Lady Victoria Buxton, who has come much in contact with
Turkish soldiers, sends to the Times of Wednesday a note- worthy appreciation of them. She says they are utter fatalists, refusing to take thought for the morrow, and accepting defeat equally with victory as the will of God. The Turk is slow to apprehend insurrection, but once he has apprehended it, "he becomes a wild beast." He is liable to accesses of blind fury, and she has herself seen excellent Turks suddenly " possessed," as they say themselves, by Satan. " We hardly believe, or if we do believe we hardly realise, the horrors which our newspaper correspondents relate, or for decency only hint at. But there is nothing surprising in them to those who know the Turkish soldier." Or, we may add, almost any Asiatics in arms. Their courage, their callousness, and a certain heat of brain work together, and the result is what they themselves describe as " possession."
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