The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-12
MARRIAGE
EEsss= L5T e. Z. CCLLHER -ER.G.S.t| q 5

1 the groom take their seats at. the up 1 per end of the rnatting- The match
 maker places a little octa gona1 table | in front of the bridal couple upon
 which is a pitcher and a. brass loving cup
 Following the directions of the l Master of Ceremonies,'' assisted by ! her attendants, the bride rises; plac- 1 ing the cup in her hands the go 1 between pours into it a little wine, 1 and turning towards her husband she | hands it to him. He, assisted by his Igrooms1nan, rises to his feet, takes the | cup in one hand, and walking over to
 where his father Is seated, with his
 two hands (which behOoves the cere- | monial cIlstom) hands it to him. | The father taking the cup holds 1t i on a level with his forehead, while 1 the son, after lowing himself to the
 ground three times, begs his father to
 accept the first service of his married | life. Having partaken of the wine.
 the cup is handed back to the groom, l who returns it to his wife in precise l ly the same formal manner The cup is rehned and 1n the same man
 ner given to the mother. It is filled
 a third time for the groom and 8
 fourth for the bride. All having now
 partaken from the same cup, the most important part of the ceremony is 1 over, as this Is the Korean way of phghtlng ones Toth.
 The significance of thfs handing of | the cup is the pledging of the service of devotion of both the groom and the bride to his parents. The requirements of a. legal mar 1 riage in Korea are few and simple.
 The following six points are essen
 tial:
 1. The employment of 8 'go-be- l tween or ''match-maker.'' 2. The sending of presents to the l bride.
 8. The making obefsance to each other.
 4. The public, ceremony Git not be- 1 ing in any way stated of what nature I this ceremony shall -partake)
 5. The exchange of marriage cer-4
 tfficAtes.
 1 6. The attestatton of witnesses. If any or ale of them have been omitted the marriage will not be held as binding. Subsequent Regrets. As will be naturally expected from | such marriages there is an entire lack 1 of love, usually of sympathy, and of
 ten of respect As the young fellow grows up he is sorry for the choice
 the matter could have been in his
 own hand Not being restrained by
 the influences of Christianity and
 having before him no ideal higher than a. pagan one, is 1t any wonder that we find concubinase to be very frequent? Talking on the subject one day with
 an official he remarked: we marry our wives and love our concubines" This remark, without comment, ex-
 plains the situation, The actual word
 used in Korea for concubine is 'tSo- sil' (HttIe wffesQ and this with fair | degree of accuracy describes the posi- l ton this she holds in the majority of
 eases 8She and the original wife" occupy the same apartments. We
 sometimes find cases where the wo-
 men have mutual respect, if indeed not affection for each other. 1 Such unions are not recognized by 1 the Government, therefore, strictly | speaking, are illegal; but the practice of the people, including the emperor himself, has made the position an ac- cepted one These unions are not
 binding like the other ones. Any day
 the man likes he can, without the us
 ual form of divorce, send his little wife, away She has absolutely no
 redress either for herself or children. The right of dfvorcing the real wife l is recognized throughout the land. It
 may be either for cause, or for lack 1 of congeniality. If the cause is a
 casa of infidelity, the husband first
 bites CT chops off the end of his <wife's | nose, leaving her horribly disfgured
 for life They then give back to
 each other the documents that were
 exchanged by @theirs parents at the | time of marriage A portion of her Jacket is torn off and kept by the
 man as proof of divorcement; while she keeps the remainder of the gar
 ment- In case of there ever being a
 question of the actuality of the dt- l vorce these pieces are produced, which if they fit are fpso facto evil tdence.