^{page 408 note 1} Bascom, William, ‘Odu Ifa: The Order of the Figures of Ifa’, Bulletin de l'Institut Français d' Afrique Noire, xxiii. ¾ (1961), 676–82Google Scholar. See this paper for bibliography of sources not cited in the footnotes here; the present paper was delivered at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association at Detroit in November 1964.

^{page 408 note 2} Parrinder, Geoffrey, West African Religion, London: The Epworth Press, 2nd ed., 1961, p. 141.Google Scholar

^{page 408 note 3} Fẹla Şowande, Ifa, Yaba: Forward Press, n.d. (c. 1964), pp. 38, 38b.

^{page 408 note 4} Bastide, Roger, ‘Le Candomblé de Bahia (Rite Nagô)’, Le Monde d'Outre-Mer Vassé et Présent, Première Série: Étude v, 1958, p. 105Google Scholar. The question of errors is discussed later.

^{page 408 note 5} Maupoil, Bernard, ‘La Géomancie à l'ancienne Côte des Esclaves’, Travaux et Mémoires de l'Institut L'Ethnologie, vol. xlii, 1943, p. 217.Google Scholar

^{page 408 note 6} Marti, Montserrat Palau, ‘Les calendriers dahoméens’, Objets et Mondes, iv. 1 (1964), fig. 3, p. 34Google Scholar.

^{page 409 note 1} Clarke, J. D., ‘Ifa Divination’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, lxix, part 2 (1939), p. 256Google Scholar.

^{page 409 note 2} Alapini, Julien, Les Noix Sacrées, Monte-Carlo: Regain, 1950, pp. 68–69, 81–82.Google Scholar

^{page 409 note 3} Fiawoo, Dzigbodi Kodzo, The Influence of Contemporary Social Changes on the Magico-Religious Concepts and Organization of the Southern Ewe-Speaking People of Ghana. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 1958, p. 69.Google Scholar

^{page 409 note 4} Parrinder, , West African Religion, London: The Epworth Press, 1st ed., 1949, p. 155Google Scholar; Religion in an African City, London: Oxford University Press, 1953, pp. 34–35.Google Scholar

^{page 409 note 5} Armstrong, Robert G., ‘The Use of Linguistic and Ethnographic Data in the Study of Idoma and Yoruba History’ in The Historian in Tropical Africa (Vansina, J., Mauny, R., Thomas, L. V., eds.), London: Oxford University Press, 1964, pp. 137, 139.Google Scholar

^{page 409 note 6} Robert G. Armstrong, personal communication.

^{page 409 note 7} Mockler-Ferryman, A. F., Up the Niger, London: George Philip & Son, 1892, p. 45Google Scholar; Seton, R. Sidney, ‘Notes on the Igala Tribe, Northern Nigeria’, Journal of the African Society, xxix (1929–30), 43.Google Scholar

^{page 409 note 8} Bradbury, R. E., The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria, Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Western Africa, part 13, 1956, p. 59.Google Scholar

^{page 409 note 9} Talbot, P. Amaury, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, London: Oxford University Press, 1926, vol. ii, pp. 187–8Google Scholar; Meek, C. K., Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe, London: Oxford University Press, 1937, p. 82.Google Scholar

^{page 410 note 1} J. S. Boston, personal communication.

^{page 410 note 2} Beyioku, Fagbenro, Ifa, Lagos: The Hope Rising Press, 1940, pp. 34–35.Google Scholar

^{page 410 note 3} Clarke, op. cit. (Isapa column), p. 252.

^{page 410 note 4} Ogunbiyi, Thos. A. J., Iwe Itan Ifa, Agbigba, ʼYanrin Titẹ ati Owo Ẹrindilogun, Lagos: Ifẹ-Olu Printing Works, 1952, pp. 49Google Scholar, 50, 55.

^{page 411 note 1} Lijadu, E. M., Ifa: Imqlẹ Rẹ ti Işe Ipilẹ Isin ni Iiẹ Yoruba, Exeter: James Townsend & Sons, 1923, pages cited in parentheses above.Google Scholar

^{page 413 note 1} A. O. Ọşiga, Iwe Adura Mimọ ti Ijọ Ọrunmila Adulawọ li Ede Ilẹ Yoruba, n.d., 3rd ed., pp. i, ii, (at end).

^{page 414 note 1} Ọşiga, loc. cit.

^{page 417 note 1} Ọşiga, op. cit., p. i.

^{page 418 note 1} Ọşiga, op. cit., p. i.

^{page 420 note 1} Shelton, Austin J., ‘The Meaning and Method of Afa Divination among the Northern Nsukka Ibo’, American Anthropologist, lxvii. 6 (1965), 1441–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Despite the author's statement that he is an initiated afa-caster, I seriously question his description of the method. He regards the names of the figures as a secret language giving the meaning of the divination, and he reads the strings from left to right, and only from left to right. According to my informants on Agbigba, the columns are read from right to left and then read upside down from left to right; then the rows are read from top to bottom starting at the left side and then from bottom to top starting at the right. Thus the figures for Shelton's Cast no. 1 would read: 1. OOOX, 2. XOXO, 3. XOOX, 4. OOOO, 5. OOOO, 6. XOOX, 7. OXOX, 8. XOOO, 9. OXXO, 10. OOOO, 11. OOXO, 12. OXOX, 15. XOXO, 14. OXOO, 15. OOOO, 16. OXXO.

^{page 422 note 1} A nut concave side up is equivalent to 1 mark on the Ifa board, that is, the result of the retention of 2 palm nuts in the left hand.

^{page 422 note 2} See Nigerian Studies, 1910.

^{page 422 note 3} See ‘Ifa Divination’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Inst. lxix (1939), 235–56.Google Scholar

^{page 423 note 1} For instance: Yoruba Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of W. Africa, A. D. Ellis, 1894; Nigerian Studies, R. F. Dennett, S.P.C.K., 1910; The History of the Yorubas, Johnson, S., Routledge, 1921Google Scholar; Faith, Fancies and Fetish, Farrow, S., S.P.C.K., 1926Google Scholar; ‘Ifa Divination’, Bascom, W., Man, 1942Google Scholar; The Religion of the Yorubas, Lucas, J. Olumide, C.M.S., 1948Google Scholar; West African Religion, G. Parrinder, 1961.

^{page 423 note 2} For the consideration of the derivations of Olodumare, see Olodumarè: God in Yortiba Belief, B. Idowu, 1962.

^{page 424 note 1} Surprisingly, Old Ọyọ is not included. According to Johnson (1921), Ifa had been brought to the town by Arugba Ifa, a Nupe woman, when she married Onigbogi's father. She was forbidden to practise it. On the death of her husband she went to ọta and became the head of a powerful witches' cult. Ifa was accepted in the town during the reign of Alafin Ofinran, who, troubled by disasters including a great fire and an epidemic of smallpox, consulted Ifa through the Alado of Ado, a famous Babalawo. He was told that misfortune would continue till he accepted Ifa. He and his Chiefs were initiated.

^{page 424 note 2} Good accounts are given by W. R. Bascom, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Inst., 1941, ‘The Sanctions of Ifa Divination’ and T. A. J. Ogunbiyi, Yoruba Oracles and their Modes of Divination.

^{page 426 note 1} See p. 422, above.

^{page 426 note 2} J. D. Clarke and others; see note 1 on p. 424, above.

^{page 426 note 3} There were three ranks: 1. Olori—who could worship but not divine; 2. Oşria—who could worship and divine but not eat the sacrifices; 3. Awọn-a-tẹ ni fa—a fully trained Babalawo.

^{page 427 note 1} The case of the moving of the town of Iwo is legendary. The first site was at the confluence of the rivers ọba and ọshun. The town used to be flooded badly in the rainy season. A prolonged consultation with Babalawo is said to have taken place and the Chiefs were advised to move it. They did so and settled about two miles to the south of the present town. During the tribal wars of the nineteenth century, their army was in the field and did not return. Unprotected and in an exposed position, they consulted Ifa again about moving to a place more easily defensible. After twenty castings, on the advice of the Ifa priests, they moved to the site of the present town which is on a low plateau of rock surrounded by thick bush.