on the following page we are told that custom gives to every married woman of the tribes "the absolute right to leave her husband and become the wife of any other man, the sole condition being that the new husband must have the means to pay for her." Among the Chippewyans the women are said to be "as much in the power of the men as any other articles of their property," although, at the same time, "they are always consulted, and possess a very considerable influence in the traffic with Europeans, and other important concerns." 2 Among the Mongols a woman is "entirely dependent on her husband"; yet "in the household the rights of the wife are nearly equal to those of the husband." 3 Dr. Paulitschke tells us that among the Somals, Danakil, and Gallas, a wife has no rights whatever in relation to her husband, being merely a piece of property; but subsequently we learn that she is his equal, and "a mistress of her own will." + We must certainly not, like Mr. Spencer, conclude that where women are exchangeable for oxen or other beasts they are "of course" regarded as equally without personal rights." The bride-price is a compensation for the loss sustained in the giving up of the girl, and a remuneration for the expenses incurred in her maintenance till the time of her marriage; it does not eo ipso confer on the husband absolute rights over her. With reference to certain tribes in South-Eastern Africa, the Rev. James Macdonald observes :-" A man obtains a wife by giving her father a certain number of cattle. This, though often called such, is not purchase in the usual sense of the word. The woman does not become a chattel. She cannot be resold or ill-treated beyond well-defined legal limits. She retains certain rights to property and an interest in the cattle paid for her. They are a guarantee for the husband's good 1 Dodge, Our Wild Indians, p. 205 sq.

Mackenzie, Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. cxxii. sq. Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, v. 176.

3 Prejevalsky, Mongolia, i. 69 sqq.

4 Paulitschke, Ethnographie NordostAfrikas, pp. 189, 190, 244.

5 Spencer, Principles of Sociology, i. 750.

Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, p. 402.

behaviour."1 There are even peoples among whom the husband's authority hardly exists, although he has had to pay for his wife.2

Among many peoples the hardest drudgeries of life are said to be imposed on the women. Among the Kutchin "the women are literally beasts of burden to their lords and masters. All the heavy work is performed by them." 3 The Californian Karok, while on a journey, lays by far the greatest burdens on his wife, whom he regards as a drudge. Among the Kenistenos the life of the women is an uninterrupted succession of toil and pain, hence "they are sometimes known to destroy their female children, to save them from the miseries which they themselves have suffered." 5 "The condition of the women among the Chaymas," says von Humboldt, "like that in all semi-barbarous nations, is a state of privation and suffering. The hardest labour is their share.” " Among the Australian aborigines "wives have to undergo all the drudgery of the camp and the march, have the poorest food and the hardest work." In Eastern Central Africa "the women hold an inferior position. They are viewed as beasts of burden, which do all the harder work." s Among the Kakhyens "the men are averse to labour, but the lot of all women, irrespective of rank, is one of drudgery";" and so forth.10 But it seems that

1 Macdonald, Light in Africa, p. 159.

2 E.g., the Navahos and Pelew Islanders (Westermarck, op. cit. pp. 392, 393. 398 sq. For the position of wives among these peoples, see infra, pp. 638, 643).

3 Hardisty, Loucheux Indians,' in Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 312.

4 Powers, op. cit. p. 23 sq.

5 Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, v. 167.

6 von Humboldt, Personal Narrative of Travels, iii. 238.

7 Curr, The Australian Race, i.

10 For other instances, see Mackenzie, Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. 147 (Rocky Mountain Indians); Parker, in Schoolcraft, Archives, v. 684 (Comanches); Im Thurn, op. cit. p. 215 (Guiana Indians); Keane, Botocudos,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xiii. 206; Weddell, Voyage towards the South Pole, p. 156, Darwin, Journal of Researches, p. 216, and Bove, Patagonia, p. 131 (Fuegians); Nieboer, op. cit. p. 13 sqq. (Australian aborigines); Williams and Calvert, Fiji, p. 145; Forster, Voyage round the World, ii. 324 (natives of Tana, of the New Hebrides); Zimmermann, Inseln des indischen und stillen Meeres, ii. 17 (New Caledonians), 105 (New Irelanders); Lewin, Wild Races of

2

these and similar statements, however correct they be, hardly express the whole truth. In early society each sex has its own pursuits. The man is responsible for the protection of the family, and, ultimately, for its support. His occupations are such as require strength and agility— fighting, hunting, fishing, the construction of implements for the chase and war, and, frequently, the cutting of trees and the building of lodges.' The woman may accompany him as a helpmate on his expeditions, sometimes even participating in the battle, and when they travel she generally carries the baggage. But her principal occupations are universally of a domestic kind: she procures wood and water, prepares the food, dresses skins, makes clothes, takes care of the children. She, moreover, supplies the household with vegetable food, gathers roots, berries, acorns, and so forth, and among agricultural peoples very frequently cultivates the soil. Whilst cattle-rearing, having developed out of the chase, is largely a masculine pursuit, agriculture, having developed out of collecting seeds and plants, originally devolves on the women.*

South Eastern India, PP. 192 (Toungtha), 254 sq. (Kukis); Rowney, Wild Tribes of India, p. 214 (most of the wild tribes of India); Reade, op. cit. pp. 51, 259, 545 (various African peoples); Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, ii. 117(Negroes); Valdau, 'Om Bakwileh folket,' in Ymer, v. 167, 169.

1 See Spencer, Principles of Sociology, i. 750 sqq.

2 For women taking part in battles, see Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, i. 236 (Comanches); Powers, op. cit. pp. 246 (Shastika Indians of California), 253 (Modok Indians of California); Waitz [-Gerland], op. cit. iii. 375 (Caribs), vi. 121 (Maoris); Wilkes, op. cit. v. 93 (Kingsmill Islanders); Kotzebue, Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea, iii. 171 (natives of Radack).

3 Grosse, Die Formen der Familie, p. 92 sqq.

Ibid. p. 159. Hildebrand, Recht

und Sitte auf den verschiedenen wirthschaftlichen Kulturstufen, p. 44 sqq. Dargun, Ursprung und Entwicklungsgeschichte des Eigenthums,' in Zeitschr. f. vergl. Rechtswiss. v. 39, 110. Bücher, Die Entstehung der Volkswirthschaft, p. 36 sqq. Schurtz, Das afrikanische Gewerbe, p. 7. Ling Roth, Origin of Agriculture,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xvi. 119 sq. Mason, Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, pp. 15 sqq., 146 sqq., 277 sq. Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, p. 5. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern ZentralBrasiliens, p. 214. von Schuetz-Holzhausen, Der Amazonas, p. 67 (Peruvian Indians). Waitz, op. cit. iii. 376 (Caribs). Prescott, in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, i. 235 (Dacotahs). Colden, ibid. iii. 191 ; Seaver, Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, p. 168 (Iroquois). 'Die Baluga - Negritos der Provinz Pampanga (Luzon),' in Globus, xli. 238. Zöller, Kamerun, iii. 58 (Banaka

The various occupations of life are thus divided between the sexes according to rules; and, though the formation of these rules no doubt has been more or less influenced by the egoism of the stronger sex, the essential principle from which they spring lies deeper. They are on the whole in conformity with the indications which nature herself has given. Take, for instance, the apparently cruel custom of using the women as beasts of burden. To the superficial observer, as M. Pinart remarks with special reference to the Panama Indians, it may indeed seem strange that the woman should be charged with a heavy load, while the man walking before her carries nothing but his weapons. But a little reflection will make it plain that the man has good reason for keeping himself free and mobile. The little caravan is surrounded with dangers: when traversing a savannah or a forest a hostile Indian may appear at any moment, or a tiger or a snake may lie in wait for the travellers. Hence the man must be on the alert, and ready in an instant to catch his arms to defend himself and his family against the aggressor. Dobrizhoffer writes, "The luggage being all committed to the women, the Abipones travel armed

and Bapuku). Möller, Pagels, and Gleerup, Tre år i Kongo, i. 129, 137 (Kuilu Negroes), 270 (Bakongo). Valdau, in Ymer, v. 165 (Bakwileh). Burrows, Natives of the Upper Welle District,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxviii. 41 (Niam-Niam). New, op. cit. pp. 114 (Wanika), 359 (Wataveta). Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika, p. 182 (Waganda). Pogge, Im Reiche des Muata Jamwo, p. 243 (Kalunda of Mussumba). Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa, pp. 78, 79, 85 (Barotse), 160 (Matabele). von Weber, Vier Jahre in Afrika, ii. 195 (Zulus). There are, however, exceptions to the rule. Among the Creeks and Cherokee Indians not a third part as many women as men are seen at work in their plantations (Bartram, in Trans. American Ethn. Soc. iii. pt. i. 31). Among the Wakamba both sexes work in the fields, all heavy work, such as clearing and

breaking new ground, being done by men (Decle, op. cit. p. 493). Among various peoples, indeed, such agricultural work as requires considerable strength devolves on the male sex (Hildebrand, op. cit. p. 44 sqq. Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, p. 5). In the Malay Archipelago the men are chiefly engaged in the field-work (Ratzel, History of Mankind, i. 441). In the Kingsmill Islands (Wilkes, op. cit. v. 91), Tonga (Cook, Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, i. 390 sqq.), and the Caroline Group (Cantova, quoted ibid. i. 392, note) the soil is cultivated by the men. Among the Gallas, "whilst the women tend the sheep and oxen in the field, and manage the hives of bees, the men plough, sow, and reap" (Harris, Highlands of Aethiopia, iii. 47).

1 Pinart, quoted by Nieboer, op. cit.

p. 21.

with a spear alone, that they may be disengaged to fight or hunt, if occasion require.

3

Moreover, whatever may have been the original reason for allotting a certain occupation to the one sex to the exclusion of the other, any such restriction has subsequently been much emphasised by custom, and in many cases by superstition as well.2 In Africa it is a common belief that the cattle get ill if women have anything to do with them. Hence among most Negro races milking is only permitted to men.* In South-Eastern Africa " a woman must not enter the cattle fold."5 The Bechuanas never allow women to touch their cattle, hence the men have to plough themselves." In North America Indian custom and superstition ordain that the wife must carefully keep away from all that belongs to her husband's sphere of action." On the other hand, among the Dacotahs "the men do not often interfere with the work of the women; neither will they help them if they can avoid it, for fear of being laughed at and called a woman.' In Abyssinia "it is infamy for a man to go to market to buy anything. He cannot carry water or bake bread; but he must wash the clothes belonging to both sexes, and, in this function, the women cannot help him." 9 Among the Beni Aḥsen tribe in Morocco the women of the village where I was staying were quite horrified when one of my native servants set out to fetch water; they would on no account allow him to do what they said was a woman's business. The Greenlander regards it as scandalous for a man to interfere with any occupation which belongs to the women. When he has brought his booty to land, he troubles himself no further about it; "for it would be a stigma on his character,

"8