rights of property and
with no authority over his children, and subject to the rule either of
his wife or of her relatives, no surprise can be felt if sometimes he
resorted to cruelties, asserting his power in whatever direction
opportunity permitted. I may admit that for a long time I found it
difficult to believe in this mother-power. The finding of such
authority held by primitive woman is strange, indeed, to women to-day.
Reverse the sexes, and in broad statement the conditions of the
mother-age would be true of our present domestic and social
relationship. Little wonder, then, that primitive men rebelled,
disliking the inconveniences arising from their insecure and dependent
position as perpetual guests in their wives' homes. It is strange how
history repeats itself.

Women, from their association with the home, were the first organisers
of all industrial labour. A glance back at the mother-age civilisation
should teach men modesty. They will see that woman was the equal, if
not superior, to man in productive activity. It was not until a much
later period that men supplanted women and monopolised the work they
had started. Through their identification with the early industrial
processes women were the first property owners; they were almost the
sole creators of ownership in land, and held in respect of this a
position of great advantage. In the transactions of North American
tribes with the colonial government many deeds of assignment bear
female signatures.[138] A form of divorce used by a husband in ancient
Arabia was: "Begone, for I will no longer drive thy flocks to
pasture."[139] In almost all cases the household goods belonged to the
woman. The stores of roots and berries laid up for a time of scarcity
were the property of the wife, and the husband would not touch them
without her permission. In many cases such property was very
extensive. Among the Menomini Indians, for instance, a woman of good
circumstances would own as many as from 1200 to 1500 birch-bark
vessels.[140] In the New Mexican _pueblo_ what comes from outside the
house, as soon as it is inside is put under the immediate control of
the women. Bandelier, in his report of his tour in Mexico, tells us
that "his host at Cochiti, New Mexico, could not sell an ear of corn
or a string of chilli without the consent of his fourteen-year-old
daughter Ignacia, who kept house for her widowed father."[141]

The point we have now reached is this: while mot