A MODERN AMAZON.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1701, 21 February 1888, Page 3

A MODERN AMAZON.

People just now in Constantinople are interested in the presence among them of Kara Fatama, the redoubtable female warrior of Kurdistan, who has come on a brief visit to the Turkish

capital. Her deeds of prowess date back to the beginning of the Crimean war, when she led a large body of Kurdish volunteers, who fought with singular daring for Turkey. The Ottoman Q-overnment remembers her

services, and requites them by a monthly pension of 5000 piastres, a sum that in her own frugal home allows her to live with ease. She is tall, ihin, with a brown hawk-like face; her cheeks are the colour of parchment and seamed with scars. Wearing the

national dress of the sterner sex, she looks like a man of forty, not like a woman who will never see seventy-five,

— j Slung across her shoulders in Cossack fashion is her long sabre with its jewelled hilt; decorations shine and sparkle on her breast, while the stripes on her sleeve show her to be a captain in the Ottoman army. Watching this

interesting figure pass along the street, of Stamboul, one is reminded of an episode in the campaign of General Lespinasse in the Dobrudia some short

while before the allied armies landed in the Crimea. While smoking and chatting one day in his tenc with several of his brother officers, the General beard at far distance a strange music—a medley of drums and

clarionets, tomtoms, and piercing human cries. Whence came this jj weird minstrelsy. All the men in camp turned out to listen to it and discern its origin, when from over the hills they saw a band of some three

hundred horsemen approaching them at full gallep. At their head rode a brown-faced woman, with flashing eyes and lissome limbs—the very picture of an Amazon. Vaulting from her saddle, she gravely saluted Gen. Les-

pinasse, and through an interpreter - told him that she had come to fight the Russians, both she and her brave Kurds being completely at his service. T That night her men were quartered in camp with the French troops, but 1 they were ill-pleased to be so billeted. J They wanted their independence, and not even their mistress and leader should barter it away for them. By daybreak they were in their saddles, riding off across the hills to meet the dawn, to the sound of that weird, strident music which had proclaimed 0 their approach.

It is proposed to hold an Easter encampment in Dunedin, but as there will be no Government assistance, with the exception of trains to and from the locality, some of the country districts have unanimously decided not to attend. Messrs Paterson and McLeod, one of the oldest established grocery firms at Dunedin have had to succumb. The firm’s statement shows their liabilities to be £15,335, and their assets £9OBO, a deficiency of £6255. To unsecured creditors £7389 is due, and to secured creditors £7538.

About four o’clock on Sunday morning, a destru stive fire occurred at Davenport, Auckland, devastating nearly the whole of Victoria street. It originated in the premises of Geath (tobacconist) and extended till it destroyed the houses and shops occupied by Amos, Holmes, Mrs Mclnness (dressmaker), Jervis (draper), Eobinson (bootmaker), Leonard (printer), Coogan (blacksmith), Tye (fruiterer), Frank (baker), also an empty shop and house. The insurances on the buildings destroyed amounted to £I3OO. One cottage w«s uninsured. All these were wooden buildings. The loss greatly exceeds the insurance. His Excellency the Governor with Admiral Fairfax, Sir G. S. Whitmore, Major Jervois, and Captain Kane, of H.M.B. Calliope, inspected the Auckland Harbor fortifications on Saturday, and were highly satisfied with the order and good condition of the torpedo sheds, guns, etc.

The Dunedin Star has the following:—“The pulpit of a suburban church was occupied on Sunday night by Bishop Nevill, who referred to the fact that a prominent' member of the parish had joined the Catholic Church. It is now understood that he referred to the wife of the Incumbent, who became a convert on the eve of their leaving England to return to the colony. The Incumbent intimated his willingness to resign if hia usefulness was interfered with.”