[[https://onesearch.uark.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991036059669007336&context=L&vid=01UARK_INST:01UARK&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=COMBINED&query=any,contains,Wives%20of%20the%20leopard:%20gender,%20politics,%20and%20culture%20in%20the%20Kingdom%20of%20Dahomey,%E2%80%9D&offset=0|Library Link]]

{{ :8_chapter_5_the_implications_of_cultural_and_commercial_change_page_166.pdf |}}

Main quote needed is on 202. 

Basically, in the mid-1800s, the king having female bodyguards had been in practice for at least 100 years already. King Gezo established the guard as a standing army. Observers from the early 1900s are the ones who label all of the female soldiers "Amazons."