The Women of Core2.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1815, 25 July 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Women of Core 2.

Tho Coreana are tho Bbjcat nation on the face of the earth. Uutil quite lately they have abstained &3 much aa possible from all intercourse with s'ranggry.lioldirg studiously uloof not only fr^m Europeans, who have sought their hospitality, but &l*o from contact with ths Cuinese aiid Japanese. Within the List few s ears, however, their reserve has 3Sown eigas ot thawing, and we aia at least able to form some opinion as to the reason of iheir ebjnesß, and to jud^o whether a closer atq'iaintance will reveal anything wor«h Knowing. Ag to thffi rat point, this shyness .-cenis constitutional. There is a l ; mit to it, (or, like most shy people, the Coreaes are not incuiiou.«. A Dutch craft wa3 wrecked near the cost of Corea in the Utter pa-t o£ tho seventeenth century, and the sailors, whoeo narrative may oe read in several old books cf travel, found >hemstlvc3 the cbjaols of much inquisitive observation. Bveu the women and children were eager to ccc tho outlandish nftvigators } moro especially aa tba Dutchman were reported to be of a monstrous rac«?, who when they drauk were obliged to twist their long noses round their esra. Ho such report heralded tho journey whi'jb. Mr. C jrles mada into the ictciior, yet Le was received with pohte attention uhil interest everywhere. Ha says : — " The more I hava ceen of the C^rea^s, ths moro fully hays I epprcciatcd their pjlitsness toward their guests aud diguity of their behaviour." But he saw next to nothing of the women of the country, by whom ha waa carefully avoided. Even come lilUe girls whom he found swinging in a field fled at hia first approach. His inability to tell us anything oi thß women of Corf a ia especially to be regretted on account of tho Etr&nge position they held. The sccluaion of women in this land of the shamefaced is carried to the utmost limit. Out of doora the ladies wenr a green mantle, which coTara the whole oountenanco except the eyes. Nor do they willingly let their eyes be seen. "It seemed odd," said Mr. Carles, "that each woman wo met should have arrived at that moment at her home; but, as we learned later on, women have a right of entree everywhere, and to avoid us they turned into the bouße'nearest at hand." Other travellers reoount tbat the women are from their earliest girlhood taught to shun the opposite ccx. They are even exhorted to talk^B little as possible to their own husbands. What iB still more extraordinary is tbe mate modesty cf the men. This eentiment impels them to work in jacket and trousers in the hottest weather, while the richer classes use a kind of bamboo framework to keep the clothes, otherwise, unbearable, from contact with their skin. When an Italian prinoe visited Corea a few years 830, officials ware sent to his ship to protest against tho indeccnoy of the sailors, which for some days bad prevented the villagers from leaving their houses. The Bailor! had been bathing.