Miss Werner says I cannot have the word for "four" written both ways (ia and ya).[1] I assure you I might have it written at least four ways, ya, na, ia, or ba; custom has, however, restricted us to three, viz., ia, ya, na. The Rev. P. Alex. Vissey in his dictionary writes the sound ia, while Bentley writes it ya. But why is Miss Werner so cruel in trying to deprive me of this slight variation, when in her next paragraph she claims that the words Nzambi and Nyambi (both Xivili) have ("pace Mr. Dennett") the same force? and this in spite of my having shown that Nyambi is the nephew of Bunzi, while the word Nzambi is used in our sense of the word "God" (a Trinity). By this I do not wish to infer that Nyambi is not used by the Duala and other tribes for our word God, but that among the Bavili, the people about whom the book is written, it is not. It is merely one of Nzambi's attributes.
Ipon ri iku o feribo o, or "the spoon is not afraid of hot water," as the Yorubas say, and while I am not particularly sensitive to destructive criticism (it is so easy), I feel, that for a review in a journal restricted to folk-lore, very little has been said of the book from a folk-lore point of view. I am, however, somewhat consoled by the fact that Miss Werner closes her not too accurate criticism by informing us that she purposes making a comparative study of the folk-tale on page 230 of my book. I am sure that anything Miss Werner writes on this subject will be most welcome to all those of us who take an interest in folk-lore.
[We have inserted Mr. Dennett's letter, but at the same time we strongly deprecate the practice (we fear we must say the growing practice) of complaining of criticism. A man who is not prepared to face criticism had better not publish a book. We commend to Mr. Dennett and to others in like case the example of one of our most eminent and most criticised folk-
- ↑ [See ante, p. 238. Mr. Dennett has misunderstood Miss Werner. Her contention is, that if the syllable ya in Nyambi means four, it cannot at the same time be ia=to be.—Ed.]
