46 THE FIGHT. 



glistening like sparks of fire in the glow of the declining sun. 

 Marching with great rapidity, considering their diminutive 

 stature, they soon traversed this desert-like tract without loss 

 or accident, a matter for no small congratulation, seeing the 

 manifold dangers to which their exposed route had rendered 

 them liable. 



Onward they pressed, while 'some of the most ardent of the 

 assailants, leaving the main body behind, rushed forward to 

 attack the enemy's sentinels, who were posted at each of the 

 avenues leading down into the subterranean city. 



These watchful guards, who presently gave notice of the 

 approaching army, were, like their assailants, all Amazonian 

 soldiers, only of a much milder and more pacific disposition, 

 being used to combine gentle employments with their profes- 

 sion of arms, a profession, moreover, never exercised except 

 defensively. 



Slavery, as inflicted on others, is a thing unknown among 

 the Fuscans ; and their working females, who constitute the 

 chief bulk of the population, are not only the sole defenders of 

 the state, but also perform all the useful offices, which among 

 the Rufians are made to devolve upon the slaves. 



Now comes the tug of war. The defenders are assembled 

 in front of their city, fighting for their queen, their lives, and 

 the liberty of their infant population. The assailants, their 

 main body having now come up, are fighting for glory and 

 for plunder, and above all, for the rape of Fuscan babies, to 

 become the future slaves of their own rising generation. Oh ! 

 for a Homer's pen to describe the universal ardour and the 

 individual prowess of our pigmy Amazons. By far more nu- 

 merous are the dusky Fuscans, though in discipline and personal 

 strength they are much inferior to the warlike Rufians. Of 

 the latter we have spoken, hitherto, as Lilliputians, but now 

 we have to treat of them as opposed to a tribe of very inferior 

 stature. 



The battle-field, an area of some four feet square, is strewed 



