WOMAN'S PLACE IN CREATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 243, 15 October 1869, Page 3

WOMAN'S PLACE IN CREATION.

Scotland is not free from the crime of the degradation of woman, and in a form too which can find no parallel in any part of the kingdom. But this however is confined to the Hebrides, where the straugest conception prevails as to the purpose for which women were sent into the world. In the island of Lewis the women do all the heavy work — they dig, delve, and hoe; they carry heavy loads of manure to the fields, and iv the peat season they may be seen all day carrying creelsfulls of peat from the bog. A man may often be seen trudging along the road beside a woman, but the creel is always on the woman's back ! If they come to a river or ford tbe woman crosses first, deposits the creel on the other side, aud then returns- to carry the man across ! When the creel is empty the man sometimes slings it over his own shoulders, aud then mounts upon the back of the woman, who carries them both across together. This is the only occasion when a creel is ever seen on the back of a man. The woman in fact is simply a beast of burden ; and men, in looking for wives, look largely to muscular developement. A story is current among the farmers that excellently illustrates this conception of woman's mission. In the middle of one peat season, wheu labor was much in demand, a man, who waa supposed to be a confirmed bachelor, suddenly married. A friend met him some days after. "What for did you take a woman iike that ?" said the friend. " Did you no hear," replied the man, " that my horse was deed ?" — JohnsorCs Willing Hearts and Beady Hands.