In the Days of the Amazons
By Elsie Spicer Eells
	Once upon a time women grew tired of war.  Their husbands were always away fighting.  Many came home with ugly scars. Some never came home. Finally one of the women cried, “Let us leave our men!  They have always left their wives and children for battle.”
	“Yes!” cried the other women.  “If it is fair for them to leave us, it is fair for us to leave them.”
	The women decided to take their daughters and leave their sons at home.  Their leader said, “We must do this so that they learn the value of women.”
	Sadly they said goodbye to their sons, who stayed behind with the old men.
	The men returned from battle.  They found only a few small boys and old men.  No wives were there to cook their food or nurse the sick.  No little girls waited to listen wide-eyed to their tales of battle.  They could hardly believe the women were gone.
	One man wanted to go after them.  But another said, “We will keep our dignity if we wait until they return.”
	A boy told how the women marched off proudly, singing.  But the men could not understand why the women had left.  
One man laughed, “They cannot get along without us for long,” he said.
But his small son replied, “They always got along when you were away, Father.”
After a day or two the men with the fewest battle wounds went to bring the women back.  From the beginning there was trouble, however.  Chattering monkeys threw sticks at them.  Then for days they were lost in the forest.  But they kept on following the river Jamunda.  It was the route the women had taken.
By this time the women were settled.  They had planted their fields and built their houses.  Their leaders went out to talk to the men on a high rock.
The men asked them to return.  The women replied, “Never!  This is life!  This is freedom.”
The men spoke of how lonely their sons were.  They told the women how much they were missed in the village.  They spoke words of love and tenderness.  But the women would agree to only one thing.  They would meet the men once a year at the great rock.
And every year the women kept their promise and met the men at the great rock. 

Please provide detailed responses to the following questions.  Each answer should take about 3-4 sentences to explain.  Each response is worth 5 marks (2 for sentence –structure and conventions, 3 for information)

1.  	The women in this story did not like war.  How do you feel about war?  

2.  	Think about the strengths of the people in this story.  Strength does not just mean how much weight a person can lift.  Choose 2 people in your life, one male and one female.  Make a list of each person’s strengths.     

3.	What do you think life would have been like for the men in this society? 

4. 	Do you agree with the women's decision to leave the men?