Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/639

 DAHOMEY 635 streams, and overgrown in parts with man- groves, dwarf palms, and aquatic plants ; and smaller marshes are frequent throughout the country. During the rainy season these are inundated and almost impassable. Between the capital and the sea stretch immense for- ests, in which the trees attain enormous di- mensions. In the forests grow many kinds of fruit and flowering trees, including the date palm, cocoanut, and tamarind, the yel- low fig and damson, the mango, mimosa, lime, wild orange, acacia, magnolia, and the shea or butter tree. Wild grapes and the banana, plantain, pineapple, guava, and citron abound, and the convolvulus, jessamine, and many parasitical vines grow with a luxuriance un- known out of the tropics. These dense woods are filled with birds of the most beautiful plumage, and many varieties of monkeys, and are the lurking places of wild beasts and ven- omous reptiles. Lions, leopards, panthers, hyaenas, elephants, deer, buffalo, wild sheep, goats, hippopotami, alligators, and boa con- strictors of enormous size abound. .Bats are numerous and large, particularly the Whydah vampire bat, which frequently measures three feet from tip to tip of wings. Of the domes- tic animals, oxen are small ; sheep, goats, and swine are abundant, the last being of a large and superior kind. Horses are almost un- known. The rivers and lakes furnish plenty of fish, and their banks abound with land tor- toises. The seacoast is so infested with sharks that it is dangerous to go into the water. The climate generally is not unfavorable to health. A breeze called the Jiarmattan blows for three months in the year, and greatly purifies the atmosphere. Elephantiasis, common to nearly all the Guinea coast, does not exist in Daho- my ; but the people are afflicted by a species of hair worm which penetrates the skin and works its way into the muscular tissue. Agriculture is in a primitive condition, but the soil is so fer- tile that good crops are raised. Along the coast and around the principal towns are farms in a high state of cultivation. Near Whydah most of these farms are in the hands of per- sons returned from Brazil, who learned some- thing of agriculture there. Draining and ma- nuring are practised, it is said, in the remote interior. Rice is raised to a large extent in the swampy lands, and, together with maize, yams, and the manioc root, which is ground into meal, forms the chief food of the in- habitants. Cotton of good quality grows wild, but not in quantity sufficient for home consumption. Sugar, indigo, tobacco, and spices are raised. Among the vegetable pro- ductions peculiar to the country are a variety of millet or Guinea corn, a legume called ca- lavances or pea-beans, a kind of ground bean, and a berry said to possess the property of turning bitters and acids sweet. Two field crops are raised annually, the time of sowing being at the equinoxes. With all these advan- tages of climate and soil, little is raised for ex- port. The manufactures are chiefly cotton cloth, pottery, mats, and rude agricultural tools, knives, and weapons of iron. Cloth is made by a tedious process, the reel being pass- ed through the shed in their looms, from side to side, they having no knowledge of the shut- tle. The web is usually about six inches wide, and is woven in strips of blue and red, the only colors used. The native smiths fabricate knives, swords, daggers, and spears from iron obtained at the European factories on the coast, but they are unacquainted with the art of tem- pering. Workers in the precious metals, which are obtained in the Kong mountains, show con- siderable skill in the design and ornamenta- tion of trinkets. The Dahomans are of medium height and slightly built, agile, and good walk- ers and dancers, but are not very strong. Ac- cording to Burton, they are cowardly, cruel, Dahomans The King^s Dance. and bloodthirsty, noisy and self-conceited, and given to lying, cheating, and drunkenness. The women are plain and masculine, and compara- tively large and strong ; they perform all the labors of the house and the field, with the as- sistance of slaves, the sole occupation of the free men in time of peace being hunting and fishing. The dress of the men is a godo or T bandage, a pair of short drawers, and a body cloth, 12 ft. long by 4 to 6 ft. broad, worn like the Roman toga. Of the women, young girls and the poorer classes wear nothing but a zone of beads supporting a bandage, and over that a scanty loin cloth called a do-oo. The upper classes add an over-cloth, 12 ft. long, passed under the arms and covering the person from the bosom to the ankles. Tattooing is practised to some extent by both sexes, and the men paint themselves in red and white stripes. Polygamy is general, each man hav-