red by the modern methods of preservation of the
delicate and the aged.

=Savage Treatment of the Old.=--In the annals of savage life we find
many gruesome tales of intentional disposal of the aged. The use of
the old grandmother as a target for the training of young boys in the
art of slaying one's enemy is an extreme example. The pathetic couple
left behind when the tribe migrated, often with a small supply of food
saved for them by some pitiful member of the family from the scanty
hoard that must suffice until the next harvest or the next hunting,
the neglect and the actual abuse that often made the last days quickly
ended, all show that when life is too hard there is no room for the
old.

=The Relation of Ancestor-worship to Respect for Aged Men.=--Two
things, at least, helped to give the aged a better place in the social
esteem and in the provision for necessities as primitive life
developed toward civilization. One was ancestor-worship, which made
the father and the grandfather a link, indispensable and therefore
honored, in the chain of blood relationship which carried on the
generations. This type of religious belief and practice did not,
however, work to ease the lot of old women. If the young wife did not
have a child, especially a son, she could be repudiated often, and
lose her standing in the family relation and hence be subjected to
hardships that made her early old and often ended her life while still
in middle age. If she had a son and rose to be a grandmother she might
attain a most honorable position, having her son's wife to be her
servant and her son's son's wife to be her slave. Even with the best
intentions, the patriarchal father could not attend to all the details
of government within his usually extensive household, and no man has
yet lived who could manage unassisted a group of women, such as legal
polygamy and concubinage brings under one roof, each one determined to
get from him the best possible conditions for her own life and that of
her children.

=The Position of Chief-mother in Ancient Family.=--These facts often
made the position of the chief-mother in a family one of such
importance that they became her insurance against want and
ill-treatment. The position of the chief-mother in the collective
family is now one of the vital problems of Eastern nations trying to
adjust the family system to modern ideas. The father's power is so
much a delegated responsibility and the relationship b