom became pregnant.79 The faithful wife will make her husbaa six loaves of pounded yam, enough for the family and possible guests. A proverb says, ''What woman if we gave her twelve (2 x 6) yams, would not pound a few yarns for us?"bl Another proverb advises, "A man has been beat- en six times and is advised to be patient. What else is there for him to do?"& The traditional game called Ayo is a game for two played on a board with six cavities (and, incidentally, with four nuts in each cavity).@

As noted earl.ier, in some parts of Yorubaland cowries were strung in groups of twenty. These atrings of cowries are not infrequently part of a ritual sacrifice called for by Ifa; one such sacrifi calls for 400 plus twenty cuwrisr, another for 600 plus twenty cowriea.6c Beacom point8 out that by calling for a sacrifice of twenty cawriee (okowo in a verae involving a farm (oko), Ifa invokes a pattern of word magic. 45 Twenty cowries, nonet!~blese, ie a meager sum. The three following proverbs imply that okowo is but a pittance:

Brhape we shall meet again, said he who sold his dog for twenty cowriea. One who drinks to the value of forty cowriea will speak to the value of twenty cowries.

A reviler has no twenty cowries as hi^ capital at home beyond his mouth.

Only rz fool thinks twenty cowries are of great value. A few cmiee are of such little value that an Ifa verse s ar it ir aL1 too easy to forget about twenty, thirty, or even forty cowries37 A funeral song from Eds bemoans the poverty of the dead b saying that they have not even forty cowries with which to buy common salt. 88

Although twenty cowries is a small sum, twenty years, Yoruba tradition says, is a lon time. "~ieatravel for twenty years and never arrive, " aays one proverb.$ Another rsays, "hrsnty children will not play together for twenty years. "90

Excluding okowo, twenty is often associated with wealth and pawer. An Ijala chant in praise of the buffalo warns that ?Even the man who owns twenty horses" dare not pursue the mighty buffalo.91 The phrase "Twenty slavers and thirty iwofa [indentured servants]" is a conventional phrase used to signify wealth and prosperity. This pattern is common to several genres of Yoruba folklore .

The owner of twenty laves is sacrificing So that Eshu may not confuse him. Ihc owner of thirty iwofu. is sacrifici~ig So th'it Lshu I,~nyr~ot conf'us~ hirn.

Beautiful antelope with the slender neck. Your thighs are worth twenty slaves. Your arms are more precioua than thirty servants.

b) Iwi:

We may have tbenty elaves, We ! q,r have thirty laborers, Only a child bring0 us joy, One '8 child is one 's child.

c) Proverb:

If a man haa twenty alavea, if a man has thirty iwofa, his child is always his child. d) Marriage song:

I must go now. Let the new house auit me. Let me have twenty slaw8 Let me have thirty iw0fa.k This number pattern is almost certainly not symbolic. It ie, however, a pattern which the traditional number system, by its very ccmstruc- tion, encourages. Betwean ten and 200, twenty and thirty are the sole radical forme; as much they stand dietinctly apart from the great many compound numbers. The series twenty- thirty (ogun-ggbgn ) is also an alliterative one, easily used to advantage in poetry and song. These are probably the primary reaeons this particular number pattern has becane traditional.

Like the other radical forms, 200 is also a pattern number. Baseom quite aacurately identifies it as "a ritual number signifying only a very large number. ''93 For example, an oriki in praise of the Ogoga of Skene sa 8, "200 needles do not equal a hoe, and 200 stars do not make a man. "9t ("200 needlee, " incidentally, is itself a conventional ex- pression.) A proverb warna, "~ewho throws stones at 200 hens will throw stones until darkness falle."95 "~ye8" s the oolution to the riddle, "TWOtiny bird8 jump aver 200 trees. "9& A man of great genero- sity is he who "lavishly gives away 200 yam tubers dug out from his farm."97 The main courtyard or public meeting place of the afin of Ado-Ekiti is called 1gbhgt8 ("a place where 200 people can spread 0ut").9~ Yoruba hunters have iven the much honored dui'rer the appellation Laagbe ( "honor 200-f old " ) .94 As the number 200 indicates large quantity, multiples of 200 are used in the same way to indicate very large quantities. For instance, fn a magic contest among three magicians (association of three with the occult) before the Uaafin af 9y9, the first magician cauees 200 needlea to magically appear, the second produces 200 baby animals, but the third is the undisputed master magician when he produces 800 children.lO0 Tradition tells of a man who plans to keep death from his door by post- ing 800 strong men to guard the road.lol

As noted earlier, the Ifa vei-ses collected by Bascom number the orisha at 400. Other sources, however, count 201 or 401 gods .lo2 One origin story tells of the war between the gods, a war which lasted 201 yearc.103 On the basis of the preceding observations, 201 and 401 would aeem to be used as numbers indicating 'more than a great many.'

165 is a pattern number which can be accounted for by neither the structure of the number system nor ancient symbolic associationa. Whatever its origin, Yoruba folklore traditionally numbers the ararities of things at 165. There are, tradition says, 165 kind8 of trees, 165 kinds of animals, 165 kinds of leaves, 165 kinds of cloths.lo4 While 200 indicates merely great number, 165 is used as the specific enumeration of certain classes of things. It is used far less frequently than 200 and is found most often in the Odu of Ifa.

Some of the observations above are supported by the traditional use of the pattern number 1400, n compound of the radicals 7 x 200. Seven is associated with matters of consequence and 200 with great number; their compound, 1400, indicates ver great number. Ogun is said to have had 400 wives and 1400 childred5 The oba of a maintained, it is said, 1400 k6s6 drummers and 1400 bkmbC drummers.l "A path" is the answer to the riddle which asks, "Which is the long coffin that can accommodate 1400 corpses?"107 According to a proverb, "Quantity has nothi with juju; battle kills the man with 1400 medicine calabashes. ToQOdo Cowries, it is important to note, are not counted according to these pattern numbers. While twenty cowries are a pittance, twenty children are a great wealth; 200 cowries are a small sum, but 2W egungun is a multitude; a sacrifice of 1800 carries is no greater than one of 200 needles. Carries, in short, are counted by cash value, not traditional number aeaociations. Because of the meager value of small numbers of cowries, they are nearly always counted in hundreds and thousands. Most numbers above 1400 in the tradition are cowry counts. These large numbers are, of course, consistent with the conventions of carry exchange; they invariably me multiples of strings, heaps, heads, and bags.

The survey above does not include every number found in Yoruba tradition. One folktale, for instance, tells of a great hunter who killed an animal with 152 tails. However, there are but a few of these 'irregular' numbers and they appear seldom in the tradition. Every number, with the exception of one and two, which appeared more than three times in the translated corpue used here, is surveyed above. These pattern numbers are used again and again in the tradition, and, more importantly, have specific connotatic~nsand asr3ociationer.

A. The number four has ancient eymbolic asaociations: in ancient times it was cloaely associated with divinity and the idea of conpleteneas and perfection. The Yoruba of today probably do not use four symbolically, but its association with divinity 3.6 firmly established in the tradition.

B. Four, its square, sixteen, and the square of sixteen, 256, are key numbers in the Ifa system of divination. The associations here are an extension of the ancient symbolism of four. Thus eixteen is most often associated with divination and the occult. Sixteen and 256, it is worth noting, are two of the very few pattern numbers which are not radical forms.

C. The number three has some ritual associations. It is a key symbol in the Ogboni cult. Ifa often calls for sacrifice in quantities of three. Three appears most often, however, in narrative: the narratives ten of heroeo with three tasks, huntera with three dogs, farmers with three sons.

D. Three is the initial part of a three-seven sequence which appears intermittently in folk narrative. In both narrative and poetry, the use of seven indicates that matters of importance, of consequence, me at hand. Seven ie also aseociated with sacrifice.

. Like seven, six is a number of ritual sacrifice. Ju~tas Ifa often calls for sacrifice in threes, it alao calls for eacrifice in a pair of threee, six. In nm-ritual contexts six ia most often associated with domestic nituations.

F. Twenty and the higher nzunerals are essentially numbers of quantity in the traditional lore. A long period of time is indicated by twenty yeare. Wealth is indicated by ownership of valuables in quantitits~rof twenty. "~wentyslaves and thirty iwofa" is a pattern found frequently in the lore indicating prosperity an3 wealth. G. The radical 200 indicates great number, a ~nultitude. 800, four 200ts, is often used to indicate very great number. These associations do not, of course, apply when counting cowries.

H. Tradition has it that there are 165 varieties of certain things, 165 kinds of trees, for example.

I. A royal multitude is indicated by the number 1400. There are no other true pattern numbers in the higher numerals. Any higher numbers found in Yoruba tradition are consistent with the conventions of cowry exchange.

There are exceptions to even these broad generalizations; but, as a general rule, these patterns and associations are an accurate reflection of the use of numbers in Yoruba tradition.

These numbers have become pattern numbers for a variety of reasons. Numbers such as four and sixteen originally had symbolic associations. Other numerals such as twenty and 200 were conventional cowry units and, more importantly, radical forms. A radical form 18, quite simply, much eaaier to use than a complex compound one. Yet, a compound such as 165 has become a pattern number; why this particular compound has become a pattern number remains a mystery.

Whatever their origin, these numbers are used consistently in Yoruba tradition. This tradition, it is important to note, places no greater emphasis on numbers than any other. In fact, numbers appear in only a small fraction of the collected Yoruba lore. In Delano's published collection of 504 proverbs, for example, only nineteen, or fewer than four per cent, include numbers. This figure seerns to be a fairly accurate indication of the use of numberr in Yor- uba folklore. Nonetheless, when numbers are used, they are not selected at random. There is a pattern in both their usage and the contexts in which specific numbers appear. These numbers may have no symbolic meaning for the modern Yoruba, but they are part of a traditional pattern which is still quite vibrant.

NOTES

1. W. Guthrie, -The Greek Philo~ophers(~ew York, 19-50), p. 215.

2. GO Parker, A Short Account of Greek Philosophy (~ewYork, 1967), p. 27. 3. Carl Jung, ed., Man and His Symbols (~ewYork, 1968), p. 26. 4. Sigmund Freud, The Psychopatholo~yof Everyday Life- ondo don, 1960), p. 240.

5. Edward Tylor, Primitive Culture ondon don, lifll), pp. 219-220.

7. Sources for this survey of the number system include: Robert Armstrong, Yoruba Numerals (Ibadan, 1962); Issac Delano, A Modern Yoruba Grammar I~ondon,1965 ) ; E. Issebikan, Learning Yoruba-- -on, 1958) ; Adolphus Mann. "NO~~Son the Numeral Svstern of the Yoruba Nations." Journal of the Anthropolcigicnl ~nstitute"of Great Britain and 1relGd i-7), 9-64; p. Cgunbownle, The Essentials of ale Yoruba me ondo don, 8. Armstrong, Yoruba Numerals, p. 5.

9. Tylor, Primitive Culture, p. 246.

10. Armstrong, Yoruba Numerals, p. 6.

11. -Ibid.

12. Tylor, Primitive Culture, p. 232.

13. Samuel Johnson, The Hiotory of the Yorubas ondo don, 1921), p. 125.

14. Armstrong, Yoruba Numerals, p. 5.

150 Mann, "Notes on the Numeral System," p. 62.

16. Williarn R. Bascorn, Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa- -(13100mington, Indiana, 1.969), p. 64.

17. Armstrong, Yoruba Kutnerals, p. 20; Lasebikan, Learning Yoruba, p. 68; Delano, --Yoruba Grammar, p. 135; Oc:unbownle, Yoruba Langua(:e, p. ll7.

10. 1<. Bidwell, Currency Conversion--- 'I'ableo (~oridun,l'j70), pp. 1, 164.

1 J. Ajayi, Chri~tisnMissions in Nigeria, 1&l-1891 ondo don, 1965), p. 220. 20. .Ibid , p. 222. 21. Lasebikan, ],earnin(; Yoruba,-- 1,. 69. 22. -Ibid.

23. Mann, "~otc-son the Nurnercil System, " p. 62.

211. J. Jolande, ~orn~lex/~rchet~/~~mbol(New York, 1959), p. 166.

25. Jung, Man and His Symbols, p. 57.

26. Ibid., p. 353.

27. G. F. Afolabi Ojo, Yoruba Culture: A Geographical Analysis ondo don, 1966), 11. 200.

20. rbid. 7 29. B. Hodder, "~uralPeriodic Day Marketa in Parts of Yorubaland," -Trans- actions and Papr~~Institute-of British Geographers (1961), p. 152.

30. OJo, Yoruba Culture, p. 185.

31. Anon., "~orneYoruba Customs: 111," The Nigerian Field 14 (1943), 35.

32. UUi H. Beier, Yoruba Po@% (~a~oa,1953), p- 539

33. uascom, Ifa Divination, p. 231.

34. G. J. Afolabi Ojo, -Yoruba Palaces ondo don, 1966), p. 77. Ojo, Yoruba Culture, p. 141.

J'ung, -Man and His Symbols, p. 272. Ojo, Yoruba Culture, p. 204,

Bascorn, Ifa Divizi~,p. 103.

Ojo, Yoruba Culture, p. 134.

Hascorn, -Ifa Divination, p. 409.

z* A* Babalola~The Content and ~O~m-of Yoruba Ijala b ond don, 1366), pp. 174, 190.

Johnson, History of the Yorubas, p. 23.

Jung, Man and @s Symb*, pp. 385-385.

Bascorn, ---.-Ifa Divination, pp. 74, 10. -Ibid., pp. 6-8, 10. Ojo, Yoruba Culture-, pp. 166, 180.

Bascorn, Ifa Divination, p. 26.

Beier, Yoruba Poetry, p. 25.

Peter Morton-Williams, "The Yoruba Ogboni Cult in Oyo," Africa 30 ( 1960) , 372

Babalola, Yoruba Ijala, p. 200. -Ibid., p. 162. Beier, Yoruba Poetry, p. 14.

Babalola, Yoruba Ijala, p. 200.

Morton-Williams, "Ogboni Cult," p. 368.

-Ibid. -Ibid*, pp* 372-373.

'Ibid 9 p. 372. Bascom, Ifa Divination, p. 123.

John Wyndham, Myths of Ife ondo don, 192~)~p. 27.

Bascom, Ifa Divination, p. 114.

John Parkinson, Folklore, " Journal of the Royal African Society 8 (l909), ~67. Baacorn, Ifa Divination, p. 417.

Babalola, Yoruba Ijala, p. 340. -Ibid., p. 158. Abayomi Fujti, Fourteen Hundred Cowries ondo don, 1962), pp. 53, 57.

Axel Olrik, pic Laws of Folk Narrative," in The Study of Folklore, ed. Alan Dundes (~nglewoodCliffs, New Jersey, 1965), pp. 133-134.

Habalola, Yoruba Ijala, p. 138.

Fuja, Fourteen Hundred Cowries, p. 17.

Issac 0. Delano, Owe ~'esinoro. Yoruba Proverbs ondo don, 1966), p. 76. Johnson, Hintory of the Yorubas, p. 23.

*Ibid 3 p. 15.

Ojo, Yoruba Culture, pp. 214-216.

Johnson, History of the Yorubas, p. 32.

Wyndharn, Myths of Ife, p. 56.

Ojo, Yoruba Culture, p. 166.

Bascom, Ifa Divination, p. 267.

Fuja, Fourteen Hundred Cowries, p. 150.

Babalolts, Yoruba Ijala, p. 1148.

Bascom, Ifa Divination, p. 149.

Delano, Yoruba Grammar, p. 49.

Beier, Yoruba Poetrx, p. 60.

Delano, Yoruba Grammar, p. 131.

For example: Bascom, Ifa Divination, no. 3-4, no. 4-1, no. 6-1.

Delano, Yoruba Grammar, pp. 62, 147, 151.

Rascom, Ifa Divination, p. 143.

Beier, Yoruba Poetry, p. 51.

Delano, Yoruba Grammar, p. 146.

Deier, Yoruba Poetrx, p. 36. -Ibid- , PP* 15, 33, 40, 51; Delano, Yoruba Grammar, p. 56. William R. Bascorn, "~iteraryStyle in Yoruba Riddles, " -JAF 62 (1949), 4.

Ulli He Beier, "~orubaVocal Music, " African Music 1 (1956), 25. Delano, Yoruba Grammar, p. 8.

Beier, Yoruba Poetry, p. 58.

Babalola, Yoruba Ijala, p. 190.

Ojo, Yoruba Falaces, p. 44.

Babalola, Yoruba Ijala, p. 90.

Ibid p. * ) 34. Baecom, Ifa Divination,' p. 321.

030, Yoruba Culture, p. 184.

Wyndham, PQrths of Ife, p. 55.

Bascom, Ifa Divination, p. 239.

Beier, Yoruba Poetry, p. 21.

Babalola, Yoruba IJala, p. 37.

030, Yoruba Culture, p. 227.

Delano, Yoruba Grammar, p. 83.