'As a protective measure to the law, however, did i." ami does' not permit a decand marriage during the lifetime of the first wife. Bigamy was, and is, still a punishable offence under both old and present law, though a man may have as many concubines as he wants. A wife must be married with the permission of the parents and through intercession of the go-atweens" and with all pomp and ceremonies due for the occasion, but a concubine is acquired through mutual consent of the' immediate Parties, and not infrequently through purchase without any her formality seal status ieubine depends upon the band's "recognition"—the only condition imposed in law. So long the husband recognizes her, her position in the family is assured. he may, or say nob, live in the house with the wife, Her Boulton is of coarse, inferior to that of the wife, if both were living im the same house. In aristocratic families, she must wait on the husband as well as the. wife in very way as if she were servant. On big acc:
she can only wear a skirt of "blue colour, whereas a wife alone entitled to wear one of crimson red, she must also kowtow to the wife on the new year and festival days. Such formalities are rarely strictly followed in a commoners home should there be a concubine.
It must not be presumed for on moment that the lot"of a concubine is really a hard one. As a matter of fact, the best dressed and the most fashionable women are of that. class, the concubines of the rich merchants, Inasmuch as all Chi nose marriages are, as a rule, arranged by parents, in which there is a total absence of romance, that very frequently two strangers of entirely different tem-Berament are being brought together as man and wife, from Which, under the old rule, neither! could free himself or herself from the union however distasteful it may be; with the concubine it is different, she is of the nian's own Shoice, and the union is founded of love and the parents' is often placed in more favorable position than the wife, The majority of them are Phus able to outshine the wife.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.