Janos Gereben:

>Looking further into this weighty matter, I found that going back to
>the 16th century, women fought - if they had to, not *wanting* to
>like the fool men - with the short sword, not the naginata, the
>ceremonial long weapon.  If a woman was forced to fight, she would
>grab the hilt with both hands, planting the butt firmly against her
>stomach, and running forward, to stab the enemy with all her weight
>behind the blade.  She was to become, for a moment, a living spear.

Coincidentally, yesterday I saw a delightful French film, "D'Artagnan's
Daughter".  It seemed authentic in terms of the costumes and the score by
Philippe Sarde, which sounded very like Rameau but was original.  The
daughter in question dispatched a number of villains in the way Janos
describes, but was very adept with other weapons as well: given her
parentage, this was to be expected.

I've encountered Sarde's music in a number of films and think he's a highly
inventive and versatile composer, more so than some of the usual suspects.

Richard Pennycuick
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