l level. Such
people, as well as others on the still lower nomad stage of
civilization, are to be found at this day in Australia.

"While the purely nomad stage lasted, little progress could be made,
because the possessions of a group were limited by the carrying powers
of its members. But in a favorite forest spot a long halt was
possible, the mothers were able to drop their babies and give a larger
part of their attention to food-getting. As before, the forest
products--roots and fruits--were gathered in, but more time and
ingenuity were expended in making them palatable and in storing them
for future use. The plants in the neighborhood, which were useful for
food or for their healing properties, were tended and kept free of
weeds, and by and by seeds of them were sown in cleared ground within
easy reach of the camp. Animals gathered about the rich food area, and
were at first tolerated--certain negro tribes to-day keep hens about
their huts, though they eat neither them nor their eggs--and later
encouraged as a stable source of food-supply. The group was anchored
to one spot by its increasing possessions; and thus home-making,
gardening, medicine, the domestication of animals and even
agriculture, were fairly begun. Not only were all these activities in
the hands of women, but to them, too, were necessarily left the care
and training of the young.

"The men meanwhile went away on warlike expeditions against other
groups, and on long hunting and fishing excursions, from which they
returned with their spoils from time to time, to be welcomed by the
women with dancing and feasting. Hunting and war were their only
occupations, and the time between expeditions was spent in resting and
in interminable palavers and dances, which we may perhaps look upon as
the beginnings of parliaments and music halls.

"Whether this picture be accurate in detail or not there is at any
rate a considerable body of evidence pointing to the 'Matriarchate' as
a period during which women began medicine, the domestication of the
smaller animals, the cultivation of vegetables, flax and corn, the use
of the distaff, the spindle, the broom, the fire-rake and the
pitchfork.

"In the Mother-Age the inheritance of property passed through the
mother; the woman gave the children her own name; husband and father
were in the background--often far from individualized; the brother and
uncle were much more important; the woman was the depository of
cust