THE WOMEN OF SOUTH AMERICA
As in our retrospect of the feminine history of Mexico, so in our review
of the past of the women of South America, it is necessary to begin with
a consideration of an extinct civilization,--necessary not only to the
completeness but to the interest of our subject, for the chief claim of
these chapters to the reader's attention rests on the consideration of
those primitive cultures. Were it not for the dead civilizations of the
Aztecs and the Incas, with their surrounding and dependent cultures,
there would be but little to say concerning the women of Mexico or South
America. For in their later aspects these American cultures represent
simply a more or less decadent Spanish and Portuguese civilization,
modified indeed by circumstance and the infusion of alien blood as well
as custom, yet so close in all material respects to the parent stock
that there is but little of variance worthy of note, while even the
variations from the modern types are most frequently the result of the
influence of the dead civilizations which still live in the stock which
was grafted upon them, though only upon their dead trunks.
Even as for long the history of the eastern coast was that of North
America, so at first the story of Peru was all of true history that we
find of the southern division of our continent. Yet closer in likeness
is the story of Peru to that of Mexico; there is the same tale of a
high, and in many respects admirable, civilization overthrown and
practically destroyed by Spanish lust for gold, and yet in some wise
abiding in influence upon the race which had crushed it. There is the
same record of a mild race yielding to the strength of one armed for
conquest; but in the case of the culture of the Incas the contrast
between conquerors and conquered is still more marked to the advantage
of the Peruvians, for they were of even gentler and more refined natures
than the Aztecs, influenced by a higher and purer religion and dwelling
under a system which encouraged and developed the noblest tendencies of
human nature. There were among the Peruvians fewer paradoxes and
contradictions of culture than among the Aztecs; they were not given to
even the refined forms of cannibalism indulged in by their northern
brethren, nor did they include human sacrifice as a part of their cult.
Their religion was a pure and somewhat simple sun-worship; indeed, the
Incas themselves claimed to be children of the sun. In other respects,
there were many points of approach between the civilization of the
Peruvians and that of the Aztecs; they might be roughly called cultures
of the same class, though where there lay advantage it was usually,
especially in matters which were of the ethical rather than the material
cultivation, on the side of the Peruvians.
As might be expected in such a state of culture, woman held among the
Peruvians a high place; one that might, in a further rough estimate, be
regarded as equal to the status of woman among the Aztecs. In this
comparison, however, the advantage is again found on the side of the
Peruvians, woman being, in some respects, in higher estimation among
them than among their northern compeers. Without pushing the
comparison,--indeed, it is less dangerous to speak positively,--let us
glance at the chief features of feminine life among the people of the
Incas. In the first place, we find that even in the religion of the
Peruvians woman held an honored place. The sun was the chief personage
in the theogony of the Peruvians; but he had his satellites, and among
them the most important was the moon, his sister and wife. In this union
of a god to his sister we are reminded of the Egyptian cult, wherein
Osiris was married to Isis, and it is somewhat curious that in both
nations, Egyptian and Peruvian, wherein there obtained this feature of
incest elevated to sacred places, there was also the introduction of the
same offence against nature in the royal house; for both Peruvian Inca
and Egyptian Pharaoh were given to marrying their sisters, that the
royal race might be preserved uncontaminated by any alien strain.
The religion thus acknowledged the status of woman by giving her a place
among its deities; nor did it stop at this point, though, as is so
frequently to be found in primitive cults, it mingled the sacred and the
profane in a manner rather confusing to our more complex modern thought.
The institution of the "Virgins of the Sun" was in some ways a most
singular reproduction of the Roman Vestal and the Catholic nun, and in
others the exact opposite of the intentions of these European types. The
Virgins of the Sun were young maidens who from their infancy had been
dedicated to the service of their deity, and who, when very young, were
placed in convents. Here they were instructed by elderly matrons called
_mamaconas_, who taught them religious theory and duty as well as the
material arts of spinning, embroidery, and other occupations suited to
their sex and situation. These maidens were usually selected from those
of royal blood or from the daughters of the greater nobles, though a
girl of great beauty would sometimes be raised from the ranks of the
commonalty to the high dignity of a Virgin of the Sun. Their life was
strictly conventual; no one but the Inca himself, or his queen, could
enter the consecrated precincts without having duties to call them
thither. Chastity was most strongly inculcated, and it is said that no
lapse was ever known on the part of an inmate of these convents. This is
not so surprising when the provisions of the law of the Incas on this
subject are recalled. The offending virgin was to be buried alive, her
lover was to be strangled, and the town or village in which he resided
was to be utterly destroyed and "sown with stones," that it might be
effectually forgotten. It would take an enterprising and desperate lover
indeed to dare such results, even could he have overcome the
difficulties of access and the reluctance of his mistress.
Yet, with all this strict regard for chastity on the part of the
consecrated virgins, it was only while the latter were inhabitants of
the cloister that they were so rigorously bound. Indeed, their destiny
was to be brides of the Inca; and thus the whole system was but a sort
of sacred concubinage, and it may be suspected that in the eyes of the
framers of the severe law above cited it was less the offence against
purity than that against the Inca that called for such heavy penalties.
When the Virgins of the Sun attained a fitting age, they were, if
sufficiently beautiful, sent to the seraglio of the Inca. The number of
these royal concubines at times amounted to thousands, and it is not
improbable that to the majority of them a visit from the monarch was
unknown. They lived in sumptuous seclusion at the various royal palaces
scattered throughout the country, guarded and attended by the trusted
officers of the Inca, until the monarch determined, as periodically
happened, to reduce his establishment in this respect, when a large
number of his "brides" were sent away. They did not return to the
conventual institutions from which they had come, but to the home of
their childhood, where they lived in state befitting those who had been
the spouses, even if only theoretically, of the monarch. Nor did these
ladies suffer any loss of good repute for their past; on the contrary,
they were held in reverence as having been admitted into such close
relation with the Child of the Sun. It does not appear whether they were
allowed to contract ordinary marriages after their dismissal from the
royal harem; but it is not probable that this was permitted to those who
might still be termed brides of the Inca, however he might be pleased to
dispense with their society for a time.
Besides the place of woman in the cult of the country, she had high
position in the dynastic as well as domestic polity and customs of the
land. Notwithstanding the number of concubines possessed by the Inca,
there was but one legal queen, the _Coya_, whose eldest son inherited
the crown,--at least so say most authorities, although there are some
dissentients,--and it is stated by the Inca historian that the
succession came down in unbroken line through the whole dynasty. The
Coya was always a sister of the ruling Inca; but as to this custom there
are also diverse statements, some authorities claiming that it was of
comparatively modern innovation, while others assert that it was as
ancient as the dynasty itself, which assertion there seems to be but
little reason to doubt. The Coya received all due reverence from her
people, noble and common; but she had no real authority, however great
may have been her influence. The so-called _Loi Salique_ was in force
among the Peruvians, even though they had never heard of the original
heresy concerning the sceptre and distaff. They acknowledged no female
rule; at the death of the Inca the sceptre passed to his eldest son by
the Coya, provided that the heir-apparent had successfully passed
through an ordeal of great severity, imposed upon him as the test of his
fitness to bear the toil of ruling, while his investiture with that
which answered to knighthood among the Christian cultures was imposing
and wonderfully impressive in its significance.
It is commonly said that polygamy was customary among the Peruvians; but
this statement may be strongly doubted. It is entirely true that the
nobles had large seraglios; but, when the open concubinage that was a
prerequisite, as it were, of royalty is taken into consideration,
together with the fact that polygamy was not known among the common
people, it is far more likely that the real custom was that of open and
legal concubinage rather than true polygamy. The confounding of nearly
related facts in this wise is too common to make us chary of attributing
such confusion; even to this day many well-informed writers are given to
stating that polygamy among the Mussulmans is unrestrained, whereas no
Mussulman can have more than a fixed and small number of wives, all the
other women in his harem being merely legal concubines. Because of this
rashness of statement as well as of the difficulty of ascertaining the
precise facts in regard to Peruvian domestic polity, we may assume that
monogamy was the legal custom, with a recognized concubinage as the
privilege of the nobility as well as of the monarch, since this theory
best consorts with the facts as we know them. Be this as it may, there
is no doubt that among the Peruvians, speaking of them in general and
not as divided into classes and castes, domesticity was on a plane fully
equalling that known to any of the primitive cultures of America or even
of Europe. Marriage was regarded as a sacred relation, and adultery was
considered one of the most heinous of crimes, being punishable with
death. In this and other places, however, it must be borne in mind that
in speaking of the old Peruvian civilization, the word "punishable" is
necessarily used instead of the more positive "punished"; for it does
not seem that all the laws were straitly enforced. It was, for example,
a singular provision of this law that made no distinction between
adultery and fornication, both being equally visitable by death; yet
there was a recognized, if not legalized, system of prostitution in the
cities of the Incas. Such a contradiction of facts casts a very grave
suspicion upon the integrity of the whole of the code in which that
contradiction appears; and it may therefore be supposed that much of the
legislation of the Incas was allowed to remain a dead letter. Still, the
tendency of thought among a people can frequently be discovered by a
study of their statute-book, even if the laws be not implicitly
enforced; and we may judge from the laws of the Incas that the people
over whom they ruled were straitly moral according to their lights,
which is all that can justly be demanded of any people, even the most
civilized.
The other facts pertaining to the status of women in that wonderful
civilization which Pizarro destroyed may be well summed up within the
scope of a paragraph. The women of the Peruvians knew a domestic lot
which was strongly akin to that held by their Aztec contemporaries. They
were reared in affection, though with some severity, and they were early
taught the principles of chastity, modesty, and reverence for parents
and religion, as well as the more material knowledge that enters into
the life of the normal woman of all cultures: housewifery, needlework,
and certain of the arts pertaining to the household. The Peruvian maiden
was well fitted for the responsibilities and dignities of wifehood ere
she was allowed to assume that place of honor; and the occasion of her
marriage was marked by a ceremony so quaint and original that it
deserves special mention. The Peruvian maidens could not choose their
own marriage day; this was appointed by law, and only once did it come
in a year, so that each twelvemonth there was a season of bridal
rejoicing throughout the land. Those who were desirous of being married
assembled on this stated day in the public square of their respective
cities, and their hands were joined by a cacique in face of the people.
This simple ceremony, together with the pronouncement of the contract by
the cacique, constituted a marriage. The gentile system was, in some
sort, in force among the Peruvians, and no one was allowed to contract
marriage with any but a member of his or her gens; but this rule was
capable of broad extension, even to including those residing in the same
province. The ceremony was followed by festivities lasting several days;
and the fact of all weddings being simultaneous turned the whole land
into a festal place. We are not told what was done when some one was so
inconsiderate as to die during this period and thus interfere with the
merriment of his particular kindred; probably the corpse was compelled
to wait until its turn came and grief could legitimately take the place
of joy. However this may be, it is certain that marriage was in all ways
held in high respect by the Peruvians, and divorce was almost or quite
unknown. For the rest, the lot of the Peruvian woman was practically the
same as that held by the woman of the Aztecs and does not call for
amplification.
There is, however, another primitive civilization of South America which
calls for notice, as being in its way as interesting as that of the
Peruvians, and moreover of greater importance to the present, since in
some aspects it still survives. This was the civilization of the
Araucanians, to adopt the general, though not absolutely correct
nomenclature. While the more remarkable civilization of the early
Peruvians has centred general attention upon itself among the primitive
cultures of South America, that of the Araucanians was hardly less
wonderful in certain aspects, though as an absolute culture it was far
below the standard of its more northern compeer. The Araucanians were
simply Indians, but Indians of a very remarkable class. Among the tribes
of North America their nearest peers would probably be found among the
Navajos; but the Araucanians were in many respects far superior to their
brothers of the northern plains. They were, above all, warriors, and for
long they successfully resisted the Spanish invasion. They were a free,
restless, brave, and highly independent people, and far better fitted
for survival than their more highly cultured neighbors, and this they
have proved by resistance to the ill effects of eastern civilization and
a persistence unto this day.
It may be succinctly said that, while the status of the Araucanian woman
was far from being equal to that of her Peruvian or Aztec sister, she
was yet held in higher esteem than was usual among most Indian tribes.
One of the manifestations of the racial instincts of the Araucanians is
to be found in their delight in that which is generally and
contemptuously denoted "finery." The women as well as the men painted
their faces: not after the manner of civilization, but after that of
savagery, the colors used being red and black, and with pigments of
these hues the Araucanian belle decorated her face, using the black
chiefly for emphasis of the eyebrows, eyelashes, and eyelids, much in
the manner in which henna is used by Oriental women. A curious use of
the black paint was the occasional depiction of sable tears rolling down
the cheeks. Silver and beads were much worn,--for silver was almost as
common as stone among the aborigines of Chili,--and bright colors were
profusely used in the dress of the Araucanian lady of social standing.
The most distinctive part of the costume of the Araucanian belle was her
headdress and the manner of wearing the hair, the former being composed
entirely of beads, and coming low upon the forehead, while it passed
over the head and descended quite low on the back; the hair was worn in
two queues, which were wound with bright colored beads, the ends falling
over the face or sticking out in front like horns.
As among most Indian races, polygamy prevailed among the Araucanians. To
the women fell the greater part of the work; indeed, it would not be
overstating the case to assert that the wife did all the labor in the
Araucanian household, even to those offices which the Indian of the
northern continent generally performed for himself. Yet the women of the
Araucanians were not ill treated as a rule. Marriage by capture
prevailed, though there was about it also the elements of marriage by
purchase. The friends of the wooer sought the father of the girl and
requested his consent to the match; but this was rather a matter of form
to even more than the usual extent, since while the father was thus
being flattered the lover was searching for his bride. Invading the
sanctity of her chamber and plucking her forth, by the hair or heels, as
was most convenient,--for the Araucanian was somewhat strenuous in his
wooing,--he threw her upon his horse and galloped off with her _à la_
Lochinvar, leaving his friends to sustain the attacks of the women, who
always rallied fiercely to the defence of the bride. The latter made it
a point of honor, indeed, to scream loudly for help; and, however
doubtful may have been her good faith, the other women considered it a
duty to their sex to accept her protests as implicit and to visit her
rape upon the heads of the allies of the lover, which allies rarely
escaped with unscarred faces. Having covered the retreat of the ardent
swain, the friends then followed him to the sylvan haunts which he
sought for concealment and from which he emerged some two or three days
later with his captive, now a willing bride. No other ceremony was
needful; but, if the parents of the girl were really averse to the match
and rallied in time to prevent the wooer from gaining the shelter of the
woods with his captive, there was no marriage; if, on the other hand,
the thicket was safely gained, the marriage could not be afterward
annulled. After the emergence of the wedded pair from their solitude,
the friends of the husband called upon him to congratulate him and to
offer him gifts, most of which had been pledged beforehand. These
presents were then conveyed in procession to the father of the bride,
who, if he considered that he had been paid full value for his daughter,
took the bridegroom by the hand and declared his delight at the
alliance. The mother, however, was supposed to be so angered with her
son-in-law for the robbery of her child that she would not even speak to
him or so much as look at him; and though she generally relented so far
as to tell her daughter to ask her husband if he were not hungry, and
upon receiving an affirmative answer proceeded to cook a feast for the
assembled company, nevertheless for years after the marriage she would
never speak face to face with her son-in-law, though with her back
turned to him she would converse with him with entire freedom. This
formal resentment on the part of the mother-in-law seems to indicate a
recognized status on the part of the _mater familias_, since it was
theoretically in opposition to the will of the _pater familias_ and
therefore in some sense a declaration of independence.
Divorce was known among the Araucanians, and the discarded wife was sent
back to her father's house with full liberty to marry whom else she
would; but in such case the second husband was compelled to pay to the
first the full price which the woman originally cost him. When a man
died his widow became independent, except where there were surviving
sons by another wife, who in such case could claim their father's widow
as a concubine to be held in common. This singular custom doubtless
arose from the theory of the woman being a chattel of the estate and
reverting by right to the heirs. Adultery was punished on the woman by
death, while if the outraged husband took the guilty paramour in
_flagrante delicto_ he could slay him without incurring any penalty; if,
however, the man escaped, he could not afterward be killed with
impunity, but could be made to pay to the injured husband the original
cost of the wife. It seems highly probable, however, that among the
early Araucanians female virtue was of a high standard, though among
their descendants it is not quite so highly esteemed.
A somewhat curious custom, still in force among the Araucanians, was
that of borrowing children. A sterile woman was an object of reproach,
as has been the case among all primitive peoples, and she was likely to
forfeit the consideration of her husband and to be supplanted by a new
wife who might bear him children. It was to guard against this as far as
possible--as well as for protection, since sterility was cause for
divorce--that the barren Araucanian wife would often borrow from some
complacent and prolific kinswoman one or more of her children, whom the
sterile wife would rear as her own. The exact status of these children
in the household is not clear; they would seem to have been attributed
by courtesy, as it were, to the wife, but not to have stood as heirs to
the husband unless in default of heirs of his body, nor even then except
by express testamentary act, or that which bore the value of such act,
on his part. Yet the fact that the custom existed and still exists is
sufficient to show that it must in some way have assured the position of
the barren wife. The Araucanians, by the way, notwithstanding a
statement to the contrary by Molinos, swathe their children as do most
Indian tribes, and they even tie their infants to a bamboo frame so
tightly that the little unfortunates have no control over any portion of
their bodies save their eyes, and in this state they are hung upon the
walls when it is desirable to get them out of the way an occurrence so
frequent that the infants pass nearly their whole existence hung upon
pegs like unhappy _lares_.
One curious Araucanian custom, surviving to the present time among many
of the tribes, is that of giving to each wife a separate fireplace, at
which she did her own cooking. Of course this was not practicable where
the house was small and the wives were many; but so well was the custom
established, in theory at least, that the polite manner in which to
inquire the number of wives a man had was to ask him, "How many fires do
you burn?" The houses, by the way, were often shaped much like an
inverted boat, and the interior was furnished with a row of cane
partitions which roughly carried out the maritime idea, as they had
somewhat the appearance of staterooms. These were arranged on each side,
and in the middle ran the row of fires around which squatted the ladies
of the household. It must not, however, be imagined that only one
family, as we understand the word, inhabited one house; on the contrary,
each of the married sons had his portion of the paternal rooftree, and
often there were as many as a dozen households under one roof. These
matters varied with the geographical position of the tribe, the Indians
of the north differing from their southern brothers much as the Indians
of the eastern part of North America differed from those of the west;
and the household which has just been described was typical rather of
those of the south than those of the north, though some of the features
were identical in both sections.
One of the most remarkable facts concerning the status of women among
the Araucanians was that there were medicine women as well as medicine
men, and that the former were generally held in higher repute than their
male rivals. While this belief in women as peculiarly adapted to the
pursuit of sorcery has been prevalent among many peoples, those of white
blood as well as those of black, it is rare among Indian races.
The civilization of the Araucanians, both past and present, is among the
most interesting of the social developments of American origin, and is,
perhaps, the one which has survived in truest individuality. Little
record is found of individuals; but two historical facts may be cited
concerning the women of the great Indian race of the south facts
illustrative of the spirit which was inculcated into females as well as
males and born of the indomitable love of liberty which was the
fundamental characteristic of the Araucanians.
When Caupolican, one of the greatest of the Araucanian leaders in their
long struggle against the Spaniards, was at last taken prisoner, his
chief wife, on learning of his capture, hastened to his side; not, as
might be expected by those of less Spartan culture, to alleviate his
captivity with her tenderness, but to upbraid him for his pusillanimity
in being taken alive. Coming into his presence, she threw at his feet
their infant son, saying, passionately and scornfully, _No quiero titulo
de madre del hijo infame, del infame padre!_ [I do not wish to be called
the mother of the infamous son of an infamous father!] At least, that is
what she is reported to have said; but as the Spanish is in rhyme, and
the chronicler was one rather given to romance, we may be permitted to
doubt the implicitness of the narrative in this respect; yet it is most
probable that the incident really occurred, since it would have been in
entire conformity with the fierce pride of the Araucanians.
The other woman of whom Araucanian history tells us was called Janaqueo.
She was the head wife of a chief who was defeated and slain by the
Spanish invaders. As soon as she learned of the death of her husband she
organized a band of Puelche Indians, was chosen their chief, and sallied
forth against the enemy. She proved herself a most skilful leader in the
peculiar fighting which was appropriate to the terrain; she hung on the
flanks of her foes as a hound on a clumsy boar, alternately fighting and
disappearing, and even in pitched battle defeating more than one noted
Spanish general. She was one of the most enterprising and dangerous foes
ever encountered by the invaders; and when at last she was conquered
through her affection for her brother,--who, having been taken captive
and condemned to death, was enlarged on condition that his sister
retired to her distant home,--the Spaniards felt that they had won a
victory which was most important, even though the forces of the Amazon
still held the field against them. There can be no doubt that Janaqueo
was a most skilful and valiant general; and she relieves the Araucanian
nation from the aspersion of being the only people that cannot claim a
national Joan of Arc to play against the French heroine.
Before turning to a consideration of South American women as descended
from Spanish civilization, it may be well to say a word concerning a
most singular class of natives of South America one which, happily, may
be dismissed in a few words, but yet which must be mentioned for the
sake of completeness, _the Gauchos_. There may be a question as to the
right of the Gaucho women to occupy even a minor place in a history of
the development of woman; for the feminine Gaucho has but one individual
characteristic. She is dirty, she is slovenly, she is lazy, she is a
mere animal, a slave, a beast of burden, but all these things may be
found in other extant or past civilizations,--to give them a term of
courtesy,--and it would seem hardly needful to bring to the reader's
attention a peculiar people if the qualities mentioned were the only
ones to be found among these women. But this is not so, for the Gaucho
woman has a preeminence in one respect: she is absolutely the most
unmoral woman upon the face of the earth, and she has been so ever since
her singular class came into recognized existence. This does not say she
is immoral; her depravity is too open, too much a matter of course, too
entirely a condition of her existence to be deemed immorality. It has
been said that it is a wise child who knows his own father; but among
the Gauchos it was a remarkable woman who had any assured ideas as to
the father of any particular one of her children. Marriage existed as a
form of possession; but as all Gaucho women who had reached maturity had
families,--and maturity in that climate came at about the age of
twelve,--whether they had gone through the ceremony of marriage or not,
it will be understood that few Gauchos, male or female, ever thought of
troubling to be formally wedded. Sir Francis Head, who, about the
opening of the last century, wrote a most entertaining account of his
travels across the Andes and Pampas, tells us that if one asked a young
Gaucho señorita who might be the father of the child that she was
carrying, the almost invariable and entirely artless reply would be,
"_Quien sabe_?" and though Lieutenant Strain, who followed in the
footsteps of Sir Francis some fifty years later, contradicted the
latter's account of the surliness and fierceness of the male Gaucho, he
did not find it lie in his mouth to defend the virtue of the women.
Such absolute, universal, and unblushing unmorality as this is worthy of
chronicle and really is hardly shocking, since it is so perfectly matter
of fact that it simply resolves itself into a rule of life alien from
our ideas. Yet, on the other hand, it is not as the unmorality of the
natives of the South Sea islands, for example, where in their primitive
state the retention of that which among us is known as womanly virtue
was considered a reproach; for the Gaucho women, though so frankly
unmoral, yet were not thus by religion and custom. On the contrary, the
Gauchos were usually profoundly superstitious and were apt to be devout
members of the Roman Communion. Had they been pagans, they would not
have acquired any especial claim to renown for immorality by their
customs; but as members, by courtesy, of a Christian civilization the
women of the Gauchos deserve to be embalmed in the history of their sex
as superlative in their national unmorality.
Mention of the women of the South Sea islands leads to another
digression from the main subject, for there are one or two interesting
facts to be told about these women. The customs of the Taeehs, one of
the most powerful of the tribes of the Pacific islanders, may be taken
as typical of the others, though, of course, there are points of
variance and even departure. When Porter, the captain of the famous
Essex, visited the island of Nookahevah during his celebrated cruise in
1812, he found that island governed by a princess named Pittenee--a fact
which shows that among the islanders women were held in some esteem. The
lady, potentate though she was, was not above forming a scandalous
connection with one of Porter's officers, though she displayed no
fidelity to her temporary spouse; but nothing better could be expected
of one of a race where the parents urged their daughters to sacrifice
their virtue to strangers and even rewarded with presents those who did
them the honor to accept that virtue in gift. Indeed, the claims of
hospitality required the proffer of the person of wife or sister to the
guest, while before reaching marriageable age--about nineteen, very late
for such a climate--the young girls were given entire license. There was
marriage among these people, though it is difficult to see why; and,
strange to say, post-nuptial unfaithfulness was rare. The married women,
as usual among primitive peoples, were rather chattels than slaves,
being entirely at the disposition of their husbands; indeed, save in the
matter of unmorality, the customs of the islanders in regard to their
women differed but little from those conventional among barbarous
tribes.
It is now time to turn to a consideration of the women of South America
as we usually think of them, the product of a grafted Spanish
civilization rather than a survival or result of primitive cultures. Yet
when we turn to such consideration we find but little that is
characteristic or even interesting. It is not to Spanish-founded
countries that we must look for the greatest advances in the status or
culture of women; in such lands there has ever been stagnation and even
retrogression, while there has rarely been any marked individuality of
personal or national trait. Nor must it be forgotten that the phrase
"the Women of South America," even in the limited meaning of those of
Spanish blood, covers an exceedingly broad field.
In noting the history of woman in South America, it is pleasant to
relate that one of the first of the sex of whom we have record is
chronicled as having performed a vast service to posterity, even though
it were one which would have been done by others had she not been the
pioneer. It is recorded that the first wheat ever sown in South America
was carried to Lima, in the year 1535, by Doña Maria de Escobar, though
the quantity was only a few grains. When the crop came to ripeness, the
lady called together all her friends to celebrate the first harvest of
wheat ever gathered in the New World; and although she was in error as
to this,--wheat having been produced in Mexico in 1528 by a negro slave
belonging to Cortés, who accidentally found a few grains mingled with
the rice supplied to the soldiers and sowed them,--she is none the less
deserving of being held in honorable remembrance as the benefactor of
generations yet to come. While speaking of benefactors among South
American women, one may be mentioned who is remarkable both for her race
and for the form of one of her bequests. This was Catalina Huanca, an
Indian, who was so rich--being a cacique--that she left at her death
much money to be expended in various charitable bequests, among them
being the still existing hospital of Santa Ana at Lima; but the
extraordinary bequest to which allusion is made was a sum to be used for
forming and maintaining a body guard for the viceroy, the guard to
comprise both infantry--halberdiers, as the foot then were in such a
body and cavalry, and to consist of a hundred men. It is difficult to
say whether this bequest was not a malicious hit at the poverty of show
among the high Spanish officials as compared with the state held by the
Indians in their ceremonials; but the viceroy did not care to inquire
too curiously into the donor's meaning, but preferred to accept with
gratitude the goods with which the gods had provided him.
It may be broadly said that the characteristics of the Spanish-American
ladies of Chili, Peru, and the rest of the greater Spanish-American
states were from the first, and continue until now, very like those of
the Mexican women. Even physically there is a great resemblance in the
races, as indeed there should be, considering the identity of parent
stock. Their complexions were and are rarely good; but their hair and
eyes are generally fine and their figures excellent, while small feet
form a national physical trait of which they, like their Mexican
sisters, are exceedingly proud. There has never been any marked racial
individuality among the women of South America, and what little there
once was has entirely disappeared. Even early in the past century a
traveller, in noting the influx of European manners, said: "This spirit
of imitation is natural and praiseworthy, but it produces a cloying
sameness; it is a leveller, destructive alike of national and personal
individuality, and the traveller, tired of seeing continually reproduced
the manners, customs, dress, and even ideas with which he has always
been familiar, will tarry with pleasure in those spots presenting the
freshness of originality. Such spots exist only where a continual
jostling with the exterior world has not abraded the salient angles of
the national character."
It may be added that such spots have become increasingly difficult to
find, and that the romance of South America has entirely disappeared
before the march of "progress." Yet few countries have known more of
romance, and this in regard to her women, though the chronicle is scanty
and must be pieced together from scraps of information. Perhaps the most
romantic era of South American women was that of the buccaneers. It was
a brief time and one that held much of peril to womanly honor and
virtue; but it also held delightful possibilities for the daughters of
Spain in their new home. These ladies, even some of noble birth, looked
not unkindly upon the "hereticos" who came with fire and sword to gain
wealth in the shape of booty and ransom. Do we not read in quaint old
chronicle of that paladin of a filibuster, Revenau de Lussan, who, in
1685, put Panama to ransom and then occupied the town of Queaquilla? De
Lussan was a freebooter, which is a polite way of writing "pirate," and
he was a Frenchman in days when Gallic morals were not on the highest of
planes even when judged by the usual standard of their country; but the
gentlemanly filibuster was frankly shocked at the state of affairs
existing in Queaquilla, where he found the most beautiful and wanton
women he had ever encountered. The monks and priests with which the town
swarmed took the lead in illicit intercourse with the entirely willing
ladies, and there were few children who had the faintest idea concerning
the identity of their paternal parents. The people of this place had
been told frightful stories about the pirates, and when De Lussan
captured a pretty young woman, the maid to the wife of the governor, she
begged him with tear-strewn cheeks, _Señor, por l'amor de Dios no mi
coma!_ [Senor, for the love of God do not eat me!] It took but a short
time, however, for the jovial buccaneers to prove to the ladies that
they were not greatly to be feared by the fair sex unless the latter
proved unkind; and when the pirates retired to the island of Puna with
their spoils they were accompanied by many of the ladies of Queaquilla,
who went with them nominally as prisoners awaiting ransom but really as
willing mistresses. There the freebooters spent many glorious weeks in
high revelry, with music, wine, dancing, and all other amusements most
dear to the pirate heart, the Spanish ladies entering most heartily into
the spirit of the occasion. In the attack on the town De Lussan killed
the Spanish treasurer, and the latter's disconsolate widow fell to the
lot of the slayer of her husband. In a few days she developed for the
gallant Frenchman a passion that was absolutely embarrassing, insisting
that he should remain with her after the rest of the band had departed,
should marry her, and should live with her at Queaquilla. She actually
went so far as to obtain from the governor a signed pardon for De Lussan
for offences committed against Spanish possessions, so that he could be
assured that he might safely remain. De Lussan, however, though he tells
us that he "was not a little perplexed herewith," could not resolve to
settle down and abandon the career of a pirate for that of a private
citizen; he may also have had doubts as to the intention of the governor
of keeping his fair promises when once he had the famous freebooter in
his power; so he further tells us: "Thus I rejected her proposals, but
so as to assure her I should retain even long as I lived a lively
remembrance of her affections and good inclinations toward me." Thus he
extricated himself from his quandary with all the finesse and gallantry
of his nation and went his way rejoicing in his liberty. We are not told
of the future fate of the lady, of whose name we are indeed kept in
ignorance, but it is probable that some Spaniard consoled her for the
loss of her lover as readily as had that lover for the loss of her
husband.
De Lussan's experience with the women of Central America--which for
convenience is here considered as part of the southern continent--was so
typical that it has been treated at greater length than it may have
deserved. Indeed, there seems to be much light thrown on the impetuous,
passionate nature of the Spanish-American woman by her bearing toward
the pirates who ravaged the shores of her country yet to whom she
frequently gave her heart and virtue. Of course this bearing was not
invariable; Morgan, a greater pirate, but not so gallant a gentleman as
De Lussan, when he captured Panama against fearful odds, found within
its walls a Spanish lady with whom he fell violently in love, but who
resolutely refused to listen to his proposals. Finding flattery,
pleading, and bribery in vain, he showed the true brutality of his
nature by throwing her into afoul dungeon and keeping her there
half-starved, until even his rough comrades who delighted in slaughter
and made the name of England a stench in the nostrils of the civilized
world by their treatment of the Spaniards, remonstrated, and the brutal
buccaneer was compelled by motives of policy to release his captive from
her cell. She was finally ransomed and allowed to return to the ruins of
her home, and here we lose sight of her; but we can remember her as one
who was worthy of the best traditions of the Spanish ladies and whose
memory may redeem the repute of her lighter countrywomen from their
shame.
It must not be thought from what has been said as to the morality of
Spanish-American women in certain periods and places that it is designed
to charge the race in general with immorality. That were to utter a
slander which would be as baseless as it would be inexcusable. It is
unfortunately true that in the history of any country or race it is the
women most famous for immorality and wickedness who stand out most
prominently; those who were merely good were tolerably sure to be
forgotten as unnoteworthy. So it was with South America. We have the
word of a keen observer "that any impartial person who shall reside long
enough among South Americans to become acquainted with their domestic
manners will declare that conjugal and paternal affection, filial piety,
beneficence, generosity, good nature, and hospitality are the inmates of
almost every house. I have no doubt, too, that these virtues will
continue here, until civilization and refinement shall drive them from
their abode in the New World, to make room for etiquette, formality,
becoming pride, prudery, and hypocrisy from the Old. Then, the children
of the first families in Lima (whom I have often seen rise from the
table and carry a plateful of food to a poor protege beggar, seated in
the patio or under the corridor, wait and chat with the little wretch
until he had finished, and return to the table) will look on such
objects with disdain, because mamma has subscribed a competent sum to a
charitable institution and made that sum known to the world through the
medium of the newspapers! I cannot avoid fearing that this modern
improvement will supersede their own pure but almost antiquated
customs."
This, written about 1825, is a severe arraignment of the blessings of
our civilization; but it is also a sincere compliment to the character
of South American women and so is worth quoting. Fond of pleasures the
South American señorita and even señora has always been; but such
fondness, however indicative of volatility of temperament and lack of
depth of nature, is not incompatible with many of the virtues which are
held in high esteem among women. Another thing worthy of note in the
words of our sarcastic critic is the reference to the disappearance,
even at that date, of the more characteristic customs of South American
ladies. A later visitor to Chile and Peru tells us that the young
señoritas often denied that they practised smoking, whereas we know from
other travellers that but a short time prior to that period it was
considered the height of courtesy for the South American lady to
transfer to the lips of her male companion the cigarette moist from her
own. Eating sweetmeats from the same plate was also common at one time,
in fact, down to the beginning of the last century, among South American
ladies and gentlemen; they even sucked mate, the native tea, from a
single tube. These characteristic customs have long since passed away,
and now the Spanish-American lady sedulously apes her European
contemporaries in tastes, dress, and customs. She has retained but
little of the individuality which once marked her national place among
her sex; yet in one respect she is still unique, and it is to be hoped
will long remain so. That singularity is her influence and part in
politics.
All of us know the constant political cataclysms that occur in South
America. It is said that a Spanish-American lady who not long ago
visited New York looked with some surprise upon the arrogance of one of
the _grandes dames_ of the city and inquired the reason. "Why, my dear,"
replied her interlocutor, "she is a Daughter of the Revolution!" "Oh,
_ça!_" replied the charming South American, with a shrug: "Is that all?
For me, I am the daughter of at least six!" The anecdote may be
apocryphal, but it is none the less pointed; and the constant
revolutions of the South American states have become fair matter for
jest. In these turbulent ebullitions of racial spirit rather than
national liberty the fair señoritas and señoras have had a most
prominent part. Not only have they incited and encouraged the men who
bore the brunt of the actual combat, but, if those who know most of the
inner histories of these affairs of state are to be believed, the women
have been the most efficient as well as the most ardent plotters. In
fact, it may be said that of late years, say for the latter half of the
past century, politics has become with South American women as much a
fashion as literature was in France at the time of the great _salons_.
She who had never plotted was at one time--not yet entirely passed
away--beyond the social pale, while she who was fortunate enough to
include among the visitors to her political _salon_ some especially
virulent revolutionist was regarded with as much envy as, in circles of
other nationality, is the exhibitor of some literary lion of
particularly loud roar. We often hear the expression, "the game of
politics"; but certainly it has never been so well applied as to the
somewhat dangerous but entirely conventional pursuits of the female
plotters and revolutionists of South America. That these women, of whom
none has bequeathed to posterity a name worthy of record, have been of
some influence in regulating the course of South American events it is
impossible to deny; but their methods have not, as a rule, been such as
to call forth high eulogium of feminine politics. They have been for the
most part on a plane with the female Nihilists of Russia, save that the
latter are in deadly earnest, while the South American ladies play at
politics as their northern sisters at golf, with intent to win indeed,
but after all merely as a diversion.
This aspect of the woman of South America, however, is the only one of
characteristic form she has retained after her determined subduing of
national individuality to European commonplaceness. The lady of Brazil,
Peru, Chili, or the lesser South American states is not characteristic
in appearance, in custom, or in thought; she stands simply as a
modification of Latin civilization under variant conditions, and is
hardly to be distinguished from her European sisters of similar stock.
There is of course some individuality left among the lower class of
women; but even this is fast disappearing before the inroads of the more
insistent culture. As with the Mexican, so with the South American
woman: she has ceased to possess racial uniqueness and so has ceased to
be nationally interesting, however she may charm as an individual.
It is therefore rather in the individual than in the typical aspect that
there may be presented to the notice of the reader the names of some of
the more noted women of South American culture in later years. While it
is true that during the last half of the nineteenth century,
particularly in Chile and the Argentine Republic, the feminine status
underwent a marked change, coming into closer touch with the standards
of civilization in the more advanced civilizations, the woman of
prominence, in anything save politics, is still the notable exception in
South America. The most marked advance in this respect is to be found in
Chile, where, in 1879, the University and its colleges were, by special
statute, opened to women students, and where, in 1903, the Medical
School contained thirty-eight women, not a few of whom were taking
post-graduate courses after having passed through the regular
curriculum. The government of Chile actually sent as a special student
to Austria and Germany a woman, Ernestina Perez, who has since taken
high rank as a physician.
The advance in the status of women in Chile was doubtless largely due to
the influence of Mercedes Marin del Solar, whose writings first extorted
from Spanish masculinity a reluctant confession that a woman might
achieve deserved fame in paths hitherto thought to be sacred to the feet
of men. Born in 1804, when among her countrymen women were considered
mere child-bearers, she devoted her life to proving that her sex
possessed the qualities requisite for high attainment in literary
matters as well as in the graver concerns of life; and she won ample
success. Even with the scant opportunities for obtaining an education
which were then stingily meted out to women, Señora Solar managed to
develop her natural culture; and while still a young woman she became an
ardent public advocate for the higher education of her sex. She did not
live to see her efforts crowned with full fruition; but they were
effectual at last. It is, however, chiefly for her literary
accomplishments that she will live in memory; her ode on the death of
Don Diego Portales remains a standard, and her _Ode to Washington_,
inspired by the interest taken by its author in the American Civil War,
which was then raging, shows breadth of thought and fine philosophical
powers, while it is of especial interest to us because of its subject
and aim.
Señora Solar was of the earlier age of Chilean feminine culture and was
greatly hampered by the conditions existing in her period of largest
activities; but a later writer, Rosario Orrego de Uribe, has carried on
the work so admirably begun and has added to its range and effect. For
years Señora Orrego de Uribe was at the head of a large journal, the
_Revista de Valparaiso_, and thus found a suitable medium for the
expression of her theories. Moreover, as a novelist she has attained
high rank, and she has written poetry which is above the average. Her
influence has been steadily for the emancipation and advancement of her
sex, and her work is not yet finished, though she has seen the cause she
embraced with such enthusiasm prosper even beyond the highest hopes of
its first advocates.
Among the notable women of Chile may also be mentioned the name of Juana
Ross de Edwards. As the name implies, she is of Anglo-Saxon descent and
has strengthened the blood by marriage. She is noted as a
philanthropist, giving largely and wisely to worthy objects, and she is
so admittedly a power in the land that she was one of the first to
suffer banishment when Balmaceda came into power in 1891. The powerful
dictator feared the influence of Señora Edwards more than the plots of
the most virulent of his masculine foes.
The Argentine Republic has also some great names to boast among its
women. Juana Manso de Noronha was a potent influence in the cause of
education. She early came under the influence of Sarmiento, the greatest
of South American educators, and she was actually appointed by the
government of Argentina to edit the _Annales de la Educatión Comun_, a
paper in the interests of public education, founded by Sarmiento
himself. Both in theory and practice, for she conducted a large school
at one time, she proved herself a woman of profound thought and eager
energy in the subjects to which she devoted her life, and Argentina owes
her no small debt for its advance in culture. Her work, since her death
in 1890, has been to some extent carried on by Eduarda Mansilla de
Garcia, though Señora Garcia is known rather as a writer than an
educator. Her novels have won deservedly high repute and one of them
found tribute from so absolute an authority as Victor Hugo. Another
great influence in the cause of feminine culture was Juana M. Gorriti,
an Argentine; but her activities were mainly exerted in Peru. This
latter country has hardly kept apace of her South American sisters in
the cause of feminine emancipation and culture; yet even Peru has some
names of which she may boast, as those of Mercedes Cabello Cabonero, a
writer on philosophical and social questions, and Clorinda Matto de
Turner, a novelist whose work is rather of the ultra-realistic school.
Both women are enthusiastic and influential, nor do they stand entirely
alone in the circles of Lima. Yet in that old city the advance in the
matter of feminine culture has been very slow; the doors of the
University of San Marcos, in Lima, are still shut to women students, and
there are no signs that there will soon be encouragement to women to
take their modern place among men in the old land of the Incas.
What has been stated of South American women applies in general to the
women of Brazil; nevertheless this country furnishes historic incidents
that claim place in an account of the women of South America. Searching
the early chronicles we find a few records of Indian women who have
gained prominence, and whose descendants have taken high rank in their
country. We learn of the romantic marriage of the daughter of the chief
Teberyca to the Portuguese adventurer Joao Ramalho, in the first quarter
of the sixteenth century, from which union sprang the "Mamelucos," the
sturdy independent people who brought about the colonization of the
State of San Paulo. But a still more interesting record is the story of
a Brazilian "Pocahontas," which if not acceptable in its entirety, at
least enjoys the credit of a deep-rooted tradition. It is told that
Diogo Alvares Corriga was shipwrecked near Bahia in 1510, and, falling
into the hands of the Tupinamba Indians, was doomed to furnish a
cannibal feast. At the moment when his life was about to be taken,
Paraguassú, the daughter of the chief, interposed and secured the
victim's release. However much is fiction, however much is truth in this
part of the story, it is certain that Diogo married the Indian maiden
and that she became the mother of children whose descendants hold
influential rank in Brazil to this day. Paraguassú was moreover an
enlightened woman and a benefactress, and is greatly honored by
Brazilians. In the Chapel of Graca, in the Cathedral at Bahia, the
following epitaph perpetuates her memory: "Tomb of Doña Catharina
Alvares Paraguassú, Lady that was of the Capitania of Bahia, which she
and her husband Diogo Alvares Corréa gave to the King of Portugal,
having built this chapel of Nossa Senhora da Graca, which she gave, with
the ground annexed, to the Patriarch São Bento, in the year 1582." To
the influence of Paraguassú is to be attributed much of the power gained
by her husband over the Indians, which enabled him to promote the early
colonization of Bahia. Paraguassú may therefore be regarded as one of
the great pioneers in the civilization of South America.
In any account of the women of Brazil the story of the Amazons should
find place. The early explorers of the Amazon country have generally
accepted, or at any rate given prominence to, the Indian narrative of
these female-warriors. They are said to have formed a powerful body and
to have ruled over a large territory and proved invincible in battle. In
appearance tall, robust, and fair they wore their long hair twisted
about their heads; their costume was simply a dress of animal skin which
they tucked about their loins; their weapons were bows and arrows.
Humboldt relates the Indian account that these warrior women once a year
admitted to their company for a limited time the men of the neighboring
tribe, who at the expiration of their period of leave were sent away
with presents. All the male children born to these women were killed in
infancy, the female children being brought up by their mothers. The
origin of this tribe of female-warriors is clouded with mystery. One
explanation is that they abandoned the men of their tribe and sought to
establish a settlement in the region of the Jamundá River, but being
followed by their disconsolate husbands and despairing lovers, pity
caused them to relent to the extent of making a pact with the discarded
ones to admit them to their society on sufferance once a year. We have
no sufficient data concerning the organization of government of the
tribe or other information which would admit of treating this subject
otherwise than as a curious historic phase of Brazilian womanhood.
Through the periods of settlement and the Portuguese rule we pass
without notice of any woman of such prominence as to secure noteworthy
mention, yet woman's influence must have been exerted and felt along
each step of the path toward independence; they buttressed with their
ambition and patriotism the enlarging spirit of nationality. So in the
crisis that followed the declaration of independence in 1822, we need
not be surprised to find a woman mentioned for heroism and patriotism. A
Bahian girl, Maria de Jesus Medeiros, touched by her father's lament
that he had no son to fight in his country's cause, and fired to action,
disguised herself as a soldier and fought through the war. Her signal
service, however, was on the occasion of the attempted landing of a
powerful force of Lusitanians at the mouth of the Paraguassú River. Here
Maria stood to resist the invader; at the head of a troop of Bahian
Amazons she charged the oncoming soldiers, and, in spite of superior
numbers, discipline and equipment, her valor and that of her companions
prevailed and the discomfited Portuguese were driven back ingloriously.
In the absence of more specific information we may, moreover, gather
that woman's influence was of notable moment in Brazil at the period of
the independence, for we find that in 1821, Viscount de Pedra Branca, a
deputy from Bahia to the Cortés at Lisbon, a prominent leader of the
Liberals and a man of world-wide fajne, advocated that political liberty
should be granted to Portuguese women, and the fact that the Cortés
ignored his plea does not lessen the force of the presumption that woman
in Brazil had acquired pronounced influence in politics at this time.
Among the women of the period of the empire the Crown Princess Isabel
stands most prominent, and exception will hardly be taken to her
inclusion in an account of Brazilian women. On her shoulders, as regent,
devolved the government at intervals for many years. Remarkable for
firmness of character, she was moreover imbued with lofty principles.
The conspicuous act of her regency was the emancipation of the slaves,
the decree for which she signed on July 10, 1888. In this act her
courage and devotion were put to the severest test, yet realizing fully
that her signing the decree would perhaps involve the overthrow of the
empire and certainly lose her much popularity, or, at any rate, much
influential support, she did not falter; nor did she content herself
with a mere concurrence in the legislative course, but issued a
declaration in which she exalted the act and glorified the emancipation.
Her strength of character and her fidelity to her trust rose above all
personal or party considerations. Soon followed, in fact, the quiet
revolution of a few hours and the empire had vanished; a great republic
was installed, and in this crisis Isabel again stood dignified and
lofty, in her farewell manifesto to the Brazilian people proving her
patriotism and voicing her womanly sentiment and unfeigned sorrow.
The political, social, and economic changes effected by emancipation in
Brazil were not attended with violent disturbance as was the case in the
United States. Generally, the act was favorably received, although great
hardship was caused to many individual slave owners. So far as this
measure has affected Brazilian women, the result may safely be assumed
as making for their uplifting. Woman has been stimulated to greater
activity, intellectual, domestic, and social.
Of the emancipated race it can hardly be doubted that they are in better
state. In the large cities where the negroes constitute a large
proportion of the population, as in Bahia, their condition betokens
relative material prosperity and physical content. A most characteristic
picture is presented on a holiday by a Bahian negress, when the occasion
permits of the racial indulgence of lavish display. Her deckings are
dazzling in color and bewildering in variety,--dress ornaments and air
of self-satisfaction offer a moving picture that cannot well be
forgotten. In the many industries of Brazil where manual labor still
holds relatively great preponderance over mechanical, the negroes
furnish a very considerable part of the labor, as also in the work of
the great _haciendas_. What may almost be termed a general industry is
the preparation of manioc or mandioca, the cultivation of which was
considered of such importance in colonial days as to be obligatory. It
is an article of almost universal use in Brazil, and the free negroes of
to-day are no less skilful in cultivating and preparing it than were
their forbears in slavery days.
Since the inauguration of the republic of Brazil there are but few women
of whom notable mention has been made. It has been a period of
transition and adjustment in which woman's activities, though constantly
exercised in patriotic endeavor and toward social progress, have not
found the record that they merit. Nevertheless, we get a glimpse of the
character of the later womanhood of Brazil in the words of Senhora
Campos-Salles,--the wife of a recent president,--addressed to her
husband on the occasion of a political revolution in the State of San
Paulo: "You must forget to-day that you have a wife and children and
remember only your duty to your country."
The social and domestic life of woman in Brazil is still largely
influenced by European customs. The senhorita's chaperon is still
regarded as a conventional desideratum, and courtship, if not quite as
much a "long distance" communication as among the Puritans of New
England when the "courting-stick" was in vogue, is yet largely regulated
according to the customs of the mother country, and generally involves
the presence of the family. As in the political, so in the social world,
however, the spirit of the New World has entered and the Brazilian woman
is very gradually throwing off restraints which European convention has
put upon her, and is participating more generally and prominently in
intellectual, social, and political affairs. In social progress and
amelioration, in educational and charitable activities she is taking
place as an accepted leader. In the elementary schools for girls the
instruction is entrusted exclusively to women, who, on the other hand,
are also found in charge of those for boys. There are special
institutions provided for the education of girls in "all womanly arts,"
and in addition to this the State provides them with a dot for the
purchase of a wedding trousseau and a suitable housekeeping equipment.
In art and literature the names of Brazilian women have gained
honor,--among painters, Senhoras de Andrade and Bertha Worms,--and among
writers, Senhoras de Bivar, de Almeida, and de Azeredo. Senhora de
Almeida has established and edited a paper devoted to the _feministe_
movement in Brazil.
While the list of notable and noted South American women is far from
exhausted by these names, enough has been said to show that below the
equator as well as above it there has been advance and change. Yet it
must be confessed that in South America the march of feminine progress
has thus far been very slow and is still confined, as already said, to
individuals rather than manifested in national or racial movement. It
may yet broaden into this; but the omens are hardly propitious. The
restraining and clogging influence is rather of racial than masculine
nature; it is less that the men look upon the advanced woman as a _lusus
naturæ_, though this also is broadly true, than that the women are not
racially capable of working out their own salvation in this line. Thus
far the movement has been almost entirely productive of leaders only;
there is no rank and file to give it strength and continuity. There is
ardent enthusiasm; but it is confined within narrow limits. Yet he would
be a rash prophet who should foretell that these circumstances will
continue to prevail, and it may well be that the signs may develop into
conditions and South America prove a close follower, if not a pioneer,
in the march of feminine advancement and culture.