DAHOMEY

DAHOMEY was a negro kingdom of undefined limits, and under French protectorate, in W. Africa, N. of the Slave Coast. French rule lasted until 1960, after which the again-independent nation became Republic of Dahomey, and later Benin in 1975.

The religious rites of the natives are sanguinary, they traditionally offered human victims in sacrifice, which is now discontinued. It is an agricultural country, yields palm-oil and gold dust, and once a great centre of the slave-trade.