Wives Who Never Speak.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXV, Issue 2, 15 July 1905, Page 42

Wives Who Never Speak.

A Corean woman is not permitted to speak or nod on her wedding day. Should she transgress she at once becomes an object of ridicule and loses caste. She must remain obdurate to her husband’s entreaties: mother threat por prayer must move her. for all the household is on the qui, vive to catch a single muttered syllable. Sometimes for a week or more she does not speak, and even then, when complete silence is broken, only puts her tongue to the most necessary issues. Although no such universal custom is prevalent in the Western world, extraordinary cases are not wanting. In the early forties a Mrs Jones. Jiving in Pennsylvania, undertook, for a wager of 15(1 dollars, to remain mute for the first month of her marriage. Her husband, who naturally was not in the secret, was so much incensed at his bride’s behaviour that lie left her before the period of her ordeal had expired, only to return later when apprised of tlie real reason for this unusual silence. On the aniiversary of their wedding day a Brussels couple named Dupont quarrelled so bitterly that the wife, in a burst of passion, swore that her husband should never again hear the sound of her voice. She would there and then have, (piitted the house. Lf.t her now penitent husband implored her not to leave him. To that extent only did his entreaties prevail, for she kept the letter of her oath and never in her spouse’s presence did she unloose her tongue. In other respects she continued a model wife, and maybe her strange resolution Contributed not a little to the harmony of the household. A Brunn woman, whose husband was in hiding from the authorities inadvertently betrayed his whereabouts to a neighbour who was secretly in the pay of the police. As a result he was taken and received a term of imprisonment. So much did his wife take to heart this misfortune, which had been brought about by her gossip, i hat she resolved for the remainder of her life to remain mute; nor did she even make an exception in her husband’s favour, for. although she received him on bis relense with the utmost allection. she maintained an obdurate silence, which remained unbroken till her death, which took place three years later.