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discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at http: //books. google. com/| Google s^&ait© Gift Google Palo fi- J * mivjs Google Google THE CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE SERIES.
Edited by HAVELOCK ELLIS.
MAN AND WOMAN.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. THE CRIMINAL. Illustrated. (Walter Scott, Ltd.)
" The subject with which it deals is by this volume introduced for the first time to English readers. In many a journal, from many a scientific meeting, they are likely to hear more of it in the near future."— Pall Mall Gazette.
"In der Darstellung der Resultate der criminellen Anthro- pologic giebt Ellis die beste mir bekannte Begrundung der atavistische Theorie des Verbrechers...das ausgezeichnete, von echt englishem common sense durchdrungene Buch." — Dr. Kurella in Centralblatt fur Nervenheilkunde.
THE NATIONALISATION OF HEAJLTH. (Fisher Unwin.)
" Mr. Ellis always writes with a purpose, and a good one too, and in the present volume he deals with a great subject in an able manner...His ideas are broad, his objects excellent, and his originality conspicuous." — Sir B. W. Richardson in Asclcpiad.
Google MAN AND WOMAN A STUDY OF HUMAN SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS.
BY HAVELOCK ELLIS.
ILLUSTRATED.
LONDON: WALTER SCOTT, LTD., PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, IS3-I57 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.
Google Google PREFACE.
ABOUT twelve years ago, for my own instruction, I began to collect definite data concerning the con- stitutional differences between men and women. I was moved to do this because I realised that such differences lie at the root of many social questions in which I took great interest, and I knew of no full and unprejudiced statement of the precise facts. I have continued to collect, sift, and ponder over my data for some years after I had satisfied myself personally as to their general significance and drift, because I believe that there are many men and women who are in the same position as I was twelve years ago, and who will welcome this book as I should have welcomed it at that time. When I look into newspapers and magazines, and observe the reckless or ignorant statements that are still made regarding these matters, I am strengthened in my belief. To. the best of my ability I have here presented an anthropological and psychological study of those secondary sexual differences which recent investigation has shown to exist among civilised human races.
Google VI PREFACE.
Google VI PREFACE.
I have throughout sought the advice of acknow- ledged authorities in various countries on points of detail concerning which a specialist can alone give helpful advice; if I had not done this my work would have been even more imperfect than I am conscious that it is. I am indebted to the specialists in question for the courtesy and readiness with which they have in every case responded to my requests. I am also indebted to various friends, whose names are not mentioned in the text, for suggestions and help of a more general character.
H. E.
Google CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE Introduction...i The Primitive Sexual Division of Labour — Man chiefly Militant, Woman chiefly Industrial — Among Savage Races Women not Inferior to Men — The Industries of Women gradually shared and then monopolised by Men — The Status of Women in Barbarism — The Mediaeval Attitude towards Women, and its Causes — The Physiological Mystery of Womanhood — The Modern Status of Woman.
CHAPTER II.
How to Approach the Problem - - - - 18 The Definition of Secondary Sexual Characters— Tertiary Sexual Characters— Standards of Comparison— The Infantile and the Senile — The Human Characteristics of Infant Apes — The Position of the Lower Human Races — Fallacies due to Incom- plete Data and to Bias — Incompleteness of our Knowledge.
CHAPTER III.
The Growth and Proportions of the Body - - 31 General Characteristics of the Male and Female Forms; — Size at Birth — Greater Development of Girls at Puberty — Sexual Differences in Height of Adults— Weight comparatively unimportant- Google viil CONTENTS.
PAGE Sexual Differences in the Growth and Proportions of the Body —The Abdomen— The Breasts— The Chest— The Arm— The Hand— The Index Finger— The Leg— The Foot— The Future of the Little Toe— General Conclusions.
CHAPTER IV.
The most prominent Secondary Sexual Character — Construction of the Pelvis— The Pelvis in Childhood— The Pelvis in Rela- tion to the Spinal Column — The Influence of the Erect Posture in Man and Woman — Pelvic Inclination — The Saddle- Back — The Evolution of the Human Spinal Column — Dis- advantages of the Erect Posture — Women leading Evolution in respect to the Pelvis— The Evolution of the Pelvis in relation to the Evolution of Sexual Emotion.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
The Skull — In the Infant — Chief Cause of Sexual Differences in Skull— Early Opinions — The three chief Sexual Differences in Skull — Minor Differences — The Cephalic Index — The Face — Sexual Differences in Facial Development — The Eye — The Facial Angle — The Lower Jaw — The Teeth — Cranial Capacity — Sexual Differences in Frontal, Parietal, and Occipital Regions of Skull — Man's Skull approaches the Senile, Woman's the Infantile Type. The Brain — Differences in Brain- Weight — Among the Insane — The Standards of Brain- Weight — Height and Weight — Fallacies — Women's Brains proportionately larger than Men's — Advantages and Disadvantages of a Large Brain — Sexual Differences in the Evolution of the Brain — Sexual Differences in the Frontal, Parietal, and Occipital Regions of Brain — Blood- Supply of Brain— The Cerebellum and other Centres below the Cerebrum — Definite Results of Study of Sexual Differences in the Brain at present small.
CHAPTER VI.
Touch— Lombroso's Results, showing Greater Obtuseness of Women — Jastrow's, showing Greater Obtuseness of Men — Google CONTENTS. IX PAGE Unreliability of Tests Adopted— Educability of the Tactile Sense.
Sensibility to Pain — Lombroso's and Jastrow's Results again opposed — General Arguments brought forward — Disvulner- ability marked in Savages, Children, and perhaps in Women — Women's lesser Sensibility to Pain not definitely proved.
Smell — Experiments of Nichols and Bailey and of Ottolenghi — Men possess keener Sense of Smell than Women.
Taste — Supposed to be less keen in Women — But more keen according to Investigations of Nichols and Bailey — This Result supported by Ottolenghi's Experiments.
Hearing — Experiments on Keenness of Hearing during Health few and inconclusive — Range of Audible Sensation probably greater in Men.
Sight — Blindness commoner in Men — Minor Eye-Defects com- moner in Women — No marked Sexual Difference in keen- ness of Healthy Vision — Colour- Perception and Colour-Blind- ness — In range and keenness of Colour-Perception Men somewhat superior to Women — Colour-Blindness very rare in Women — Also rare among Savages— Its Origin still unex- plained.
Coloured Hearing — This and allied Phenomena more common in Women and in Children than in Men.
Why Women are popularly supposed to possess keener Sensibility — The Confusion between Sensibility and Affectability.
CHAPTER VII.
Greater Strength of Men among Civilised Races — Riccardi's Experiments showing Maximum Energy more quickly reached by Women— Rate of Movement slower in Women — Bryan's Experiments on Rate of Motion — Rarity of Women Acrobats — Women's Slighter Muscular Energy probably an Organic Character — Manual Dexterity— Opinions of Teachers — The General Opinion that Women have less Manual Dexterity than Men— Dexterity of Women in Various Trades— Sense- Judgments — Business Experience — Various Experiments — Women probably as well able to form Accurate Sense- Judgments as Men.
Google X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGE There is no purely Abstract Thought— Difficulty of accurately investigating Intellectual Processes— Jastrow's Investigations into Thought-Habits and Associations— Rapidity of Percep- tion—Reaction Time — Women read Rapidly— The ready Wit of Women— Their tendency to Ruse, and its Causes- Precocity— More marked in Girls— The Investigation of School Children— Industrial and Business Capacity— Experi- ences of the Post Office— Abstract Thought— The Greater Independence of Men— Women as Philosophers and Mathe- maticians—Religion—Religious Sects founded by Women— Their General Character— Women's Contributions to the Structure of the Catholic Church— The Intellectual Differ- ences of Men and Women cannot yet be accurately deter- mined — Psychology still in its Infancy.
CHAPTER IX.
The Blood — Red Corpuscles more numerous in Men — Amount of Haemoglobin greater in Men — Specific Gravity higher in Men — The Sexual Differences in the Blood coincide with the appearance of Puberty — Rise in the Specific Gravity of the Blood of Women in Old Age— The Pulse- Rate— Always higher in Small than in Large Animals — Sexual Differences in the Human and other Species — Not notably greater than Differences in Size would lead us to expect.
Respiration — Vital Capacity much greater in Men — Men produce more Carbonic Acid — Costal Respiration of Women and Abdominal Respiration of Men — Recent Investigations show- ing that this Sexual Difference is purely artificial — It does not exist among Savage Women, nor among those who do not wear Corsets — The Origin of Corsets — Their Influence on the Activity of Women — Temperature — No Sexual Differ- ence yet clearly shown.
Excretion — Urine probably relatively greater in amount in Women, and Urea relatively less — Special Influences affect- ing Women.
Google CONTENTS. XI PAGE Susceptibility to Poisons — Sexual Differences in the Selective Action of Poisons on Different Organs — Arsenic— Opium — Mercury — Special Sexual Susceptibilities to Poisons — Chloroform— Lead— Alcohol the best example of Sexual Selective Action on Nervous System — Tends to attack the Brain in Men, the Spinal Cord in Women.
Hair and Pigmentation — Sexual Differences in Distribution, etc., of Hair — The Eyes and probably Hair are darker in Women — Possible Advantages of Pigmentation.
CHAPTER X.
The Psychological Significance of the Viscera — The Thyroid Gland — Its Physiological and Pathological Variations in Women — Exophthalmic Goitre and its Analogy to the State of Terror — The Larynx and the Voice — Changes at Puberty — Relation of the Voice to the Sexual Organs — The Thoracic Viscera— Heart — Lungs — The Abdominal Viscera — Stomach — Digestion — Liver — Spleen — Kidneys — Bladder — The Vis- cera a Factor in the Production of Emotional States.
CHAPTER XI.
The Functional Periodicity of Women - - -244 The Phenomena of Menstruation — Origin — The Theory that Women are Natural Invalids — The Cyclic Life of Women — Its Recent Discovery — Illustrated by the Observation of Various Functions— The Heart, the Eye, etc.— The Special Physical and Psychic Phenomena of the Monthly Climax— These are intensified in Ill-health — The Legal, Scientific, and Social Importance of Women's Periodicity of Function.
CHAPTER XII. Hypnotic Phenomena ------ 258 The Various Phenomena here included under this term— Som- nambulism — Hypnotism — Ecstasy — Trance — Catalepsy — Magical Phenomena — Women have played a larger part in nearly all.
Google Xll CONTENTS.
PAGE Dreams — Women as Dreamers among Primitive Races — In the Middle Ages — In Modern Times — Results obtained by Heer- wagen, Jastrow, and Child.
Hallucinations in the Sane — Sidgwick's Investigations — Greater Prevalence among Women.
The Action of Anaesthetics — Nitrous Oxide — Silk's Observations — Abnormal Action under Anaesthesia occurs on the whole chiefly in Women.
Meteorologic Sensibility— Suicide — Insanity — Conclusion as to Sexual Difference doubtful — Periodicity in Growth.
Neurasthenia and Hysteria — Both more frequent in Women — Description of Neurasthenia — Definition of Hysteria— Its Characteristics — Suggestibility — Relative frequency in the Sexes.
Religious Hypnotic Phenomena— Nature of the part played by Women in Religious Movements — Shakers — Theosophists — Dancing Mania — Camisards — Modern Hysterical Religious Epidemics — Christs — Skoptsy — Hypnotic Religious Pheno- mena among Uncivilised Races — Nature and Causation.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Affectability of Women 297 What is an Emotion? — Readier Response of the Vaso-motor Vascular System in Women — Physiological and Pathological Evidence — The Heart— Blushing— Affectability of the Muscu- lar System — Facial Expression — The Iris — The Bladder — Susceptibility to Fright — Emotional Causation of Disease predominates in Women — Destructive Tendencies — "Break- ings out'— The Source of these— The Congenital Exhausti- bility of Women — The Advantages of Women's Affectability — Anaemia and Affectability — The greater Affectability of Women to some extent the Result of Circumstances, to some extent Organic.
The Industries arose in Women's Hands, the Arts in Men's — Pottery — Tattooing— Painting — Sculpture — Music — Why Women have failed in Music — Metaphysics — Mysticism — Google CONTENTS. xiii PAGE Poetry— Fiction — Why Women have succeeded in Fiction— The Supremacy of Women in Acting— The Artistic Impulse generally is more marked in Men— The Causes of this.
CHAPTER XV.
Suicide — Factors that Influence its Frequency— Sexual Proportions in Europe— The Influence of Age — The Causes of Suicide- Methods of Suicide — Men prefer Active, Women Passive Methods — Racial Sexual Differences.
Insanity— In Various Parts of the World— Causes of Insanity- Forms of Insanity — Alcoholic Insanity and General Paralysis increasing among Women — General Paralysis as a Typically Masculine Insanity — Insanity and Civilisation.
Criminality — Difficulties in the way of the study of Sexual Differ- ences — Why Women are less Criminal than Men — The Special Forms of Women's Criminality — Criminality and Civilisation.
CHAPTER XVI. The Variational Tendency op Men -.358 Most Abnormalities more common in Men — The Influence of the Pelvis on the side of Mediocrity — Still-born Children — Sexual Proportion of Congenital Malformations— Muscular Abnormal- ities — The Ear and its Abnormalities — Psychic Abnormalities, Idiocy, Genius, etc. — Greater Variability of the Male Brain — The Primitive Racial Elements in a Population perhaps more clearly represented by Women — Women more disposed than Men to preserve Ancient Custom and Ancient Methods of Thought — The Organic Conservatism of Women — No Con- nection with Politics — Advantages of this Sexual Difference.
CHAPTER XVII.
The Birth-rate of Males higher than of Females — Their Death-rate still higher— Causes of the greater Mortality among Males— The Resistance of Women to Disease — As Illustrated by Google xiv CONTENTS.
PAGE Scarlet Fever, Small-Pox, Influenza, etc.— Recent Improve- ments in the Death-rate have specially benefited Women- Greater Longevity of Women— The Characteristic Signs of Old Age less marked in Women— The greater Tendency to Sudden Death in Men— The greater Resistance of Women to Disease and Death a Zoological Fact.
CHAPTER XVIII. Conclusion...384 The Knowledge we have gained does not enable us definitely to settle Special Problems — What it does enable us to do— Women are nearer to Children than are Men — But Woman is not Undeveloped Man — The Child represents a Higher Degree of Evolution than the Adult — The Progress of the Race has been a Progress in Youthfulness— In some respects it has been a Progress in Feminisation — Absurdity of Speaking of the Superiority of one Sex over another — The Sexes perfectly poised — But Social Readjustments may still be necessary — We may Face all such Readjustments with Equanimity.
^ MAN AND WOMAN.
Google Google MAN AND WOMAN.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
THE PRIMITIVE SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR — MAN CHIEFLY MILITANT, WOMAN CHIEFLY INDUSTRIAL — AMONG SAV- AGE RACES WOMEN NOT INFERIOR TO MEN — THE INDUSTRIES OF WOMEN GRADUALLY SHARED AND THEN MONOPOLISED BY MEN — THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN BARBARISM — THE MEDIEVAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN, AND ITS CAUSES — THE PHYSIOLOGICAL MYSTERY OF WOMANHOOD — THE MODERN STATUS OF WOMAN.
b "A MAN hunts, spears fish, fights, and sits about," said an Australian Kurnai once; 1 the rest is woman's work. This may be accepted as a fair statement of the sexual division of labour among very primitive peoples. It is a division of labour which is alto- gether independent of race and climate. Among the Eskimo, in their snow-houses on the opposite side of the globe, there is the same division of labour as among the Australians. 2 The tasks which demand a powerful development of muscle and bone, and the resulting 1 Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, Melbourne, 1880, 1 See, for instance, H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. i. p. 66.
I Google 2 MAN AND WOMAN, capacity for intermittent spurts of energy, involving corresponding periods of rest, fall to the man; the care of the children and all the very various industries which radiate from the hearth, and which call for an expenditure of energy more continuous but at a lower tension, fall to the woman.
That is the general rule. In such matters the exceptions are very numerous. For example, among the Similkameen Indians of British Columbia, accord- ing to Mrs. Allison, who knows them well, formerly "the women were nearly as good hunters as the men," but being sensitive to the ridicule of the white settlers, they have given up hunting. 1 Among the Yahgan of Tierra del Fuego fishing is left entirely to the women; 2 among the Tasmanians, perhaps the lowest human race ever known, the women alone dived for fish; and among the Tasmanians also it was the women who performed the remarkable feat of climbing the lofty smooth-trunked gum-trees after opossums. 8 In all parts of the world, in Australia and Africa, as well as among the ancient Celts, Teutons, and Slavs, women have fought at need, and sometimes even habitually. But usually the perilous and fatiguing tasks of fighting and hunting, of such great moment in early culture, are left to the men. To these might for the most part be added dancing, which is more closely related to the others than is perhaps visible at first sight; it is at once a process of physical training and a mode of reaching the highly wrought mental condition most favourable for war; the more even activities of primi- tive women would be impaired rather than assisted by powerful stimulants.
The Indians of Guiana, as studied by a very careful and sympathetic observer, 4 present us with a fairly 1 Allison, "Similkameen Indians," Journal Anthropological Institute, 1 P. Hyades et J. Deniker, Mission Scientifique de Cap Horn, tome vii, Paris, 1891.
• Backhouse, quoted by Ling Roth, Tasmanians, p. 16.
4 Everard Im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, 1883.
INTRODUCTION. 3 average picture of the sexual division of labour among a race which has yet made little progress in barbarism. Men's work is to hunt and to cut down trees when the cassava is to be planted. When the men have felled the trees and cleared the ground, the women plant the cassava and undertake all the sub- sequent operations; agriculture is entirely in their hands. They are little if at all weaker than the men, and they work all day while the men are often in their hammocks smoking; but there is no cruelty or oppression exercised by the men towards the women. Pottery is entirely in the hands of the women; the men are specially skilful in basket- making; while both men and women spin and weave. If we turn to the heart of another continent we find in East Central Africa a closely similar division of labour. " The work is done chiefly by the women; this is universal; they hoe the fields, sow the seed, and reap the harvest. To them, too, falls all the labour of house-building, grinding corn, brewing beer, cooking, washing, and caring for almost all the material interests of the community. The men tend the cattle, hunt, go to war;" they also do all the tailoring and spend much time sitting in council over the conduct of affairs. 1 While the men among all primitive peoples are fitted for work involving violent and brief muscular effort, the women are usually much better able than the 1 James Macdonald, "East Central African Customs," Journal Anthropological Institute^ August 1892, p. 102. And for another picture of the sexual division of labour among a primitive people see Prof. H addon's interesting paper on the " Ethnography of the Western Tribes of Torres Straits," in the Journal Anthropological Institute^ February 1890, p. 342. " The men fished, fought, built houses, did a little gardening, made fish-lines, fish-hooks, spears, and other imple- ments, constructed dance-masks, head-dresses, and all the parapher- nalia for the various ceremonies and dances. They performed all the rites and dances, and in addition did a good deal of strutting up and down, loafing, and 'yarning.' The women cooked and prepared the food, did most of the gardening, collected shell-fish and speared fish on the reefs, made petticoats, baskets, and mats."
Google 4 MAN AND WOMAN.
men to undergo prolonged and more passive exertion, and they are the universal primitive carriers. Thus, among the Andombies on the Congo, according to Mr. H. H. Johnstone, 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, he tells us, having 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." 1 In North America, again, an Indian chief said to Hearne, " Women were made for labour; one of them can carry, or haul, as much as two men can do." 2 Schellong, who has carefully studied the Papuans in the German protectorate of New Guinea from the anthropological point of view, considers that the women are more strongly built than the men. 8 In Central Australia, again, the men occasionally beat the women through jealousy, but on such occasions it is by no means rare for the woman, single-handed, to beat the man severely. 4 At Cuba the women fought beside the men, and enjoyed great independence. Among some races of India, the Pueblos of North America, the Patagonians, the women are as large as the men. So among the Afghans, with whom the women in certain tribes enjoy a considerable amount of power. Even among the Arabs and Druses it has been noted that the women are nearly as large as the men. And among 8 Hearne, quoted by Bancroft, Native Races, etc., vol. j. p. 117. The chief added: "They also pitch our tents, make and mend our cloth- ing, keep us warm at night; and in fact there is no such thing as travelling any considerable distance in this country without their assist- ance. M 8 Schellong, "Beitrage zur Anthropologic der Papuas," Zeitsckrift fur Ethnologie, Heftiv., 1891, p. 173.
4 Journal Anthropological Institute, August 1890, p. 61.
Google INTRODUCTION. 5 Russians the sexes are more alike than among the English or French. 1 The militant side of primitive culture belongs to the men; the industrial belongs to women. The characteristic implement of women is not a weapon, but that knife called by the Eskimo the "ulu" or woman's knife, which is used primitively for all manner of industrial purposes, and which still survives among European women as the kitchen chopping knife. 2 The man undergoes the fatigue of hunting, and when he has thrown the game at a woman's feet his work is done; it is her part to carry it and to cook it, as well as to make the vessels in which the food is placed. The skins and the refuse are hers to utilise, and all the industries connected with clothing are chiefly in her hands. 8 The domestication of animals is usually in women's hands. They are also usually the primitive architects; the hut in widely different parts of the world — among Kaffirs, Fuegians, Polynesians, Kamtschatdals — is built by women. Women are everywhere the primitive agriculturists, though the rougher and heavier work of making a clearing has usually fallen to men, and women hold their own in the fields even in the highly civilised Europe of to-day; thus in Italy, among eleven million women over nine years of age, more than three millions are employed in agriculture. Women have everywhere been the first potters; even 1 H. Schaaffhausen, " Die beiden menschliche Geschlechte," Ant h. Studien, Bonn, 1885.
9 See an elaborate study by Prof. Otis T. Mason of "The Ulu, or Woman's Knife of the Eskimo," Report of the United States National Museum^ 1890.
* There are, as ever, exceptions. In East Central Africa, for example, all the sewing for their own and the women's garments is done by the men, and very well done; "neater tailors than Africans it would be impossible to find anywhere," says Macdonald. Sewing is here so emphatically recognised as men's work, that a wife may obtain a divorce it she "can show a neglected rend in her petticoat." (Mac- donald, " East Central African Customs," Journal Anthropological Institute, Aug. 1892, pp. 102-110.)
Google 6. MAN AND WOMAN.
in Europe, almost up to the present day, girls in Jutland were brought up to make pots. 1 Becoming the first potters, women prepared the way for decorative art, but never went beyond its first rudiments; ornamentation, apart from use, seems usually to be peculiar to men. 2 Women seem to have prepared the first intoxicating liquors; whatever we may think of the obscure Hebrew myth which represents a woman as plucking the fermentable apple, in the north the ancient legends clearly represent woman as discovering ale. 3 Women are sometimes the primitive doctors; 4 but this is by no means universal, probably because medicine-craft at an early period is not differentiated. from priest-craft, which is always chiefly in the hands of men; their more stimulating life of alternate fasts and orgies amid wanderings far afield during the hazards of the chase or of war makes them more acquainted with morbid mental phenomena, and with the more " supernatural " aspects of nature.
It is worth while to quote from the picturesque generalised account of women's industries among primitive races given by Prof. Otis T. Mason, Curator of the Department of Ethnology in the United States National Museum. He is writing more especially of the tribes of North America, the primitive races of whom our knowledge is most extensive {American Anii- quarian^ January 1889): — "Let us follow the savage woman through her daily cares, in order that we may comprehend the significance of her part in the play. The slain deer lying before * See evidence quoted by Hein, " Altpreussische Wirthschaftsges- chichte bis zur Ordenszeit," Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, 1890, Heft v. p. 204. For an account of the primitive manufacture of pottery by women, see Man, "Nicobar Pottery, "Journal A nth. Institute, August 1893.
2 Im Thurn states that in Guiana, even though the women make all the pottery, yet the ornamentation is as often the work of men as of women.
8 " Magic Songs of the Finns," Folk-lore, March 1892.
4 Among the Kurds, for instance, Mrs. Bishop found that all the medical knowledge is in the hands of women, who are the hereditary hakims. {Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, 1891. And see Max Bartels, Medicin der Naturvolker, Leipzig, 1893, PP» S 2 » S3*) Google INTRODUCTION. J her cave, or brush-shelter or wigwam, shall be the point of departure in the inquiry. She strikes off a sharp flake of flint for a knife. By that act she becomes the first cutler, the real founder of Sheffield. With this knife she carefully removes the skin, little dreaming that she is thereby making herself the patron-saint of all subsequent butchers. She rolls up the hide, then dresses it with brains, smokes it, curries it, breaks it with implements of stone and bone, with much toil and sweat, until she makes her reputation as the first currier and tanner. With fingers weary and worn, with needle of bone, and thread of sinew, and scissors of flint, she cuts and makes the clothing for her lord and her family; no sign is over the door, but within dwells the first tailor and dressmaker. From leather especially prepared she cuts and makes mocassins for her husband...Out of little scraps of fur and feathers, supplemented with bits of coloured shell or stone or seeds, she dresses dolls for her children, makes head-dresses and toggery for the coming dance, adorns the walls of her squalid dwelling, creating at a single pass a dozen modern industries — at once toy-maker, milliner, modiste, hatter, upholsterer, and wall-decker...She was at first, and is now, the universal cook, preserving food from decomposition and doubling the longevity of man. Of the bones at last she fabri- cates her needles and charms...From the grasses around her cabin she constructs the floor-mat, the mattress, the screen, the wallet, the sail. She is the mother of all spinners, weavers, upholsterers, sail-makers. Counting and varying stitches, and adding bits of black, blue, red, and yellow on her textures, she becomes the first decorative artist; she invents the chevrons, herring-bones, frets and scrolls of all future art To the field she goes with this basket or wallet strapped across her forehead. By the sweat of her face she earns her bread and becomes the first pack animal that ever bent under a burden in the world. ,.. Home she comes with her load of acorns, roots, seeds, etc., and proceeds to crush them in a mortar or to roll them on a stone slab. Here she appears clearly as the primitive miller. Or, perchance, she lays her seeds in a flat tray, and by help of the wind or a hot stone removes the chaffi Here begins her first lesson in threshing...Perhaps with a stick, hardened and pointed in the fire, she digs the roots from the earth, or cleans or tears away troublesome weeds from useful plants, or digs a hole and drops the seeds of pumpkins, gourds, or maize therein. While we watch her working we are looking at the first gardener, farmer, and nurseryman. It may be that on some lonely plain or alluvial river-bank there is no cave to shelter her and her babes. How long will it take this aforetime basket-maker and leather-worker to devise a shelter of grass or skin, and become the architect primeval?., » The primeval woman was not a potter. It was not until near the polished