[197] For fuller information on this important subject the reader is referred to Professor Otis Mason, who gives a picturesque summary of the work done by women among the primitive tribes of America (_American Antiquarian_, January 1889, "The Ulu, or Woman's Knife of the Eskimo," _Report of the United States National Museum_, 1890). H. Ellis, _Man and Woman_, pp. 1-17, and Thomas, _Sex and Society_, pp. 123-146, give interesting accounts of the division of labour among primitive people, showing the important part women took in the start of industrialism. For direct examples from primitive peoples, the works of Fison and Howit, James Macdonald, Professor Haddow, Hearn, Morgan, Bancroft, Lubbock, Ratzel, Schoolcroft and other anthropologists should be consulted. [198] It is an entirely mistaken view, founded on insufficient knowledge, that in early civilisations women were a source of weakness to the men of the tribe or group, and, thus, liable to oppression. The very reverse is the truth. Fison and Howit, who discuss the question, say of the Australian women, "In time of peace they are the hardest workers and the most useful members of the community." In time of war, "they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves at all times, and so far from being an encumbrance on the warriors, they will fight, if need be, as bravely as the men, and with even greater ferocity" (_Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, pp. 133-147, 358). This is no exceptional case, and is confirmed by the reports of investigators of widely different peoples. I may mention the ancient Iberian women of Northern Spain, whose bravery in battle is testified to by Strabo: the descendants of these women still carry on the greater part of the active labour connected with agriculture (_Spain Revisited_, pp. 191-292). In our own day we have the witness to the same truth in the heroic part taken by women in the Balkan army. CONTENTS OF CHAPTER VII WOMAN'S POSITION IN THE GREAT CIVILISATIONS OF ANTIQUITY I.--_In Egypt_