Page:Korea (1904).djvu/92

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40
KOREA

are in mourning, the first stage demands a hat as large as a diminutive open clothes-basket. It is four feet in circumference and completely conceals the face, which is hidden further by a piece of coarse lawn stretched upon two sticks, and held just below the eyes. In this stage nothing whatever of the face may be seen. The second stage is denoted by the removal of the screen. The third period is manifested through the replacement of the inverted basket by the customary head-gear, made in straw colour. The ordinary head-covering takes the shape of the high-crowned hat worn by Welsh women, with a broad brim, made in black gauze upon a bamboo frame. It is held in place by a chain beneath the chin or a string of pieces of bamboo, between each of which small amber beads are inserted. There are a variety of indoor and ceremonial caps and bandeaux which are worn by the upper and middle classes.

The hair is dressed differently by single and married men. If unmarried, they adopt the queue ; when married, they put up their hair and twist it into a conical mass upon their heads, keeping it in place by a woven horsehair band, which completely encircles the forehead and base of the skull. A few, influenced by Western manners, have cropped their hair. This is specially noticeable among the soldiers on duty in the city, while, in compliance with the orders of the Emperor, all military and civil officials in the capital have adopted the foreign style. Boys and girls, the queerest and most dirty little brats, are permitted up to a certain age to roam about the streets, to play in the gutters, and about the sewage pits in a state of complete nudity — a form of economy which is common throughout the Far East. The boys quickly drift into clothes and occupations of a kind. The girls of the poorer orders are sold as domestic slaves and