same impulse as the women of Europe. Through England, France, and Germany, across the Continent it passed, gathering force as it sped, till the women of the East felt its summons, and are taking their part also in the fresh life which is dawning in this second decade of the twentieth century.
So widespread a feeling must be taken seriously. Above the strife and noisy extravagance of the public champions of the cause of women, there is a true and earnest endeavour which the thoughtful mind of either sex acknowledges and approves. Therefore, since no one can ignore the progress or the sincerity of the movement, we propose to give a very brief account of the history of woman throughout the world, to remind the women of India of the position in public affairs which their sex occupies to-day. Some of the actions of their sisters in other lands may seem to them worthy of adaptation; others may be pitfalls to be avoided. In either case the subject is one full of importance, alike to East and West.
In the earliest times of which we have any historical knowledge men and women were grouped together in hordes, and seem to have led a nomadic life, holding all their possessions in common. The primitive ancestors of Indo-European stock probably had their home in Asia, near the Hindu Kush Mountains, though later critics have assigned North-East Europe as their
