Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/14

6 are allowed by law, but the practice is considered bad, as it is liable to break up the family relations, and the finger of scorn is often pointed at the man. Rich men have concubines in secret.

Widows of higher classes never marry, though four hundred years ago they had the privilege of marrying again. This prohibition does not extend to the lower classes. Divorces are not permitted, but separation takes place in case of adultery; the man, however, can not marry again. Marriage with a slave girl is considered a great disgrace, and the friends of one who commits such an offense desert him. Children born of such a union, however, are not regarded with reproach.

—The Chinese practice of medicine is in full force; the lower classes rarely employ a doctor, but ask the advice of gypsies. The people believe that all sickness is caused by evil spirits. Blind people find employment as devil expellers.

The liquors drunk are distilled and fermented from rice, corresponding to the Japanese sochiu and saké. An impure wine is made from oats; there is also a malt wine resembling ale. Liquors, cordials, or wines are made from bamboo, honey, peach, and pear mixed with saké. A wine is made out of the new twigs of the pine; there is also a wine called the hundred flower wine.

A Korean gentleman of high rank assured me that it was considered impolite for children to say "Thank you" to their parents. Parents never thank their children, and at table the expression is not heard. The children eat at a separate table from their parents. It is considered impolite to smoke in the presence of another without asking permission and offering tobacco.

As an illustration of the rigid lines of propriety, a young man in the family is chided if he undertakes to make any addition or improvement to the house; he is told that such work is for the carpenter or cabinet-maker. He must attend to his books; he can not even invent or suggest any device.

Five hundred years ago the Koreans had paper money; this was very thick, and varied in size according to the denomination. Until within a hundred years they had gold and silver coins, lenticular in shape, like the checkers used in the game of "go." The coinage was abandoned by the Government on account of the extensive counterfeiting. The nobles now use these coins as checkers for "go."

The iron horseshoe was invented by a Korean general who fought against the Japanese invaders in 1596; before that time straw horseshoes were used, as in Japan.

It is customary to build large bonfires near pine forests, to attract and destroy moths, thus preventing destruction of forests.