The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-04-09
MARCH GU THE ANAZONS.
The King Of Dalsmey's Female Army
Ready for the French.
THESE WOMEN WARRIORS ARE NO
MEAN FOES.

A Travellers Story of an Exhibition of
Have Mustered Six Thousand Strong
French Law Makers Discussing the
Granting of Money to Garry on the
War.
PARIS, April THE Chamber of Dep
uties last evening discussed the credit
for sending reinforcements to Dahomey.
M.Lamezelle, of the Right, suggested that
operations be undertaken sufficient to
punish the Dahomeyans severely. NJ.
De Cassagnac accused the government of
concealing the real state of the affair.
M. Poudet declared that the sole object
of the credit was the retention of the
present possessions. The debate was ad-
jurned.
The latest advices from West Africa
say that before advancing upon Porto
Novo, the Dahomeyan king, Behanzin,
recruited the Amazons to nearly double
the usual number; and that all Dahomey
is filed with lamentations of parents
and husbands whose daughters and
wives have been torn away from them by
the king Before leaving Abomey to adj
vance against the French, Behanzin per-
petrated an extraordinary number of hui
man sacrifices and, it is reported prom
ised his subjects that there would be
some white victims on the next occasion
Behanzin is utterly carried away with an
idea of his power and the prowess Of
his Amazons, and undoubtedly believes
hot Io dr.;1- ha iDtn
If the King of Dahomey has doubled
his force of Amazons, he has now about
5000 of these soldiers. The female war
riors are an old feature of Dahomey's ar
my. The first corps was raised about
1929, when a body of women who had
been armed and supplied with banners,
| merely as a stratagem to make the at
tacking force appear larger, behaved
with such unexpected gallantry as to
lead to the forming of permanent regi-
ment OF women. They are kept un-
der the most rigid discipline, and the
| aim is to make them positively fearless.
The statement that some OF them were
shot for cowar(lice after the war with
France, in 1890, shows that warriors
| full duty is required of them.
Mr. BoFghero, one of the few white
visitors to the capital, Abomey, tells of a
sham fight which proves that man@uvres
of this sort in Dahomey are not the
playful affairs that they are in civilized
! countries.
!, In space used as a drill ground there
! had been raised a bank formed of
bundles of thorny cactus bushes about
1900 feet long, 20 feet broad and Z feet
high. Forty feet beyond and parallel
with this heap rose the frame work of q
house of the same length, but about Is
feet broad and high. The two slopes of
the roof were covered with a bed of
thorns. The whole represented forti-
fed town.
The bare-footed women warriors were
to sllrmount three times the heap of
thorns, descend into the clear space,
sscalade the house, which represented a
citadel bristling with defences, and take
the town. They were to be twice repues-
ed by the enemy, but at. the third
assault they were to be victorious and
drag the prisoners to the Kings feet in
token of success. The first to surmount
all the obstacles was to receive from the
Kings hand the reward for bravery.
The King placed himself at the head
of the column and harangued his women
soldiers. Then at the signal they threw
themselves with the utmost fury upon
the bank of thorns, crossed it, leaped
upon the thorny house, retired from it as
if driven back, and returned three times
to the charge-all this with such rapidi-
ty that the eye could scarcely follow
them. They clambered over the thorny
distractions as lightly as dancer vaults
upon floor, and that although their
naked feet were pierced with the sharp
cactus needles.