forests, were kept and tamed. Presently the use of fire was discovered--we know not how--but women became the guardians of this source of life. And now, instead of caves or tree-shelters, there were huts and tents and houses, and of these, too, women were frequently the builders. The home from the first was of greater importance to the women; it was the place where the errant males rejoined their wives and children, and hence the women became the owners of the homes and the heads of households. For as yet the men were occupied in fighting. The clumsy and the stupid among them were killed soonest; the fine hand, the quick eye--these prevailed age by age. Tools and weapons were doubtless fashioned by these fighters, but for destruction; the male’s attention was directed mainly by his own desires. And may we not accept that among the most pressing activities of women was the need to tame man and make him social, so that he could endure the rights of others than himself? So through the long generations the life of human societies continued. Those activities, due to female influence, developing and opening up new ways in all directions, until we have that early civilisation, which I have called the mother-age. All the world over, even to this day, this separation in the labour activities of the two sexes can be traced. Destructive work, demanding a special development of strength, with corresponding periods of rest, falls to men; and contrasted with this violent and intermittent male force we find, with the same uniformity, that the work of women is domestic and constructive, being connected with the care of children and all the various industries which radiate from the home--work demanding a different kind of strength, more enduring, more continuous, but at a lower tension. Bonwick’s account of the work of Tasmanian women may be taken as typical-- “In addition to the necessary duty of looking after the children, the women had to provide all the food for the household excepting that derived from the chase of the kangaroo. They climbed up hills for the opossum” (a very difficult task, requiring great strength and also skill), “delved in the ground for yams, native bread, and nutritious roots, groped about the rocks for shellfish, dived beneath the sea for oysters, and fished for the finny tribe. In addition to this, they carried, on their frequent tramps, the household stuffs in native baskets of their own manufacture.”[144] [144] _Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians_, p. 55.