CHAPTER X
A Corean marriage—How marriages are arranged—The wedding ceremony—The document—In the nuptial-chamber—Wife's conduct—Concubines—Widows—Seduction—Adultery—Purchasing a husband—Love—Intrigue—Official "squeezing"—The cause.
Among the several misfortunes, or fortunes, if you prefer the word, with which a Corean man has to put up is an early marriage. He is hardly born, when his father begins to look out for a wife for him, and scarcely has he time to know that he is living in the world at all than he finds himself wedded.... The Coreans marry very young. I have seen boys of ten or twelve years of age who had already discarded the bachelor's long tress hanging down the back, and were wearing the top-knot of the married man. It must not be supposed, however, that these youthful married men are really wedded in the strict sense of the word, for, as a matter of fact, though husband and wife in the eyes of the world, the two do not live together till the age of puberty is reached. In other words, the marriage is for several years only a nominal one, and corresponds rather to our "engagement." There are duties, none the less, which a married man must perform, no matter how youthful he may be. From the moment he is wedded he must be a man, however childlike in years, and henceforth he can associate only with men. His infantile games, romps with other children who are still bachelors, spinning tops and all other amusements, which he so much enjoyed, are suddenly brought to an end and he is now compelled to be as sedate as an old man.
The illustration (p. [79]) shows a young married man of the age of twelve, a relation of the queen. As I was taking his portrait, I asked him how he liked his wife and what her appearance was.
"I do not know," he said, "for I have only seen her once, and I have as yet never spoken to her."
"But, then, how can you like her?"
"Because it is my father's wish that I should, and I must obey my father."
"Does your father know the girl well?"
"No, but he knows her father."
"And what does your mother say?"