THE HUMAN BEAST OF BURDEN. 243 



6. On the arm. — This might be called the retail method of carrying. 

 One sees every moment about the farm boys and men using this method 

 of carrying, and on the busy street multitudes of men, women, and 

 children are ever flitting to and fro with loads. These vary from a few 

 ounces to several pounds, and are borne under the arm, on the forearm, 

 on both forearms. In the stores it is the same thing. The arm seems 

 to be the vehicle for retail conveyance. To vary this style a little we 

 must increase the load and basket and watch the market people as they 

 trudge along with 50 pounds of food hung on the elbow, resting on the 

 hip, and the body bent to get the center of gravity poised exactly. The 

 writer has never seen in any book of travels a savage man with a load 

 hung to his arm like a great hook and himself twisted around so as 

 to throw a part of the weight upon his hip. This must be a product 

 of civilization. 



7. Hung from the shoulders. — This is the favorite device of farmers and 

 others who carry small loads in a bag. One of the indelible recollections 

 of country life is of the farm hand carrying grain, plaster, and other things 

 about the premises in a sack suspended from his shoulders. The same 

 man on Saturday afternoon trudges homeward from the mill and the store 

 with the week's provisions for his family carried in the same manner. 

 The peddler of small wares, the laborer moving with his little property, 

 the hunter returning with his game, the woman of southern climes with 

 her child, all are examples of the importance of the shoulder in the 

 economy of transportation when used merely as an accessory to the 

 back. The universal sack of the negro population of the rural districts 

 in the Southern United States as a receptacle for everything, is a good 

 example of this method of carrying, which has come down to us from the 

 remotest antiquity. Travelers state that a Peruvian miner will ascend 

 100 or more feet of a rude ladder with 300 pounds of ore in a skin bag 

 hung from his shoulder. 



8. On the shoulder. — The shoulder alone plays a leading part in trans- 

 portation. There is no lack of examples of women pursuing this method. 

 The miller takes a sack of grain on his shoulder, places his palm on his 

 hip, and moves on to his hopper, or he reverses the process with a sack 

 of flour from the mill to the farmer's wagon. 



In great shipping houses lines of porters carry sacks of grain to the 

 ship in the same way. 



Again, the hod-carrier, antecedent of all modern elevators, with 75 

 to 100 pounds of brick or mortar on his back, has been for ages all over 

 the world transporting upward the material of the builder. 



Look, moreover, at the coolies of the Orient. More than a million 

 Chinese make their living as professional carriers. In the cities are the 

 porters and others who carry rice, etc., on the shoulder in sacks or bur- 

 dens upon a pole, half the weight at either end. 



Writes a friend : 



" The average load of a coolie is 100 pounds, and with this he travels 



