testify to their physical capability and aptness for labour.
Schellong,[163] who has carefully studied the Papuans of the German
protectorate of New Guinea, from the anthropological point of view,
"considers that the women are more strongly built than the men." Nor
does heavy work appear to damage the health or beauty of the women,
but the contrary. Thus among the Andombies on the Congo, to give one
instance, the women, though working very hard as carriers, and as
labourers in general, lead an entirely happy existence; they are often
stronger than the men and more finely developed: some of them, we are
told, have really splendid figures. And Parke, speaking of the
Manyuema of the Arruwimi in the same region, says that "they are fine
animals, and the women very handsome; they carry loads as heavy as
those of the men and do it quite as well."[164] Again, McGee[165]
comments on the extraordinary capacity of quite aged women for heavy
labour. He tells of "a withered crone, weighing apparently not more
than 80 to 90 lb. who carried a _kilio_ containing a stone mortar 196
lb. in weight for more than half a mile on a sandy road without any
perceptible exhaustion. The proportion of the active aged is much
larger than among civilised people."

[162] _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, pp. 133, 147.

[163] Cited by Ellis, _Man and Woman_, p. 4.

[164] H. H. Johnston, _The Kilimanjaro Expedition_; Parke,
_Experiences in Equatorial Africa_. These examples are cited
by Ellis.

[165] "The Beginnings of Agriculture," _American
Anthropologist_, Oct. 1895, p. 37.

I may pause to note some of the numerous industries of which women
were the originators. First of all, woman is the food-giver; all the
labours relating to the preparation of food, and to the utilisation of
the side products of foodstuffs are usually found in the hands of
women. Women are everywhere the primitive agriculturists. They beat
out the seeds from plants; dig for roots and tubers, strain the
poisonous juices from the cassava and make bread from the residue; and
it was under their attention that a southern grass was first developed
into what we know as Indian corn.[166] The removal of poisonous matter
from tapioca by means of hot water is also the discovery of savage
women.[167] All the evolution of primitive agriculture may be traced
to women's industry. Power tells of the Yokia women in Central
California who employ neither plough nor hoe, but