As these pioneers in industry were without means of transportation other than their backs, some of the difficulties which they encountered may be readily perceived. It must be borne in mind that for primitive women there was no accumulated store of knowledge and no previous race-experiences; neither were there any established rules or precedents to guide them. All methods and utilities had to be worked out by woman’s unaided brain. When the conditions under which these pioneers in industry laboured are considered, and when one reflects on the obstacles which must have presented themselves at every step along their untried pathway, it would almost seem that their early achievements were quite as remarkable as are those which have since been accomplished by men. The fact is observed that woman assumed the rôle of protector and provider, not as is commonly asserted because she was compelled by man to become a beast of burden, but because she was the recognized guardian not only of infant life but of the public welfare. Later, after the primitive groups began to coalesce to form the tribe, after wife-capture became prevalent and men thereby secured the right to the control and ownership of individual women, a right which they still claim, then and not till then did women become beasts of burden. Then and not till then did man gain the right to the control of woman’s person. It is now known that wife-capture is the origin of our present form of marriage, and that the establishment of the family with man at its head rests on the same basis. It is also known that through forcible marriage and the economic conditions which it entailed, woman became a dependent, a mere appendage to her male mate. The dominion of man and the assumed inferiority of woman are the direct results of the authority which he was able to exercise over her in the marital relation. We have seen that prior to the decline of female influence women taken prisoners in war were not regarded as the legitimate property of their captors. On the contrary, female captives were adopted into the gens and invested with the same status of personal independence enjoyed by the original members of the group. Later, however, female prisoners began to be regarded as the special booty of their captors, and as belonging exclusively to them; and although in primitive times marriage outside the limits of related groups was prohibited, owing to the esteem in which military chieftains came to be held, this claim was at length allowed them. Any courageous young warrior, conscious of his popularity, might gather about him a band of his clansmen and march against a neighbouring tribe, the women taken prisoners during such expeditions being the special prizes of their captors.