[188] Bastian, _Loango-Kueste_, I. p. 166.

[189] Dennett, _Jour. Afr. Soc._, I. p. 266.

[190] _Jour. Afr. Soc._, I. p. 412. See Hartland, _op. cit._, Vol. I,
pp. 275-288.

[191] A similar custom prevails among Maori people of New Zealand.
When a child dies, or even meets with an accident, the mother's
relations, headed by her brother, turn out in force against the
father. He must defend himself until wounded. Blood once drawn the
combat ceases; but the attacking party plunders his house and
appropriates the husband's property, and finally sits down to a feast
provided by him (_Old New Zealand_, p. 110). This case is the more
extraordinary as the Maori reckon descent through the father; it is
doubtless a custom persisting from an earlier time.

[192] Macdonald, _Africana_, Vol. I. p. 136.

[193] _Jour. Afr. Soc._, VIII. pp. 15-17. This tribe now traces
descent through the father.

[194] Torday and Joyce, _J.A.I._, XXXV. p. 410.

[195] Arnot, _Garenganze_, p. 242.

[196] Spencer, _Descriptive Sociology_, Vol. V. p. 8, citing
Petherick, _Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa_, pp. 140-144. This
case is quoted by Thomas, _op, cit._, pp. 85, 86.

[197] For fuller information on this important subject the reader is
referred to Professor Otis Mason, who gives a picturesque summary of
the work done by women among the primitive tribes of America
(_American Antiquarian_, January 1889, "The Ulu, or Woman's Knife of
the Eskimo," _Report of the United States National Museum_, 1890). H.
Ellis, _Man and Woman_, pp. 1-17, and Thomas, _Sex and Society_, pp.
123-146, give interesting accounts of the division of labour among
primitive people, showing the important part women took in the start
of industrialism. For direct examples from primitive peoples, the
works of Fison and Howit, James Macdonald, Professor Haddow, Hearn,
Morgan, Bancroft, Lubbock, Ratzel, Schoolcroft and other
anthropologists should be consulted.

[198] It is an entirely mistaken view, founded on insufficient
knowledge, that in early civilisations women were a source of weakness
to the men of the tribe or group, and, thus, liable to oppression. The
very reverse is the truth. Fison and Howit, who discuss the question,
say of the Australian women, "In time of peace they are the hardest
workers and the most useful members of the community." In time of war,
"they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves at all times,
and so far from being an encumb