form, became the symbol of transfer of ownership, in the same manner as
the formal seizing of lands. The passage from sexual service to manual
service on the part of women was perfectly natural.... And thus we find
that the women of most savage tribes perform the manual and servile
labor of the camp."

"The basis of all oppression is economic dependence on the oppressor,"
is the word of a very keen thinker and worker in the German Reichstag
to-day; and he adds: "This has been the condition of women in the past,
and it still is so. Woman was the first human being that tasted bondage.
Woman was a slave before the slave existed."

Science has demonstrated that in all rude races the size and weight of
the brain differ far less according to sex than is the case in civilized
nations. Physical strength is the same, with the advantage at times on
the side of the woman, as in certain African tribes to-day, over which
tribes this fact has given them the mastery. Primeval woman, all
attainable evidence goes to show, started more nearly equal in the
race, but became the inferior of man, when periods of child-bearing
rendered her helpless and forced her to look to him for assistance,
support, and protection.

When the struggle for existence was in its lowest and most brutal form,
and man respected nothing but force, the disabled member of society, if
man, was disposed of by stab or blow; if woman, and valuable as breeder
of fresh fighters, simply reduced to slavery and passive obedience.
Marriage in any modern sense was unknown. A large proportion of female
infants were killed at birth. Battle, with its recurring periods of
flight or victory, made it essential that every tribe should free itself
from all _impedimenta_. It was easier to capture women by force than to