Female Warriors, Vol. I (of 2)

armatians.-The Machlyes and Auses.-The Zaveces.-

d that she is morally blind, although able to see every petty object that passes within her range. Popular Prejudice, like her stately cousin, Mrs. Grundy, arranges fixed rules of etiquette, of conduct, even of feeling, and never pardons the slightest infringement of the lines she marks out. A man may lay down his life for "an idea," but if it be out

pplementary notion, a postscript, though Humour might laughingly say, much like the famous postscript to a lady's letter. Man (though he is permitted to include in his superb all-comp

elding to any little weakness that may be imagined to flatter a Man. But Popular Prejudice is superbly angry with a woman who is perhaps not pretty, yet ventures to claim good sense and personal will,

voice in the government of her native country, she would stand appalled if war were even hinted at. If it be proved by hard facts that woman is not a poor, weak creature, then s

are stubborn things, or that the world rolls calmly round even when wars, rumours of wars, rev

age man shrinks. But, walking down the serried ranks of history, we find strange records of feminin

be it counted only idle pastime gathering a han

e than they now do. Plato, the Athenian philosopher, lamented that the lives of women should be wasted in domestic, and sometimes servile, duties; arguing that if the girls were trained like the boys, in athletic sp

n. His countrymen, even in cases of the direst necessity, were loth to swell their ranks with female recruits; and it w

might possibly be now the stronger in the Celestial Empire. Once upon a time, so the story runs, the Chinese women, discontented with the unequal share accorded to them in the government, rose in rebellion. The revolt so very nearly became a revolution that the Emperor and his

to a female, as Goddess of War; and this deity, combining wisdom and courage, frequently proved more than a match for the brutal if not blundering God of Battles. "Which, indeed," observes Pope, "is no more than just, since wisdom is generally averse to entering into warlike con

greatly honoured both in Greece and Rome, that Hiero, King of Syracuse, to flatter the Romans, once sent them an idol figure of this goddess, three hundred and twenty pounds in weight, made of solid gold; while the Egyptians, who worshipped her under the name of Naphte, represented her in the form of an eagle, because that bird is the strongest of aerial warriors, and invariably victorious over all the feathered race. The Brahmins, who claim an antiquity as great as, or greater than, Egypt,

maids, whos

battle's b

ft steeds, armed with helmets and mail, drawn swords in their hands, they rode wildly over the field to se

the eye, a horrid basalt monster named Teoyamiqui, Goddess of War. She was supposed to be wife of the equally terrible Huitzilopochtli, or Tlacahuepancuexcotzin, the Mexican Mars. Like the Valk

is a decidedly

l, cum grano salis. King Arthur, Hengist and Horsa, and many another hero of whom we were once so proud, have been cast, by most matter-of-fact writers, on the same dusty shelf with Achilles and Hector, Romulus and Remus, side by side with Jupiter and Mercury, Jack the Giant-Killer and Blue Beard. Scarcely anybody in our days is so credulous as to believe tha

e "in those days the women were men and the men women." Plutarch, more moderate, half believes they did exist, but doubts most of their marvellous achievements, which, he

of the Scythian blood-royal, Hylinos and Scolopitos, being driven from their native country by a faction of the nobility, induced several hundred young men and women to emigrate with them. After a toilsome march th

aring up their corn, destroying their homes by fire and sword. At last the aborigines surprised and massacred the male settlers, by means of an am

s were thenceforth forbidden even to speak to men, save during certain days in the year. At the appointed time, throwing aside their military character, they visited the surrounding nations, and were permitted, by special treaties, to

y might, when grown up, be more easily able to bend the bow and hurl the dart. From whence, some say, they derived the name of Amazon, which is formed of two Greek words, signifying "wan

ual, if not surpass the Scythians and Parthians, who were the most skilful archers of ancient times. W

last become, that Jobates, king of Lycia, commanded Bellerophon to effect their subjugation, feeling certain that the hero would never return; great indeed was his astonishment to see the redoubtable conqueror of the Chimera ret

ories, they claimed to be daughters of the God Mars-a common expedient in the olden times. Taking it in turn to defend the frontier and invade fore

snow-capped Caucasus, when every peak, every ridge was bravely defended by hordes of desp

orned this city with many stately buildings, conspicuous amongst which was the royal palace. Many cities

Hippolyte, ascended the throne. Orithya, the most famous of all the Amazon queens, inherited the beauty, together with the military skill of her mother, Marpesia. Under her rule the nation became so reno

nded at the mouth of the Thermodon, during the temporary absence of Orithya with the best part of the army, and gained an easy victory over Antio

aptured her sister; others, however, relate that he undertook a separate voyage many years after that of Hercules, and carried

hed a squadron of horse, commanded by his nephew, Panasagorus. Passing through Colchis, over Mount Caucasus, and crossing an arm of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, which, tradition says, was frozen, the Amazons marched victoriously through Taurica, Thrace, Thessaly, Macedonia, Attica, and

battle by the hand of an Amazon, while fighting in the Athenian ranks, side by side with Theseus; but

named Hippolytus, or Demophoon, who a

assistance of Troy when it was besieged by the Greeks. She arrived shortly after the death of Hector, and, some declare, seemed, in the eyes of the old king, destined to take the place of the deceased hero. New life was infused into the dejected Trojans. But, alas! their joy was short-lived. The morning after her arrival Penthesilea fell by the hand of the invin

nvention of the batt

have been visited by an Amazon queen named Minithya, or Thalestris, who-like another Queen of Sheba-having heard of his mighty achievements, travelled through many lands to see him, followed by an army of fe

ce with the Albanians, fought most valiantly in a battle against Pompey the Great, B.C. 66. But the only ground

isoners into three ships, and set sail for Greece. Once upon the open sea, the captives rose upon their guards and put them to death. Being totally ignorant of navigation and the management of sails, oars, or rudder, they resigned themsel

se of the mothers and sisters of their husbands,-for the Scythian women, so far from going to battle, passed their days in the wagons-resolved to seek out some desert land where they would be free to follow their own manners and customs. Crossing the Tanais (the Don), they travelled six days' journey east and north, and set

happens," quaintly adds the historian, "that many women die single at an advanced age." Hippocr

tion to fall into disorder. At last Amagia took the reins of government into her own hands, received ambassadors, took the command of the army, went in person to reinforce the frontiers with troops, and not only repelled several invasion

er judgments were sound; and both as a general and as a governor, she was resp

they were treated as women are usually treated in barbarous countries. While the women conducted the government or fought with their neighbours, the men staid at home, attending to the household duties. They were not permitted

the historian says, abounded "with all sorts of fruit trees," is supposed to have been one of the Canaries. The climate was then, as

to Africa, subdued great part of Numidia and founded a large city named Chersonesus, in the Tritonis Mo

er nation, and formed an alliance with Orus, King of Egypt, the son of Isis. After making war successfully on the Arabians she conquered Syria and Cilicia, and the tribes around Mount Taurus, who, says Diodorus, "were both men of strong bodies and stout hearts"; marched through Phrygia, and passed along the sh

banished Scythian, invaded the dominions of Merina. The queen was slain in the first battle, together with many thousand Amazons;

g opposed by Laomedon, King of Troy (who was afterwards conquered by Hercules), she defeated his troops in several action

cules when he undertook his journey into

idens of each tribe formed themselves into two hostile armies, and attacked each other before the temple with sticks and stones, contending for the victory with the most desperate valour. On the conclusion of this sh

, employed their wives and daughters to drive their war-chariots o

olitan monk, who travelled through Mingrelia in the seventeenth century, was told that a warlike and ruthless nation, amongst whom were several female warriors, dwelt somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Caucasus. They were ofte

chs of the latter country, which was situated in the neighbourhood of the Caucasus, subjected these Amazons for a time, though they afterwards regained their liberty. The people of the Caucasus, and the Calmucs were always at war

e, but their chief business and pleasure was war. They burnt off the right breast as soon as the girls were old enough to bear it; and, as a rule, they passed their lives in a state of celibacy, the queen setting a rigid example. Those who married did not rear their male children, but sent them back to the fathers. The neighbou