ly consisting of the
application of greasy combs to the half inch of wool accorded them by
their Creator to serve the purpose of hair.

Day and night they oil themselves. Other times they oil one another.
Their shining bodies reflect the glory of the noonday sun. Their
complexions when their toilets are fully complete approach patent
leather. Other times they stop short at the tint of a newly blacked pair
of Oxfords.

Inside the huts the amazons betake themselves to arts of peace. A tall
woman, clad in a striped loin cloth, was rubbing corn between two big
stones in a firm faith that eventually it would become meal. The miller
is the curiosity of the realm, for she only has two husbands, both of
whom, however, she saw fit to leave behind her in Africa to mind the
babies. In Dahomey the hand that rocks the cradle does not bother about
ruling the world. Woman has her rights with a vengeance among those
people and man has fully recognized her fighting qualities.

[Illustration: "HE GAVE A YELL THAT COULD BE HEARD TO THE BEAUTY SHOW."]

They found the village tightly enclosed in a high board fence. Then
began a vigorous search for knot-holes. But every opening they found had
the walls of a hut before it. At last they were partially rewarded by
discovering a fault in one of the boards where they could see past one
of the huts into the enclosure. Half a dozen of the backs of men and
women could be seen about ten steps from the fence. The people would
bend over out of sight and then back again. All kinds of conjectures
came to the boys. Louis suggested that they were "shootin' craps."
Johnny thought they were doing some kind of a religious ceremony. The
pressure of curiosity became too great to be endured. They went around
the corner and discovered that there was not a single guard in sight.
Johnny was standing the expenses, and Louis was generous enough to
propose that some means be secured to elevate Johnny to the top of the
fence. No more intense brain work was expended on the Ferris wheel than
these two boys gave to the proposed elevation. It took mechanical skill
of the highest order, for the management had provided for these
emergencies, and there was nothing in sight to help them. But necessity
kindly became again the mother of invention. There was a small tool
chest a short distance down the back fence waiting for the wagon to take
it away. It evidently contained no tools, for it was quite light, and
the boys soon