AMAZONS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 104, 5 November 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

AMAZONS.

WHEN AND HOW WOMEN HAVE FOUGHT.

It is rather a curious paradox thai to-day, when women are continually entering aupon new iields ot thought and action Hitherto looked upon as Me special province of the sterner sex, the tendency to invade the most masculine of all professions—that ot arms—is apparently rather on the decrease tnan otherwise. True, there have been isolated cases recently of women who have proved then ability to acquit themselves val antly on the held ot battle, but such cases have been tew and tar between. On the other hand, history provides many examples, not only of warrior queens, but ot nations and armies of warlike women, as well as of individual women who have embraced the calling of the sword. The Amazons, who have given a general title to all warlike women, ancient and modem, were it is supposed, originally the remnants of a Scythian raco whose men folk were gradually killed oil m war. The women, thus lef unprotected, tooK up in sentience the art of war, winch they practised with added fierceness owing lo their bitter animosity towards tn« neighbouring tribes who had destroyel their men. Their warlike prowess was considerable, and they arc recorded in ancient legend as having taken a prominent part in many of the ware o Greece; The legends of Hercules an . his wars with the Amazons, of lheseus and Hippolyta, his Amazonian Queen, end of the beautiful woman warrior, Queen Penthesilea, who fell not ia. from the bloodstained peninsula ot Oal ( lipoli on the storied plains of Troy.al these tales are no doubt semi-historica. accounts of events winch actually took place. , Similar warlike tribes of women are mi id to have existed in Asia and Africa, the Amazon river in South America taking its name from a race of wom-u lighters reported by early travellers as inhabiting its forests. The Emperor of Monomotapa—whose vanished capital some authorities consider to be identcal with the ruined city of Zimbabwe in Rhodesia-is also said by Portuguese chhromclers to have possessed a bodyguard of women, buch a bodvguard was, in fact, kept up by some Indian rulers down to the middle of the nineteenth century; the ruler ot Hyderabad had a retinue of girls chosen for their beauty, who were splendidly armed and accoutred, and mouuted on white charges. They were, ot course, more for display than anything «»lse but thev were no doubt a survival of a real fighting force of earlier days.

ANCIENT WOMEN WARRIORS. The celebrated Queen pf Assyria, Semiramis, who, from being a nameless foundling, rose to occupy a throne, was another famous woman general, bhe led her armies in person with such success that she subdued almost every nation in proximity to her kingdom, only to fall by the hand of her own son after a long and victories reign. Boadicca, Queen of the Iceni, is the earliest British female warrior; the story of her sacking of London and burning of the temple of Diana her ultimate defeat, and tragic death, is too well known to call for more than passing mention here. So, too, witn Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra who fought so valiant'y against the Emper. or Aurelian that he refused to yield to tho demands of his soldiers for her death when she became his captive. Passing on to more modern days, France in the Middle Ages could show « good many examples of women who took up the" profusion of arms in a time when tnat calling was very tar from being a sinecure. Early in the fourteenth century Jeanne de Montfort, a native of Hamnult. in Belgium, waged war m her husband's stead with Count Charles de Blois, the former having been cast into prison by Phil'P VI. of France, who took the Count de B'ois s part in the dispute for the Duchy of Brittany. Froissart describe* her M possessing the courage of a man and the Heart ot a lion He also says tint few men sat a horse better, and tha she wore complete armour, ruling "califorchon, oj astride. The valiant Countess made numerous dashing sallies from her stronghold or Hennehont, on one occasion bursting through the besieging enemy's lilies at th head of two hundred horsemen and setting fire to the camp. She was very popular in England, K'lig Edward 111.'supported her in her wars, and the English ladies of the day reflected their feelings in the martial head-dresses which, became the vogue at the time. One wonders whether it was mere feminine jealousy which, later, induced the Counter of Bios to adopt a similar martial role after the death of her husband, Jeanne du Montfort s rival!

JOAN OF ARC. Of course the most famous of girl warriors is Jeanne d'Arc whose remarkable career has left so deep an impression on the imaginations of he' own countrymen and indeed on that of the whole world. There have not been wanting those who have tried to picture La Pucelle as something far less important than she is generally considered- but it is difficult to reconcile this view with the intense veneration in which Jeanne's memory is held, long after the material effects of her lie have been practically forgotten. The destruction of much of the lamons Cathedral of Rheims, during tho great war, has renewed interest in Jeanne's career, since it was here that the memorable coronation of Charles VII. took place after her triumphal-1 raising of the siege of Orleans. A FAMOUS IRISH WOMAN.

The memoirs of Mrs. Christian Davie*, published soon after her death by R Montagu, in Great Wylde Street, London, read far more like fiction than sober fact wlrch latter, however, they (indubitably are. Christian Cavanagh, the daughter or a Dublin malstcr, was born in 16V, and from her childhood displayed a lik:n" and an aptitude for pursuits ol a masculine nature. After the death of 1 er father, Christian inherited a pub-lic-houfi« fr.-.m an aunt with whom she had lived as barmaid, and married the potman thereof, a man nnr.ed 1 - Soon after their marriage A*clsn mysteriously disappeared, and it was more than a year before his wife learn ed that he had been carried of in lis cups and compelled through force of cirrumstnnccs to enlist in a regiment of foot His wife, possibly getting bored of her hum-drum existence made no mere ado, but cut her hair, dressed in n suit of her husband's clothes, sewed fil'tv guineas in the waistband ol her breeches and set off for Flanders in pursuit of her spouse. For this purpos? she offered herself as a soldier to an en«icn then recruiting for Captain TidiborneV company of foot, and was enrolled under the name of Christopher Welsh. , „. Tn the vrrv fii>=t engagement (the battle of Neerwintlen, 16031 Christian was wounded in the leg. though not seriously; and in the summer of 1001 she, with fome companions, was taken prisoner by th" French and incarcerated

at Saint German en Laye, near Paris, Ijeing, however, excliauged after nine days' detention. Her next exploit was to fight a duel with a sergeant of her own regiment over a Flanders damsel to whom Christian, in order to act her part thoroughly, had been paying hei court! The sergeant got decidedly the worst of the encounter, but in consequence of it Christian was discharged from her regiment, immediately, however, re-enlist-ing in Lord John Hay's Dragoons. Here 6he was more in her element, for she had been a splendid horsewoman from her girlhood. As a Dragoon 6he took part in the battle of Nuneguen and the sieges of Keisers-weert and Liege, in the former siege being one of a detachment which routed a sueprior French force with heavy loss. After the battle of Hochstet she came across her errant husband, whom she surprised in the very act of making love to a Dutch girl! It was 6ome time before she consented to forgive him for his lapse from lidelity, not, indeed, until after Christian had been wounded at Raniillie, ami undergone the operation of trepanning. At this point her actual military career comes to a close. After a period of considerable trouble and poverty, subsequent to her third marriage with a soldier called Davies, she wa6 admitted to Chelsea Hospital, where she died at the age of 108, and was interred with full military honours.

TWO OTHER NOTABLES. Even more romantic was the career of Alary Anne Talbot, who was successively foot-boy to her guardian, Captain Essex Bowen", drummer boy at the siege of Valenciennes, powder-monkey on board the Brunswick at the "Glorious First of June," and sailor on board the Vesuvius. There is a certain halo ot mystery about this remarkable young woman's parentage, and 6he also gains an added interest by the fact that her portraits show her to have been unusually beautiful. She was badly wounded at'the First of June battle, and ultimately died of a decline in her thirtieth With a brief survey of the life of Hannah Snell, who served as a foot soldier, and later as a marine at the siege of Pondicherry, and Phoebe Hessel, who, who fought at Fontenoy with the Fifth Regiment of Foot, this sketch of women warriors must come to a close. Hannah Snell ,as well as taking her part manfully in several battles, Was actually flogged on two occasions without her sex being Her story was published in the year 1750 under the title "The Female Soldier.'" Phoebe Hessel's life story is briefly set forth on her tombstone at Brighton: — " In memory of Phoebe Hessel, who was born at Stephney in the year 1713.

" She served for many years as a private soldier in the Fifth Regiment of Foot in different parts of Europe, and in tho vear 1745 fought under the command of the Duke of Fontenoy, where she received a bayonet wound in her arm. " She died at Brighton, where she had long resided, December 12th, 1821, aged 108, and lies buried here."