As I say, among the Sakais the one sex is not the slave of the other. They live in perfect harmony. The male is considered the head of the family, although there is nothing to be administered or directed and the female shows herself sufficiently deferential towards him, but the custom does not exist among them that one should passively submit to a will with which his, or her own does not agree.
The man provides food by hunting in the forest, fishing, gathering fruit and cultivating a little land around; the woman helps him in the work of agriculture, sometimes follows him into the jungle, prepares his meals and attends to other domestic duties. She looks well after her children and is very jealous of them. When they are too little to walk she straps them to her back with long strips of bark, resting their legs upon her hips.
This burden does not prevent her from moving about and working. If they go for a long march the parents take turns in carrying the child.
As soon as a boy reaches the age of six seasons (6 years) he passes from his mother's to his father's guardianship and under the latter's guidance begins to make trips into the forest where he catches insects, picks up fruit and bulbs, learns, little by little, to handle the blow-pipe and to take part in the hunting and fishing as well as to distinguish poisons and assist in their extraction.
This is the educational period of the little Sakai.
The girl, on the contrary, remains with her mother and is taught to help in household (?) work, doing her part with a good will and cheerful temper.
She goes with her mother to plant and pull up potatoes and yams, to gather fire-wood, and fill the bamboo buckets with water; she learns to cook and take care of the little ones.
Quite early she begins a life of great activity. Her arms are still weak and she can scarcely lift some of the weights allotted her, but they gradually become nerved for heavier ones.
Her fatiguing duties always increase, and yet as a little girl, a maiden, and also a woman she accepts it all with a light heart and is so contented with her hard life that I have often heard one of these good, laborious creatures declare that she was completely happy. How many ladies in civilized Europe and America would be prepared to make a similar avowal?