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| FROM FAR AWAY DAHOMEY - If we look at the
ordinary maps of Africa we may have trouble in finding Dahomey at
all, and even on the enormous globe which revolved in the Government
Building at Jackson Park, the space allotted to Dahomey of the Gulf
of Guinea was surprisingly small. Yet for twenty years the Amazons
and sacrifices of Dahomey have caught the Caucasian fancy, and
enlarged the Dahoman state. An eccentric Frenchman named Pene
brought the Dahomans to chicago, and their arrival of the 3rd of May
created genuine interest in the entire world of Midway. The picture
shows two of these people heavilty clother, whereas it was difficult,
in warm weather, to keep any clothing whatever on them. There were
sixty-seven in the party, but these two men, with two others were
oftenest seen on the Plaisance, carrying on their heads the palanquin
in which the white-hatted Pene traveled to the
Administration
Building. These men could balance a truck on their heads, and the
women carried the heavist loads, with babies strapped to their waists
and crying lustily meanwhile. The men swam in the lagoon races of
the summer, and if the visitor entered their settlement at the west
end of the Plaisance, he was almost sure to pay the fee; for Pene,
having entered heartily into the usual quarrel of the concessioner
with the Exposition Directors, fought it out on that line through the
whole summer of 1893, thereby gaining much extra advertising in
Chicago, and glory at the dusky court of King Behanzin. |
