Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/337

 SOCIAL QRABES. 311 of which are known both in Corea and China ; and these names must have been introduced by the Mahomedans into Peking, though they are ascribed to a minister of Whang Di twenty- seven centuries B.C. Grades op Society. As in England, the people are divided into three classes, — ^the upper, middle, and lower. First, are the magistrates ; second, farmers and merchants; and third, handicraftsmen, tailors, shoemakers, players, the lictors, and other yamen attendants. Lowest of all is the Beidingy the ox-butcher, — this classification being probably the result of Corean Buddhism ; and next to hipi is the pig-sticker, in company with harlots. The third rank never dare sit in the presence of a member of the first ; and the second, if in the presence of a small magistrate, must sit far inside and very stiflSy, as if ill at ease. The son will not sit in presence of his father ; but as he cannot always stand, he raises one foot so that the sole is on the kang as if standing. He dare not smoke in his father's presence, or show his pipe. The three classes do not intermarry. Marbiage. In the large city of Hiwngdow poo (Chinese, foo), and the capital, parents generally betroth their children at the age of seven or eight ; mandarins of first and second rank always doing so. But in the rest of Corea such is not the custom. As in China, marriage is now consummated at a much earlier age than was permissible some centuries ago. Fourteen is the common age for a man(!), the bride being almost invariably from three to eight years older ; in this also following Chinese custom ; though all subsequent marriages, whether by widower or polygamist, reverses the order, — men of sixty marrying girls of sixteen, — perhaps one reason being that he cannot find an older unmarried woman, except a widow ; and the " rights " of widows in Corea and China consist in remaining unmarried^ or marrying with a stigma, and to an inferior.