To obtain a divorce in Corea is not an easy matter.  Large sums of money, however, often obtain what right cannot.  The principal causes for which, if proved, a divorce can be obtained, are:  infidelity, sterility, dishonesty, and incurable malady.  These faults, be it understood, only apply to women, for against the men the weaker sex has, unfortunately, no redress.  Indeed, by the law of Corea a man becomes the owner of a woman if he can prove that he has had intimate relations with her.  In such a case as this, even though it has been against her parents’ and her own will, he has a perfect right to take her to his house, and make her a wife or a concubine.

Adultery until lately was punished in Corea with flogging and capital punishment.  Now the law is more lenient, and wives accused of such a dreadful offence are beaten nearly to death, and when recovered, if they do recover, are given as concubines to low officials in the Palace or at some of the Yamens.

Women who are much deformed and have reached a certain age without finding a husband are allowed the privilege of purchasing one, which, in other words, corresponds to our marriage for money.  In Corea, however, the money is paid down as the consideration for the marriage.  But this sort of thing is not very frequent, and husbands in such cases are generally recruited from among ruined gentlemen or from the middle classes, among whom with money anything can be done.  It is not considered quite honourable, and the Cho-senese despise such conduct on the part of a man.

When a woman marries she becomes co-proprietress of all her husband’s fortune and property, and should he die without having any sons, money and land descend to her.  When this happens, however, the larger part of the fortune is swallowed up by the astrologers and priests, who give the woman to understand that they are looking after the welfare of her deceased beloved.  In matters concerning the dead, the Coreans are heedless of expense, and large sums are spent in satisfying the wishes that dead people convey to the living through those scamps, the astrologers.

The life of a Corean woman, though that of a slave kept in strict seclusion, with prospects of floggings and head-chopping, is not always devoid of adventures.  Love is a thing which is capricious in the extreme, and there are stories current in Cho-sen about young, wives being carelessly looked after by their husbands, and falling in love with some good-looking youth, of course married to some one else.  Having, perhaps, against her master’s orders, made a hole through the paper window, and been peeping at the passers-by in the street, after months, or even years of drudgery and sleepless nights thinking of her ideal—­for Corean women are passionate, and much given to fanciful affections—­she at last chances to see the man of her heart, and manages, through the well-paid agency of some faithful servant, to enter into communication