Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/38

 was his equal partner in the game of life. Together they roamed the woods, gathering the fruits and nuts upon which they lived. Together, with flints and stones, they strove against the predatory wild beasts by which they were surrounded. She bore the child, and he, with her, fed and protected it in the way in which, at present, this responsibility is shared by the higher types of the animal creation. Life then was difficult because of its dangers, but simple because of the simplicity of its needs.

When ages of time had done their work, bringing new experiences to the awakening human spirit, teaching it new thoughts and new ways of living, developing the social instinct, and bringing men and women together in small village communities, the new life required a new social arrangement. Then came a change into the life of the woman. She began to stay in one place, the better to bear and rear her young brood, and for their protection she turned herself to various pursuits within the shadow of the home she built with her own hands. She it was who domesticated fire, up to that time the enemy of her kind, teaching it how to become a good servant, and by its means cooking the food she had prepared.

The woman of this period was the first agriculturalist, working in the fields for the