Ewé Òsànyìn of Bahia

Two hundred and fifty-eight leaves of the jêje-nagô houses of Bahia — the third great branch of the ewé tradition in the Americas, and the one least often set down in English.

Every leaf carries an owner orixá, an element — Ar, Água, Fogo, Terra — and a gender; and independently a temperature, gún or èrò, hot or cooling. They do not track one another, and that independence is what lets a house assemble a balanced work from unbalanced parts.

The book opens with the eight fixed leaves of the house, planted when the axé is first implanted: four masculine and four feminine, four gún and four èrò. Illustrated throughout. Readings that could not be established are marked Unknown.