PRIMITIVE TRANSPORT Woman was no doubt the first beast of burden, but her training was perhaps due less to her lord and master than to her children. Apes carry their young about, the latter assisting by clinging to the mother's fur with fingers and toes. Human mothers are furless, human babies less prehensile, and many are the contrivances for carrying babies or small children while leaving the hands free. The Eskimo hood, the American papoose frame, the Kafir skin bag, the Chinese yoke, the New Guinea net or the Andaman sling are all baby-carriers, and similar devices may be used for carrying other loads. The daily labours of fetching water and firewood and of col lecting roots, berries and other vegetable produce are usually women's work throughout the world ; and while the man walks unencumbered save by his weapons, the woman carries all house hold gear when on the trail. For on the march the man is the hunter and fighter and must have his hands free. S. Hearne's Indian guide Matonabee explained this clearly : "When all the men are heavy laden they can neither hunt nor travel to any consider able distance ; and in case they meet with success in hunting, who is to carry the produce of their labour? Women were made for labour; one of them can carry or haul as much as two men." Matonabee himself chose his wives for their strength—"many would have made good grenadiers," says Hearne—and frequently boasted that few women could carry or haul heavier loads. The average woman's load in summer was about 140 lb. and in winter she hauled a greater weight. The Eskimo, a peaceful people who have no special weapons of war, divide their loads fairly evenly between men and women, though the women are usually the stronger, and a tired boy will transfer his load to his sister.
tribution of these transport animals depends upon their occurrence in a wild state, their subsequent diffusion, and the distribution of their fodder, or their ability to adapt themselves to varying condi tions. The reindeer cannot thrive beyond the limited range of the "reindeer moss" which is their chief food. Unless trained to do so, they will not willingly eat any artificial fodder, or even the moss that has been collected by hand. The llama is confined to the sier ras of South America, and the long strings of them that were used for conveying merchandise down to the lower plains soon sickened in the enervating cli mate. The elephant, owing to his appetite and delicacy, has a re stricted range in southern Asia and has not been domesticated in Africa, while in the latter continent the tsetse fly hinders the efficiency of animal transport over the central area.
The dog was possibly one of the earliest animals to be used in transport, but owing to its small size and limited strength, it was only trained when no better animal was available. But through out the Arctic regions of the New and in much of the Old World the dog is invaluable, its light weight enabling it to run over snow covered ground, and its tractability making good team work possible.
The ox was the most widely distributed of all the transport ani mals. Various species existed in a wild state in North America, Africa, Europe and Asia, and though the American bison was never tamed, the domestic ox was common in Europe and Asia in the stone age. Whether its first use was for food or for transport is impossible of proof ; its flesh was always appreciated, and while the milk of the cow would be the chief value to pastoral societies, its use in dragging the plough would help the agriculturalist in some of his heaviest work. The ox wagon was a familiar means of transport in Mesopotamia and Egypt, as is seen on ancient monu ments ; it is a common sight round the Mediterranean to-day, and has spread to South Africa and South America, the ox being used in the former continent for riding as well as draught. In Asia the yak is as essential for transport and valued for its milk in the Himalayas as the buffalo in southern India.