THE HUMAN BEAST OF BURDEN. 253 



carriers. It is brought about by the differentiating process of advanc- 

 ing society. As soon as a body or caste of men are allowed to give 

 their whole time to a pursuit their efficiency is quadrupled; the unsuc- 

 cessful drop out of line; advantages are handed down; powers of per- 

 ception and skill are strengthened ; all sorts of devices for packing, 

 padding, shifting the load, resting, relieving, relaying, combining effort, 

 are thought of as measures of self-protective necessity. The profes- 

 sional carrier is more likely to have been the inventor of the beast of 

 burden, having to suffer more in his own back and legs by reason of his 

 daily burden. The Bajuli of the Eomans were professional porters: 

 " Ferri proprie dicimus quae quis suo corpore bajulat; portari ea, quae 

 quis in jumento secuin ducit ; agi ea, quae animalia sunt. Gaj. Dig., 50, 

 16, 235, etc. Bajulos dicebant antiqui, quos nunc dicimus operarios." 

 Fest., p. 29. In late Latin, a bearer at a funeral. Ammian., 14, 7. The 

 Greek equivalent is Baoraxnjq. 



PEDDLERS. 



This chapter would not be complete without a passing mention of the 

 peddler as a beast of burden who enters on his work as a professional 

 for the purpose of commerce. The coolie, for instance, is a carrier pure 

 and simple. He takes up his burden at the instance of another and 

 lays it down for the same reason. The peddler combines employer and 

 employed, retail buyer and seller, with common carrier. Col. O. 0. Jones 

 says: a The primitive merchantmen engaged in this traffic were held 

 in special repute, were generously treated, and had at all times safe 

 conduct through the territories, even of those who were at war with 

 each other." * The peddlers of the Middle Ages held a conspicuous place 

 in the social order, special laws were enacted on their behalf, and they 

 enjoyed immunities not accorded to warriors and statesmen. Julius 

 Cresar attributes the bravery of the Belgians to the absence of peddlers, 

 " minimeque ad eos mercatores saepe commeant, atque ea 7 quae ad ef- 

 feminandos auimosi pertinent, important." 



THE PREHISTORIC CARRIER. 



Although we have no evidence in the remains of early prehistoric 

 man that carrying apparatus of any kind was employed, yet the exist- 

 ence of mounds, earthworks, and walls of many sorts of material far 

 from its original source, of relics in old camp sites, indicating that the 

 former occupants lived very much as do those tribes from which the 

 specimens hereafter to be described have been collected, attests the use 

 of similar harness and methods of conveyance and transportation. In- 

 deed, nothing is more probable than that the first men and women on 

 earth bowed their backs and foreheads to those loads wnich their de- 



*Cf. C. Rau. "Die Tauschverbaltnisse der Eingebornen Nordamerika's." Archivr. 

 f. Antbrop., V. (Antiq. So. Indians, 64, 243.) 



