For
one thing, just because they are accustomed to hard labour all their
lives, they are little, if any, weaker than men. Primitive women are
strong in body, and capable in work. The powers they enjoy as well as
their manifold activities are the result of their position as mothers,
this function being to them a source of strength and not a plea of
weakness.

"They who are accustomed to the ways of civilised women
only," remarks Mr. Fison, "can hardly believe what savage
women are capable of, even when they may well be supposed to
be at their weakest. For instance, an Australian tribe on
the march scarcely take the trouble to halt for so slight a
performance as childbirth. The newly born infant is wrapped
in skins, the march is resumed, and the mother trudges on
with the rest. Moreover, as is well known, among many tribes
elsewhere it is the father who is put to bed, while the
mother goes about her work as if nothing had happened."[175]

[175] _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, p. 358.

Another important advantage arising to women, through their
identification with the early industrial process, was their position
as the first property owners. They were almost the sole creators of
ownership in land, and held in this respect a position of great power.
This explains the fact that in the transactions of the North American
tribes with the Colonial Government many deeds of assignment bear
female signatures.[176] A form of divorce used by a husband in ancient
Arabia was: "Begone, for I will no longer drive thy flocks to
pasture."[177] 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 1200 to 1500 birch-bark
vessels.[178] In the New Mexico Pueblos what comes from the outside of
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 chili without the consent of his fourteen-year-old
daughter, Ignacia, who kept house for her widowed father."[179]

[176] Ratzel, _History of Mankind_, Vol. II, p. 130.

[177