much clandestine prostitution. The prostitution
quarters are clean, beautiful and well-kept, but the Japanese
prostitutes have lost much of their native good taste in costume
by trying to imitate European fashions. It was when prostitution
began to decline two centuries ago, that the geishas first
appeared and were organized in such a way that they should not,
if possible, compete as prostitutes with the recognized and
licensed inhabitants of the Yoshiwara, as the quarter is called
to which prostitutes are confined. The geishas, of course, are
not prostitutes, though their virtue may not always be
impregnable, and in social position they correspond to actresses
in Europe.

In Korea, at all events before Korea fell into the hands of the
Japanese, it would seem that there was no distinction between the
class of dancing girls and prostitutes. "Among the courtesans,"
Angus Hamilton states, "the mental abilities are trained and
developed with a view to making them brilliant and entertaining
companions. These 'leaves of sunlight' are called _gisaing_, and
correspond to the geishas of Japan. 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." But though
they are certainly the prettiest women in Korea, move in the
highest society, and might become concubines of the Emperor, they
are not allowed to marry men of good class (Angus Hamilton,
_Korea_, p. 52).

The history of European prostitution, as of so many other modern
institutions, may properly be said to begin in Rome. Here at the outset we
already find that inconsistently mixed attitude towards prostitution which
to-day is still preserved. In Greece it was in many respects different.
Greece was nearer to the days of religious prostitution, and the sincerity
and refinement of Greek civilization made it possible for the better kind
of prostitute to exert, and often be worthy to exert, an in