] Robertson Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in Early
Arabia_, p. 65.

[178] Hoffman, "The Menomini Indians," _Fourteenth Report of
the Bureau of American Ethnology_, p. 288.

[179] Papers of the _Archaeological Institute of America_,
Vol. II, p. 138.

I must now bring this brief chapter to a close. But first I would give
one further example. It is an account of the Pelew matrons' work in
the taro fields. Here the richest and most influential women count it
their privilege to labour, and it will be remembered that these women
are called "mothers of the land." They are politically and socially
superior to the men; and their position is dependent largely on their
close connection with the staple industry of the island.

"The richest woman in the village looks with pride on her
taro patch, and although she has female followers enough to
allow her merely to superintend the work without taking part
in it, she nevertheless prefers to lay aside her fine apron,
and to betake herself to the field, merely clad in a small
apron that barely hides her nakedness, with a little mat on
her back to protect her from the burning heat of the sun,
and with a shade of banana leaves for her eyes. There,
dripping with sweat in the burning sun, and coated with mud
to the hips and over the elbows, she toils to set the
younger women a good example. Moreover, as in every other
occupation, the _Kalitho_, the gods must be invoked, and who
could be better fitted for the discharge of so important a
duty than 'the Mother of the House.'"

Here is a picture of labour that may well make women pause to think.

CHAPTER X

TRACES OF MOTHER-RIGHT CUSTOMS IN ANCIENT AND MODERN CIVILISATIONS

I propose in this chapter to examine, as fully as I can, the traces
that mother-right customs have left among some of the great races of
antiquity, as also in the early records of western civilisations. It
is the more necessary to do this because there is so marked a tendency
to minimise the importance of the mother-age, and to regard the
patriarchal family as primeval and universal. So much interesting
material is available, and so wide a field of inquiry must be covered,
that I shall be able to give a mere outline sketch, for the purpose of
suggesting, rather than proving, the widespread prevalence of the
communal clan and the maternal family.

As to whether this mat