THE HUMAN BEAST OF BURDEN. 241 



An interesting method of study would be by crafts, and it would en- 

 list the co-operation of many searchers. For instance, we might ask the 

 fur trader of Hudson Bay territory to tell us all the ways of carrying 

 peltry that his land had seen, from packing up to the Eed Eiver cart. 

 In like manner the emigrant over the earth, the peddler or merchant, 

 the woodman, the miner, the fisherman, the farmer could each tell us 

 a wonderful story, beginning with a very simple process and winding up 

 with a story worthy of the Arabian Nights ; or, finally, our thoughts 

 could be arranged progressionally in relation to the phenomena, includ- 

 ing both what some call natural evolution and also technical elabora- 

 tion or design. 



One of the most interesting chapters in the history is that which por- 

 trays the methods of hitching up this animal of burden, the parts of the 

 body utilized, the harness adopted, and the adaptation of these to the 

 burden, the country, and, in short, all the exigencies of the case. With 

 this one idea in mind look carefully over the great works devoted to the 

 ancient monuments of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Eome, or turn the 

 leaves of pictorial journals and books of travel, and the variety of 

 ways by which man has grown equal to his burden will be astonishing. 



As the study of railroading includes the engine or motor, the train or 

 burden, the road and the signal, no less does the consideration of the 

 original freightman or pappoose-carrier involve the person, the load, 

 the trail, and the primitive signal. Indeed, the germ of the latest pas- 

 senger and freight train was in the first human burden-bearer. 



The task of duly appreciating rude inventions is not easy, and some 

 of thestatements herein made may seem trivial. Living in the enjoyment 

 of so many privileges in the matter of conveyance and transportation, 

 we shall find it hard to realize the former condition of things unless we 

 transport ourselves to savage and barbarous lands or out-of-the-way 

 country places. In a thriving city one no longer thinks of walking. 

 The cheapest hand laborers ride to their work in cars of palatial splendor 

 drawn by horses, steam, or electricity. Men and women flit around on 

 cycles. It is considered vulgar to carry a parcel. The servant girl 

 buys a few cents' worth of tawdry stuff and has it brought to her in a 

 parcel-dispatch wagon that is covered with forty coats of lacquer. 

 Everywhere the old regime is changed in our civilization. We get an 

 inadequate conception of the early history of human backs by contem- 

 plating the service that nature is at present rendering to the comfort 

 and convenience of our race. 



It would hardly be worth while to mention the clothing and adorn- 

 ment of mankind as a load to be carried, were it not for the fact that in 

 some cases, such as the brass wire of the Africans and the mail of the 

 mediaeval knight,* as much as one hundred pounds are borne by a single 

 individual. Counting all humanity, it is safe to say that two millions of 

 tons of apparel and personal ornament are constantly worn to supply 



* Cf. Meyrich, or Hewitt, or Deramiw, 

 H, Mis. 600, pt, 2—10 



