Page:Evolution of American Agriculture (Woodruff).djvu/18

14 the winter of its frigid terrors. No wonder he worshipedworshipped [sic] the fire! Around it they gathered to prepare their food, to bask in its warmth, to moon and dream of their adventures, to counsel with their fellows, and weave fantastic notions that finally resolved themselves into the rudiments of religion.

How precious was the fire! It must not be lost! At first the aged, the young, the crippled, guarded the sacred flames; but later this duty devolved upon the woman. In the last period of her pregnancy and while the child was too young to be carried about, the woman kept the holy vigil. A natural conservator, she readily took charge of what was brought to the fire, and presently assumed command of those who came to the fire. Woman was master, and through her was born the institution of the family. Through her also was born herding, for the wounded kid, healed by her hand, became the domesticated goat and fed about the slopes near the cave under her watchful care.

In her hours of leisure she wandered by the brook and gathered the plants that she knew were good to eat. One day she pulled the weeds and grasses from around a plant that she hoped to gather later, when it should be full grown and edible. By this act Agriculture was born, and for ages following woman was the agriculturist.

So long did woman till the soil with pointed stick and stone hoe and man hurl the spear and draw the bow that a difference in the structure of male and female shoulder blades resulted, and today a woman cannot hurl a stone with any kind of precision. The memory of these ages when woman was the agriculturist comes down to us from barbaric, through