with him.  If the man in question happens to be a high official or a nobleman, what happens generally is that the lady’s husband either gets suddenly packed off by order of the King to some distant province, or is sent upon some travelling employment which probably necessitates his leaving his wife behind for several years, during which period, under the old-fashioned excuse of news received of the husband’s death, or the plea of poverty, she very likely becomes the concubine of the man she loves.  In Corean literature, there are many stories of the burning affections of the fair sex, some being said to have committed crimes, and even suicide, to be near the man they loved.

To a European mind, certainly, the native way of arranging marriages does not seem very likely to make the contracting parties happy, for neither the tastes nor respective temperaments of the young couple are regarded.  Still, taking everything into consideration, it is marvellous how little unhappiness—­comparatively—­there is in a Corean household.  Besides, it must not be supposed that, slave though she be, the Corean woman never gets things her own way.  On the contrary, she does, and that as often as she likes.  Among the upper classes, especially those about the Court, half the trouble in the kingdom is caused by the women, not openly, indeed, but in a clever underhand way through their enerve husbands, whom, instead of being the governors, they rule and lead by the nose.  Promotions, punishments, and beheadings are generally the consequence of the work of some female fiend.  There is probably no place in the world in which intrigue is so rampant as in the Corean Capital.  The Queen herself is said to exercise an enormous influence over the King, and, according to Corean reports, it is really she, and not the King, that rules Cho-sen.  She is never either seen or heard of; and yet all the officials are frightened out of their lives if they think they have incurred her displeasure.  For no plausible reason whatever men are sometimes seen deprived of their high position, degraded and exiled.  Nobody knows why it is; the accused themselves cannot account for it.  There is only one answer possible, namely, Cherchez la femme.  The fact is, a Corean woman can be an angel and she can be a devil.  If the former, she is soft, good, willing to bear any amount of pain, incredibly faithful to her husband, painstaking with her children, and willing to work day and night without a word of reproach.  If, however, she is the other thing, I do not think that any devils in existence can beat her.  She then has all the bad qualities that a human body can contain.  I firmly believe that when a Corean woman is bad she is capable of anything!  Much of the distress, even, which prevails all over the country is more or less due to the weakness of the stronger sex towards the women.  Everybody, I suppose, is aware of the terrible system of “squeezing”; that is to say, the extortion of money from any one who