ally been known to rudely run their paws through the invulnerable
paper windows of a mud house, drag out a struggling body roughly awoke
from slumber, and devour the same peacefully in the middle of the street.

Since then a _rencontre_ with a hungry individual of this nature during a
moonlight walk is sure to be somewhat unpleasant, it is not astonishing
that it is but very, very rarely that at any hour of the night the
Cho-sen damsel avails herself of the privilege accorded her. The woman,
as I have already mentioned, is considered nothing in Corea. The only
privilege she has, as we have just seen, is the chance of being torn to
pieces and eaten up by a wild beast when she is out for a constitutional,
and that we may safely say is not a privilege to be envied. The poor
thing has no name, and when she is born she goes by the vague
denomination of "So-and-so's" daughter. When there are several girls in
the family, to avoid confusion, surnames are found convenient enough, but
they are again lost the moment she marries, which, as we shall see in
another chapter, often happens at a very early age. She then becomes
"So-and-so's" wife. The woman in Corea has somewhat of a sad and dull
life, for from the age of four or five she is separated even from her
brothers and brought up in a separate portion of the house, and from that
time ideas are pounded into her poor little head as to the disgrace of
talking, or even being looked at by humans of a different gender. The
higher classes, of course, suffer most from the enforcement of this
strict etiquette, for in the very lowest grades of society the woman
enjoys comparative freedom. She can talk to men as much as she pleases,
and even goes out unveiled, being much too low a being to be taken any
notice of; the upper classes, however, are very punctilious as to the
observance of their severe rules. The Corean woman is a slave. She is
used for pleasure and work. She can neither speak nor make any
observations, and never is she allowed to see any man other than her
husband. She has the right of the road in the streets, and the men are
courteous to her. Not only do the men make room for her to pass, but even
turn their faces aside so as not to gaze at her. There are numberless
stories of a tragic character in Corean literature, of lovely maidens
that have committed suicide, or have been murdered by their husbands,
brothers, or fathers, only for having been seen by men, and even to the
p