IN WINTER COSTUME
As the law provides that the daughter of a slave must take the place of her parent, should she die, it is plainly in the interests of the owner to promote the marriage of his slaves. Slaves who receive compensation for their services are entitled to marry whom they please; quarters are provided for the couple. The master of the house, however, has no claim upon the services of the husband. The slave who voluntarily assigns herself to slavery and receives no price for her services may not marry without consent. In these cases it is not an unusual custom for her master, in the course of a few years, to restore her liberty.
Hitherto, the position of the Korean woman has been so humble that her education has been unnecessary. Save among those who belong to the less reputable classes, the literary and artistic faculties are left uncultivated. Among the courtesans, however, the mental abilities are trained and developed with a view to making them brilliant and entertaining companions. The one sign of their profession is the culture, the charm, and the scope of their attainments. These “leaves of sunlight,” a feature of public life in Korea, stand apart in a class of their own. They are called gisaing, and correspond to the geisha of Japan; the duties, environment, and mode of existence of the two are almost identical. Officially, they are attached to a department of Government, and are controlled by a bureau of their own, in common with the Court musicians. They are supported from the national treasury, and they are in evidence at official dinners and all palace entertainments. They read and recite; they dance and sing; they become accomplished artists and musicians. They dress with exceptional taste; they move with exceeding grace; they are delicate in appearance, very frail and very human, very tender, sympathetic, and imaginative. By their artistic and intellectual endowment, the dancing girls, ironically enough, are debarred from the positions for which their talents so peculiarly fit them. They may move through, and as a fact do live in, the highest society. They are met at the houses of the most distinguished; they may be selected as the concubines of the Emperor, become the femmes d’amour of a prince, the puppets of the noble. A man of breeding may not marry them, however, although they typify everything that is brightest, liveliest, and most beautiful. Amongst their own sex, their reputation is in accordance with their standard of morality, a distinction being made between those whose careers are embellished with the quasi chastity of a concubine, and those who are identified with the more pretentious display of the mere prostitute.
A PALACE CONCUBINE
In the hope that their children may achieve that success which will ensure their support in their old age, parents, when stricken with poverty, dedicate their daughters to the career of a gisaing, much as they apprentice their sons to that of a eunuch. The girls are chosen for the perfect regularity of their features. Their freedom from blemish, when first selected, is essential. They are usually pretty, elegant, and dainty. It is almost certain that they are the prettiest women in Korea, and, although the order is extensive and the class is gathered from all over the kingdom, the most beautiful and accomplished gisaing come from Pyöng-an. The arts and graces in which they are so carefully educated, procure their elevation to positions in the households of their protectors, superior to that which is held by the legal wife. As a consequence, Korean folk-lore abounds with stories of the strife and wifely lamentation arising from the ardent and prolonged devotion of husbands to girls, whom fate prevents their taking to a closer union. The women are slight of stature, with diminutive, pretty feet, and graceful, shapely hands. They are quiet and unassuming in their manner. Their smile is bright; their deportment modest, their appearance winsome. They wear upon state occasions voluminous, silk-gauze skirts of variegated hues; a diaphanous silken jacket, with long loose sleeves, extending beyond the hands, protects the shoulders; jewelled girdles, pressing their naked breasts, sustain their draperies. An elaborate, heavy and artificial head-dress of black hair, twisted in plaits and decorated with many silver ornaments, is worn. The music of the dance is plaintive and the song of the dancer somewhat melancholy. Many movements are executed in stockinged feet; the dances are quite free from indelicacy and suggestiveness. Indeed, several are curiously pleasing.
