The record-union., 1896-03-31
WOMAN'S SKILL IN INVENTION.
Professor Mason Shows That She Ha
Tauoht Men Many Useful Arts.

WOMANS SKILL In INVENTION.
Professor Mason shows That She Has
Taught Men Many Useful Arts.
That this is truly the day of wornan's
progress is shown by the remarkable
exhibit which is now in the process of
construction under the care of Profess
sor Otis Tuition Mason, Curator of the
Department of Ethnology at the Ma
tional Museum at Washington.
The Professor has proven that, while
to man belongs the honor of having in
vented the murderous implements, it is
to woman that all those of a domestic
nature are entirely due. This he shows
by woman's work as exhibited to-day in
savage tribes whose state corresponds
to that of the civilized nations thou
sands of years ago. Woman was the
first to bring the food to the family, the
first to weave, the first to dress skins,
the first to make pottery and to encour-
age art and religion. All of these state
ments Professor Mason establishes by
his researches, whose fruits are on ex-
hibition.
Among the American Indians and the
negro races there is ample proof that
woman was the first to gather the
grain and house it in granaries OF
thatched straw. To her also belongs
the honor of having tanned the cat, and
domesticated it into an animal which
would protect this grain. This she dld
by raising the young by gentle means.
In grinding grain woman flrst USED
two fiat stones; then she originated the
mortar and peStle, implements sun
common in every drug store OF the day.
In California and in Asia this primitive
method of pulveriZing the grain is suli
in use among the women of the tribes.
Among the Arabs the women do all the
work at the mills, which are fiat stones
turned by rude handle.
implements of agriculture were FASH
ioned by women, and DR.. Livingstone
told of a double handled hoe, made by
women which he saw in Africa. Long
before the age of discovery the women
of that country not Cnly gathered ana
ground the grain, but also made the
rude blows and mills which assisted in
the work.
That woman was the inventor of
weaving is another of the beliefs or
Professor Mason and his collection
shows some beautiful work in that line.
Baskets of various shapes and sizes
are in a big case, some of them beautl-
fully colored. Baskets of wood, grass
and fiber were fashioned by women of
all tribes. Among the Algonquins of
America beautiful baskets are fash
ioned by means of the peelings from the
birch tree. and in Polynesia the women
-I ;c< oil n
production of those used by the North
American Indians.
That woman was the first to dry and
use skins for clothing is shown by the
fact that among all tribes that has
been her work since the dawn of his
tory The man killed the beast and laid
it at his wife's feet and with the help
of rude stone knives she then scraped
the flesh and left the thin outer skin,
which she dried and by means of the
threads of sinew made into clothing for
her husband and children. The tool
used by the EsquimauX was of ivory
from walrus teeth, and at the present
day the custom of the women chewing
the skin to remove all flesh still OBJ
tains, according to the account of Mrs.
Peary. The skins, when deprived of
the hair, made a soft and impervious
rawhide which is used by the man of
the Arctics to cover his boat.
Professor Mason's exhibit also shows
that woman was the inventor of all
ceramic work. The Esquimau woman
of Bristol Bay has made pots or lamps
of clay mixed with dogs hair and blood,
and these are similar to those found in
the temple of Vesta at Rome, while the
art and tools of the potter are such as
were in use thousands of years ago by
women The Pueblo women of Colorado
make fine specimens of pottery. The
water jars of Bible times We're, no
doubt the work of the women of that
day.
Professor Mason says that he has no
desire to advance the theory that
women are the superior sex, but he
wishes to prove by this work that she
has kept pace with man in invention
that all of the useful arts of ancient
days were due to her ingenuity, that
she is the originator of such things
now usurped by man, as weaving, skin
dressing, making of pottery and other
arts which he has taken up after leav-
ing off his barbarous tastes, which
were formerly devoted only to combat