The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-03
By Frank C. Carpenter

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 The army of Amazons was one of the strangest features of King Behazin's out fit. The most ot them were young vo- men Of from eighteen to twenty-fiye years of age, and many had been trained to light from their childhood Others were wives who lad bee funnI unrai,n- lul to their husbands, and others women Who had been divorced on acvnllll+ of thelr bad temper or their failure to have children or Tor some other reasoa Wnial1 caused their husbands to want to get rid or them. They thereupon handed them over to the king, and if they had the requisite physical vigor they were drilled for the Amazon corps.
 |. These Amazons were armed with swords. battle axes and guns They were wonderfully brave and were trained to endure pain Of all kinds. A traveller who visited Dahomey when Behazin's power was at it's height says they had one ex- ercise of climbing walls of thorn bushes made Tor the purpose, and that they would go over them without flincing 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.
 It 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 maiden- hood, except they were desired by the king. The Amazons were trained to fe- rocty, and the French say that in the war of 1889 their recklessness was in- creased by liberal allowance of gin The girls had just enough liquor to make them devllsh without interfering with their fighting.
 These famous black women warriors had a 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 dis tnguish them from the half-naked male warriors. In times of peace they also wore bells around their necks as warn ing to all men not in the army to keep out of their way. The other sex was afraid of them, too and fled upon their approach, as it was death to be caught paying them special attentions. The wo- men took vows of chastity upon entering the army, and they were in fact, looked upon somewhat as were the yestal vir- gins of old Rome. l have heard that many of these Amazons were beautiful, but if so they must have been far differ ent from the African queens 1 saw during my audience with their former com- mander and king.
 It is said that these female warriors were at their best during the war which Behanzin waged with the French in 1889. During that struggle he caused a num- Der of them to be beheaded on a charge of cowardice, and he tried in every way to make them perfectly fearless and in- different to pain. Among the most ter rible trials of their courage was the climbing up walls of cactus bushes six teen feet high to roof carpeted with cactus several hundred feet long. These bare-footed and bare-legged girls climbed the cactus walls and passed over the roofs carpeted with cactus thorns and, as the story goes, then ran back and showed 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 AmaZons always planned to take their enemy by surprise, and that they made forced marches at night to fall upon them early in the morning. They would dash in upon their enemies before they were fully awake. and then. with d terrible cry would spring to the fray This man says that he opce saw i0tO Amazons grouped around King Behanzin and that they were as muscular as thes male warriors and quite military in appearance.