_More regular_ and _systematic_ kind of labour is also called for by the nature of the woman's tasks. These are intimately connected with the wandering mode of life of the aborigines. Obviously in a people which was forced by natural conditions to lead a roaming life, such tasks must necessarily have required regular labour. The other chief female occupation--collecting roots and small animals--required also a regular kind of labour. All these occupations--being, as just said, harder and more systematic than men's work, clearly appear also to be much more wearing and tiresome; compared with the men's occupations they appear much less in the light of sport and amusement. The man makes his weapons and hunts, and this is a natural and pleasant sport for him. There are no elements of excitement or variety in the women's work; it is just this element of system and of regularity which makes work repulsive and hard to man, and especially to primitive man. Work of this kind is usually done only under a strong compulsion; and woman's work in Australia appears also to be compulsory. This is directly stated in several places (Dawson, Curr, Mitchell, Forrest, Moore, Oldfield). This compulsory character is undoubtedly another reason why the women's position is described in other statements as that of a slave and drudge. A very important point is that the woman's share in labour was of much more _vital importance_ to the maintenance of the household than man's work. This is quite obvious, seeing that the general occupations of camp life were of essential necessity for a roving people. But even the food supply, contributed by the women, was far more important than the man's share. We read that the chief resource of the natives, especially in bad seasons, is vegetable food (Oldfield). And the interesting statement of Earl confirms this in a still stronger manner. So that it appears fairly probable that, on the whole, food collected by women was the staple food of the natives. But not only does the kind of food supplied by the man appear on the whole to be less important than that contributed by the woman, but it seems as if the man's contribution, which in the main was reduced to his hunting products, was devoted much less exclusively to his family's benefit. In order to understand this, let us adduce some statements relating to communism of food, and giving besides some interesting details about aboriginal economics.