AUTHOR'S PREFACE

Summary

What led to this production was not a burning desire of the author to appear in print—as all who are well acquainted with him will readily admit—but a purely patriotic motive, that the history of our fatherland might not be lost in oblivion, especially as our old sires are fast dying out.

Educated natives of Yoruba are well acquainted with the history of England and with that of Rome and Greece, but of the history of their own country they know nothing whatever! This reproach it is one of the author's objects to remove.

Whilst the author could claim to be a pioneer in an untrodden field, he can by no means pretend to have exhausted the subject; but he hopes by this to stimulate among his more favoured brethren the spirit of patriotism and enquiry into the histories of the less known parts of the country. It may be that oral records are preserved in them which are handed down from father to son, as in the case of the better known Royal bards in the Metropolis, such records though imperfect should surely not be under-rated.

In the perusal of this feeble attempt, the author craves the forbearance of his readers; he deprecates the spirit of tribal feelings and petty jealousies now rife among us.