INTRODUCTORY.

100,000—a manifest exaggeration, as horses have never been numerous in the few districts of West Africa where it is possible for them to live. The report regarding the number of cavalry reached the traders through the coast tribes, who owned no horses and were no doubt greatly impressed by the spectacle of a few score of mounted men. According to tradition, the method of determining the number of men required for a military expedition was as follows: An ox-hide was pegged down in front of the general's tent, and the horsemen were made to ride over it in succession between two spears. When a hole had been worn in the hide by this process, the number of men was considered sufficient for an ordinary campaign. For serious operations, two ox-hides were used, one placed over the other.

Although, as we know from Dalzel’s History, Oyo, or Yoruba, was a powerful kingdom at least as early as 1724, Yoruba traditional history carries us back no further than the end of the eighteenth century—a fact which shows what little reliance can be placed upon the traditions of nations unacquainted with the art of writing. The first king of whom the arokin arokin: oral historians or chroniclers have any knowledge is Ajagbo, who appears to have reigned soon after 1780. His name is preserved in the metrical sentence that fixes the rhythm of the ogidigbo drum: Gbo, Ajagbo, gbo oba gbo, ki emi, ki osi gbo. “Grow old, Ajagbo, grow old king, grow old, may I also grow old.” Each drum has its own measure or rhythm, which is proper to it, and, in order to preserve this rhythm, sentences are invented to call it to mind. In this case the rhythm is: