94 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



eaten there is a line of trades that are continuous and that are 

 born of the environment." 



The five sources of information respecting primitive woman's 

 activities are found in history, which records the things of pris- 

 tine culture that lingered three or 

 four thousand years ago; language, 

 which has crystallized expressions 

 descriptive of early conditions ; ar- 

 chaeology, which recovers the things 

 they did before there was any his- 

 tory ; folklore, a perpetual record 

 of the most ancient occupations and 

 customs ; and living tribes that 

 have stood still during all the ages. 

 The variety of occupations in 

 which primitive woman displays 

 her genius is illustrated in a de- 

 scription quoted from Im Thurn of 

 the day's work of a Carib woman 

 in British Guiana, in which she is 

 seen performing the parts of a 

 "mother, butcher, cook, beast of 

 burden, fire maker and tender, miller, stonecutter (stone-griddle 

 maker), most delicate and ingenious weaver, engineer (devising a 

 mechanical press and sieve in one woven bag and using a lever of 

 the third kind), baker, and preserver of food. Add to this her 

 function of brewer, and you have no mean collection of primitive 

 industries performed by one little body, all of which underlie 

 occupations which in our day involve the outlay of millions of 

 dollars and the co-operation of thousands of men." 



Fio. 2. The Primitive Loom Weaver 

 Navajo Woman, Arizona. (After 

 Matthews.) 



Fio. 3. Eskimo "Scraper," made to fit the Woman's Hand. (After Mason.) 



" Suppose a certain kind of raw material to abound in any area 

 or country ; you may be sure that savage women searched it out 

 and developed it in their crude way. Furthermore, the peculiar 

 qualities and idiosyncrasies of each substance suggest and de- 



