366 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



Moorish sandals, and a short 

 cylindrical straw cap, with a 

 band of purple ribbon round it. 

 His ornaments were a human 

 tooth and a blue bead on a thread 

 round his neck, an iron ring 

 round the right arm, and five 

 iron bracelets above and below 

 the elbow. 



The most striking feature in 

 the military system of Dahomey 

 was the corps of Amazons (for 

 photograph see page 369), which 

 was raised in 1729 owing to the 

 gallant behaviour of a number 

 of women who had been armed 

 in order to increase the apparent 

 size of a Dahomeyan army. At 

 first the Amazons were criminals, 

 but Gezo and Gelele improved 

 the status of the force by en- 

 rolling in it women who pleased 

 them. The women among the 

 Dahorneyans, thanks to their 

 having done the work of the 

 tribe for generations, are as 

 muscular and strong or even 

 stronger than the men. Ellis 

 estimated their number in 1890 

 at about 3,000. 



The Amazons were divided 

 into five corps: the blunderbuss- 

 women; the elephant-huntresses; 

 the razor-women, armed with a 

 hinged sword about 18 inches 



long that shut into its scabbard like a razor; the infantry or line's women; and the archeresses, 

 armed with a bow, a quiver of small poisoned arrows, and a small knife. The last company 

 was said by Ellis to be already extinct in his time. 



Burton did not take the Amazons very seriously. The infantry, the main body of the 

 force, he describes as follows: "They are armed with Tower muskets, and are well supplied 

 with bad ammunition bamboo fibre, for instance, being the only wadding. They have but 

 little ball practice. They manoeuvre with the precision of a flock of sheep, and they are too 

 light to stand a charge of the poorest troops in Europe. Personally they are cleanly made, 

 without much muscle; they are hard dancers, indefatigable singers, and, though affecting a 

 military swagger, their faces are anything but ferocious they are rather mild and unassuming 

 in appearance. They fought with fury with Gezo before Abeokuta because there was a jealousy 

 between them and their brother soldiers, and because they had been led for many years by 

 that king to small but sure victory. They lied, however, with the rest, when a little 

 perseverance would have retrieved the fortunes of tlie day." 



Like the Fanti and Ashanti, the Dahomeyans have been notorious for the practice of human 

 sacrifices. Especially was this so during the last century. Captain Snelgrave in 1727 saw 400 

 prisoners executed in honour of the conquest of the Toffo country; the prisoners had their 



Photo lent by the late Miss Maty Kingaley. 



NATIVES OF THE NIGER DELTA. 



