Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-02

cotton plantations and that they are ex-
plotting the country. Between four and
five hundred vessels now call there annual
ly and the commerce is growing. Two rail-
roads have been opened up. One of these
starts at the port of Kotonu and has been
pushed inland as far as TOTO, distance OF
sixty-four miles. 1t is to be extended three
hundred miles farther. A telegraph line
now joins Kotonu with Behanzn's old cap
ital, and that seaport is also connected with
the River Niger. Timbuktu. and the Sene-
gal. There are a hundred and twenty
miles of telephone in the colony and sew
enteen hundred and twenty-five miles OF
telegraph lines.
These Dahomey people are OF the same
race our negroes Their country Is on
the Gulf of Guinea, from where the most of
the slaves were taken in early days. They
are of pure negro stock, and belong to the
Fan branch of the Eve family. The people
go about half naked, and they believe in
witches and have their witch doctors. Along
in about 1890. when Benhazin was in the
height of his power, travellers who passed
through Dahomey gave vivid pictures of him
and his army. They say that he sprinkled
his ancestors graves once every year with
human blood. He was great at that
time that when his people approached him
they had to crawl up to him with their
faces In the dust. The annual grave sprin-
king took place in October and it lasted
several weeks. The Amazons then acted as
the executioners. and the victims. who sup
piled the blood, were usually captives taken
In war. When the time for the killing took
dressed in white shirts, tied hand and foot
and placed in baskets on the top of plat
form. The king first made speech, ana
then the Amazons hurled the victims down
Into a crowd, where they met with a hor-
| rible death. l have seen 1t stated that
their skulls were used to adorn the palace
walls and that this king had a sleeping
| chamber paved with the heads Of his ene-
mics.
About the Amazon..
| The army of Amazons was one Of the
strangest features of King Behanzin's out
| fit. The most of them were young women
of from eighteen to twenty-five years Of
| age, and many had been trained to fight
| from their childhood. Others were wives
who had been found unfaithful to their
! husbands and others women who had been
| divorced on account of their bad temper or
| their failure to have children or for some
other reason which caused their husbands
| to want to get rid of them. They there
upon handed them over to the king, and II
| they had the requisite physical vigor they
were drilled for the Amazon corps.
These Amazons We're armed with swords,
| battie-axes and guns. They were wonder
| fully brave and were trained to endure
| pain OF all kinds. A traveller who visited
| Dahomey when Behanzin's power was at its
! height says they had one exercise Of climb
| ing walls of thorn bushes made for the pur-
pose and that they would go over them
without fiinching and pretend to take the
army on the opposite side. These AmaZons
| were the kings special guard, and they
fought better than the male warriors in the
wars with the French.
1t is also said that after a woman Joined
the army she was shut off from marriage.
| and that the virgins among them were
bound to perpetual maidenhood except they
were desired by the king. The Amazons
were trained to ferocity, and the French
say that In the war of 1889 their reckless
ness was increased by liberal allowance
of gin. The girls had just enough liquor
| to make them devilish without interfering
with their fighting.
These famous black women warriors had
q uniform of their own. They wore tips
Of horns on their heads and had sleeveless
shirts of blue and white cloth which fell to
| the knees. Under these were short trousers.
which made it easy to distinguish them
from the half-naked male warriors. In
times of peace they also wore bells around
| their necks as a warning to all men not In
the army to keep out of their way. The
other sex was afraid of Them too. and fed
upon their approach as 1t was death to be
caught paying them special attentions. The
women took vows of chastity upon entering
the army, and they were. in fact. looked
upon somewhat as were the vestal virgins
OF old Rome. I have heard that many OF
| these Amazons were beautiful but II 30
they must have been far different from the
African queens / saw during my audience
with their former commander and king.
How the King Fought in 1889.
1t is said that these female warriors were
at their best during the war which Behan-
zin waged with the French in 1889. During
| that struggle he caused number of them
to be beheaded on a charge of cowardice.
and he tried in every way to make them
perfectly fearless and Indifferent to pain.
Among the most terrible trials of their
courage was the climbing up walls OF cac-
tus bushes sixteen feet high to a roof car
peted with cactus several hundred feet long.
These barefooted and barelegged girls
climbed the cactus walls and passed over
the roofs carpeted with cactus thorns and.
as the story goes then ran back and show
ed. themselves to the king, their faces
wreathed with smiles. although their feet
and legs were covered with blood.
One of the French officers tells me that
the sAmazons always planned to take their
enemy by surprise, and that they made
forced marches at night so as to fall upon
them early in the morning. They would
dash In upon their enemies before they
were fully awake and then. with a terrible
cry, would spring to the fray. This man
says that he once saw 1000 AmaSons
grouped around King Behanzin and that
they were as muscular as the male warriors
and quite as military In appearance.
FRANK @. CARPENTER.