Chapter I: Preface

In this book I have sought to present the reader with some dry facts about Corea and the Coreans. I have attempted to describe the manners and customs of the people as accurately as possible from the impressions which my visit to their country left upon me, but of course I do not claim that these personal opinions expressed are absolutely infallible. My sojourn extended over several months, and I never during all that time neglected any opportunity of studying the natives, giving my observations as they were made a permanent form by the aid both of pen and of brush. I was afforded specially favourable chances for this kind of work through the kind hospitality shown me by the Vice-Minister of Home Affairs and Adviser to the King, Mr. C.R. Greathouse, to whom I feel greatly indebted for my prolonged and delightful stay in the country, as well as for the amiable and valuable assistance which he and General Le Gendre, Foreign Adviser to His Corean Majesty, gave me in my observations and studies among the upper classes of Corea. I am also under great obligations to Mr. Seradin Sabatin, Architect to His Majesty the King, and to Mr. Krien, German Consul at Seoul, for the kindness and hospitality with which they treated me on my first arrival at their city.

The illustrations in this book are reproductions of sketches taken by me while in the country, and though, perhaps, they want much in artistic merit, I venture to hope that they will be found characteristic.

For literary style I hope my readers will not look. I am not a literary man, nor do I desire to profess myself such. I trust, however, that I have succeeded in telling my story in a simple and straightforward manner, for this especially was the object with which I started at the outset.

A. HENRY SAVAGE-LANDOR.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Christmas on board--Fusan--A body-snatcher--The Kiung-sang Province--The cotton production--Body-snatching extraordinary--Imperatrice Gulf--Chemulpo.

CHAPTER II

Chemulpo--So-called European hotels--Comforts--Japanese concession--The _Guechas_--New Year's festivities--The Chinese settlement--European residents--The word "Corea"--A glance at Corean history--Cho-sen.

CHAPTER III

The road to Seoul--The _Mapu_--Ponies--Oxen--Coolies--Currency--Mode of carrying weights--The Han River--Nearly locked out.

CHAPTER IV

The Coreans--Their faces and heads--Bachelors--Married men--Head-band--Hats--Hat-umbrellas--Clothes--Spectacles.

CHAPTER V

The Woman of Cho-sen--Her clothes--Her ways--Her looks--Her privileges--Her duties--Her temper--Difference of classes--Feminine musicians.

CHAPTER VI

Corean children--The family--Clans--Spongers--Hospitality--Spinning-tops --Toys--Kite-flying--Games--How babies are sent to sleep.

CHAPTER VII

Corean inns--Seoul--A tour of observation--Beggars--Lepers--Philosophy--An old palace--A leopard hunt--Weather prophets--The main street--Sedan chairs--The big bell--Crossing of the bridges--Monuments--Animal worship--The Gate of the Dead--A funeral--The Queen-dowager's telephone.

CHAPTER VIII

Seoul--The City Wall--A large image--Mount Nanzam--The fire-signals--The women's joss-house--Foreign buildings--Japanese settlement--An anecdote--Clean or not clean?--The Pekin Pass--The water-carrier--The man of the Gates.

CHAPTER IX

The Corean house--Doors and windows--Blinds--Rooms--The "Kan"--Roasting alive--Furniture--Treasures--The kitchen--Dinner-set--Food--Intoxicants--Gluttony--Capacity for food--Sleep--Modes of illumination--Autographs--Streets--Drainage--Smell.

CHAPTER X

A Corean marriage--How marriages are arranged--The wedding ceremony--The document--In the nuptial chamber--Wife's conduct--Concubines--Widows --Seduction--Adultery--Purchasing a husband--Love--Intrigue--Official "squeezing"--The cause.

CHAPTER XI

Painting in Seoul--Messages from the King--Royal princes sitting for their portraits--Breaking the mourning law--Quaint notions--Delight and despair--Calling in of State ceremony--Corean soldiers--How they mount guard--Drill--Honours--A much-admired shoe--A gift.

CHAPTER XII

The royal palace--A royal message--Mounting guard--The bell--The royal precinct--The Russian villa--An unfinished structure--The Summer Palace--The King's house--Houses of dignitaries--The ground and summer pavilion--Colds--The funeral of a Japanese Minister--Houses of royal relations--The queen--The oldest man and woman--The King and his throne--Politics and royalty--Messengers and spies--Kim-Ka-Chim--Falcons and archery--Nearly a St. Sebastian--The queen's curiosity--A royal banquet--The consequences.

CHAPTER XIII

Students--Culture--Examination ground--The three degrees--The alphabet--Chinese characters--Schools--Astronomers--Diplomas--Students abroad--Adoption of Western ways--Quick perception--The letter "f"--A comical mistake--Magistrates and education Rooted superstition--Another haunted palace--Tigers--A convenient custom.

CHAPTER XIV

Religion--Buddhism--Bonzes--Their power--Shamanism--Spirits--Spirits of the mountain--Stone heaps--Sacred trees--Seized by the spirits--Safe-guard against them--The wind--Sorcerers and sorceresses--Exorcisms--Monasteries --Temples--Buddha--Monks--Their customs and clothing--Nuns--Their garments--Religious ceremonies--The tooth-stone.

CHAPTER XV

Police--Detectives--The plank-walk--The square board--The wooden blocks for hands and feet--Floggings--The bamboo rod--The stick--The flexible board--A flogging in Seoul--One hundred strokes for three-halfpence --Wounds produced--Tender-hearted soldiers--Imprisonment--Exile--Status of women, children, and bachelors--Guilds and the law--Nobles and the law--Serfdom--mild form of slavery.

CHAPTER XVI

Executions--Crucified and carried through the streets--The execution ground--Barbarous mode of beheading--Noble criminals--Paternal love--Shut out--Scaling the wall--A catastrophe--A nightmare.

CHAPTER XVII

The "King's procession"--Removing houses--Foolhardy people--Beaten to death--Cavalry soldiers--Infantry--Retainers--Banners--Luxurious saddles--The King and his double--Royal palanquins--The return at night.

CHAPTER XVIII

Fights--Prize fights--Fist fights--Special moon for fighting--Summary justice--The use of the top-knot--Cruelty--A butcher combatant Stone fights--Belligerent children--Battle between two guilds--Wounded and killed--The end of the battle postponed--Soldiers' fights.

CHAPTER XIX

Fires--The greatest peril--A curious way of saving one's house--The anchor of safety--How it worked--Making an opposition wind--Saved by chance--A good trait in the native character--Useful friends.

CHAPTER XX

A trip to Poo-kan--A curious monastery.

CHAPTER XXI

Corean physiognomy--Expressions of pleasure--Displeasure--Contempt --Fear--Pluck--Laughter--Astonishment--Admiration--Sulkiness--Jealousy --Intelligence--Affection--Imagination--Dreams--Insanity--Its principal causes--Leprosy--The family--Men and women--Fecundity--Natural and artificial deformities--Abnormalities--Movements and attitudes--The Corean hand--Conservatism.

LIST OF PLATES

PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR AN OFFICIAL GOING TO COURT THE PEKIN PASS A WATER-COOLIE H.R.H. PRINCE MIN-YOUNG-HUAN AN INFANTRY SOLDIER A STUDY FROM STILL-LIFE