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Cornell University Library 
 DS 904.M82 
 
 Village life in Korea 
 
 3 1924 007 757 382 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924007757382 
 
VILLAGE LIFE 
 IN KOREA 
 
 BY 
 
 J. ROBERT MOOSE 
 
 NASHVILLE, TENN.; DALLAS, TEX. ( "• Vn'"f'''", | 
 PtTBLISHING HOUSE OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH (O *' 
 
 SMITH & LAMAR, AGENTS / , \i^ 
 
 191I ' ( '^ ^ 
 
Copyright zgix 
 
 BY 
 
 Smith & Lamar 
 
THE MEMORY OF 
 
 DR. B. F. DIXON, 
 
 the true friend 
 of my college 
 days, this vol- 
 ume is grateful- 
 ly ahd loving- 
 ly inscribed. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Ten years in Korea, much of which time has been 
 spent among the people in the villages far removed 
 ■from the outer world, have proved to be so intensely 
 interesting to me that I am persuaded many other peo- 
 ple would be pleased to see Korea and her people as I 
 have seen them. 
 
 With this thought in mind these pages have been 
 written, and with the hope that all who read will be 
 brought into a clearer knowledge of and a deeper 
 sympathy with this people who have been so often 
 misrepresented and whom I have learned to love so 
 well. , 
 
 I have avoided everything in the form of bookish 
 or literary style and tried to imagine myself telling 
 my story to a company composed of men, women, and 
 children who are anxious to learn more of a strange 
 people in a far-away land. 
 
 For facts of history, geography, etc., I am largely 
 indebted to the writings of Prof. H. B. Hulbert and 
 Rev. D. L. Gifford. J. Robert Moose. 
 
 Choon Chun, Korea, August 20, 1909. 
 
 (5) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAFTBR. PAOE. 
 
 I. Geographical Sketch 13 
 
 II. Resources ' 23 
 
 III. Historical Sketch 32 
 
 IV. The Capital 48 
 
 V. The Village 64 
 
 VI. The Village Family 72 
 
 VII. The Village Inn 79 
 
 VIII. The Village Boy 89 
 
 IX. The Village Gentleman 99 
 
 X. The Village Girl 106 
 
 XI. The Village Woman 113 
 
 XII. The Village School 121 
 
 XIII. The Village Farmer 127 
 
 XIV. The Village Mechanic 137 
 
 XV. The Village Merchant 143 
 
 XVI. The Village Doctor ; igo 
 
 XVII. The Village Marriage 158 
 
 XVIII. The Village Funeral 171 
 
 XIX. The Village Lawsuit 181 
 
 XX. The Village Religion 189 
 
 XXI. The Village Church 204 ' 
 
 XXII. Some Members of the Village Church 214 
 
 XXIII. What Christianity Is Doing for the Village. . 230 
 
 (7) 
 
8 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 Gentleman in Ordinar'b Diiess Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE. 
 
 West Gate, Seoul 49 
 
 Seoul Women Wearing the Veil S6 
 
 Doing the Family Washing 65 
 
 A Traveling Shoe Merchant 80 
 
 The Large Hat as Worn in the North 118 
 
 Women Ironing 120 
 
 The Village School 124 
 
 The Village Water Carrier 128 
 
 Hulling Rice 131 
 
 The Jiggy Loaded with Jars 134 
 
 The Korean Sawmill 138 
 
 The Pottery Merchant 147 
 
 The Mourner in Full Costume 174 
 
 The Funeral Procession 176 
 
 Prisoners Wearing the Kang 186 
 
 Devil Posts 194 
 
 Bible Women . . : 228 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the Orient, while the family is the unit of social 
 life, the village might be styled the unit of civic life. 
 The head of the family may be the social and religious 
 center of a group of families. The head of the village 
 is often the leader and responsible head of a larger 
 group, which may assume the size and character of a 
 clan. In any case the key to the smaller or larger group 
 is the father, the elder brother, or the recogpiized vil- 
 lage elder, who is the patriarch and ruler of those gath- 
 ered about him in an association of blood relationship 
 or traditional allegiance. 
 
 India has large cities, such as Calcutta, Madras, Bom- 
 bay, but at last it is an empire of villages. In a popu- 
 lation of 300,000,000 it is estimated that ninety per cent, 
 or 270,000,000, live in villages. In the province of 
 Bengal alone there are 227,000 towns and villages in an 
 area of 151,000 square miles, or nearly two villages to 
 a mile. Dr. Arthur Smith has said that there is no rea- 
 son for thinking the proportion is less in China than 
 in India. 
 
 In Korea there are no large cities outside of Seoul, 
 the capital. There will be later on, under the stimulus 
 of the outside world, with its tides of commercialism, 
 industrialism, and immigration. The problem of evan- 
 gelization now is a problem of village life. It is more 
 true of Korea than even of India or China. It is 
 largely a question of how we may swiftly reach ten mil- 
 
 (9) 
 
10 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 lions of simple-minded country people with the gospel. 
 We have not primarily to do with civilization, or with 
 Christian education, as important as the latter is ; but 
 the tremendous burden of responsibility of the hour is 
 the evangelization of the great masses of people gath- 
 ered in villages. This is to be done by a man with a 
 miessage, and that man must be a native Christian 
 whose heart is aflame with the love of Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is a cause for profound gratitude that at a time 
 when there is a religious awakening as wide as the na- 
 tion nearly every man and woman who has found 
 Christ is ready to plunge at once into the darkness of 
 heathenism to bring his own people to Him who is the 
 light of the world. 
 
 It is said that a bishop of the Church of England 
 once asked a returned missionary: "How many mis- 
 sionaries have you on your station ?" "One thousand," 
 was the answer. "I did not ask you how many converts 
 you had," explained the bishop, "but how many mis- 
 sionaries." "I understand you," repHed the brother. 
 "I mean one thousand, for all our converts are mis- 
 sionaries." 
 
 Happy is the missionary body which can say this of 
 the native converts, who have been so filled with the 
 truth and so burdened for the salvation of their own 
 people that they go from house to house and from vil- 
 lage to village testifying to the work of grace in their 
 own hearts and to the power of the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ to save unto the uttermost. The white banner 
 flies from the flagpole of many a Christian village in 
 Korea on a Sabbath morning, and is the invitation to 
 
Introduction. il 
 
 gather for prayer and Bible study in the morning and 
 the rallying point for the workers who spend the after- 
 noon in witnessing for Christ in hamlet and village in 
 the surrounding country. 
 
 Korea is a field of golden opportunity. Never was 
 grain more ripe for harvest. Never has the Church 
 received a challenge so insistent. The call for laborers, 
 heroic and true, is more imperative to-day than ever in 
 the history of Protestant missions. Had the Church 
 sent more men and women of the type of the author of 
 this book and his devoted wife, and of those who have 
 been coworkers with them, our share of the task of 
 evangelizing Korea would well-nigh be done. 
 
 I had the privilege of journeying with" these faithful 
 missionaries when first turning their faces to the Ori- 
 ent. I knew them later in their laborious and self-deny- 
 ing efforts; and now, when years of hard living but 
 Christly endeavor have passed, I still thank God for the 
 inspiration of the faith and optimism of their earlier 
 missionary life, and for their zeal unquenched and the 
 consecrated purpose unabated to this day. 
 
 Walter R. Lambuth. 
 
 NASHvn.LE, Tenn., March 2, 191 1. 
 
VILLAGE LIFE IN KOREA 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Geographical Sketch. 
 
 When one takes up a book to read about a people 
 and their customs, he naturally wants to know where 
 that people live arid something of their history; hence 
 this and the following chapters on the geography and 
 history of Korea. That there is need that we should 
 tell where Korea is may be readily seen from such 
 facts as the following. Some time since I received a 
 letter from the United States directed "Seoul, Korea, 
 Japan." I have also seen the following address: 
 "Seoul, Korea,- China." Then just here I am reminded 
 of a story told by one of the missionaries now living 
 in Korea, who on his way out spent a Sunday in Chi- 
 cago. He attended services at one of the leading 
 churches in the city. The pastor, on learning that he 
 was a missionary, asked him to address his congrega- 
 tion, which he did. The pastor prayed very earnest- 
 ly for the young missionary on his way out to "the 
 island of Korea." I had somewhat of a similar ex- 
 perience when on my way to the United States. I met 
 in the City Road Chapel, London, a gentleman from 
 the United States whose card bore the letters D.D., 
 LL.D. after his name. This same gentleman, in mak- 
 ing some reinarks to the Sunday school, said : "I am 
 very glad to meet the missionary who is with us from 
 the island of Korea." So it is that the people in the 
 homeland are either too busy or they do not care to 
 take the time to learn where and what Korea is, not- 
 
 (13) 
 
14 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 withstanding the free advertising she has had in the 
 last ten years on accourit of her relation to the Japan- 
 China and the Japan-Russia Wars. 
 
 No, Korea is not a lonely island in the midst of the 
 tropics, as many seem to imagine ; neither is it a prov- 
 ince of China nor of Japan; though the last so-called 
 treaty betvi^een Japan and Korea virtually makes Korea 
 Japanese territory. 
 
 Korea is a peninsula extending out a little southeast 
 from Manchuria, from which it is divided by the Yalu 
 River, which is the largest and most important river 
 in the peninsula. The extreme northeastern corner is 
 bounded by Siberia, hence Russia's great desire to get 
 possession of Korea and extend her borders farther 
 south into a warmer clime. The eastern shore is 
 washed by the waters of the beautiful Sea of Japan, 
 which contributes much toward making it one of the 
 most delightful climates in all the Far East. This 
 shore is very regular, there being but few bays and 
 islands on the entire coast. Gensan (or Wonsan, as 
 the natives call it) is the exception to the above state- 
 ment as regards bays, this being one of the best 
 harbors in the East — a beautiful bay, almost land- 
 locked — with an anchorage sufficient for a large fleet, 
 and deep enough to accommodate the largest steamers. 
 This . shore is almost devoid of tides, the rise and fall 
 not being more than three feet at any time. Owing 
 to the principal range of mountains extending along 
 this coast near to the shore, there are no large rivers ; 
 but there are many small streams which find their way 
 to the sea, giving an abundant water supply to all the 
 
Geographical Sketch. 15 
 
 coast lands. Wonsan, which is one hundred and fifty 
 miles almost due north of Seoul, is the most important 
 city on this coast. It has a population of perhaps 
 twenty thousand, and is the chief center of commerce 
 on the east coast. It is also very ipiportarit as a mis- 
 sion station. 
 
 The western shore is washed, or, more correctly 
 speaking, defiled, by the muddy waters of the Yellow 
 Sea, which pours its furious tides of yellow water 
 upon the shore with such force that the tide rises to 
 the enormous height of twenty-eight feet in Chemulpo^ 
 harbor and then retires, leaving nothing but mud flats 
 in sight as far as the eye can see up and down the 
 shore. Every outgoing tide leaves great, hug'e ocean- 
 going junks high and dry upon the mud flats in the 
 harbor. This coast is entirely different from the east 
 in that it has many islands and bays making excellent 
 harbors. In fact, there are so many islands that the 
 traveler on reaching Fusan, the extreme southern port, 
 for the first time and starting up the coast toward 
 Chemulpo, wonders how it will be possible to make a 
 safe voyage through all these islands, many of which 
 are bare rocks rising almost straight out of the water 
 and looking as if they were hungry to devour every 
 passing craft. There are so many of these islands that 
 the ruler of Korea has been appropriately called "King 
 of the Ten Thousand Islands." 
 
 The west coast, like that of the east, is well watered 
 by many rivers, which are much longer and larger 
 than those on the east. Beginning at the north, the 
 most important of these are the Yalu, the Tatong, the 
 
i6 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 Imgin, the Han, and the Keura Rivers. These all 
 form important waterways for the commerce of the 
 country, being navigable for the native boats hun- 
 dreds of miles inland; while small steamers go up 
 some of them as far as a hundred miles. The south- 
 ern point of the peninsula is separated from Japan by 
 the Strait of Korea, which will likely be remembered 
 by any one who may chance to cross it in a small 
 steamer when the waves are on duty. 
 
 Seoul, the capital, is situated on the Han River, 
 twenty-six miles from the open port of Chemulpo, and 
 has a population of about two hundred thousand. 
 There are some other cities, some of them having a 
 population of as many as fifty thousand; but Korea is 
 preeminently a country of villages. Korea has an 
 area of about ninety thousand square miles, which 
 makes it about twice the size of the State of Virginia. 
 It lies in the same latitude with that State, being about 
 34 to 43 north latitude; so that if it were possible to 
 travel direct from Richmond, Va., to Seoul, Korea, 
 the journey could be made without crossing a single 
 parallel of latitude. There are no statistics that are 
 absolutely correct as to the size and the population of 
 the country, so the figures must be taken as only ap- 
 proximately correct. The population is variously given 
 at from eight to fifteen millions, the truth probably 
 being about twelve millions. As compared with China 
 and Japan it is not thickly populated, and I am sure 
 that it is capable of supporting twice the number of 
 the present inhabitants. 
 
 The climate is good, being very much like that of 
 
Geographical Sketch. 17 
 
 Virginia and North Carolina, except that it is not so 
 changeable in winter and has a rainy season. Winter 
 usually settles down by the middle of December, and 
 from that time till the middle of February the rivers 
 will be frozen up so that all boat traffic is completely 
 stopped. It is a common thing to see ice twelve inches 
 thick on the Han River. The mercury often falls to 
 zero, and in extreme weather to twelve or fourteen 
 below, Fahrenheit. The springs and autumns are 
 long and delightfully pleasant, the temperature grad- 
 ually rising or falling as the season demands, with any 
 number of bright, clear days, and only enough cloud 
 and rain to give life and beauty to the scene. 
 
 The summer! What shall I say of it? To the new- 
 comer it is fraught with a thousand fears and dangers, 
 most of which really exist only in the fruitful imagi- 
 nations of people who have not spent many summers 
 in Korea. The mercury rarely rises to ninety degrees 
 in the shade ; it is more usually ten degrees below this 
 figure. Owing to the fact that there is a regular 
 rainy season, the atmosphere is damp, and is therefore 
 a little more trying than the same temperature is in 
 the same latitude in the United States. 
 
 The rainy season comes on about the middle of 
 July, and usually continues till the last of August, 
 during which time one must necessarily put up with 
 many inconveniences that are unknown in countries 
 where the rainy season does not prevail. Every day 
 may not bring its downpour, but it often does literally 
 pour for several days in succession. Thmk of the 
 hardest summer shower that you have ever seen, and 
 2 
 
i8 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 then imagine it thus continuing for hours or even 
 days, and you will begin to understand what a real 
 rainy season is like. Everything gets damp and 
 moldy ; even the shoes that one takes off at night are 
 sometimes covered with mold by the following morn- 
 ing. O how one longs for the sun under circum- 
 stances like these! It bursts forth unexpectedly, and 
 you have a day without a cloud, only to be followed 
 the next day with a downpour to remind you that 
 every day is not sunshine in the "Land of the Morning 
 Calm." However, my experience is that the rainy 
 season is not half so bad as one usually thinks it is 
 before he has tried it for himself. Taking everything 
 into consideration, I believe Korea has about the best 
 climate in the Far East. It is certainly far superior 
 to that of Japan or Central and Southern China. 
 
 Korea is truly the land of mountains. Go where 
 you will and look in whatever direction you may, 
 mountains are to be seen on every side. I have been 
 ten years in the country, during which time I have 
 traveled much, and have never been out of sight of 
 the mountains. The principal range rises on the Rus- 
 sian border, in the extreme north, and extends along 
 the east coast till it reaches the southern point of the 
 peninsula, where it is lost in the sea. This is not like 
 one of the great ranges of mountains in the United 
 States, but is more, broken, being made up of many 
 mountains of various heights more or less closely 
 joined together and extending in the same direction. 
 This range rises to its greatest height in the extreme 
 north, and is called the Whitehead Mountain, or the 
 
Geographical Sketch. 19 
 
 Ever- White Mountain, probably taking its name from 
 the fact that the highest peaks are covered with snow 
 most of the time, though some say that the name comes 
 from the fact that. the soil has a whitish appearance 
 regardless of the snow that may be on it. 
 
 Farther south, about the middle of the range, the 
 famous Diamond Mountains are located. These take 
 their name from the diamondlike stones which are 
 there found in great abundance and are much used 
 in the manufacture of spectacles. These mountains 
 are famous for their beautiful scenery, so much so 
 that there is a saying, "See the Diamond Mountains 
 and die," the idea being that there is nothing else in 
 this world that is now worth seeing. 
 
 It is here in these famous mountains, high up among 
 the peaks and far from the common haunts of man, 
 that the most renowned Buddhist temples are located. 
 Here the shaven-headed priests, before idols old and 
 grim, chant their weird prayers. These temples have 
 held a great place in the life of the nation for many 
 long centuries past; though, judging from those that 
 I have visited, the sun of their glory is surely passing 
 away. I spent a Sunday in one of these temples, and 
 the priests told me it had been there for more than a 
 thousand years. Though the building had lately 
 been repaired, it nevertheless had the appearance of 
 an institution that is in its declining days. We were 
 told that formerly there were many priests in this 
 temple, but that many of them had run away and 
 gone to Hawaii, while others had married and settled 
 down to farming, ' till at that time there were only a 
 
20 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 few left to care for the place, and they seemed to take 
 very little interest in any part of the religious cere- 
 mony. 
 
 This great range of mountains is very near the 
 coast, so that there is a very narrow strip of land be- 
 tween it and the sea. In fact, at many places the 
 mountains extend down and jut out into the sea, so 
 that the traveler along the coast is compelled to turn 
 inland for a few miles in order to cross over them. 
 This belt of land is very fertile, and sustains many 
 farming villages, besides many that are given up to 
 fishing and salt-making for a livelihood. In these 
 mountains there is much fine timber and a great va- 
 riety of wild flowers, which I shall not attempt to de- 
 scribe. This is the home of the bautiful azalea, which 
 is found in many colors from deep orange to almost 
 snow white, and in such abundance that one can hardly 
 get out of sight of them. Along this shore red and 
 white roses grow wild in the most extravagant man- 
 ner, in many places covering the ground and filling the 
 air with their sweet perfume. I fancy that they would 
 be a source of considerable revenue to the people if 
 they were only put into the markets of the world 
 where perfumery is manufactured. 
 
 As to the other mountains of the country, they are 
 scattered everywhere just as if they had been sifted 
 out of a great pepperbox, all over the face of the pe- 
 ninsula, each falling wherever it might without re- 
 gard to its neighbor. Mr. GifFord, in his "Everyday 
 Life in Korea," says: "These mountains are chiefly 
 composed of gneiss, various schists, and granite, which 
 
Geographical Sketch. 21 
 
 in the lower peaks and hilltops are mostly in a ens'- 
 integrated form." There are mountains of limestone 
 of a very fine quality and a great variety of colors. 
 If the natives want lime for any purpose, they have 
 only to bring a few stones and burn them, and the 
 lime is at hand. Much of it is crystallized into mar- 
 ble which takes a fine polish and would be of much 
 commercial value. 
 
 The mountains are well watered, abounding in 
 springs which flow away in the form of brooklets, 
 giving life and verdure to the valleys below; The soil 
 even of the mountains is often very fertile and clothed 
 with a great variety of shrubs and trees, the scrub 
 pine predominating in most places. Many people who 
 have been only to some of the ports on the western 
 and southern shores go away with the idea that there 
 is no timber in Korea, which is far from the fact, as 
 every one knows who has traveled much in the in- 
 terior. Many of the hills along the southern and 
 western coasts are composed of disintegrated granite 
 which washes away so readily that nothing can grow 
 upon them. This is the exception, and not the rule 
 for the whole country. Even this disintegrated gran- 
 ite is capable of sustaining much vegetable matter in 
 places where it is not so easily washed away by the 
 rains. 
 
 The political divisions are simple, there being thir- 
 teen provinces at the present, though no one can tell 
 how many there may be six months from now, since 
 there is talk of making a change by returning to the 
 old number, which was eight till after the Japan- 
 
22 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 China War of 1894, when five of the larger ones were 
 divided, making the thirteen which remain till the 
 present time. 
 
 The provinces are divided into counties of various 
 sizes, there being an average of about sixteen counties 
 to every province. Each province has a capital, in 
 which the governor resides and administers the affairs 
 of the province. The governor receives his appoint- 
 ment direct from the king, and is in no way responsi- 
 ble to the people for his conduct. In every county 
 there is just one magistrate, who also receives his ap- 
 pointment from the king, and is usually a stranger in 
 the county where he is sent to reside. These county 
 seats are usually about the largest towns in the county, 
 though many of them are little more than country 
 villages and differ little from the other villages except 
 for the official buildings, which are larger and more 
 imposing in general appearance than any to be found 
 in the ordinary village. However, most of these of- 
 ficial buildings are old and present a most dilapidated 
 appearance, many of them appearing as if they were 
 about ready to totter and fall. This state of things 
 can be largely accounted for on a well-defined Korean 
 principle of always putting off any work that should 
 be done to-day, not only till to-morrow, but just as 
 long as possible. "What is the use?" says he. "It is 
 all right for to-day, and who knows what a day may 
 bring forth?" 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Resources. 
 
 The mountains are rich in minerals. Gold, silver, 
 copper, and iron are found in many places. There is 
 now an American company working a gold mine which 
 is said to be paying well. An English company also 
 has a concession which is being worked. The natives 
 do a good deal of gold mining, but in the most primi- 
 tive manner, only washing the sands of the river beds 
 and taking what they can find. In some few places 
 they have made shafts, but their methods are so crude 
 that little has been done in this sort of mining. They 
 build a fire on the rock, and when it is hot pour water 
 on it and break up as much of it as they can. Then 
 the stone is pounded and washed in a wooden pan the 
 same as the sand of the river. This must be a very 
 slow way of sinking a shaft, though I am told that 
 they have sometimes gone as deep as two or three hun- 
 dred feet. They can go only straight down, since to 
 turn out and follow a vein as do modern miners would 
 cause the shaft to be crooked, and the smoke could not 
 rise out of the way of the workmen. 
 
 In many parts of the country iron is found in great 
 abundance. This is true of some parts of Kang-won 
 Province, where I have often seen the mining in prog- 
 ress. This iron is not hidden deep down in the bowels 
 of the earth so that one must dig to see it, but it is 
 lying near the top — in fact, on the top in many places 
 
 (23) 
 
24 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 — so that the men who mine it have only to take their 
 little hoes, such as they use on their farms, and scrape 
 it up just where they find it lying on the surface of the 
 earth. I have never seen a shaft out of which the ore 
 was being taken, but I have seen it being taken from 
 the hillside as above stated. 
 
 The ore is carried to the smelting plant on the backs 
 of ponies, oxen, and cows. To American miners this 
 would doubtless be a funny sight — this train of ponies 
 and cows loaded with iron ore moving slowly one 
 after another along the hillside and down the path to 
 the place where the ore may be dumped into a stream 
 of running water, where the dirt is washed away, leav- 
 ing the ore in better shape for the furnace. On each 
 cow is a packsaddle with two poles across it, from 
 each end of which hangs a small bag made of straw 
 rope, into which the ore is placed so that the bags just 
 balance each other on the saddle. These bags are so 
 constructed that they are fastened at the bottom by 
 means of a stick which, when drawn out, allows the 
 ore to fall to the ground, thus making it easy to un- 
 load. 
 
 As for the smelting plant, I am quite sure that it 
 would not meet the entire approval of the American 
 Steel Trust, but it is nevertheless a smelting plant and 
 turns out pig iron. It is indeed a crude affair, being 
 only a wall built of stone and mud, about fifteen feet 
 long and eight or ten feet high, with the furnace on 
 one side and the bellows on the other. The wall is of 
 no service except to protect the bellows and the men 
 who operate it from the furnace. The bellows is very 
 
Resources. 25 
 
 simple in construction, being only a troughlike pit in 
 the ground about fifteen or twenty feet long, three 
 feet deep, and two feet wide. It is walled up with 
 stone and plastered with mud so that it is very smooth 
 on the inside and has the appearance of a large mud 
 trough. A cover of heavy boards is made to fit into 
 this trough and is hung on a centerpiece, thus allow- 
 ing it to work up and down like a seesaw. When the 
 bellows is being operated, five or six men stand on 
 either end of the cover and, all swinging together, "up 
 and down they go," all singing a sort of singsong 
 that they keep up for the purpose of swinging together. 
 In the center of the trough is a partition with valves 
 so constructed that when" the cover comes down at one 
 end the wind is forced into the other end, then as the 
 other end comes down it is forced into the furnace 
 and makes the fire burn. This is kept up till the ore 
 is melted, apd then it is drawn out and cast into pig 
 iron. In order to melt this ore, of course coal is re- 
 quired, of which there may be plenty in the mountains 
 near by; but these men care little about that. Their 
 fathers melted iron ore with charcoal, and so will 
 they as long as they can find wood, which is so easily 
 converted into charcoal. In the location of the smelt- 
 ing plant a good place to get wood is taken into con- 
 sideration as well as a place where the ore may be 
 easily obtained. Pits or kilns in which the charcoal is 
 burned are constructed partially under ground and 
 covered over with stone and mud. These are made 
 very hot by burning wood in them for some time, then 
 theiy are filled with wood and sealed up for several 
 
26 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 hours, during which time the wood is converted into 
 an excellent quality of charcoal without much loss to 
 itself. The pig iron thus turned out from these fur- 
 naces is loaded on the backs of ponies, oxen, cows, 
 men, and boys, and passed on to the foundries, where 
 it is cast into plows, pots, and such other utensils as 
 are in common use about the farms. 
 
 The foundry is constructed on the same general 
 principles as the smelting plant, with no sort of house, 
 not even a roof of any description except perchance a 
 shed of brush or straw over the bellows to protect the 
 men who play "seesaw" from the burning heat of the 
 summer's sun. The cost of the entire plant from' start 
 to finish would not exceed twenty-five dollars. Yet 
 the quality of this ore is such that, notwithstanding the 
 crude methods that are used, the iron produced is of a 
 first-class quality, as the pots and plows of the farmer 
 will attest. 
 
 It is an interesting sight to see one of these rude fur- 
 naces in full blast and the men turning out plows and 
 rice pots by the wholesale. There is the stone-and-mud 
 wall of which I spoke, with the men just behind it on 
 each end of the bellows swinging up and down; while 
 from the bellows comes a roaring, growling sound 
 which is heard above the singsong of the men who are 
 playing "up and down we go." Here on the other side 
 of the wall is the rude cupola, filled with charcoal and 
 pig iron, from the top of which forked tongues of 
 flame leap high into the air at every puflE of the howling 
 bellows. At the bottom of the cupola there is an 
 opening which is closed with a lump of clay till the 
 
Resources. 27 
 
 iron is melted and ready for the molds, into which it 
 is poured from a pot carried by two men. When 
 everything is ready for the melted iron to be drawn 
 into the pot, one man sticks a lump of clay on the end 
 of a pole and stands ready for action, while another 
 man with a rod of iron makes a hole through the mud 
 that closes the opening; then the melted metal flows 
 out in a red-hot stream till the pot is full, when the 
 opening is again closed with the lump of clay on the 
 end of the pole, and the metal is carried away and 
 poured into the molds. 
 
 In the provinces of North and South Pyeng-an 
 there is an abundant supply of good anthracite coal, 
 though as yet it has not been mined to any very great 
 extent. The coal is different from that found in the 
 United States, being in large lumps more like soft 
 coal. In handling these lumps a great deal of it 
 crumbles off and becomes dust, so that it must be 
 bagged in order to be saved. This dust, mixed with 
 a small quantity of clay and made into balls the size 
 of a man's fist, makes an excellent fuel, burning slowly 
 and almost without smoke. The Koreans have no 
 stoves and no use for coal, therefore made no effort 
 at mining it till since the foreigners have been in the 
 country. With the coming of the foreigners the de- 
 mand for coal has arisen. Now that the Japanese 
 have charge of the mines, we shall expect to see them 
 developed and worked so as to turn out all the coal 
 the country needs without importing, as has been done 
 in the past. 
 
 Between the mountains the valleys are often wide 
 
28 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 and very fertile, producing abundant crops of rice and 
 other grains such as are common to the climate. Some 
 of these fields have doubtless been yielding their crops 
 to the faithful farmers ever since the days that Ruth 
 went out to glean in the fields of Boaz. Everywhere 
 the country abounds with many varieties of grass, 
 much of which is most excellent pasture for cattle. 
 The industry of cattle-raising could be made a source 
 of great wealth to the people. It now affords a con- 
 siderable income, but nothing to what it might be 
 made, since there are thousands of acres of fine pas- 
 ture lands which are not being utilized for any purpose 
 except to produce annually a fine crop of grass, only 
 to be cut down by the frosts of winter. 
 
 There are few plains that might be called large 
 when taken into comparison with the size of the whole 
 country. There is one in Kang-Won Province, across 
 which I have traveled many times, which is some fifty 
 miles in length and varies in width from five to twenty 
 miles. This is composed of lava formation, the stone 
 being unmistakably lava. It is surrounded by moun- 
 tains, many of which rise to a height of several hun- 
 dred feet, is well watered by many small streams, with 
 one or two larger ones that might be called rivers 
 plowing their way through canyons which are at some 
 places more than a hundred feet deep. This plain re- 
 minds me of the great plains of the western part of 
 the United States. The soil is almost devoid of sand, 
 being composed of what is sometimes called "pipe 
 clay," and I am quite sure that any one who has ever 
 tried to cross it with a bicycle just after a rain will 
 
Resources. 29 
 
 agree that the clay is sticky enough to make pipes or 
 anything else that is made of sticky clay. Notwith- 
 standing the clay, the soil is productive, and abundant 
 crops of rice are to be found growing in the very 
 midst of this plain ; while everywhere, even to the very 
 tops of the highest mountains surrounding the plain, 
 grass grows in such profusion that it appears like a 
 ' great ocean of waving green. On this plain alone 
 thousands of cattle could be reared and pastured every 
 year with little or no expense save looking after therri. 
 The products of the farm are many, but the stand- 
 ard is rice, which takes the place of bread, and, I 
 might add, largely of meat also. This is cultivated in 
 all parts of the country where the land will admit of 
 it, of course always depending upon the water supply, 
 for without water it cannot be successfully grown. In 
 parts of the country the water supply is abundant, but 
 the surface of the land is so hilly that no level fields 
 can be made,, and in such places rice culture is out of 
 the question. In such sections the people depend large- 
 ly on ihillet, oats, peas, beans, and such other grains 
 as grow well on hillsides. Often I have seen farmers 
 at work on the side of mountains that seemed too 
 steep for one to walk. In many parts wheat and bar- 
 ley are grown in considerable quantities, the barley 
 being boiled and eaten like rice, while the most of the 
 wheat finds its way into the hands of the beer and 
 whisky makers. Next to the rice crop the bean ranks 
 highest in importance; for what the rice is to man 
 the bean is to the pony and the cow, taking the place 
 of corn as the principal food for stock. 
 
30 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 Another important product is a sort of sorghum 
 cane, which is not sorghum at all except in appearance, 
 there being no more juice in it than in the stalk of 
 Indian corn. This is cultivated on land that cannot 
 be utilized for rice, and is used for many purposes 
 about the house and farm. The seed, which looks 
 just like the sorghum, is used for feeding chickens" 
 and by the very poor is eaten instead of rice. One 
 would hardly expect to see sorghum stalks used for 
 building fences, gates, etc., but such is the case here. 
 Not only is it true that they are used for these pur- 
 poses, but they are also much used in house-building. 
 They take the place of plastering laths in many houses. 
 When well tied together with straw rope, they are 
 quite strong, and when covered over with the mud 
 plaster they last for many years. 
 
 There are many sorts of garden vegetables which are 
 used extensively in the Korean bill of fare. Of these, 
 the turnip and the cabbage are the most generally 
 used. These are in appearance somewhat like their 
 kinsfolk of the West, but it would be difficult to trace 
 the relation by the flavor. They are not boiled and 
 eaten as Westerners eat such vegetables, but are eaten 
 raw or pickled. 
 
 Some time during the last three hundred years the 
 Irish potato found its way into the "Hermit Kingdom," 
 and is now in favor in some parts of the country where 
 white rice is scarce, though it is scorned by most peo- 
 ple when in the presence of a bowl of white rice. The 
 potato grows well in the mountains, and is much eaten 
 by mountain people, who are often referred to as "po- 
 
Resources. , 31 
 
 tato-eating people." It is only in the last few years 
 that the sweet potato has made its appearance in the 
 country, and it now bids fair to meet with more suc- 
 cess in finding favor with the people than did its kins- 
 man. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 Historical Sketch. 
 
 Away down the corridors of time in the misty past, 
 when the Western world was unknown and unheard- 
 of, the Httle peninsula of which we are writing was 
 making history — history which, if it had been faithful- 
 ly recorded, would no doubt be very interesting read- 
 ing to the people living there to-day. But, alas ! alas ! 
 the muse of the historian did not sing in those days in 
 the "Land of the Morning Calm;" and so we are left 
 to tradition for much of what we know, or claim to 
 know, of the history of this little country which has 
 been busy making history for so many successive cen- 
 turies. 
 
 There are stories connected with the Ever-White 
 Mountains about a celestial being who descended to 
 the earth and became the ruler of the wild tribes in 
 those regions. But of course these stories cannot be 
 taken into account as history, so we are compelled to 
 look for something more modem and withal more 
 reasonable to mark the starting point in the history 
 of Korea. 
 
 In the year 1122 B.C., about the time that the elders 
 of Israel came together unto Samuel and demanded a 
 king to reign over them, the clock of time struck the 
 hour for the dawn of Korean history. In the above- 
 mentioned year a great man by the name of Kija 
 came with the fragments of a defeated army from 
 (32) 
 
Historical Sketch. 33 
 
 China into Korea. The country was at that "time in- 
 habited by wild tribes Hving in an unorganized man- 
 ner. It was into the midst of these people that Kija 
 and his followers came and took up their abode. The 
 great Kija was soon recognized by the tribes as a 
 great leader, and so they asked him to become their 
 king. He established his capital in Pyeng-yang, and 
 called his kingdom Chosen. Here we state that this 
 is the modern name of the country, or was till the 
 close of the Japan-China War in 1894, at which time 
 it was changed to Tai Han; but old names are not 
 easily shaken off, and so the common people continue 
 to speak of their country as Chosen. Kija was un- 
 doubtedly a very wise man for his time, and succeeded 
 in giving to the people and country which he adopted 
 as his a form of government very superior to anything 
 that was in existence in that part of the world.' He 
 was well acquainted with the best that China had been 
 able to devolve; and so, taking advantage of this 
 knowledge, he was able to give Chosen something very 
 much in advance of anything its people had ever 
 known. ' 
 
 Prof. H. B. Hulbert, in his "History of Korea," 
 says : "Kija was fifty-three years old when he came to 
 Korea, and he reigned here forty years." His grave 
 is now to be seen just outside the wall of Pyeng- 
 yang, near by which is a temple to his memory. This 
 temple and grave place are well cared for, and, the 
 visitor to Pyeng-yang nev£r thinks of leaving the city 
 till he has made a visit to Kija's grave. It was this 
 man that brought Chinese ideas and customs to Ko- 
 3 
 
34 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 rea, an* they have ever since been the ruling ideas in 
 the mind of the Korean, though I am not wilHng to 
 accept wholly the views of those who claim that every- 
 thing in Korea has been borrowed from China. Kija 
 was succeeded by his son, and the dynasty continued 
 till about the year 193 B.C. 
 
 So with varying fortunes the kingdom continued 
 till about the beginning of the Christian era. To quote 
 again from Professor Hulbert: "In the year which 
 saw the birth of Christ the situation of affairs in 
 Korea was as follows: In the north Ko-gu-ryu, a 
 vigorous, warlike kingdom was making herself thor- 
 oughly feared by her neighbors; in the central por- 
 tion was the little kingdom of Pak-je, as yet without 
 any claims to independence, but waiting patiently for 
 the power of Ma-han so to decline as to make it pos- 
 sible to play the serpent in the bosom as Wi-man had 
 done to Kija's kingdom. In the south was Sil-la, 
 known as a peaceful power, not needing the sword, 
 because her rule was so mild and just that people 
 from far and near flocked to her borders and craved 
 to become her citizens. It is one of the compensa- 
 tions of history that Sil-la, the least martial of them 
 all, in an age when force seemed the only arbiter, 
 should have finally overcome them all and imposed 
 upon them her laws and language." 
 
 The above will give the reader some little idea of 
 what is known of the beginning of Korea's history. 
 To all who may wish to make a study of the subject 
 I would recommend "The History of Korea," by Pro- 
 fessor Hulbert. 
 
Historical Sketch. 35 
 
 In the year 912 A.D. a, descendant of the old royal 
 house of Korio led a successful rebellion and soon 
 succeeded in establishing his sway over the entire 
 peninsula. Before this time Sil-la had swallowed up 
 Pak-je, so that now the people of the peninsula for the 
 first time became united in one kingdom. This man, 
 whose name was Wang, established his capital at 
 Songdo, where his descendants reigned for four hun- 
 dred years. It was during this dynasty that books 
 were first ' printed in Korea by means of wooden 
 blocks, and that money was first coined, the metal 
 used being iron. This coinage took place in 996 A.D. 
 
 Korea, situated as she was with the warlike nations 
 on the north and the fighting Japanese on the south 
 and east, was never safe in her position. When she 
 succeeded in forming an alliance with one power and 
 started on a peaceful career, it was only a little while 
 till she would be attacked from some other quarter by 
 some of the other powers which seemed always hun- 
 gry to swallow her up. It is one of the wonders of 
 history that all through these centuries, with tiothiiig 
 special to give her strength, she has been able, in some 
 degree, to hold her own against all comers till with- 
 in the last few years, when she has been compelled to 
 yield to the strong and hand over her powers to Japan. 
 
 Many are the times that Japan has tried to conquer 
 Korea, only to be driven back across the straits with 
 little ot nothing to repay her for the trouble except 
 the most intense contempt and hatred of the Koreans. 
 When one is reminded of the "Ear and Nose Monu- 
 ment" which stands to-day in Kioto, Japan's old cap- 
 
2,6 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 ital, he can hardly be surprised that nearly all Ko- 
 reans hate Japan with a bitter hatred- This monument 
 stands on a mound in the street where thousands of 
 noses and ears of Koreans were buried on the return 
 of the Japanese soldiers from one of the invasions of 
 Korea more than three hundred years ago. While that 
 monument stands and its bloody memory remains Ko- 
 reans will hate Japan. 
 
 In the year A.D. 1392, just one hundred years be- 
 fore Columbus crossed the Atlantic, there came a 
 change in the affairs of the kingdom which resulted 
 in the fall of the dynasty and the removal of the capi- 
 tal to Seoul, its present location. With this change a 
 new dynasty was established by one Ye Tai-jo, who 
 seized the reins of government, dethroned the king, 
 and made his peace with the ruler of China, who was 
 at that time enraged because of the refusal to send 
 tribute to him as had been done in the past. Mr. Gif- 
 ford, in "Everyday Life in Korea," tells us that it was 
 at this time that the dress and topknot of the Ming era 
 of China came into Korea. The new king sent tribute 
 to China and also to Japan for some time. The people 
 settled down to the cultivation of the soil, and life 
 became quite peaceful for a long period ; but peace was 
 at last broken by the awful invasion of Japan, which 
 aroused all Korea as with the horrors of an awful 
 nightmare, from which she has never fully recovered 
 when she stops to think of Japan. 
 
 In the year 1876/ Korea made her first treaty with 
 Japan, and thus entered upon new relations with the 
 outside world. There was a strong conservative party 
 
Historical Sketch. 37 
 
 which was not in favor of entering into relations with 
 the outside world. But they were not able to have 
 their way, and so in due time the first minister was 
 sent to Japan in the person of Pak Yung-ho. About 
 the same time a number of young men were sent to 
 Japan to study military matters, and a Japanese officer 
 was brought to Korea to drill Korean troops. 
 
 For a while the progressive party seemed to have 
 everything their own way, and the king and queen 
 were both in sympathy with them. But it is the same 
 old story over again, as it has ever been with men 
 who were acting from selfish motives: they could not 
 wait till their plans of reform had time to grow and 
 develop into something of real profit to th^ nation. 
 With the help of the Japanese authorities then in 
 Seoul they succeeded in capturing the king, reorgan- 
 izing the government, and appointed themselves to the 
 principal offices' of the government. They put to the 
 sword many of the leading men belonging to the con- 
 servative party which had formerly been in charge of 
 affairs. 
 
 In the meantime the United States had succeeded 
 in making her first treaty with Korea, and sent Gen- 
 eral Foote as her first minister to the little kingdom. 
 He arrived in Seoul in May of that year, took up 
 his duties at once, and in a short while succeeded in 
 ratifying the treaty which had been drawn up in Che- 
 mulpo by Commodore Shufeldt and the Korean Com- 
 missioners. 
 
 During all these rapidly moving events the king and 
 his party were looking to China for help, while the 
 
38 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 people were divided, some following the radicals and 
 the Japanese and others remaining true to the old, 
 established conservatism of the past. 
 
 The year 1885 marks the date of many important 
 events in the history of Korea, none of which are 
 more important than the coming of Dr. Horace N. 
 Allen, the first Protestant missionary to enter the Her- 
 mit Kingdom. He was the representative of the Amer- 
 ican Presbyterian Mission, and was soon followed by 
 other members of that mission and at the same time 
 by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 In April of this year commissioners representing 
 China and Japan met in Tien-tsin and signed an agree- 
 ment that both parties would evacuate Korea and not 
 send troops there again without previously notifying 
 each other. It was the breaking of this agreement by 
 China that led to the Japan-China War in 1894. For 
 some years matters went on as they were. The peo- 
 ple were divided, and there was no likelihood of any 
 substantial reforms being undertaken and carried out 
 by the ruling party. 
 
 Toward the close of the year 1893 a society called 
 the Tong Haks, which had arisen in 1864 in oppo- 
 sition to everything foreign, began to come to the 
 front again. They posted bills in the city of Chun-ju 
 calling upon all right-minded men to join them in a 
 march against the capital for the purpose of expel- 
 ling all foreigners from the country. At the same 
 time placards were fastened to the gates of foreigners 
 in Seoul denouncing the Christian religion and warn- 
 ing them to leave the country. The king sent soldiers 
 
Historical Sketch. 39 
 
 to meet this army on its way to the capital, but they 
 were soon conquered, and their arms fell into the 
 hands of the invaders. Thus it was evident that the 
 king was not able to cope with this enemy composed 
 of his own subjects. The Japanese looked upon ^ Ko- 
 rea as an independent nation, but the deplorable state 
 of affairs caused her no little anxiety. Many of the 
 Japanese living in Seoul had fled to Chemulpo and gone 
 onto the men-of-war which had already arrived in that 
 port. China was not living up to her agreement with 
 Japan in regard to Korea's independence, but was se- 
 cretly lending her aid to the disturbances in the coun- 
 try. At this time one of the Koreans who had fled to 
 Japan for protection was deluded by a fellow-country- 
 man and induced to go to Shanghai, where he was shot 
 down in cold blood by the one who had deluded him 
 thence. The slayer of the man, with the dead body, 
 was returned to Korea by a Chinese gunboat. Here 
 the body of the dead man was dismembered and sent 
 to all parts of the country as a warning to traitors, all 
 of which was condoned and abetted by the Chinese. 
 Soon after this the Tong Haks defeated the entire 
 army of the king, which had been sent against them. 
 By this time the king and his government were con- 
 vinced that they were unable to cope with them, and 
 so fell back on their old policy of calling on China for 
 help. China replied at once by sending 1,500 troops 
 to Chemulpo under escort of three gunboats. The 
 Tong Haks, hearing of the coming of the Chinese 
 troops, retired, and in a short while all was quiet 
 again in the south, where they had been the strongest. 
 
40 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 But the coming of the Chinese army had a far more 
 important effect on the country in that it caused the 
 Japanese to send an army also; and thus began the 
 Japan-China War, which resulted in a complete vic- 
 tory for Japan, as all the world knows. 
 
 The year 1894 found Japan in possession of every- 
 thing in Seoul ; even the person of his Majesty fell into 
 the hands of the Japanese, and they were in a fair way 
 toward having everything as they wanted it. The be- 
 ginning of the year had found the Korean people and 
 the government in the same old mood of looking to 
 China as their only friend. It is doubtful whether the 
 people would have been willing to cut loose from 
 China, even for the sake of their independence. 
 
 But this was a case of a nation having independence 
 thrust upon it by another power. It must be said that 
 the Korean government was about as corrupt as it 
 could be, and that it was making a mighty poor out at 
 proving to the world that it was capable of refonning 
 itself. Japan took hold of the affairs of state with a 
 strong hand, and made some changes that looked to 
 the betterment of the people at large. She did not 
 seem, however, to be able to understand the minds of 
 the Korean people; and so, in her eagerness to do 
 something, she undertook some silly things in the name 
 of reform which succeeded only in driving the people 
 farther away from her than they were at first. For 
 instance, the style of dress and the manner in which a 
 man wore his hair all came in for a part of the time of 
 the reformers, while ralany more weighty matters were 
 
Historical Sketch. 41 
 
 untouched. The Tong Haks took up arms again, only 
 to be defeated by the Japanese. 
 
 The Japanese, victorious on the field of battle, were 
 equally so in the terms which they secured by the 
 treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded to them a large 
 portion of Southern Manchuria and the Island of For- 
 mosa. China abjured all interest in Korea and paid 
 an enormous indemnity. This was a great surprise to 
 the Koreans, who had not lost faith in Qiina. The 
 Japanese, elated and intoxicated with their success, 
 put forth every effort in their power to control affairs 
 in Korea. 
 
 At this time (1895) there were two strongly op- 
 posing factions in the Korean court — one led by the 
 ex-regent, father of the king, and the other led by 
 her Majesty the queen. The queen was a woman of 
 very bright mind and a strong will, and withal some- 
 what of a statesman that "needeth not to be ashamed." 
 Her enemies could not control her, and her power with 
 the king and his cabinent was undisputed. The ex- 
 regent lost no time in making- friends of the Japanese^ 
 and through them blocked much that the king desired 
 to do for the reform of his government. Conditions 
 were so strained that Japan recalled Count Inouye, 
 Minister to Korea, and appointed Marquis Miura in 
 his stead. The Marquis entered upon his new duties 
 with a determination to get some of the factions out 
 of the way at any cost. Here again the ex-regent lost 
 no time in making an alliance with the new minister 
 and his staff. 
 
 In the meantime the king was virtually a prisoner in 
 
42 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 his own palace, and under the full control of his ene- 
 mies. He was so completely surrounded by his ene- 
 mies that he feared his own life would be taken at any 
 time. So great was this fear that for a long while he 
 would not eat any food except such as had been pre- 
 pared by some American friends and sent to him under 
 lock and key. He also called in some of the Ameri- 
 can missionaries and had them remain in the palace 
 near his person every night. This state of affairs 
 could not continue. The king and the crown prince 
 by a shrewd trick succeeded in deluding their captors 
 by passing the guards at the palace gate in closed 
 chairs such as are used only by women. These same 
 chairs had been caused to pass in and out of the gate 
 at all hours of the day with some of the palace women 
 in them, till the guards ceased to examine them. Then 
 it was that early one morning the king and his son 
 entered these same chairs and made good their escape 
 and found an asylum in the Russian Legation. 
 
 Here the king called together his friends and re- 
 organized his government by appointing a new cabi- 
 net. He lost little time in punishing his enemies who 
 had been in power over him. Some of them were cut 
 down in the streets by the people, who were outraged 
 at the treatment their king had received at the hands 
 of these men. In the Russian Legation the king re- 
 mained ior something more than a year, during which 
 time he built a new palace right under the shadow of 
 the British, American, Russian, and German Lega- 
 tions. Into this palace he removed and remained till 
 
Historical Sketch. 43 
 
 the summer of 1907, when he was forced to abdicate 
 and his son enthroned in his stead. 
 
 In this sketch it is not possible for me to trace all 
 the events which led up to the beginning of the final 
 conflict which resulted in Japan's complete victory over 
 Russia and opened up the way for her to take full con- 
 trol of Korea. I must not close without giving a few 
 of the leading facts for the benefit of those who will 
 not take the time to read the entire history. Those 
 who wish to make a further study of the facts will 
 do well to read Professor Hulbert's "Passing of Ko- 
 rea." 
 
 The first gun was fired and the first battle fought in 
 tjie harbor of Chemulpo on February 9, 1903, The 
 Japanese had won and were now moving north with a 
 large land force, when the night of the 23d of the 
 same month saw the signing of a protocol between 
 Japan and Korea which at once swept from Korea all 
 claims to neutrality which she had loudly proclaimed. 
 Again I quote from Professor Hulbert : "Korea granted 
 the Japanese the right to use Korea as a road to Man- 
 churia, and engaged to give them every possible facil- 
 ity for prosecuting the war. On the other hand, Japan 
 guaranteed the independence of Korea and the safety 
 of the imperial family. It is needless to discuss the 
 degree of spontaneity with which Korea did this. It 
 was a case of necessity; but if rightly used, it might 
 have proved of immense benefit to Korea, as it surely 
 did to Japan." 
 
 After the close of the war, it became quite evident 
 that Japan was not going to consider herself bound to 
 
44 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 live up to the very fair agreement which she had made 
 at the beginning of the war. The king, with the hope 
 that he might receive some friendly aid from the 
 United States, sent Prof. H. B. Hulbert as his repre- 
 sentative to the United States to ask for such aid. 
 In Washington Mr. Hulbert was received and his mes- 
 sage heard, only to be answered that nothing could be 
 done. A new treaty had been made and the thing was 
 fixed. 
 
 The following is the treaty, if treaty it may be 
 called. The king of Korea has always affirmed that he 
 never gave his consent to the signing of the same. ' 
 
 The governments of Japan and Korea, desiring to strength- 
 en the principle of solidarity which unites the two empires, 
 have with that object in view agreed upon and concluded the 
 following stipulations to serve until the moment arrives when 
 it is recognized that Korea has attained national strength: 
 
 Article I. The government of Japan, through the Depart- 
 ment of Foreign Affairs at Tokyo, will hereafter have control 
 and direction of the external relations and affairs of Korea; 
 and the diplomatic and consular representatives of Japan will 
 have charge of the subjects and interests of Korea in foreign 
 countries. 
 
 Art. II. The government of Japan undertakes to see to 
 the execution of treaties actually existing between Korea and 
 other powers, and the government of Korea engages not to 
 conclude hereafter any act or engagement having an inter- 
 national character except through the medium of the govern- 
 ment of Japan. 
 
 Art. III. The government of Japan shall be represented 
 at the court of his Maj esty the Emperor of Korea by a resi- 
 dent general, who shall reside at Seoul primarily for the pur- 
 pose of taking charge and directing matters relating to diplo- 
 matic affairs. He shall have the right of private and personal 
 
Historical Sketch. 45 
 
 audience with his Majesty the Emperor of Korea. The Jap- 
 anese government shall also have the right to station resi- 
 dents at the several open ports and such other places in Ko- 
 rea as they may deem necessary. /Such residents shall, under 
 the direction of the resident general, exercise the powers and 
 functions hitherto appertaining to Japanese consuls in Korea, 
 and shall perform such duties as may be necessary in order 
 to carry into full effect the provisions of this agreement. 
 
 Art. IV. The stipulations of all treaties and agreements 
 existing between Japan and Korea not inconsistent with the 
 provisions of this agreement shall continue in force. 
 
 Art. V. The government of Japan undertakes to maintain 
 the welfare and dignity of the imperial house of Korea. 
 
 In faith whereof the undersigned, duly authorized by their 
 governments, have signed the agreement and affixed their 
 seals. 
 
 (Signed) Hayashi Gonsuke, 
 
 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary ; 
 
 (Signed) Pak-Che-Soon, 
 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 November 17, 1905. 
 
 After the conclusion of this so-called treaty. General 
 Min, one of the leading statesmen of the country, 
 wrote the following letter to his fellow-countrymen 
 and then took his own life : 
 
 To the Twenty Millions of My Fellow-Countrymen: Alas! 
 I lament the fact that our country and our people have come 
 to such a degradation. It pains me to think that my twenty 
 million compatriots shall perish in the coming struggle for 
 existence. Those that want to die shall be alive, while those 
 that want to live shall die. I suppose you already know these 
 facts. 
 
 In utter despair and hopelessness I have decided to take 
 my own life, and only thus repay bounties I have received 
 from his Majesty, our emperor, and say now my last fare- 
 well to you all, my twenty million compatriots. 
 
46 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 Although I die in body, I shall not be dead in soul, and 
 even after death I shall ever endeavor to assist you in your 
 good efforts. Therefore exert yobrselves to the utmost, re- 
 double your natural power and strength, educate yourselves, 
 and restore our independence and liberty. Then I shall be 
 happy forever, even though I lie in my grave. 
 
 Let me urge you again, do not he discouraged in the least. 
 Be determined to realize your fondest hopes. 
 
 Now remember what I say, for I die to make your minds 
 firm; and now farewell, my twenty million compatriots, fare- 
 well ! 
 
 To write the history that has been made in Korea 
 since the signing of the above so-called treaty would 
 require a large volume. I shall therefore attempt noth- 
 ing more than a brief outline of some of the principal 
 facts. 
 
 Marquis (afterwards Prince) Ito was stationed in 
 Seoul as the resident general. Marshal Hasegawa was 
 left in charge of the Japanese army in Korea. 
 
 In the summer of 1907 the king secretly sent a del- 
 egation to The Hague with the hope of obtaining help 
 from the powers. As soon as this was known in Seoul 
 the king was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, 
 the crown prince. 
 
 At this time the Korean army, consisting of eight 
 or ten thousand foreign-drilled troops, was disbanded. 
 One company of this army, stationed inside the Little 
 West Gate, refused to lay down their arms. They 
 took their stand in the barracks, and were soon fired 
 upon by the Japanese soldiers, who took their stand 
 on the near-by hilltops. For something like two hours 
 a fierce battle raged between them, resulting in a com- 
 
Historical Sketch. 47 
 
 plete defeat of"the brave little company in the bar- 
 racks, a large number of them being either killed or 
 wounded before they stopped firing. 
 
 The events that followed leading up to the final an- 
 nexation of Korea make an interesting chapter in mod- 
 ern history, but I leave them to be recorded by another 
 pen. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 The Capital. 
 
 The name of the capital of Korea is Seoul, and is 
 pronounced almost like the immortal part of man — soul. 
 Perhaps it would be more nearly correct to say that it 
 is pronounced "sowl," with the last part of the sound 
 slightly prolonged. There has been much dispute 
 among the foreigners as to just how it is pronounced 
 by the Koreans. It is perfectly reasonable to suppose 
 that the Korean knows how to pronounce the name 
 of the capital of his country; to this all will agree, 
 but to get everybody to agree to just what he says 
 when he pronounces jt is quite another thing. Some 
 people declare that it is always pronounced as if it 
 had two syllables, while others hear only one syllable, 
 slightly drawn out, about like an Irishman would say 
 "me sowl.'' 
 
 As to where the word came from or i'rom what it 
 is derived no one knows, and no Korean seems to 
 care. It has been here so long, and always meaning 
 their capital, that they are perfectly willing to let med- 
 dlesome foreigners settle all such questions as to 
 where it came from or how it was derived. It not 
 only means the capital of Korea, but in like manner 
 Peking is the Seoul of China, Tokyo is the Seoul of 
 Japan, and Washington is the Seoul of the United 
 States. 
 
 Truly Seoul is the soul of Korea. Here is the cen- 
 (48) 
 
The Capital. 49 
 
 ter of life, social, political, and otherwise. All roads 
 lead up to Seoul. Mark the word up, for no Korean 
 ever thinks or speaks of the capital of his country in 
 any term but up. This thought is carried to such an 
 extent that everything outside- the capital is called 
 down in the country. It matters nothing that a 
 man lives in a city of forty or sixty thousand inhab- 
 itants — he is only a countryman, and always speaks of 
 going up to Seoul and down to his own city. When 
 one drops into an inn and begins a conversation with 
 some one in the room, he is often asked the question, 
 "Ola-kam-na-ka, na-ri-kam-na-ka ?" which means, 
 "Are you going up or down?" and is always under- 
 stood at once to mean : "Are you going to Seoul or to 
 the country ?" 
 
 Seoul is now a little more than five hundred years 
 old, and, I might add, has not yet obtained her free- 
 dom. The city was established when the capital was 
 moved from Songdo to this place, in the year 1392, 
 just a little more than five hundred years ago. At the 
 very first the city was laid out on a large scale and 
 inclosed by a great stone wall about ten miles in cir- 
 cumference. This wall is about twenty feet high, be- 
 ing constructed of earth and faced on the outside with 
 cut stone. The wall of earth is broad enough for an 
 army to march on top of it. The stone wall is some 
 three or four feet higher than the earthen wall, and 
 is pierced with small portholes, through which the 
 soldiers were able to shoot their arrows, at the same 
 time not exposing themselves to the sight of the ene- ' 
 my. In this wall there are six great gates through 
 4 
 
50 ' Village Life in Korea. 
 
 which all the traffic of the city must pass; Untir re- 
 cent years these gates were all closed and locked every 
 night; but now that the electric car of the Westerner 
 goes whirling in and out through three of these gates, 
 the trolley wire interferes with the closing of the 
 ponderous shutters that for more than five centuries 
 have been closed at night. Over each one of these 
 gates is a massive pagoda-shaped roof, on the top of 
 which there are many curiously shaped images of men 
 and monkeys, which are placed there for the purpose 
 of keeping out evil spirits which might want to enter 
 the city. These gates serve as public bulletin boards, 
 and here the royal edicts of the king as well as other 
 less important documents are posted. Two of these 
 gates are called the "dead man's gates" because no 
 dead body is allowed to be carried through any other. 
 The reason for such a law no one seems to know, nor 
 does any one care ; it is a fact, and that is sufficient. 
 
 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so are 
 they round about Seoul. Beautiful for situation in- 
 deed is the old capital of Chosen. Here on the south 
 is Nam San, or the South Mountain, more than eight 
 hundred feet high, with the great city wall climbing 
 right over the top of its head, inclosing the most 
 beautiful side of the mountain within the city. There 
 to the north is the North Mountain, rising even higher 
 than Nam San, and standing like an unmovable sen- 
 tinel, keeping watch over the city of the king. The 
 wall finds its way over the top of these peaks, which 
 in themselves furnish an almost impassable barrier to 
 the approach of an army. 
 
The Capital. 51 
 
 Among all the cities of the world Seoul stands 
 unique, in a class to itself. There is nothing else like 
 it under the sun. It has an estimated population of 
 two hundred thousand or more, many of whom live 
 outside the walls. , There are two great streets in the 
 city — the South Gate Street, leading from the South 
 Gate to the great bell in the center of the city, and the 
 Bell or East Gate Street. These, unlike the streets of 
 most Eastern cities, are very wide and join at the bell 
 tower. There are also three or four other wide streets 
 in the city, but they are hardly long enough to be 
 called great streets. The one leading out from the old 
 North Palace is fully as wide as Pennsylvania Ave- 
 nue in Washington City. The other streets, if we 
 may dignify them with the name, are hardly more 
 than crooked alleys which seem to run with no pur- 
 pose whatever except to furnish passage to and from 
 the rows of mud huts which line them from one end 
 to the other. Notwithstanding the high mountains 
 about the city, the streets are almost level, there being 
 just fall enough for the water in the side ditches to 
 find its way slowly to the great central canal which 
 runs through the city from northwest to southeast 
 and finds its way out under the city wall. 
 
 All the streets are entirely innocent of sidewalks, 
 but instead each side is beautified (?) with an open 
 ditch which serves as a sewer for all manner of filth 
 known to a great city like this. The houses are built 
 in long rows along the sides of these ditches, every 
 house being provided with a convenient loophole 
 
52 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 through which all manner of filth is daily dumped into 
 the open ditch. x 
 
 Microbes! If there be any such things — and the 
 doctors say there are — well, I should say that they 
 could thrive in these ditches. As to the number and 
 variety of germs and microbes that live in these ditch- 
 es, I shall leave for some one else to tell ; but as for the 
 smells and fumes that rise from these open sewers, 
 every Westerner who has passed this way can testify. 
 However, we should always remember that the mat- 
 ter of smell depends entirely on one's education. A 
 Korean gentleman on his first visit to New York was 
 asked by a friend how he liked the great city, where- 
 upon he replied: "O, very well; but the smells are 
 so bad!" This, too, reminds me of an incident that 
 took place in our home. One day as we were having 
 our dinner a woman from one of the country church- 
 es came in to call on us. Mrs. Moose prepared some 
 food and sent it in to her. Among other things 
 there was some beef hash which we considered very 
 nice, it being flavored with black pepper and sage. 
 It so happened in a few days that this same woman 
 called again and we had the same sort of hash. Mrs. 
 Moose was preparing another tray of food for the 
 woman when the servant remarked: "You need not 
 give her any hash. She did not eat that you gave her 
 the other day. She said it smelled bad." 
 
 Well, if everything the doctors tell us about microbes 
 and germs were strictly true, the inhabitants of Seoul 
 would have disappeared from the face of the earth 
 long before this good day. Perhaps what saves them 
 
The Capital. 53 
 
 from being completely devoured by microbes is the 
 fact that once a year these ditches and canals are all 
 washed out by the floods of water during the two 
 months of the rainy season. Then there is another 
 saving feature in the fact that for three months in the 
 year they- are so completely frozen up that even an 
 Eastern microbe cannot wriggle. 
 
 Among all the thousands of houses in this great 
 city, there are only a few that are more than one 
 story high, and these have all been built since the com- 
 ing of the Western foreigner. So this in itself makes 
 Seoul different from all the othet cities that I have 
 seen or read of. This is a city of one-story houses 
 covered with tile and straw. A view from the top of 
 one of the near-by mountains gives the appearance of 
 a city paved with tile and decorated with brown straw 
 thatch. 
 
 There are but few temples in the city ; in fact, there 
 is but one that is worthy the name. This is the Tem- 
 ple of Heaven, where hjs Majesty is supposed to wor- 
 ship. The absence of temples has led some travelers 
 to conclude that Seoul is a city without religion, which 
 is far from the fact in the case, since these houses in 
 Seoul, like all other houses in the country, have their 
 spirits, of which we shall write in another chapter. 
 
 Strictly speaking, there are few business houses 
 in Seoul — that is, houses which are used wholly fou 
 business. The family usually occupies a part of the 
 house that is used for a shop or store, as the case may 
 be. The ordinary shop is a room about eight feet 
 square in the front of the house ; the front is so con- 
 
54 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 structed that during the business hours it can all be 
 taken out, thus leaving the entire store open. The ar- 
 ticles of trade are placed around the three sides of 
 the room and piled about in different places, to dis- 
 play them to the passer-by. The customer does not 
 enter the shop, but stands in the street while he makes 
 his purchase. The merchant sits on a mat in the mid- 
 dle of the room, from which point he can reach al- 
 most everything in stock. There are some larger 
 shops and stores in which the wholesale trade is car- 
 ried on, but these have very little likeness to an Amer- 
 ican store. 
 
 In the capital there are many people who have no 
 business — that is to say, they are gentlemen of leisure. 
 They are gentlemen, and gentlemen are not supposed 
 to meddle with such sordid matters as manufacture 
 and merchandise — no, not even office work, unless it 
 be an office connected with the government. The busi- 
 ness of a gentleman is to hold office and rule the peo- 
 ple, and Seoul is supremely a city of gentlemen. Many 
 of these gentlemen spend the greater part of their 
 lives hanging around waiting for some office — which 
 they never get, for the simple reason that they cannot 
 raise money enough to pay for it. 
 
 There are little communities or localities in the city 
 where manufacture \s carried on by the people who 
 are compelled to work for a living. But the stranger 
 would have to be told that it is a manufacturing part 
 of the city, as there is nothing in the style of the 
 houses that would show that they are not dwelling 
 houses. There may be found Girdle Town, Pot Town, 
 
The Capital. 55 
 
 Shoe Town, and Hat-Makers' Row, with the hlack- 
 smith, the silversmith, and all the rest ; but all are very 
 much alike. 
 
 The markets are conducted every morning in the 
 wide streets inside the South and East Gates. These 
 are open and the traders ready for business every 
 morning long before sunup. In these markets one 
 may get a glimpse of what the people eat, By nine 
 o'clock in the morning the marketing is over, the peo- 
 ple have returned to their homes, and everything 
 in the streets and market places moves on as quierly 
 as if no one ever cared to drive a hard bargain with 
 his neighbor. The little shops along the streets remain 
 open all day, but these are not the places where the 
 food supplies are sold. 
 
 Now come with me ; let us take a stroll up the side 
 of Nam San. It will afford us an excellent view of the 
 city, and one such as we cannot get from any other 
 point. As we pass down the street to the beautiful 
 shady walk that leads up the side of the mountain, we 
 notice that all the men we meet are dressed in white. 
 Yes, everybody dresses in white in Chosen. It is quite 
 true that when a coolie has worn his white suit for 
 three months without a change it would be in the 
 bounds of truth to call it slightly colored; but never 
 mind, it has been white, and that is sufficient. AH 
 people wear white in Korea. 
 
 Yes, we have already told you that there are no 
 sidewalks in Seoul. Men, women, children, horses, 
 cows, and dogs all walk together in the same street. 
 See this man lying in the middle of the street fast 
 
5-6 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 asleep in the shadow of his ox, which is loaded with 
 wood, standing and waiting for a customer to call and 
 wake his master. We notice that the women have a 
 green garment thrown over the head and reaching 
 almost to the ground. This is the veil that is worn 
 by every decent woman every time she goes on the 
 streets. See there the great, boxlike things that the 
 men are carrying with a rush, as if they meant to get 
 somewhere before the sun goes down. These are the 
 sedan chairs in which the high-class ladies and gentle- 
 men ride. The lady's chair is completely closed, so 
 that no one can see the occupant. The gentleman's 
 is often open so that the rider is exposed to full view. 
 The man coming there with the hat that would hold 
 three pecks of shelled corn is a mourner. See the 
 piece of satkcloth behind which he hides his face. 
 His long coat is also made of sackcloth, and has 
 sleeves as large as a flour bag. See that crowd of 
 boys coming down the street all dressed in their "birth- 
 day" suits-. That is quite common for boys in sum- 
 mer till they are six or eight years old. The small 
 boy just coming out of the alley there is engaged to be 
 married, as may be known from the fact that he has 
 a topknot and wears the little yellow straw hat. See, 
 all the other boys are bareheaded, with their hair braid- 
 ed and hanging down the back. 
 
 ,'But the morning will, soon be gone and we shall 
 not have reached the top of Nam San. Let us hurry 
 across this stream, which flows from the spring yonder 
 under the cliff of the mountain. See, these women 
 are washing; see how they beat the clothes on the flat 
 
SEOUL WOMEN WEARING THE VEIL. 
 
The Capital. 57 
 
 stones till they are spotlessly white. This is a part of 
 the daily life work of hundreds of women in this old 
 city. The constant "whack-et-te-whack" that kept you 
 awake till after midnight last night was nothing but 
 the noise of the ironing sticks as these same women 
 pounded the clothes which they had washed in this 
 stream during the day. It would hardly be expected 
 that such methods would turn out a superior quality 
 of laundry, but I have yet to see anything nicer in this 
 ' line than some of the finished products of these same 
 women with the ironing sticks. 
 
 See, here we are just passing a little Japanese shrine. 
 See there beneath that clump of beautiful pines the 
 little gate and the circular path leading up to the place 
 where rests the image of Buddha. Here even the 
 Japanese stops the study of modern warfare long 
 enough to make his bow to the spirits. 
 
 There goes the bell. It is now twelve o'clock. So 
 say the notes of the tongueless old bell that hangs in 
 the tower at the junction of the two great streets near 
 the center of the city. This bell, like all other Korean 
 bells having no tongue, is made to give out its sound 
 by means of a log which is swung by two chains and, 
 being drawn back several feet, is allowed to swing for- 
 ward and strike the outside of the bell, causing it to 
 give out the doleful sound that has been announcing 
 the noon hour in this sleepy old city since long before 
 the Mayflower dropped anchor off Plymouth Rock. 
 There is an interesting story told concerning the mak- 
 ing of this bell. The bell is very large (something like 
 twelve feet high and nearly as wide in diameter), and 
 
58 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 is believed by the Koreans to be the largest bell in the 
 world. The story tells us that when it was cast and 
 taken out of the molds it was found to be cracked. 
 It was cast a second time, with the same result. At 
 , this time one of the priests came forward and said 
 that it would be impossible to cast the bell without its 
 breaking unless some mother would give her baby to 
 be thrown into the molten mass. It was declared that 
 such an offering to the spirits of the fire would cause 
 the bell not to break, and give to the nation' the great- 
 est bell in all the world. A woman was soon found 
 who was willing to give her babe for this purpose, 
 and the dastardly deed was done. The bell was again 
 cast, and came out in perfect condition ; and from the 
 very first the people have said that the tones are like 
 the cry of a helpless babe calling "A-ma-ne ! A-ma-ne ! 
 A-ma-ne !" A-ma-ne is the word for mother, and so 
 the cry of the child calling its mother can easily be 
 imagined in the tones of the bell. 
 
 But here we are nearly to the top of Nam San, and 
 from this place we may have a fine view of the capital 
 of Chosen. See the great wall yonder just under the 
 North Mountain, in the northern part of the city. 
 That is the North Palace, the one in which so many 
 tragedies have been enacted, the last great one being 
 the murder of' the queen by the Japanese and their 
 allies on the night of October 8, 1895. That tall build- 
 ing wilii its pagoda-shaped roof, which appears as if 
 it might be floating in the air, standing in the center 
 of the grounds is the great audience hall in which the 
 kings of Chosen for centuries past have received their 
 
The Capital. 59 
 
 great statesmen and transacted the business of the 
 Hermit Kingdom all tmknown to the curious out- 
 side world. If the walls and columns of this old hall 
 could talk, the stories that they could unfold would 
 thrill the world with horror. 
 
 See the group of high peaks just back of the North 
 Mountain. This is Sam Kak San, or the Three-Peaked 
 Mountain. There among those peaks, some two thou- 
 sand feet above sea level, is a fortification inclosed by 
 a wall nearly as large as the one that incloses the cap- 
 ital itself. This was built hundreds of years ago for 
 a place of refuge in case the capital should be invaded 
 by an enemy. It is called Puk Han, or the North Fort, 
 and in it there is a palace which is kept intact to this 
 day in order that his Majesty may have a place to 
 which he may retire in times of danger. 
 
 'Around the North Palace there are acres of tile- 
 roofed houses which are the homes of the officials. 
 This is where much of the "blue blood" of the city 
 lives and dies. The big street leading out from the 
 North Palace gate, which is guarded by two huge 
 stone tigers, is the street on which the buildings for 
 the different departments of the government are lo- 
 cated. 
 
 Yonder in the distance, inside and outside the great 
 East Gate, we see the brown straw-thatched roofs that 
 shelter the common people. There are also many of 
 these humble houses to be seen in all parts of the city ; 
 and they are a sure mark of poverty, as no one cares 
 to have a straw-thatched roof in the city if he can af- 
 ford one of tile. 
 
6o Village Life in Korea. 
 
 See the great, wide streets and the narrow, winding 
 alleys. How they are crowded with white-robed, mov- 
 ing throngs, affording us a view that cannot be found 
 in any other city in all the wide, wide world 1 Some _ 
 of these objects are gentlemen on pleasure bent. Many 
 of them are the hard-working coolies who know noth- 
 ing but toil from day, to day, not even knowing a 
 Sunday of rest, and making just enough to keep the 
 wolf from the door and to buy tobacco enough to fill 
 the long-stemmed pipe. The Korean must have his 
 smoke, whether he has a sufficient amount of food or 
 not. There among that moving multitude are many 
 men and boys, with a sprinkling of women, who have 
 walked for days and days, from all parts of the coun- 
 try, for just a little sight-seeing in Seoul, the greatest 
 city in all the world — that is, in all the world of which 
 they have any knowledge. 
 
 Everybody seems to have plenty of time and nothing 
 to do except to see what is to be seen in the great 
 capital. It is true the jinrikisha men move along as if 
 they had started somewhere and expected to get there. 
 But the jinrikisha is an innovation, and does not belong 
 to the old order of things in Seoul. It came with the 
 Japanese, and is now fast taking the place of the 
 sedan chair. Then, too, there is that painted mon- 
 ster, the trolley car, that comes buzzing along every 
 few minutes, compelling even yang-bans to quicken 
 their steps and get off the track before something hap- 
 pens. These cars are owned and operated by the 
 Korean-American Electric Company. The cars are 
 run by Korean motormen and conductors, under the 
 
The Capital. 6i 
 
 supervision of a few Americans. It is to the credit 
 of Koreans that these young men have in so short a 
 time proven themselves capable of handling the cars 
 so well. 
 
 Besides the hum of the trolley car and the rattling 
 of the jinrikishas there is hardly a sound to be heard 
 in all this great city save the hum of human voices. 
 There are no paved streets with heavy wagons and car- 
 riages rumbling over them. The facts are, there are 
 very few carriages of any sort in the country, and 
 those that are here have all come since I came here, 
 ten years ago. Ten years ago the only kind of cart 
 or wagon to be seen around Seoul was the clumsy old 
 oxcart that is used for moving heavy stones and such 
 other things as cannot be carried by men. 
 
 See there in the distance the beautiful white marble 
 pagoda. There is not another one like it in all the 
 country. It is thirteen stories high, and about twenty 
 feet square at the base. It was sent as a present by the 
 Emperor of China to one of the former queens of Ko- 
 rea soon after the founding of the city. It is made in 
 as many sections as there are stories, and is most 
 elaborately carved in bold relief. The carving is a 
 portrayal of some of the teachings of Buddha. 
 
 Let us return to the city. Even now the smoke is 
 already beginning to rise from thousands of holes in 
 the ground and in the sides of the houses which an- 
 swer for chimneys. This means that the fires are be- 
 ing lighted to cook the evening rice, and soon the city 
 will be so covered with smoke that we shall not be 
 able to see anything. Sometimes this smoke refuses 
 
62 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 to rise, and then it rblls along the streets taking lib- 
 erties with the eyes of all comers, without regard to 
 race or nationality ; while at other times it rises grace- 
 fully over the city and hangs like a pall of gloom over 
 a deserted cemetery. When it is remembered that 
 much of the fuel is only pine brush, it can be readily 
 understood how disagreeable this smoke may become 
 as it pours from the throats of, many thousands of black 
 flues. 
 
 The policeman is much in evidence everywhere in 
 the city. He wears a foreign uniform and carries a 
 long sword at his side; but he has little to do except 
 to draw his salary, which it does not take him long to 
 spend. The citizens of this old capital are as a rule 
 quiet and orderly, and do not seem to need so many 
 policemen. It is nevertheless true that sometimes a 
 fellow gets too much drink, which is followed by 
 a fondness for quarreling with his neighbor, who is 
 probably in the same condition. At such times and 
 under these circumstances even a little topknot-pulling 
 may be indulged in, but this makes little difference to 
 anybody except the parties actually engaged. The po- 
 liceman is not needed on such occasions. The parties 
 most interested, if let alone, will settle it all in due 
 time; and if not let alone they will settle it anyway, 
 even if it takes till the break of dawn to do it. When 
 matters have all been adjusted and the terms of peace 
 agreed upon, they will quietly sit down for a smoke, 
 all the while looking at each other and having little 
 to say, now that each has had a turn at the other's 
 topknot. 
 
The Capital. 63 , 
 
 Then, too, there are soldiers in town, lots, of them ; 
 and they should not be overlooked in a write-up of the 
 capital. They are a strange mixture of the old and 
 the new, the Occident and the Orient combined and 
 thrown out on the world in the shape of a soldier 
 whose greatest ambition is to get his three bowls of 
 rice each day and draw his little salary of one dollar 
 and a quarter a month. He is, on the whole, rather 
 an amiable fellow and not in the least dangerous, un- 
 less one should happen to come too near where he 
 stands on the street corner with his rifle, bayonet fixed, 
 hanging over his shoulder and practicing the swing of 
 a circuit from right to left. 
 
 In short, Seoul, as compared with the great cities 
 of the Western world, reminds one of a great city 
 which has knocked off work and is taking a holiday. 
 There are thousands of people here who have no work 
 nor business of any sort but to play the gentleman, 
 walk the streets, smoke their long-stemmed pipes, and 
 talk about the depths and profoundness of the wisdom 
 of the ancients. These are the yang-bans, or gentle- 
 men of the higher class. It is true that they have 
 spent some years in the study of the Chinese char- 
 acters, and would gladly accept some office if only his 
 Royal Majesty would condescend to bestow such favor 
 upon sych unworthy worms of the dust. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 The Village. 
 
 The village is the unit of social organization in Ko- 
 rea. It is not simply the home of the few who are 
 engaged in manufacture or commercial life, as in some 
 other countries; it is the home of the people. There 
 is no such thing as couhtry life as it is known in the 
 United States, more especially in the South, where the 
 farmhouse is the unit of rural society. The farmers 
 live in villages with their farms surrounding them. 
 It is literally true in Korea, as it was in Palestine, that 
 "the sower goes forth to sow" — that is, his fields are 
 often some distance from his house, and he must go 
 out to them when he sows. 
 
 Our villages vary in size from a group of two or 
 three mud huts to a town of a thousand or more 
 houses. There are but few cities and large towns in 
 Korea. As said in a previous chapter, everything out- 
 side of the capital is called country. Outside of the 
 capital, Songdo is the largest city, and has a popula- 
 tion of about forty thousand. There are several other 
 places with a population of from five to twenty thou- 
 sand. There is very little difference in the plan of 
 the cities and the villages. Plan, did I say? There 
 is hardly any plan to any of them. They all seem to 
 have been built one house at a time, without the least 
 reference to what would be needed in the future en- 
 largement of the place. 
 
 You may always expect to find the village situated 
 (64) 
 
, The Village. 65 
 
 on low land. Of course there are exceptions to the 
 rule, and sometimes we find a village on the side of a 
 high mountain or even at the very top of a mountain 
 pass. This is altogether out of the usual order of 
 things, and may be accounted for on the ground that 
 some enterprising families want to conduct wine shops 
 and eating houses near the mountain passes, so that 
 they may catch the tired and hungry travelers before 
 they fall into the hands of the innkeepers at the foot of 
 the mountain. 
 
 The best reason for locating the villages in the low- 
 lands is for protection from the winds which sweep 
 over the hilltops with such fury that the straw-thatched 
 roofs of the cottages can hardly resist them. Then, too, 
 it requires much less fuel to keep the house warm 
 when it is sheltered by the hills around it. The water 
 question comes in for consideration also, and this is 
 much more easily settled in the valley than on the 
 hill. If a well has to be dug, it is not often more than 
 ten feet deep, making the cost very little. A whole 
 chapter might be written on these village wells. It is 
 here that the women come not only for the water for 
 the ordinary purposes about the house, but hejre the 
 clothes are washed, being pounded on the flat stones' 
 around the mouth of the well. No tubs are used, but 
 water is poured over the clothes while they are being 
 beaten with a paddle; and the water, after passing 
 through the soiled clothes, often finds its way back into 
 the well by the nearest route. Many of these wells 
 are so shaUow that the water may be dipped out 
 with a gourd ; and I have often seen women with one 
 
(A Village Life in Korea. "^ 
 
 hand dipping the water and pouring it over the clothes 
 which they beat with a stick in the other hand. Even 
 the deep wells are like Jacob's in that there is "nothing 
 to clraw with," and every one must bring her own rope 
 and bucket. In many of our villages there are no 
 wellsj but a near-by running stream supplies water for 
 all purposes. 
 
 Usually there is but one street in the village, and 
 it is the common country road or path that happened 
 to pass that way. The first house in the village was 
 located on this path, and all since that time have been 
 strung along the same way. Of course in the larger 
 villages there are back alleys and houses that do not 
 front on the main street. Many of these village 
 houses are wine shops and inns, and for this purpose 
 are best when located right on the street. In many 
 of them the window shutters are simply opened out 
 from the top and so propped up as to make a lunch 
 counter at which the hungry traveler may stop and 
 take a meal without leaving the road. Many of these 
 enterprising innkeepers have a brush arbor built in 
 front of their houses with mats spread out to invite the 
 tired traveler to stop and rest, of course with the hope 
 that while he rests he will also eat and drink. There 
 is always a fire pot with its smoldering fire kept burn- 
 ing for the use of those who wish to light the pipe. 
 
 What in America would be called the back yard is 
 always the front yard in our village. That is to say, 
 the pigpen and all other outhouses that would be 
 found in the back yard or in the garden of an Ameri- 
 can home are here found in the street or in the front 
 
The Village. 67 
 
 yard. There are pools of green, slimy, stagnant water 
 that would start the ague running up and down the 
 spinal columns of the board of health in any Western 
 town; but not so here. The grandfathers and the 
 great-grandfathers of this village have been squatting 
 around smoking and chatting over these same pools 
 for threescore years, while all their children have 
 played in and around them from the time they were 
 able to walk, and still they live to tell the story. Then, 
 too, there are other unmentionable sights and smells 
 that would make a decent bird of prey want to hold 
 his nose and make a circuit of five miles rather than 
 fly once over the town. I am thoroughly convinced 
 that the matter of smell is only a matter of education. 
 
 The houses are all on the same general plan. There 
 is a pjoverb that says : "If one wishes to build a house, 
 it is first necessary to get a foundation." The founda- 
 tion is prepared by first throwing up the dirt till it is 
 higher than the surrounding ground. It is a strange 
 sight to see a crowd of men packing this foundation. 
 The leader of the band with a drum keeps time, while 
 each man with a small stick pounds the ground, at 
 the same time stamping it with his feet. The corner 
 stones are then placed in position eight feet apart. 
 In case there are to be more rooms than one, they are 
 all placed in the same order, every eight feet, till as 
 many as are needed have been placed. The next move 
 is a post for every stone, and these become the main 
 support for the roof. I heard an American gentleman 
 remark once that his experience with Korean houses 
 which he had bought had been that there was not much 
 
68 Village Life in Korea, 
 
 in them but. mud. This is true, there being only the 
 corner posts to each room, with two smaller posts 
 for each door and such small timbers as are needed 
 to hold the posts in position and support the walls, 
 which are made by first weaving in a sort of basket- 
 work of small sticks and tying them with straw rope. 
 Mud is plastered to this till the wall is about three 
 inches thick. The best of these walls are finished up 
 with a coat of lime and sand, but the larger part of 
 these houses never get this finishing touch. The raf^ 
 ters are small round poles which support the stray/ 
 roof. In former times not a nail was used in the 
 construction of one of these houses, but where nails 
 would be ordinarily used straw rope was used instead. 
 Now. that the wire nail has found its way into the Her- 
 mit Nation, it is displacing the straw rope to some 
 extent in house-building. 
 
 The floor is the most important part in a Korean 
 house. It is to this that the occupant must look for 
 warmth to keep him and his family from freezing 
 during the long winter nights. It is made of flat 
 stones about three inches thick. These stones are 
 placed over a set of flues that extend the entire length 
 of the room and distribute the heat to all parts of the 
 floor. The entire floor is plastered over with mud 
 to prevent the smoke from coming into the room 
 and at the same time to give a smooth surface to the 
 floor. Those who can afford it cover this floor with 
 oiled paper, of which the Koreans produce the best 
 in the world ; and when it has been roasted for a while 
 it becomes a most beautiful mahogany color. The 
 
The Village. 69 
 
 pocr man covers his floor with a straw mat instead of 
 the oiled paper. Even the poorest have the mat. Every 
 house has at least two rooms, the living room and the 
 cook shed. For the latter always, even in the best 
 houses, there is nothing more than mother earth for 
 the floor. In the cook shed the fireplace is located, 
 being nothing more than the entrance to the flues 
 that run under the floor. Here the pot for cooking 
 the rice is fixed hard and fast in the furnace, and 
 when the rice is cooked the fire at the same time heats 
 the stone floor. In ordinary weather there is no other 
 fire needed to make the room warm enough for the 
 night. If the weather is very cold, a little more fire 
 will be made just before retiring. By the way, it is 
 not much trouble to get ready to retire in Korean 
 style. The shoes are left outside the door on entering 
 the room. The bed is always ready, since there is none 
 except the floor. Those who are able to afiford such 
 luxuries have quilts which are spread on the floor 
 when it comes time to retire. Absolutely nothing in 
 the way of bedsteads or chairs is to be found in these 
 houses. 
 
 The well-to-do will have a large house, but always 
 on the same plan as described above. It is- built in a 
 rectangle around an open court, which lets in a little 
 sunshine, that may find its way into the rooms late in 
 the afternoon or early in the morning. The low pitch 
 of the house, with the fact that the eaves always ex- 
 tend out two or three feet, makes it almost impossible 
 for the sun's rays to find their way into the rooms. As 
 a rule there is nothing that can be dignified by calling 
 
yo Village Life in Korea. 
 
 ( 
 it a window. There is sometimes a small opening 
 
 over which is pasted a sheet of paper. The doors are 
 
 small, usually about three by four feet, often not so 
 
 large, and are closed by shutters made of latticework 
 
 covered with paper. Every well-constructed house 
 
 has its outer and inner rooms, the outer ones for 
 
 the, men and the inner ones for the women. The 
 
 house and a small yard are usually inclosed by a walk 
 
 or a brush fence, the latter being the one most used 
 
 in our yilfages. Into the men's room any one is at 
 
 liberty to enter without any ceremony whatever at 
 
 any time, but into the women's department no man 
 
 who is not a near relative is allowed to go without 
 
 invitation. 
 
 The government of the village is very simple. Every 
 
 village has its elders, who are usually the older and 
 
 more prominent men in the village, and are selectjcd 
 
 because of their influence in the community at large. 
 
 They are not elected by popular vote, there being no 
 
 such thing as election by ballot known to the politics 
 
 of Korea. They are selected, however, by a sort of 
 
 general consent of their fellow-villagers and confirmed 
 
 by the county magistrate. Their business is to look 
 
 after things in general and act as the fathers of the 
 
 village. If there is trouble in the community, they are 
 
 likely to be called to account for it. Then, too, another 
 
 important part of their business is to assist the tax 
 
 collector in squeezing the people. They must also see 
 
 that village feast days are properly observed and that 
 
 the spirits are propitiated in the proper manner by 
 
 being fed and clothed. 
 
The Village. 71 
 
 ~ There are no secrets in the village. Evsrybody 
 knows everybody else's business equally as well as 
 he knows his own, and, I have sometimes thought, 
 much better. 
 
 In case of a fire in a village the people whose house 
 is burning will do all they can to extinguish the 
 flames, while their neighbors may be seen standing on 
 the tops of their houses waving a pair of trousers in 
 the air to keep the fire spirit from coming their way. 
 
 These villages are found not only along the main 
 road, but they are to be fovmd everywhere that farm 
 lands can be obtained. Often a large village of several 
 hundred houses is found away back in some valley 
 where nothing of the sort would be expected. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Village Family. 
 
 In the preparation of my outline I had written as a 
 heading for one chapter, "The Village Home." When 
 I came to think how little could be said on the subject 
 of home, as the reader understands that word, I de- 
 cided that it was only necessary to treat the subject 
 under the above heading. It is rather a big under- 
 taking! to write about a thing that does not exist even 
 in name ; and this being the case in regard to the home, 
 I have dropped it as a subject for a chapter. I would 
 not leave the impression that there are no liomes in 
 Korea, as people here understand the relations of fam- 
 ily life. The fact remains, nevertheless, that there is 
 not a word in the language that has in it the true idea 
 of home. Some time ago one of the missionaries was 
 translating hymns, and when she came to "Home, 
 Sweet Home," she could not find a word for home. 
 The nearest she could come to it is the word "chip," 
 which means a mud hut with a straw-thatched roof 
 on it. That is the common word for house. To most 
 of the missionaries that word "chip" did not contain 
 much of the sentiment of that dear old word "home." 
 However, there was nothing else to do but to take 
 things as they were, and not as we thought they ought 
 to be. Some years went by, and a committee was ap- 
 pointed to revise the hymn book. I happened to be, 
 a member of that committee; so when we came to 
 "Home, Sweet Home," we said, "We don't like 'chip,' " 
 {72) 
 
, The Village Family. 73 
 
 and so tried to get another word. But after some time 
 and much talk with our teachers and much searching 
 of the books we found nothing better, and so we are 
 still singing, "Chip, chip, chen-tang-chip," for "Home, 
 home, sweet, sweet home," the meaning of which is, 
 "House, house, heavenly house." The real reason for 
 there being no word for home in the language is the 
 very good one that there is not a home in the land. 
 
 There are families, lots of them, and these families 
 live in houses, but it takes something more than fam- 
 ilies and houses to make homes. This something, call 
 it what you will, is just the quality that is unknown to 
 the heathen family. It is true of all countries, even in 
 Christian lands, that many people who have houses 
 have no homes. 
 
 In Korea the family is of much more importance 
 than the individual; and the family is often made up 
 of more people than it is in some other countries. It 
 is often the case that three generations, and sometimes 
 four, go to make up the family living under the same 
 roof. This is brought about by the sons bringing 
 their wives to live in the father's house instead of 
 setting up housekeeping for themselves. So it often 
 happens that several families go to make up the house- 
 hold living under the same roof. Where the family 
 can afford it, there are servants and slaves who also 
 enter into the family life, which thus becomes much 
 more complicated than it is in such countries as the 
 United States and England. The father is the head 
 of the family, and next to him is the oldest son, atid 
 so on down the line. There may be several sons, and 
 
74 Village Life in Korea, 
 
 each! may have a wife — one or more, as he likes — • 
 but this does not make him in any true sense the head 
 of a family so long as his father is living. xA.t the fa- 
 ther's death the headship of the family is handed 
 down to the eldest son, and all the younger brothers 
 look to him for direction and often for support just 
 as they did to the father. The girls are married at 
 an early age, and are no longer considered as members 
 of the family. The property is held by the eldest 
 son, and used not only for himself but for the family. 
 Concubinage is very common, and must be reckoned 
 in the family life of Korea. The reasons for it are 
 many, first of which is the method of securing wives, 
 which will he discussed in another chapter. In the 
 second place, the very low estimate placed upon wom- 
 an tends to strengthen this bane of family life. 
 
 Slavery must be taken into account in discussing 
 the family life of the well-to-do, since it is a part 
 of the social custom and law of the land. There are 
 no male slaves, though the condition of many men is 
 little better than slavery. The women are real slaves, 
 being bought and sold the same as pigs and cows, and 
 are recognized as the property of their master. In 
 former times this was true of men also, but more than 
 three hundred years ago, at the time of the great 
 Japanese invasion, so many of the men were killed that 
 a decree went forth that there were to be no more 
 male slaves; but the condition of woman slavery re- 
 mained, and is here till the present. The slave women 
 are in some sense the freest women in the country, 
 since they are not bound by the laws of custom which 
 
The Village Family. 75 
 
 holds the women of the upper class with a never-end- 
 JTig grip- They go where they please, without regard 
 to being seen by men, wearing no covering over their 
 faces as do the other women. They are all married, 
 their husbands usually being servants about the house 
 of their master. The question naturally arises as to 
 how these women became slaves, and thus in some 
 sense members of another family. Professor Hul- 
 bert tells us in "The Passing of Korea" that there 
 arc/four ways by which a free woman may become a 
 slave : 
 
 First. When a woman finds that she is without any means 
 of support, and sees no ,way of obtaining the same, she may 
 of her own free will sell herself to any one that may wish 
 to buy, she receiving so much cash and giving the purchaser 
 a title to her own person. This may be done for the sake of 
 raising ready cash to conduct a funeral or to support some 
 aged relative who may be dependent on her. This class of 
 slaves may at any time redeem themselves by paying back 
 the exact amount received for themselves in the first place. 
 
 Second. Formerly when a man was convicted of treason 
 or counterfeiting he was either executed or banished and the 
 female members of his family given by the government to 
 high officials. 
 
 Third. The eldest daughter of a slave takes the place of 
 her mother, and is called a ''seed slave,'' while the younger 
 daughters go free. There being no male slaves, the sons of 
 the slave woman are freeborn and owe nothing to the mas- 
 ter of their mother. In case the eldest daughter dies while 
 the mother is living, the next oldest must succeed her mother 
 as a slave, and so on to the youngest. 
 
 Fourth. The last way in which a woman may become a 
 slave is by giving her person to a master for the sake of hav- 
 ing a place to live and food to eat. She receives nothing in 
 
7^ Village Life in Korea. 
 
 the way of cash payment as in the first case above mentioned. 
 It is a simple contract of her surrendering all claims to her 
 own person and becoming' the property of her master for the 
 sake of a home. And once a slave, by this method, always 
 a slave. She cannot, as , in the first case, redeem herself with 
 a price, and is therefore considered the lowest class of slave. 
 
 From the above it may be seen at a glancq that the 
 family in Korea may be a much complicated organi- 
 zation, with its fathers, grandfathers, and great-grand- 
 fathers, to say nothing of the mothers, grandmothers, 
 and the great-grandmothers, who spend their time in 
 ruling with an iron hand the younger women of the 
 household. Among ' the younger women are to be 
 found the wives and concubines of the yoUnger men 
 of the family, and in many cases the prospective wives 
 of the boys who are not yet married, but whose brides 
 have been selected and placed in the family in order 
 that they may be trained up in the way of absolute 
 obedience to a mother-in-law. 
 
 It must be said before leaving this subject that the 
 family in Korea is a, variable quantity. By this is 
 meant that when you have seen the members of • a 
 family once you cannot be sure that the same persons 
 will constitute the family the next time you see it. It 
 may be that some one of the" men will change wives 
 before you see them again. Or it may be that wife 
 No. 2 will have been added to the household by the 
 time you call again. Or it may be that some wife has 
 been disobedient to her mother-in-law and has for 
 this reason been divorced, and the husband has not 
 been able to find another to take her place, therefore 
 
The Village Family. 77 
 
 there will be one woman less in the family. I have 
 investigated this subject somewhat, and I am con- 
 vinced that a large per cent of the men in this country 
 are now living with women other than the ones se- 
 lected for them in the first marriage. Some Koreans 
 say tfiat this is the case in at least fifty per cent of the 
 families in all the land. 
 
 There are no old maids in any of these families. 
 In fact, so far as I have been able to learn, there is 
 not one in all the kingdom. All women are married 
 at least once, and many of them several times — that 
 is, if we count every new husband a marriage. But, in 
 fact, no one is married but once. When a man loses 
 his wife from any cause whatever and he Wants an- 
 other, he simply finds some woman that will go with 
 him and he takes her to his house, andithat settles it. 
 
 This chapter must not be closed without a few 
 words concerning widows. Among the higher class 
 it is considered very unbecoming for a woman to mar- 
 ry after her husband's death. In case of the death 
 of the wife, the man is expected to get another wife 
 in a short while. Among the common people widows 
 soon find husbands, or, I should say, are soon found by 
 husbands. In many cases a woman is compelled to go 
 and live with some man when it is altogether against 
 her will. She is largely in the hands of her husband's 
 relatives, and they will dispose of her as they think 
 best for their own interests. When a widow is left 
 with no one to protect her, it is no unusual thing for 
 a crowd of men to come and take her away to be the 
 wife of some one of their number. This is sometimes 
 
78 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 done the very day the husband is buried. The law- 
 does not take note of such action, and so the helpless 
 widow must submit to her fate. Only a few weeks 
 since a man who had attended our church a few 
 months died and left his wife with no one to protect 
 her. The Christians, fearing that she would be seized 
 and carried away, made arrangements for her to go to 
 the home of one of the Christian women and stay till 
 other arrangements could be made. That afternoon 
 her husband's brother came and carried her away, and 
 we have not heard of her since. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 The Village Inn. 
 
 The village inn is no small factor in most Korean 
 villages which happen to be situated on one of the 
 public roads. It is also often found in the more se- 
 cluded country villages. The Koreans as a people do 
 much traveling, both on account of business and for 
 pleasure. The merchants are itinerating merchants, 
 and must have places to stop for the night as they 
 travel from place to place. They follow the round of 
 the markets. By the way, these markets, which have 
 a very close relation to our present subject, since they 
 create one of the leading demands for the inns, are 
 very interesting and deserve some notice here. 
 
 In the early days of the kingdom there was no 
 money, and so all trade was carried on by barter. This 
 fact called for and originated the institution that we 
 now call the market. For many, many long centuries 
 the Koreans have had their system of finance, includ- 
 ing coin, which is always in demand ; yet it has never 
 been able to displace the good old way of swapping 
 produce. Doubtless one reason for this is the fact 
 that this coin has been so unwieldy that it has been al- 
 most as much trouble to carry money sufficient to pay 
 for an article as to carry barter of some sort to make 
 the desired exchange. When you remember that it 
 takes from two thousand to two thousand five hundred 
 of these copper coins, each one nearly as heavy as a 
 silver dollar, to equal the value of one American dol- 
 
 (79) 
 
8o . Village Life in Korea. 
 
 lar, you will be able to appreciate the statement. In 
 recent years a new system of coinage has been adopt- 
 ed, and the old system is fast taking its place with the 
 things that have been but shall not be again. How- 
 ever, less than two years ago I made a trip through 
 a section of the country where the old cash was con- 
 sidered the best money in the world, and it was the 
 standard by which all bills were settled. 
 
 There are certain villages known as market towns 
 which have been selected "because of their location, 
 and in these the market is held every five days. In 
 every district there are a number of these villages so 
 arranged that they can be reached by the merchants 
 as they make the rounds of the markets, attending one 
 every day. Here the people meet from all the country 
 around, some to sell, others to buy, and still others to 
 drink and gamble; while others come to see and to be 
 seen and to hear what is going on in that part of the 
 world which happens to lie beyond the borders of their 
 own village. In these markets all the different prod- 
 ucts of the country are placed on display, and bar- 
 gains, sometimes hard ones, are driven frpm the time 
 the market opens in the morning till the closing hours 
 of the day. 
 
 In all these market towns there must be inns for 
 the accommodation of the people who come and go. 
 Then there are the overland freight, trains, which must 
 find accommodation wherever night overtakes them. 
 These freight trains are not such as are found in the 
 United States, but are made up of men and ponies. 
 It is no unusual sight to see twenty or more of these 
 
A TRAVELING SHOE MERCHANT. 
 
The Village Inn. 8i 
 
 ponies, loaded with grain or other merchandise, follow- 
 ing in single file, one after another, as they bear their 
 burdens from place to place in different parts of the 
 country. A trip of two or three hundred miles with 
 one of these pony trains is nothing out of the ordi- 
 nary. All this makes it necessary that there should be 
 plenty of inns on every country road. 
 
 The inns are not only prepared to care for the men 
 that come, but also for the ponies and the cows. In 
 most respects the inns are like the other houses in the 
 village so far as the house itself is concerned, except 
 for the fact that it must have more room both for 
 man and beast. The inn can be told by the large front 
 door, which is wide enough for the ponies to enter 
 with their loads on their backs. The Korean horse- 
 man is a past master in the art of loading and tying a 
 load on the back of a pony. The house is built around 
 a small court, which is used for the purpose of loa(|ing 
 and unloading the packs. In the front the stalls will 
 nearly always be found, and next to them come the 
 rooms for the men, who always want to be near the 
 ponies during the, night to keep them from fighting. 
 "As the sparks fly upward," so the Korean pony is 
 prone to kick and bite. He often requires his master 
 to get up at all sorts of unseemly hours of the night 
 to make him stop kicking his neighbor. Thus he 
 spends the time kicking, pawing, and squealing from 
 dusky eve till early morn. He is nearly, always in 
 evidence in and around the inn, very much to the dis- 
 comfort of the weary traveler who is trying to sleep. 
 It may be said of the Korean pony that his habits are 
 6 
 
82 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 such that he cannot be put off to eat any and every- 
 ' thing that comes along, but, on the^ contrary, he must 
 have about the same bill of fare and it must be served 
 in the same way, which is always hot — that is, the food 
 for these ponies is always boiled and given to them 
 just as hot as they can eat it. Beans take the place of 
 corn and oats. They are boiled with cut millet or 
 rice straw, bean hulls, and sometimes chaflf. The 
 water in which the food is boiled is given to the pony 
 to drink. The feeding is started with the hot water, 
 and the cooked food is given later, though while still as 
 hot as can be eaten. It is a strange fact that these 
 ponies . rarely ever drink cold water. It is indeed 
 strange to see them on a hot day wade right across 
 a stream of clear, cold water and never stop to drink ; 
 but they know too well that their drivers will not al- 
 low it, and so they patiently wait till they reach the 
 inn, where they will be given all the hot water they 
 can drink. 
 
 The inns are usually kept by men who have been 
 trained to the business' from early life and are well up 
 in all the tricks of the trade. They are experts in the 
 art of diminishing the measure of beans that go into 
 the pot, while the chaff and water are increased to 
 make it appear that the pony will have a hard time 
 to dispose of so large a feed. There are some good 
 stories told as to how the horsemen have to be on the 
 lookout all the time to see that the pony does not get 
 too few beans to the quantity of water that is given 
 him at a feeding. 
 
The Village Inn. 83 
 
 In most of the inns two rooms are found which are 
 kept for the use of guests. One of these is always 
 open for any and everybody that may chance to come 
 along. It is usually, occupied by the horsemen and 
 tradesmen that call for lodging or meals. The other 
 is kept for officials or other gentlemen that stop for 
 the night. As for the difference of choice in the two 
 rooms, it is hardly worth mentioning but for the fact 
 that one may be a little less crowded than the other, 
 sometimes a little less dirty, since it is not in constant 
 use. There is no charge made for the use of the 
 rooms, but only for the food that is served. The land- 
 lord will be Out nothing, and there will be no more 
 bed linen to wash after a dozen men have occupied 
 the room than if only one had occupied it. This is be- 
 cause there is no bed linen nor other furnishing of any 
 description in the room except a block of wood that 
 is used for a pillow. The warm floor, covered with 
 a straw mat, is all the bed that one ever gets in the 
 best inn that il have seen in Korea, and I have spent 
 scores of nights in the inns of this land. The guest 
 room is usually about eight by sixteen feet, and is 
 often occupied by fifteen or twenty men at the same 
 tifne. Many of the rooms are only eight by eight, and 
 will be so filled with men sleeping on the floor that it 
 reminds me of the saying "Packed like sardines in a 
 box." Some time sirice I slept in a room with three 
 or four men ; and when I insisted on leaving the door 
 open an inch so we might have a breath of fresh air, 
 one of the guests was so horrified that he arose from 
 his place on the warm floor and left the room for good. 
 
84 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 finding' a room where he could have the gfeat joy of 
 sleeping with all the doors tightly closed. This will 
 seem like a strange idea, but when you remember that 
 it was a bitter cold night and the men had no cover of 
 any description except the clothes that they had worn 
 all day, it will be seen that they had some little ground 
 for wanting to keep out all the cold air possible. 
 
 , It will be remembered that the floors in all the inns 
 are made of stone and mud, with the flues under- 
 neath them for the purpose of heating the room. The 
 same fire that cooks the food for the ponies is also 
 utilized in warming the room where the guests sleep. 
 This is true in August as well as in December, and 
 adds no little -discomfort to the guests when the 
 weather is warm. The warm floors contribute in an- 
 other way to the discomfort of the guests. They act 
 as a sort of incubator for the hatching and rearing of 
 innumerable insects and creeping things, the names of 
 which are not usually mentioned in polite society. 
 These pests are to be found in all the inns, and some- 
 times in such numbers as to completely destroy the 
 rest of any poor unfortunate fellow who may not be 
 accustomed to such bedfellows. 
 
 As to the peculiar smells of the inn, it is useless 
 for me to attempt to describe them. Besides, I have 
 already told you that I am convinced that smell is, 
 wholly a matter of education, and not a real condition. 
 That is, it depends altogether on what one has been 
 accustomed to smell as to whether it is pleasant or 
 disagreeable. For one whose education has been neg- 
 lected in his youth to drop into one of these inns on 
 
The Village Inn. 85 
 
 a warm spring evening, I am quite sure that before 
 he has been there long he will conclude that there is 
 something decaying in town. He will be surprised to 
 find that all these smells that are so unpleasant to 
 him do not seem in the least to affect his neighbors, 
 who seem to enjoy their meals with a relish that re- 
 minds him of a drove of pigs under a sour apple tree. 
 
 The meals furnished are not elaborate, but, to say 
 the least of them, they are bountiful. They are all 
 very much alike, it matters little what meal it may 
 chance to be; whether breakfast, dinner, or supper, it 
 will be much the same. Rice is the staff of life in this 
 country, and takes a much more important place than 
 does bread in other countries. A huge bowl filled with 
 rice, not only filled, but piled high above the top of 
 the bowl, is always the principal part of the meal. 
 There may be, if in season, a bowl of greens of some 
 sort, often only such weeds as can be gathered from 
 the mountain side, sometimes such as are grown in 
 the fields near the house, but always boiled only in 
 water without seasoning of any sort. The rice is 
 served just as it comes from the pot where it has been 
 boiled in clear water without even salt. The Koreans 
 are not tea or coffee drinkers; thousands of them 
 have never seen a cup of either. At their meals they 
 drink hot water, by which I mean the water that is 
 poured into the rice pot as soon as the rice is removed 
 from it. The rice is never stirred while cooking, and 
 so it leaves a little rice sticking to the pot that is 
 usually a little scorched and browned. When water 
 is poured into this and it is washed out the water is 
 
86 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 slightly colored, and this is served as the drink with 
 every meal. The seasoning for the meal is to be 
 found in the various side dishes that are always served 
 with the, rice. These consist of pepper sauce, pickled 
 turnips, cabbage, and so forth. The principal one of 
 these dishes is called kimchie, and is made of turnips 
 and cabbage. These vegetables are grown in large 
 quantities, and are one of the most important parts of 
 the bill of fare. They are never boiled and used as 
 vegetables, but cmly for making kimchie, without 
 which no Korean meal is considered complete. I must 
 tell you a little more about this kimchie before leaving 
 the subject. 
 
 In the early fall, about the time of the first frost, 
 the village women get busy with the kimchie-making. 
 The cabbage and turnips are harvested and carried 
 to the nearest stream or well, as the case may be — more 
 often to the stream — and are thoroughly (?) washed. 
 I have often seen a company of women at the stream 
 washing the kimchie materials, while just above them 
 were other women engaged in washing clothes, and 
 it may be that some one came along just at the time 
 for a jar of water for drinking purposes. However, 
 this matters little, since there are no microbes in the 
 East — or at least there seem to be none. The material 
 having been thus washed, it is carried to the house 
 and packed into large stone jars. Into these jars go 
 not only the cabbage and the turnips, but many other 
 things for the purpose of giving the right flavor. I 
 could not begin to tell all the things that go to 
 make up a jar of first-class kimchie, though I have 
 
The Village Inn. 87 
 
 been told that it requires thirteen different ingredients 
 to make it right. Some of the principal ones are salt, 
 fish oil, dried fish, garlic, and red pepper. Did I say 
 red pepper? Well, if you once tasted kimchie, you 
 would not have to be told that it contained red pepper. 
 This mixture is allowed to stand for several days or 
 weeks before it is ready for use. It must be allowed 
 to ripen. It first ferments, then it fumes, and then it 
 
 s s — well, I didn't say it, but if you ever come 
 
 within range of it you will understand just whkt I 
 mean. They have no dinner bells in Korean inns; 
 they, don't need them, for the kimchie always announces 
 when the meal is ready. 
 
 There are no dining rooms in these inns. The room 
 for office, parlor, and bedroom is also used for the 
 dining room. There are no tables in the room, but 
 the meal is brought in on the table on which it is 
 served. This table is about fourteen inches in diam- 
 eter and twelve inches high. The table with its con- 
 tents is placed before the guest, and he eats as much 
 as he wants and it is taken away. Instead of the guest 
 going out to the dinner, the dinner is brought in to 
 the guest. , 
 
 Ten cents in United States money will pay, for a 
 night's lodging, with supper and breakfast ; or perhaps 
 it is better to say, will pay for supper and breakfast, 
 with the lodging thrown in for good measure. As 
 above stated, no price is made for the lodging, but only 
 for the meal, dinner, supper, and breakfast all being 
 the same price. These prices are for the be^t inns in 
 
88 Village. Life in Korea. 
 
 the country; in the poorer ones they will not be so 
 much. 
 
 Some may wonder why all the people are not rich 
 when living is so cheap. This is easily answered if 
 you only remember that a common laborer works hard 
 all day for ten cents, and so it costs him the price of 
 a whole day's work to spend one night in the inn. 
 This is no cheaper for him than the two-dollar-and-a- 
 half or three-dollar-a-day house is for the laborer in 
 the United States. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Village Boy. 
 
 The Korean boy is very much of a boy and much 
 like his American cousin in that he would far rather 
 play than work and likes to have his own way. He is 
 not to be condemned for these traits, since they are 
 common to most of the boys in all quarters of the 
 globe. After all that is to be said, there is not so 
 much difference in boys when they are boys. It is 
 true that the education and training of boys differ 
 very widely, and it is to some of these differences that 
 we wish to call attention in the study of our village 
 boy. 
 
 As a rule it is a happy day for any man in Korea 
 when it can be said that a son has been born unto him. 
 The Koreans, in common with nearly all Eastern peo- 
 ple, are very fond of boys and count it all joy to have 
 many sons in the family. So, to say the very least of 
 it, the little baby boy gets a warm welcome in Korea, 
 though it may not always be a royal one. If possible, 
 the mother is more rejoiced than the father at the birth 
 of a son. From the very first our village boy is 
 petted, spoiled, and allowed to have his own way it» 
 nearly everything, and he soon becomes the boss of 
 the household. There are several reasons for this, 
 the most powerful one having its roots and sources in 
 the custom of ancestral worship. It may be said here 
 that the unreasonable desire for sons, as against girls, 
 
 (89) 
 
90 Village Life in Korea. _ 
 
 is rooted in this same ancestral worship. The boy is 
 to become the high priest of the family, and after 
 father and mother are dead it will be his duty to see 
 that suitable sacrifices are offered and that all the de- 
 tails of ancestral worship are properly carried out. It 
 is the desire on the part of the parents to train the boy 
 so that he will not fail in this matter of worship that 
 leads them to humor the boy till he is spoiled. They 
 are afraid he will not look well to their interests after 
 they are gone if they do not let him have his way 
 while they are here. According to their way of think- 
 ing, their eternal happiness will depend upon the way 
 the ancestral worship is carried on after they are gone. 
 Daughters cannot perform these rites ; so every family 
 must have a son, and where none is bom one must be 
 adopted. 
 
 I have seen the statement that has been recently 
 going the rounds in the papers that "Japanese children 
 are born civilized." I am sure I do not know just 
 what this statement means ; perhaps the author does. 
 But if it means that Japanese children are better 
 than other children, then I shall be compelled to 
 differ with the author. During these ten years in 
 the East I have seen much of Japanese children as 
 well as Koreans, and I am convinced that, apart from 
 training, they are very much like all the world of 
 little people. I know this to be true of our village 
 boys. It may be said that the conditions under 
 which these children are brought up might lead one 
 to think that they are better than their Anglo-Saxon 
 cousins. However, if he only waits till the occasion 
 
The Village Boy. 91 
 
 arises (and he will not have to wait long), he will be 
 convinced that these Eastern children are in about 
 the same state of civilization as their cousins in the 
 West. Let him who doubts this statement try his 
 hand with the village boy at some point where he 
 wants to go the other way. 
 
 All the boys in the same home do not have an equal 
 chance, the oldest one always having the advantage 
 of his younger brothers. His name is never called 
 by his younger brothers, but he is addressed as "my 
 honorable elder brother," this even when the boys 
 are put at play. 'In the family circle he stands next 
 to the father, and he lords it over his mother from 
 the time he has the power of speech to command her. 
 If our boy belongs to the higher class, he will not be 
 expected to work, but to study as soon as he is old 
 enough to take up that duty. If he belongs to the 
 middle or lower class,, he will be compelled at an 
 early age to take part in the struggle for rice. This 
 may be much against his nature, but it must be done 
 all the same, since the living of the family as well as 
 his own may depend upon it. So we find him taking 
 care of his little brothers and sisters while he is only 
 a very small boy himself. It is no unusual sight to 
 see him with his baby brother or sister strapped hard 
 and fast on his back, while he is engaged with the 
 other boys of the village in the most exciting games 
 of the season. The game may be "pitch penny," 
 which is a sort of a gambling game played with small 
 coins. Thus our village boy gets his first lesson in 
 gambling, which is such a curse to his father and 
 
92 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 elder brothers. It may be a sort of hopscotch that the 
 boys are having, and we would hardly expect the baby 
 to sleep well while this game is in progress; but this 
 is a part of the training that these children get which 
 makes some people imagine they are so good. As 
 the boys skip and jump in lively games the baby's 
 head flops up and down till it appears as if its neck 
 would surely be broken. But the baby seems not to 
 mind, and sleeps right on the same as if it were on a 
 downy bed. The game may be kite-flying, and every 
 boy wants his turn at this. It is really a national 
 sport, and at certain seasons of the year not only the 
 boys but the men also take a lively interest in it. 
 Theii- kites are entirely different from those of their 
 American cousins. They have no tail, are rectangular 
 in shape, and have a round hole near the center. The 
 frame is slightly curved, so that the kite is concaved, 
 and the wind pouring through the hole carries it on- 
 ward and upward in its flight. There is a very clever 
 device for handling the cord. Instead of winding it 
 on a stick as our American boys do, the Koreans have 
 a reel made for this purpose, and by this they can regu- 
 late their kites at will. The sport becomes very excit- 
 ing toward the close of the season, which is about 
 New Year. It is then that they engage in kite-fight- 
 ing by trying to cut each other's cords. Of course 
 the one who cuts the other's cord is the winner of 
 the contest. To accomplish this the boys often pound 
 up' glass and mix it with starch, through which the 
 cord is drawn. A cord thus prepared easily cuts any 
 cord that it meets. When once the cord is cut in two. 
 
The Village Boy. 93 
 
 that kite becomes public property and belongs to the 
 one that can catch it on its descent to the earth. At 
 the close of the season all kites are laid aside, and 
 there is no more use for them till the return of the sea- 
 son next year. 
 
 There is also a swing season which affords much 
 sport for the men and boys each year at the proper 
 season, though it lasts for only a few days. Swings 
 are made of straw rope and fastened to the limbs of 
 trees. Sometimes as many as three or four boys stand 
 on each other's shoulders and swing at the same time. 
 Our village boy takes little or no interest in swimming, 
 jumping (either broad or high jumps), or foot-racing 
 and such other sports. He knows nothing of the bat 
 and the ball, and as for football, he never heard of that. 
 But he takes his turn in the stone fight at the proper 
 season. This stone fight is a very interesting game, 
 and might well be adopted in the colleges of the West 
 in the place of football, since it furnishes all the ex- 
 citement necessary to make it interesting without the 
 chances of killing the participants being quite so great. 
 It is the national game, and is played only during the 
 first fifteen days of the year. 
 
 A level place is selected at the foot of a hill, or, 
 better still, between two hills, so that the spectators 
 can occupy the hillsides and be near enough to see 
 without endangering their lives from the flying stones. 
 The game usually takes place between two villages or 
 two different communities, which form the opposing 
 sides in the contest. The two companies of men and 
 boys take their places, being well supplied with stones 
 
94 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 of the proper size, and, facing each other at a distance 
 of fifty yards, the contest begins. Two or three of 
 the braver ones come out from one side and slowly 
 advance toward the opposing party till they come 
 within easy range, when they are attacked and the 
 stones are let fly with all possible force from both 
 sides. It often happens that a well-directed stone 
 goes straight to the mark, with the result that some 
 valiant fighter is knocked down and carried from the 
 field; while the spectators cheer and the game goes- 
 merrily on. It not infrequently happens that this 
 blow has been so well directed that the victim dies 
 on the spot. But what matter does it make? This is 
 the great national game, and must be played to the 
 finish even if a few slight accidents follow as the re- 
 sult of the same. To be honest, it is nearly as brutal 
 as the American football, though I believe that fewer 
 people are killed or crippled for life in stone fights 
 each season than in the football games of Christian 
 America. Of course one saving feature is that the 
 Koreans have more sense than to play the game more 
 than fifteen days each year. It is now losing its 
 power over the people, and is doomed to take its plaCe 
 with the barbarities of bygone days. I have been to 
 the game once or twice just to see what it is like, and 
 I was very much surprised at the very large crowd of 
 men and boys who were present. 
 
 Our village boy may go to school or he may not. 
 That will depend entirely on what his parents may 
 decide in the matter. They will likely send him if 
 they are able to do so. It is often the case where 
 
The Village Boy. 95 
 
 1 
 there are several boys in the family that one or two 
 of them are selected to go to school, while the others 
 must work to support the family and grow up with- 
 out being able to read. There is one peculiar thing 
 about boyhood in this country, and that is, it is short of 
 duration and continueth not. There is no waiting for 
 the long-drawn-out twenty-one years in order to be 
 a man in this country. The matter of becoming a 
 full-fledged man does not depend on years, but is a 
 matter to be decided on its merits by the parents or 
 guardians of the subject in hand. The badge of man- 
 hood is none other than the topknot, which is made 
 by combing all the hair to the top of the head and mak- 
 ing it into a coil about an inch and a half in diameter 
 and four or five inches high. From the time the 
 boy's hair is long enough it is plaited into a straight 
 braid and left hanging down his back. When the 
 time comes for him to be engaged to marry, his top- 
 knot is put up, and from that time forth he is recog- 
 nized as a man. This usually takes place between the 
 &ges of ten and twenty, though he is not likely to be 
 so old as twenty. 
 
 In .order to understand our village boy, I must tell 
 you that the Korean language has three forms of speech, 
 known as low, middle, and high talk. The low forms 
 are used in addressing children and servants, the mid- 
 dle to friends and equals, and the high to superiors 
 and old people. As long as a boy wears his hair 
 plaited and hanging down his back he is addressed in 
 low talk. His age has nothing to do with, the form of 
 speech, but the style of his hair settles that. It some- 
 
gS Village Life in Korea. 
 
 times happens that a very poor family will not be able 
 to contract a marriage for their son, and so we oc- 
 casionally meet a man thirty years old with his hair 
 still hanging down his back. This means that he is 
 only a boy, and is so treated by every one in the mat- 
 ter of speech. But the boy who is honored with the 
 precious topknot is addressed in middle or high talk, 
 though he may be only eight or ten years old. It is 
 amusing to see a lot of men sitting around talking, 
 when one of these big boys twenty or more years old 
 comes into the room, and every one addresses him in 
 low form; then a little boy only ten years old, but 
 adorned with a topknot, comes in, and every one 
 addresses him in middle or high forms of speech. A 
 great part of one's education is made up in knowing 
 the proper use of these different forms of speech. To 
 mix them and use the low where the high ought to be 
 used is to give insult and brand the us6r as a rude 
 person. To use the high where the low ought to be 
 used is to embarrass the one addressed, who will drop 
 his head and look ashamed, as much as to say: "Why 
 do you address me in such honorable terms?" Many 
 a foreigner has been embarrassed by using the wrong 
 ending. 
 
 Every village boy has one great day in every year. 
 This is his birthday, though it is not the anniversary 
 of his birth, but New Year's day. Every Korean has 
 a birthday at New Year's. Hence a baby born on the 
 last day of the year is counted two years old on the 
 next day. This comes about by the fact that a baby is 
 
The Village Boy. 97 
 
 said to be a year old When it 'is born, and every New 
 YeElr's day thereafter it is counted one year older. 
 
 So far I have said nothing about the dress of our 
 village boy, and it matters little if nothing should be 
 said about it. Yet most boys wear some sort of 
 clothes during the greater part of the year. How- 
 ever, in the summer season they are often seen with 
 nothing on but their "birthday" suits, of which it can 
 be truthfully said they always fit. The style of the 
 boy's clothes is the same as his father's, and consists 
 of a pair of, trousers with large legs that look much 
 like bloomers, and a short jacket. There is a long dress 
 coat, more like a lady's wrapper than a gentleman's 
 coat,' that is worn when one wishes to have the ap- 
 pearance of being dressed. This coat comes down al- 
 most to the ankles, and is tied with two long straps 
 which hang in a graceful single bowknot on the left 
 side. There is nqt a button to be found on the entire 
 suit, which is made of white cotton cloth and is lined 
 and wadded with cotton to make it warm for winter 
 use. The boy's dress coat is usually of some bright 
 color, red, green, purple, and yellow all coming in for 
 a share in the decoration of these village boys. Not 
 long sitice I was out with a boy who was decorated in 
 a brilliant pink coat, and a shower <pf rain came on 
 which caused him to take off his coat and roll it up 
 to protect it from the ,rain, which he was not able to 
 do, with the result that his coat faded and his other 
 clothes were splotched all over with the pink dye. 
 Every New Year's day everybody who can puts on a 
 new, clean suit, and those of the children are as bright 
 7 
 
98 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 and gay as their fond mothers can make them. We 
 often see the Uttle fellows with striped coats made of 
 different-colored silks. The missionaries call these 
 Joseph's coats. I have not the least doubt that a cus- 
 tom like this was in use in the days of Jacob, and 
 caused him to give a "coat of many colors" to his 
 favorite son as a token of his love. The clothes of the 
 village boy are not always as clean as one might wish 
 them to be, since they are often worn for three months 
 without a change. The average boy will get a clean 
 suit in the fall when the weather begins to get cold, 
 and he will wear this till New Year's, by which time 
 it will doubtless be ready for the laundry. Then he 
 gets a new suit which will answer all purposes till the 
 spring comes on and makes another change necessary. 
 ' The change in the spring is often made by degrees — 
 that is, one piece of the suit is laid aside at a time till 
 it all disappears and our village boy is seen on the 
 playground with his entire costume made up of only 
 the hair ribbon that is tied to the end of his braid. 
 
 The boy usually wears shoes ; even in summer he is 
 likely to have on some sort of shoes, the most common 
 of which are made of straw and cost less than two 
 cents ^ pair. The next best are those made of hemp 
 twine, which cost a little more but last much longer 
 than the straw ones. Then come the rawhide shoes, 
 with thick, hard bottoms filled with blacksmith's nails. 
 These are too costly for the very poor, and are worn 
 by the middle and high classes. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 The Village Gentleman. - 
 
 In Korea, theoretically speaking, there are but two 
 classes of society; but, as a matter of fact, there are 
 three well-defined classes. The two classes which are 
 silpposed to constitute the entire social system are 
 the gentleman, or yang-ban, and the low class, or 
 syangnome. The yang-ban is supposed to be a gentle- 
 man of blood — that is, by inheritance he is better than 
 common humanity and is not to be thought of as be- 
 longing to the same class. At some time (it may be 
 in the very far distant past — yes, as much as ten 
 generations ago) some of his ancestors held office 
 and were considered gentlemen by the king; and by 
 virtue of this fact he has inherited certain rights and 
 privileges that do not come to the common herd. The 
 fact that he is a gentleman is sufficient ground for 
 him to excuse himself from everything in the shape 
 and form of common labor. He is born to rule — that 
 is, to hold office and get his living by the labor of 
 other men's hands. The passion to hold office and to 
 rule seems to be one of the strongest in the breast of 
 the yang-ban; to obtain worldly honor and power is 
 the goal which has been placed for him, and toward 
 the obtaining of this he bends whatever energy he 
 may be disposed to use. 
 
 In all the arts of politeness our village gentleman is 
 a past master of the first degree. From the time he 
 
 (99) 
 
lOO Village Life in Korea. 
 
 can walk and talk, the study of polite forms of speech 
 and action are his daily duties. In the making of 
 bows and prostrations he is a perfect artist. It mat- 
 ters little what other traits he might or might not pos- 
 sess, if he be deficient in these he can never hope to 
 win favor with the king and rise to a place of po- i 
 sition and power among those that rule. In the mind 
 of every gentleman this polish in all matters pertain- 
 ing to etiquette is considered of first importance. To 
 all his other graces he adds that of patience, and cul- 
 tivates it so much that one is tempted to think it a 
 virtue not to be desired in this world, where men must 
 move in order to succeed. But be this as it may, pa- 
 tience and self-possession are virtues which the gen- 
 tleman thinks it worth while to cultivate. He can 
 easily forgive one for telling a falsehood or for taking 
 too large a per cent of an amount of trust funds that 
 passed through his hands, but to show any signs of 
 impatience or impoliteness would be sins not to be 
 pardoned. He is a being of such wonderful self-pos- 
 session as to almost place him beyond the circle of 
 common mortals. A bit of startling news or a sud- 
 den commotion that would upset the majority of us 
 common beings will have little or no effect on him, 
 and he will quietly pursue the even tenor of his way 
 just as if nothing had happened or ever will happen to 
 disturb the quietude of mortals here below. I have al- 
 ready spoken of the passion that he has for. holding of- 
 fice and obtaining honor among men. There is an- 
 other about as strong, and closely allied to it. It is the 
 study of Chinese characters and the wise meanings that 
 
The Village Gentleman. loi 
 
 are done up and held in the embrace of Ihese curious 
 \ but intensely interesting hieroglyphics. 
 
 The Chinese written language is the classic lan- 
 guage of Korea, and has been from the time she had 
 a written language. ' In it all the government business 
 is recorded and all official letters are written. Before 
 the coming of Protestant missionaries there were no 
 books of any standing printed in the native script, but 
 everything in this line was in the Chinese characters. 
 This being the language in which all government busi- 
 ness is transacted, the study of it becomes therefore 
 a prime necessity for all who aspire to government 
 positions. The mastery of these characters is nothing 
 short of the work of a lifetime, and it must be a 
 pretty long life at that; so our village gentleman 
 begins in early childhood to study Chinese. But as 
 we have a chapter on the village school, I leave this 
 subject for that place; only it must be understood 
 that if our gentleman is to hold first rank, he must be a 
 lifelong student of the mystery of Chinese characters. 
 
 Our village gentleman is strictly opposeid to under- 
 taking anything that looks like manual labor. He 
 may be ever so poor — yes, even dependent on others 
 for his daily rice — but to get out and work is out of 
 his line of business. It is no disgrace for him to go 
 hungry, but to engage in any sort of manual labor 
 would at once lower his standing as a gentleman and 
 ruin his prospects for future promotion along the lines 
 which gentlemen only are supposed to travel. The 
 fact that he is a gentleman, through no fault or merit 
 of his own, gives him a standing in the village which 
 
I02 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 commands the respect of all his neighbors. I said 
 respect; perhaps that is the word, after all. But 
 it must not be taken here in the sense of admiration, 
 since it often happens that our village gentleman is the 
 "best hated man" in all the country for miles around. 
 Yet, nevertheless, his standing as a gentleman of the 
 blood is such that he must be respected by people who 
 are of a lower type of mortals — if not from love, then 
 from fear. It should be kept in mind that he is a 
 gentleman for the simple reason that he was bom a 
 gentleman, and on no other grounds can he usually 
 claim this distinction. He is a gentleman and can't 
 help it, and is sometimes rather to be pitied than 
 blamed. If he wished ever so much to cut loose from 
 the forms of ancient custom that bind him and take 
 away his individuality, he would be helpless to do so 
 because he is a gentleman so born. There is but one 
 way open to him, and that is the same road which has 
 been traveled by his ancestors for ages past, and in 
 this way he must go or suffer the consequences. If 
 he wants a new suit or a new hat or a pair of shoes, 
 there is very little choice, since all these things are 
 fixed by what men who have gone before him have 
 done. He has no choice as to pattern and very, little 
 as to color, since all wear the same style and color,, 
 according to rank and position in life. His hat is the 
 same style as that worn by his servant ; it will be made 
 of finer material. Likewise his entire suit will be of 
 the same pattern as other men's, but, if he can afford 
 it, of finer goods. Where the common man wears cot- 
 ton goods he will wear linen and silk. Some of his 
 
The Village Gentleman. 103 
 
 dress coats are of such a fine texture that they remind 
 one of the spider's weh. He speaks in low talk to all 
 the village people who did not happen to be born with 
 the blue blood in their veins. Not only does he use 
 the low forms of speech when addressing other peo- 
 ple, but he requires other people to address him in the 
 high forms of speech. Thus the very language itself 
 is a means of ever widening the chasm that separates 
 the classes living in the same little village. He has 
 little regard for the rights of his neighbors ; whatever 
 they may have that he wants he appropriates at his 
 own price or at no price, as the"' notion strikes him. 
 H he is in need of a man to run an, errand, he simply 
 calls for some one from among the common people, 
 and he dare not disobey his orders. The common 
 people on entering his presence must stand till he 
 orders them to be seated, and then they only crouch 
 on their knees like frightened animals unless he orders 
 them to sit in peace. There he sits on his little mat 
 and smokes his long-stemmed pipe by the hour, while 
 his neighbors of the common herd are not allowed to 
 take one little whiff at the pipe while in his presence 
 without his gracious permission. This pipe of his has 
 a long stem — ^yes, so long that he cannot light it him- 
 self, not being able to reach it with his hand when the 
 stem is in his mouth ; so he must call a servant every 
 time he wants the thing fired up for business. And I 
 can assure you that there is little time during his 
 waking hours that this business is not running at full 
 blast. I have been amused to see the turn taken by a 
 gentleman when he wanted to smoke and there was 
 
I04 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 not a servant at hand to light his pipe. Striking a 
 match, he would stick it in the ashes of his brazier, 
 then, grabbing his long-stemmed pipe, he would ^ut 
 it quickly into his mouth ; then, leaning back as far as 
 he could, he would be able to reach the burning match 
 with the pipe and thus manage to light it. 
 
 Our village gentleman is often a "muchly" married 
 man. That is to say, he would be so considered by 
 people who do not know any better than to think that 
 a man ought not to have more than one wife. But in 
 the estimation of his fellow-countrymen he is a very 
 fortunate man if he is able to have two, three, or even 
 more about his place. In fact, there is no limit to the 
 number that he may have, so far as the law is con- 
 cerned; his only limitation on this subject is his ability 
 to secure them. The strangest part of all this multi- 
 plicity of wives is that the women themselves often 
 have no objections to this division of honors in the 
 household. It should be stated that, properly speak- 
 ing, he can have but one wife, though he may have as 
 many concubines as he can get if he so chooses. , One 
 of these gentlemen of my acquaintance some years 
 ago heard the gospel and decided to believe ; and when 
 he was told that he would have to put away his con- 
 cubine before he could receive baptism he did so, with 
 the result that his real wife was much offended be- 
 cause he took this step. 
 
 It should ever be remembered that our village gen- 
 tleman lives very much as his neighbors who cannot 
 boast of the yang-ban blood. That is, he lives in much 
 the sam.e sort of a house; though it may be larger 
 
The Village Gentleman. 105 
 
 and of better construction, it is much the same in style. 
 The rooms will be of the standard size of eight by 
 eight feet, as stated in another chapter. 
 
 Our gentleman is very particular about his appear- 
 ance. If he can afford it, he always dresses nicely 
 and is usually clean. Clothed in his spotless robes of 
 white or in his sky-blue silk of a texture much hke 
 that of a spider's web, his appearance is dainty, not 
 to say "dandy." His feet and hands are small and 
 trim, his hands soft, and the nails on the little fingers 
 allowed to grow long as a sign that he does no manual 
 labor. In the summer season he always carries his 
 fan, with which he shades his eyes or fans as he may 
 wish. He wears spectacles of a huge size. These are 
 'for show rather than for service, though he may have 
 a pair that will be useful in reading. 
 
 In conclusion, let me say of our village gentleman 
 that, with all his faults and shortcomings, he has much 
 that is not altogether bad and a little that is good, with 
 the ability for development in all that is best. What 
 he needs and must have is the gospel of Christ. This, 
 and this alone, will enable him to break loose from the 
 past and the superstitions that bind him, and bring 
 him out into a large place where he can breathe the 
 atmosphere of freedom and realize his possibilities. 
 The gospel has done this for his cousins of the West, 
 and it will do the same for him. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 The Village Girl. 
 
 In Korea, as elsewhere in the world, there are just 
 two classes of children — ^namely, boys and girls. The 
 boys are always welcomed at birth and considered a 
 great blessing, while the girls are received amid many 
 regrets and expressions of sorrow. One Korean lady, 
 when condoling with an American lady who was the 
 happy mother of a little girl, said : "When a boy is 
 born we are always very, very glad, but only a little 
 glad when a girl is born." I fear that this is some- 
 what overstating the case, since in most cases there 
 is sorrow instead of the "little gladness" at the birth 
 of a little girl. I very well remember how, when a 
 little girl came to gladden our home, my teacher, a 
 Korean gentleman, being told that a baby had been 
 born, with a broad smile said: "A son?" My answer 
 was : "No ; a daughter." Whereupon his face took on 
 a deep expression of sympathy, and he replied, "Chum 
 sup-sup-hanv-nai-ta," whioh means, "I am soime sorry." 
 I told him that we did not need his sympathy in this 
 matter, sijice we were just as glad at the birth of a 
 daughter as at that of a son. 
 
 Thus we see that our village girl is handicapped 
 from the hour of her birth, and cannot in the very 
 nature of the case have a fair chance in the race of 
 life. She comes into the world unbidden and un- 
 welcomed, and is considered as an intruder in , the 
 (io6) 
 
The Village Girl. 107 
 
 household. It would not be fair nor honest to leave 
 this subject with the conviction in the reader's mind 
 that nobody cares for nor loves a girl baby in Ko- 
 rea. I am writing of things as they are, and not of 
 the exceptions that might be found under any given 
 subject. J'urthermore, it would not be fair to leave 
 the impression that Korean mothers are not kind, in 
 a way, even to the little girls. We read of the Chinese 
 mother destroying her babe because it happened to be 
 a girl, but I think this would be a very rare exception 
 in Korea. There are doubtless many thousands of 
 mothers in this country who love their girls, though it 
 is probably true that they were all sad and disap- 
 pointed at their birth. 
 
 The little girl is given a name, but it matters little 
 what it is, since it will soon be lost. She may be called 
 Little Flower, Little Calf, Little Pig, Golden Rat, or 
 anything that may be thought of, just so it will dis- 
 tinguish her from the other children in the family. 
 Sometimes she is called No. i or No. 2, and so on, 
 to any number that may come into the family. She 
 is often called "Sup-sup-hdby," the meaning of which 
 is "sorrowful." Thus every time her name is called 
 the little one may be reminded that she brought sor- 
 row into the family. Every now and then we hear a 
 little girl called "E-pu-na," which means "beautiful." 
 I ' am always , glad when I see a little girl with this 
 name. It usually means that her mother loved her and 
 did not care much even if she was only a girl. I fancy 
 that the little E-pu-nas have a much better time than 
 the little Sup-sup-habies in this world of sorrows. 
 
io8 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 Our village girl plays about the house and yard with 
 the other children of the 'village until she is seven or 
 eight years old, at which time she must be separated 
 from the boys and men, taking her place in the wom- 
 an's department of the house, where she is not to be 
 seen by men or boys unless they be her near relatives. 
 This cannot be strictly applied in the case of the mid- 
 dle and lower classes, where the girls must be seen as 
 they go about the work which they must do. If 
 there be a baby in the family, from the time the little 
 girl can carry it she will spend most of her time with 
 the baby tied on her back. When she goes out to play 
 with other children, the baby is on her bacl<; if she 
 goes out to work, baby also goes, not to work, of 
 course, but to ride while sister works. In some of the 
 schools that have been started by missionaries for girls, 
 the girls come to school with babies strapped on their 
 backs. 
 
 The life of our village girl is not an easy one ; to say 
 the very least of it, she has a hard time. Not only 
 must she take the place of a servant in the family, but 
 she is imposed upon by her bi'others and the other boys ' 
 in the community with whom she comes in touch while 
 she is a little tot. She is just simply a girl, and that is 
 sufficient reason to place her away down in the estima- 
 tion of all the boys in the village, her brothers included. 
 
 The parents do not consider her as a permanent part 
 of the family, but only as a burden which is to be 
 carried till such a time as she |Can be disposed of to 
 the best advantage to themselves. This period is not 
 very long, since in most cases the girl is betrothed 
 
The Village Girl. 109 
 
 and often sent to the house of her husband to-be be- 
 fore she is twelve^ years old. It tiften happens that 
 she is sent away to be trained by her mother-in-law 
 from the time she is two or three years old. This is 
 true of the very poor, who are wiljing to accept al- 
 most any sort of a chance to marry off the girls as ' 
 early as possible. So when some one that has a son 
 who will need a wife by and by finds that he can 
 secure a little girl for a small consideration (in many 
 cases it is a cash transaction) he, simply as a matter 
 of business, closes the trade, and the little girl is car- 
 ried to his house and brought up with his own chil- 
 dren. The engagement is made at the time of the 
 trade, and the marriage will take place at such time 
 as the parents may decide, which will usually be when 
 the bride is between twelve and fifteen years of age. 
 However, it is often the case that the marriage takes 
 place before the girl is twelve. 
 
 In the well-to-do families the engagements are made 
 somewhat on the same plan, though the matter of 
 cash is not so likely to have a part in the transaction. 
 Sometimes they are made on the plan of reciprocity, 
 an exchange of sons and daughters often taking place 
 between families of equal social standing. Then 
 again there are those who give a daughter to a family 
 of influence with the hope that in due time they shall 
 in some way reap reward by being so closely con- 
 nected with a family of influence. Then comes the 
 more businesslike man who has a daughter or daugh- 
 ters, as the case may be, and he, with an eye to t)usi- 
 ness, looks out for a cash bidder. So the man who 
 
no Village Life in Korea. 
 
 wants a daughter-in-law and has the cash will do well 
 to call upon this man of business, as he will likely find 
 him in the notion to trade. In many instances the 
 cash capital required will not be great. A man in my 
 employ came to me once with the request for an ad- 
 vance on his next month's pay of about two dollars. 
 On inquiring what he wanted with so much money, 
 he said that he had a chance to buy a daughter-in-law 
 for that amount. I refused to advance the money for 
 this cause and exhorted him to give up any such idea ; 
 but it was all in vain, for only a few days had gone 
 by when I noticed a nice little girl at his house, and I 
 understood full well what it meant. The girl had 
 been bought and taken to his house, where she would 
 grow up with his own children, including the boy that 
 was to be her lord and master. I may add just here 
 that after about five years in the home the marriage 
 was celebrated in due form. Some one has said that 
 there is at least one compensation in this method of 
 bringing the girls into the home of the husband to be 
 trained by his mother — that in after years, when his 
 food is not prepared to suit him, he cannot say : "It is 
 not like mother did it." 
 
 These girl wives are literally the slaves of the house- 
 hold into which they are carried. The mother-in-law 
 rules with a hand of iron and a rod of steel. Many 
 women have two, three, four, or more of these young 
 daughters-in-law under their care, and take peculiar 
 pleasure in making them understand what is what and 
 who is who. Either before marriage or after, it is 
 all the same; the girls are bound by the law of obe- 
 
' The Village Girl. ■ in 
 
 dience to the mother-in-law from the day they enter 
 her home. They are slaves, literally grinding at the 
 mill and doing all sorts of work about the house that 
 would be done by slaves if the family were able to 
 own them. I spoke of the grinding at the mill. It is 
 here as it was in Palestine in the days of our Lord — 
 the women are grinding at the mill. Often when I 
 have seen two of them grinding I have been reminded 
 of that saying of his : "Two women shall be grinding 
 at the mill ; the one shall be taken, and the other left." 
 Is it any wonder that these young wives often find their 
 burdens greater than they can bear and end the mat- 
 ter by taking their own lives ? They go on and on in 
 the hopeless way that lies before them, till at last in 
 their bondage and degradation the blackness of despair 
 settles over them and all hope is forever lost. Then it 
 is that in the quietness of the night many of them 
 steal out to the village well and, standing there at its 
 mouth, doubtless look up into the blue sky and gaze at 
 the twinkling stars and wonder why the great spirits 
 do not hear and answer prayer ; they wonder why the 
 days are so long and the nights so dark ; why the bur- 
 dens are so heavy and the way so long and ever with- 
 out a change ; then with a last glance at the bright stars 
 reflected in the deep cold water below — and she is 
 gone! Next morning somebody's daughter-in-law is 
 fished out of the village well, wrapped in a bit of straw 
 matting, and laid in a shallow grave on the hillside; 
 and in less than ten days another daughter-in-law has 
 been duly installed in her place. 
 
112 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 "And the world turns round and round, 
 
 And the sun slides into the sea; 
 And whether I am on or under the groutid. 
 
 The world cares nothing for me." 
 
 The one bright star that shines in the life of our 
 village girl is the hope that inspires her to say some- 
 thing like the following: "Some day I too will be the 
 happy mother of a son, and then it will not be long 
 till I too shall have a daughter-in-law, and then I shall 
 get even with the world. I shall then settle up all old 
 scores. I shall then pay back in the same coinage all 
 that I am now receiving, with interest thrown in for 
 good measure." 
 
 May God help every reader of this page to do all in 
 his or her power to send hope, light, liberty, and sal- 
 vation to our village girl ! 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 The Village Woman. 
 
 To write of the village woman is only to carry for- 
 ward the thought of the last chapter on the village 
 girl, since the village woman is only the enlarged 
 edition or full-grown product of the village girl. The 
 same low estimate that is placed upon the unfortunate 
 being that knows no better than to be born into the 
 world a girl ever adheres to the village woman. It 
 is true that if she is faithful in the place into which she 
 has been put and fulfills the purpose for which she was 
 supposedly made by becoming the mother of ' many 
 sons — not daughters — then she takes a more honorable 
 place in life, and is really considered worthy of some 
 respect in old age. 
 
 The estimate placed upon woman is one of the marks 
 that shows at a glance the wide difference between 
 Christian and non-Christian nations. In Korea there 
 is nothing sadder nor more to be deplored than the 
 exceedingly low estimate placed upon woman. She 
 is supposed to be inferior to man in every respect; 
 and she has been told from early childhood that she 
 has no sense, till she has come to believe it to such an 
 extent that often she refuses to learn anything but to 
 walk in the treadmill of domestic service. This is not 
 only true of the lower classes, but of the higher class- 
 es also. I now recall an incident that took place in 
 our own home that illustrates this fact. A high-class 
 8 (113) 
 
114 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 gentleman came with his wife one evening to say 
 good-by, as they were moving to another city. We 
 had not been in Korea long at that time, and did not 
 understand much of the language, but as the man 
 could speak English it was easy to converse with him. 
 But his wife could not speak English, and so in talk- 
 ing with Mrs. Moose it was difficult for them to un- 
 derstand each other, whereupon the man said : "O well, 
 she hasn't any sense; that is the reason you can't un- 
 derstand her." As a matter of fact, she was a bright 
 little woman, and had about as much sense as her self- 
 honored lord and master, if he had only been able to 
 recognize it. There are no schools for girls and wom- 
 en in all this land, or at least there were none when 
 the first missionary found his way into the Hermit 
 Nation, which was only about twenty-five years ago. 
 It is true that a few of our village women can 
 read, but it is not because they have been sent to 
 school or given any chance to learn. They have 
 learned in spite of circumstances, all of which tend 
 to keep them from learning. Nbw that thousands of 
 women have heard the gospel of hope, they are learn- 
 ing to read for the sake of being able to learn more 
 and more of the precious truths of the Scriptures. 
 Many of them have passed the age of forty or fifty 
 years before they have heard of the gospel; but even 
 then they learn to read, so they may read it for them- 
 selves. This in itself is proof positive that they have 
 all the ability needed, if they can only be made to 
 realize it. 
 
The Village Woman. 115 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that woman is estimated 
 so low in the social scale, there is no place where she 
 is considered of greater necessity, than in Korea. A 
 man without a wife is to be pitied by all, and consid- 
 ered of all men most miserable. This seemingly high 
 estimate is not from the same standpoint from which 
 woman is estimated in Christian countries, but from 
 the same standpoint from which the farmer estimates 
 his mules or his cowsi — the standpoint of value. If a 
 farmer' is to farm, he must have stock with which to 
 Vvork the farm. So in like manner if one is to eat 
 and wear clothes, he must have somebody to cook and 
 sew; and who can do this as well as a wife? Was 
 she not made for that very purpose, along with any 
 and every thing else that will contribute to the happi- 
 ness of man ? Our village woman is not a partner in 
 the house of her husband, but she is a servant, a being 
 of inferior quality, always to be spoken to in low 
 forms of speech by her lord and master — in short, his 
 slave. If she is to keep his respect and be called a 
 good wife, she must obey his every command. Not 
 only must slie obey her husband, but there is his 
 mother, with whom she usually lives, and she too must 
 be obeyed. Then, too, his father is at liberty to order 
 her around as he may wish, and his older brothers 
 also have some authority in these matters; so that in 
 the relatives of her husband she has masters many 
 and lords not a few. 
 
 If it were only that she must toil -and work, it would 
 not be so bad; but in the midst of all this labor and 
 toil to be counted as nothing, a thing without a name 
 
ii6 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 — yes, a nameless thing — it is enough to crush her 
 hopes for time and eternity. Just here I must tell you 
 that our village woman is a nameless thingj absolutely 
 without a name! In the previous chapter I said that 
 the little girl is given some sort of a name to distin- 
 guish her from the other children in the family. When 
 she is married this name falls from her as the leaves 
 fall from the trees at the first blast of winter's chill- 
 ing winds. The day she is married she loses not only 
 her name but in a large measure her very identity, and 
 is known thereafter only as Mr. So-and-So's wife; 
 or, more correctly, as Mr. So-and-So's house. When 
 her husband speaks of her (he won't do it if he can 
 well avoid it), he calls her "my house," or, to be more 
 exact, "the inside of my house." Then there is an- 
 other expression often used in this same connection — 
 "that thing," or "what-you-may-call-it." He always 
 addresses her in low talk, and considers her his in- 
 ferior in every respect. She does not sit at table with 
 him; she serves while he eats. It should be remem- 
 bered that Koreans do not eat from a common table 
 as we do, but from individual tables. But even then 
 she does not have her table in the same room at the 
 same time with her lord and master. While he eats 
 she stands, perhaps in the cook shed, but always within 
 earshot of her master. If he wants another bowl of 
 water or other article, he yells out: "See here, what- 
 you-may-call-it, bring me some water." When Ais 
 meal has been finished he yells for her again, and she 
 appears and caiTies the table away. After all this 
 service has been well performed, she eats her meal. 
 
The Village Woman. iiy 
 
 often consisting of what has been left, by the men of 
 the house, out ih the cook shed. '/ 
 
 If she is blessed by the spirits aijd becomes- the 
 mother of a son, she will receive the congratulations of 
 all her neighbors, and will ever after be known as the 
 boy's mother; so that her husband will now call her 
 Nam Son's mother, or whatever the boy's naine may 
 be. She has now reached the height of her ambition, 
 since she has a son by whose nam,e she may be dis- 
 tinguished from the other women of the village. 
 ' In the eyes of the law of the land she is only a thing, 
 and her husband may treat her as such. If he finds 
 after his marriage, with the making of which he had 
 nothing whatever to do, that he does not like her — 
 mark you, I do riot say love her, for this is not ex- 
 pected — ^he may send her away, swap her off, or sell 
 her, as he likes. One of the very first reasons for 
 ground for divorce is failure to become the mother 
 of a son. Another cause is that of talking back at her 
 mother-in-law. 
 
 The women of high class are not allowed to appear 
 on the streets without covering themselves with a veil. 
 This custom varies in different pa:rts of the country, 
 though in Seoiil it has been until within the last few 
 months adhered to most rigidly, in that no high-class 
 woman appeared on the streets without , a veil. In 
 fact, high-class women are not supposed to walk on 
 the streets at all, but must go in a closed sedan chair. 
 This chair is a sort of highly decorated box just large 
 enough to allow one to sit in. It is swung on two 
 long poles and carried by two or four men, as the case 
 
ii8 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 may be, money and rank deciding the number of men. 
 There is a strange custom in Seoul that allows high- 
 class women to walk the streets after dark; but even 
 then they are covered with the green veil, which is a 
 sort of long cloak and looks very much like an ordi- 
 nary rain cloak except in color and material. It is 
 made of green silk, and has sleeves hanging from near 
 the top that are never used. With this veil thrown 
 over the head and pulled closely together only a small 
 portion of the face can be seen ; often little more than 
 one eye is visible. It is said that there are many 
 women in the capital who have never seen the streets 
 of the city by "daylight. The veil is worn by all re- 
 spect^ible women in the capital, even those of the mid- 
 dle class. 
 
 The green veil is worn only in and arpund the cap- 
 ital. In other parts of the country the women some- 
 times throw an apron over their heads when going 
 out in public. In some places in the north, as in 
 Pyeng-yang, they wear a sort of huge straw hat that 
 would hold five bushels of wheat. This is here called 
 a hat for lack of a better name; but as a matter of 
 fact it is not used as a hat at all, but is thrown over 
 the head and held by both hands of the one using it. 
 It so completely hides the wearer that a man does 
 not know his own wife when he meets her on the 
 street. It is the young women who are compelled to 
 use these many cunningly devised screens and veils 
 to hide their, beauty. After fhey are old and wrinkled 
 they are at liberty to appear uncovered in public if 
 
THE LARGE HAT AS WORN IN THE NORTH. 
 
The Village Woman. 119 
 
 they so desire. In Korea, as elsewhere, it takes a 
 woman a long time to get old. 
 
 The women who have to work cannot always be 
 covered with hats and veils, and so must appear open- 
 faced as do women in other countries. But even then 
 they usually look straight ahead, never turning their 
 eyes from the path they are following. Custom re- 
 quires that men shall look the other way when women 
 are passing in front of them. I now remember being 
 in the country some years ago, and while waiting by 
 the roadside near a village there were several women, 
 engaged in carrying vegetables from a near-by field, 
 who must pass near where I was sitting. One of the 
 men who was traveling with me told me that it was 
 very bad for me to stop so near the road while the 
 women were passing that way. I then noticed that the 
 men traveling with me had all left the road some little 
 distance and stood with their backs toward the women 
 as they passed. 
 
 These village women are to be seen everywhere 
 working in the fields, and often doing the most men- 
 ial and distasteful labor. The washing is no small 
 part of a woman's toil in this land of white . clothes. 
 They are compelled to rip the winter garments apart 
 and take the cotton out before the washing is done. 
 T^hey have no tubs nor boilers. The clothes after 
 being ripped apart are soaked in a solution of lye 
 (they have no soap), and are then carried out to the 
 nearest stream, or it may be to the village well, where 
 they are placed on a flat stone and beaten with a pad- 
 dle till they are clean. The washing being over, the 
 
I20 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 clothes are gathered up, placed in an earthen vessel, 
 and carried home on the woman's head. Then comes 
 the ironing, if it can be so called, which is done by 
 beating the clothes with two sticks which are very 
 much like a policeman's "billy." The clothes are 
 spread on a flat stone or wrapped about a smooth, 
 round piece of wood and beaten with the sticks till they 
 are not only smooth but have the most beautiful gloss 
 imaginable. When the work is completed, a piece of 
 common cotton has the appearance of fine linen. No 
 one who has spent many nights in Korea can help but 
 recall the whack-et-te-whack, whack-whack, whack-et- 
 te-whack of these ironing sti(pks which may be heard 
 at all hours of the night. This noise always means 
 that some poor woman is hard at work trying to turn 
 off a little more of her work, which is never done. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Village School. 
 
 The village school might appropriately be called the 
 boys' school, since in Korea there are no schools for 
 girls, or at least there were none before the coming of 
 the missionaries. Now there are a number of good 
 schools conducted by missionaries in different parts of 
 the country where girls are educated. In many Chris- 
 tian communities there are now day schools for girls 
 as well as for boyS, the two always being conducted 
 separately. I was delighted not long since, in visiting 
 one of our Christian schools, to learn that a few small 
 girls were'allowed to attend and study with the boys. 
 This means that the day is not far distant when our 
 Christian boys and girls will be attending the same 
 schools and learning the same lessons. 
 
 Our village school is wholly a voluntary arrange- 
 ment entered into by a number of rnen in the village 
 ,who want to educate at least a part of their boys. The 
 government formerly took very little notice of edu- 
 cation except to hold examinations for those who 
 were striving for political preferment. So the school 
 of which we are now writing is one of the old-time 
 village schools, of which many remain till the present 
 day. 
 
 It is not the hope of any village that a school shall 
 be established to accommodate all the boys in the com- 
 munity, but only the favored few whose parents can 
 
 (121) 
 
122 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 afford to let them' go to school. So when a number 
 of men get together and decide that they will open a 
 school, the first step is to see how much money can 
 be raised either in cash or in rice, which is always 
 the equivalent of cash. When a sufficient amount has 
 been subscribed to justify the calling of a teacher, he 
 is secured and the school started. In this important 
 personage the one absolutely necessary qualification 
 is to know Chinese characters and to be able to teach 
 them to boys. They have no wrangles over the sort 
 of text-books to be adopted. The question of whose 
 geography, arithmetic, history, tor speller is never 
 raised, for the simple reason that none of these sub- 
 jects are taught except history, and that is settled. 
 The teacher knows nothing of such common studies, 
 but he is past master in the art of reading and writing 
 Chinese characters; and surely no other nor greater 
 knowledge could reasonably be expected of a gentle- 
 man whose only business is to educate boys. The 
 teacher having been secured at a price which I am 
 quite sure would not make the average American 
 teacher start to Korea at once, the room where the 
 school is to meet is next selected and the work begins. 
 The room may change with the coming of every new 
 moon, since the teacher will most likely board among 
 the pupils, staying only a month at each place, until 
 he has made the entire round of the patrons. The 
 school meets and studies in the room which he occu- 
 pies, so that when he moves the school moves with 
 him. For his services he will receive his board and 
 
The Village School. 123 
 
 perhaps the equivalent of from one to/ three dollars 
 a month. 
 
 The coming of a teacher into any village is an im- 
 portant event. He is looked up to by all and always 
 addressed in high talk, while he in turn speaks to other 
 people in low talk and looks upon people who cannot 
 write Chinese characters in the palms of their hands 
 as being too ignorant for anything. This art of writ- 
 ing the characters in one's hand is much practiced ; so 
 much so that often when you ask a man his name, 
 instead of answering by word at once he spreads the 
 palm of his left hand before you and with the index 
 finger of his right hand he proceeds to go through all 
 the motions as if he were writing his name in large 
 Chinese characters on the palm of his hand. If you 
 fail to ca:tch these mysterious strokes, and are there- 
 fore unable to comprehend the meaning and call the 
 great man's -name, he will at once brand you as one 
 of the common herd. 
 
 Our teacher smokes a long-stemmed pipe, and to 
 show all the world his utter contempt for all sorts of 
 manual labor he lets the nails on his little fingers 
 grow to an enormous length, which sign brands him 
 at once as a gentleman and a scholar who disdains 
 to work with his hands. 
 
 But to return to our schoolroom. There is no fur- 
 niture of any sort to be found in it except a few small 
 boxes which the boys have for their ink stones and 
 brush pens. Of course there will be a whorrow, or 
 earthen pot, in which a smoldering fire is kept for 
 the master to light his pipe, and beside this fire pot 
 
124 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 will be a sort of ti-ash pan or box into which the re- 
 mains of the pipe are emptied after each long-drawn- 
 out smoke. The fact is that about all the time lost 
 between smokes is just the small division that is re- 
 quired to reload the pipe. The stone floor is covered 
 with a straw mat, which serves ^t the same time for 
 chairs and desks. These rooms are usually only eight 
 feet square, with no windows except the doors, which 
 answer for both doors and windows. The ventilation 
 is not always just what the board of health might 
 desire ; in fact, when the doors have been shut and the 
 teacher smoking for several hours it may be truthfully 
 said that the atmosphere in that room is A little close. 
 
 The teacher takes his place in the seat of honor, 
 which is always the warmest spot on the stone floor, 
 just over the place where the fire has been built for 
 the purpose of warming it. The position assume4 by 
 him is the most comfortable known to Koreans, sitting 
 tailor fashion ; while the boys are required to take the 
 most polite attitude, which is something between kneel- 
 ing and sitting on their own feet. In this position, 
 with their books spread out on the mat in front of 
 them, they are ready to take up the work of the day. 
 It should vbe kept in mind that everything in this coun- 
 try is bottom side up and wrong end foremost; so 
 the books of these young students begin at the back 
 instead of the front, the lines run from top to bottoni 
 on the page instead of from left to right as in out 
 books. There are no A B C's to bother the heads of 
 little people, but in their stead there are unknown thou- 
 sands of these curiously and wonderfully made Qii- 
 
The Village School. , 125 
 
 nese characters, no two of which are any more alike 
 than the photographs of so many thousand people 
 would be alike. The teacher calls out the character, 
 and the boys repeat in concert at the top of their voices. 
 At first the meaning of the character is not considered, 
 but the point to be gained is to be able to recognize it 
 among its fellow-characters and call it by name. At 
 the same time that the boy is shouting the name of his 
 character he is swinging his body back and forth, keep- 
 ing time to the sound of his voice, while every boy in 
 the room is engaged in the same sort of exercise. One 
 does not need to inquire whether there is a school in 
 the village when he enters it; for if there be one, he 
 will soon find it out for himself. The school hours 
 would be considered long by people whose children 
 are nervous, since they are from early mom till dewy 
 eve, seven days in the week and twelve months in the 
 year, with only an occasional holiday thrown in now 
 and then. The boy who expects to make proper prog- 
 ress must study every night as long aa he can keep 
 his eyes open. Some time ago I heard a Korean mak- 
 ing a speech in which he described how scholars be- 
 came men of renown. He said they often studied at 
 night till they could no longer hold up their heads, 
 and then they tied a string to a beam, in the top of 
 the room and tied the other end to their topknot, so 
 that when the head fell over it jerked and aroused 
 them again. Hence the proverb, "Tie your topknot 
 io the beam," is the equivalent of our "Burn the 
 midnight oil." It will be remembered that the topknot 
 is the hair rolled and tied up on top of the head. 
 
126 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 After two or three years of this meaningless- study 
 ^ of the character, the pupil begins to learn its meaning, 
 and advances into the study of Chinese history, philos- 
 ophy, and poetry as they have been handed down from 
 the days of Confucius. There is no end to this line 
 of study, so the boy who starts out to make a scholar 
 of himself has the work of a lifetime before him ; and 
 the saddest part of it all is that he can never be a 
 scholar in any true sense of the term. On the con- 
 trary, when he has devoted his life to literary pursuits 
 he will not have as much general knowledge of the 
 world and all that goes to make a scholar as do the 
 boys and girls in the ordinary graded schools of our 
 country. 
 
 There is one thing in which our village school ex- 
 cels, that of training the pupil to memorize. All these 
 numerous books must be memorized, and by this 
 means the pupil acquires high efficiency in this line 
 of work. This does not mean that these village boys 
 have not the ability to think; it means that the sys- 
 tem under which they are compelled to study does 
 not train them to think. It has been proved time and 
 time again that the boys who are taught in schools 
 conducted on Western principles learn quite as readily 
 as do their American cousins. This is true also of the 
 girls, many of whom are now being trained in the 
 Christian schools. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Village Farmer. 
 
 Our village farmer belongs to a very large and 
 withal a very respectable class. Korea is preeminently 
 a farming country. The large majority of those who 
 work at all are engaged, at least part of the time, in 
 farming. Many who do some little business in trade 
 or in manufacture of some sort find it to their best in- 
 terest to return to the farm for the summer months 
 and see to it that a crop of rice is grown. 
 
 As has been before stated, the people nearly all live 
 in villages; and those who are farmers cultivate the 
 lands surrounding their village, sometimes out to a 
 distance of a mile or two. The land is held by indi- 
 viduals, and sold or passed on to posterity as the case 
 may be. This refers to the land that is considered 
 valuable for farming. The mountains and hills belong 
 to the government, and are controlled by men 'known 
 as hill masters. Any one wishing to cultivate any of 
 the hills or mountains must make arrangements with 
 the hill master and pay a small tax to the government. 
 The principal value of these hills and mountains is 
 that they furnish fuel in abundance and timber for all, 
 purposes. 
 
 Rice is the principal crop of the country. Some will 
 doubtless think this a strange statement when they re- 
 member that I have already stated that the country is 
 very mountainous and very cold in winter. Most 
 
 (127) 
 
128 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 people in our country think of rice culture onjy in 
 connection with low, flat river bottoms and warm 
 weather. This is not true of the Far East ; not only of 
 Korea, but of China and Japan also. I have often 
 seen the hills green with rice, but always where plenty 
 sof water was to be had. Our farmer prepares his rice 
 fields, or paddies, as they are called, by making them 
 perfectly level, with an embankment all around the 
 edges to retain the water. In the valleys this is com- 
 paratively simple, but on the hillsides it requires some 
 skill and much labor. The hill must be dug down 
 and terraced, with the bank built up on the lower side 
 so the water cannot escape. Thus terrace after ter- 
 race is made, one above another, to the top of the hill. 
 This means that somewhere up the hill there is water 
 that can be turned into these paddies. A stream 
 flowing down from the top of a mountain is dammed 
 and tapped at many places, the water being conducted 
 by small channels to the fields which have been pre- 
 pared to receive it. If only the upper paddies can be 
 well supplied, the whole problem has been solved, since 
 it is an easy matter to allow the water to flow over 
 into the paddy next below, and so on till all have been 
 well supplied. In some instances when there is no 
 stream flowing down the hill the farmer finds that by 
 digging in marshy places on the mountain side he can 
 get water sufficient to carry the crop till the rain comes 
 on, which is usually about the middle of July. At any 
 rate and at any cost, if he is to grow rice he must 
 have water. The ideal rice field is covered with 
 water all the year round. I have often seen the farm- 
 
THE VILLAGE WATER CARRIER. 
 
The Village Farmer. 129 
 
 er plowing in these fields when the ox was in water 
 and mud up to his knees. 
 
 There is much level land lying between the moun- 
 tains, and this is very fertile. Though many of these 
 fields have doubtless been producing annually their 
 crop of rice since before the night that the angels sang 
 together over the hills of Bethlehem, they are still 
 fertile and produce an abundance to repay our faith- 
 ful farmer for his toil. Of course our farmer attends 
 to the fertilization of his fields. Everything about 
 the house and stable that can be used for fertilizer 
 is saved and put to the best possible use. The very 
 hills and mountains are forced to make their annual 
 contribution to the fields below. The hills are covered 
 with small bushes and grass. Just as the leaves on 
 these bushes are about grown, men and boys by the 
 thousands go out and cut them, tender branches and 
 all, and carry them to the fields, where they are spread 
 out and tramped into the mud. When leaves are not 
 easily obtained, grass is used instead. Thus our village 
 farmer gives back to his field every year something in 
 return for what he receives. 
 
 As soon as frost is out of the ground in the 
 spring the farmers get busy preparing the paddies. 
 All the embankments must be overhauled and put in 
 first-rate condition, so they will hold the water. Then 
 the fields are plowed and the fertilizer put in, as above 
 stated. The plowing is done with oxen or cows, of 
 which there are many and of a very fine quality. Our 
 village farmer thinks much of his ox and cow, both 
 of which are used alike on the farm for plowing the 
 9 
 
130 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 fields and carrying the products on their backs. The 
 Koreans know nothing of the use of milk and butter, 
 and so the cows are not milked, but are used only for 
 work and for beef. They are very gentle and of large 
 size, as large as the best to be found in any part of 
 the United States. They are kept in stables attached^ 
 to the farmer's house. 
 
 The plow now in use would doubtless be recognized 
 by Elisha as being like the one he left in the field when 
 he west with Elijah. It is made of a beam and a 
 foot piece, which is tipped with an iron point. It has 
 no handles except a stick through the top end of the 
 foot piece. If it be for two cows, the beam is long 
 enough to reach the yoke, which is tied on the necks 
 of the cows with a bit of straw rope. If it be for only 
 one ox, the harness consists of a pair of traces made 
 of straw and a short yoke for the neck of the ox. 
 I have not seen a pair of trace chains in this country. 
 When our farmer needs traces he simply steps out to 
 the straw stack, and in a short while he has made a 
 pair such as his ancestors have used for centuries, 
 and they are good enough for him. 
 
 As soon as the ground is warm enough the seed 
 rice is most carefully sown. A small part of the 
 field having been prepared and flooded with water, the 
 rice seed, unhulled, are sown in it. The entire rice 
 crop is transplanted when the young sprouts are about 
 six inches high. Just think of the great amount of 
 work this requires. Think of all the wheat in one of 
 our wheat-growing States having to be transplanted 
 when it is six inches tall, and you will have some idea 
 
The Village Farmer. 131 
 
 of what it means to ^transplant the rice crops of all our 
 village farmers. Then, too, when you Temember that 
 this nation of ten or twelve millions of people live 
 largely on rice, you may get some idea of the amount 
 that is required. But this does not tell all the story, 
 since our village farmers grow rice not only for their 
 own country but also for export to Japan, which gets 
 much of her rice from Korea. The rice is transplant- 
 ed about six inches apart, so that it has much the ap- 
 pearance of being sown broadcast in the fields. The 
 fact that it is thus sown prevents the use of the plow 
 for cultivation, and only a small hoe is used.' This hoe 
 is a small instrument not at all like its cousin of the 
 West, the handle being only long enough to hold with 
 one hand. The rice remains in water from the time 
 it is planted till it is harvested. Though it is weeded 
 several times, it is all done in water and with the hoe. 
 When the crop is ripe and ready for the harvester, 
 the farmer comes rejoicing and literally puts in the 
 sickle, probably the same sort that was used by the 
 reapers of Boaz when they reaped the golden grain, 
 the scattered heads of which the beautiful Moabitess 
 was permitted to glean for herself. This sickle is a 
 slightly curved blade about a foot in length, with a 
 wooden handle long enough for the hand to grasp it 
 tightly. With the sickle in one hand, the fanner grasps 
 with the other hand a bunch of the standing grain, and 
 it is quickly cut off just above the ground. It is then 
 tied into bundles about the size of ordinary bundles of 
 wheat and carried on the backs of cows and men to 
 the thrashing floor. You will remember reading about 
 
132 Village Life in Kore(k 
 
 the thrashing floor in the Bible. Here we have it as 
 it was in the days of the kings of Israel. It is usually 
 near the house in the most level piece of ground that 
 can be had, which is often the village street. Many 
 times have I found it difficult to pass along the village 
 streets -because of the thrashing floors that were cov- 
 ered with grain and busy men and boys thrashing out 
 the same. The thrashing machine would not take the 
 gold medal at a world's exposition, though it does the 
 work just the sattie. For the rice it consists of a piece 
 of a log a foot or rnore in diameter and twice or three 
 times that long, with a man to swing the sheaf of 
 grain over his head, striking the heads of it oh the 
 log as hard as he can. This knocks off the grain, at 
 the same time leaving the straw unbroken, which fact 
 means much to the farmer, since the straw is used for 
 many things about the farm. The grain is separated 
 from the chaff now as of old. With a fan or scoop 
 the grain is thrown up and the wind drives the chaff 
 away. "Whose fan is in his hand" — ^these words have 
 often been called to memory when I have seen the 
 farmer thus cleaning his grain. That other saying of 
 John's is very vividly brought to memory as we stand 
 by the thrashing floor: "The wheat he will gather in 
 his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquench- 
 able fire." There on the edge of the thrashing floor 
 is seen the smoldering heap of damp chaff as it burns 
 for days, fitting type of the "unquenchable fire." 
 
 I said that the straw is valuable. The farmer's 
 house is covered with it, and must be renewed at least 
 once in every two years. There is hardly any other 
 
The Village Farmer. 133 
 
 material that the farmer can afford that will take the 
 place of this straw for covering his house. Then, too, 
 the bags into which the grain is put are made of the 
 same rice straw. As said before, the traces are made 
 of straw, and most of the rope for leading the oxen 
 and tying the loads on their backs is made of straw. 
 The farmer's shoes for himself and family are made 
 of this same material. In building his house, where 
 you would fasten a piece of timber with a nail, the 
 fajmer ties it with a bit of his cunningly made straw 
 rope. The housewife prepares her eggs for market by 
 binding them in straw, so that she sells them by the 
 string instead of by the dozen. There are ten eggs 
 in a string, and they may be carried in the arms rriuch 
 as a boy carries stovewood; In addition to these and 
 many other uses to which it is put, it is used as food 
 for cows and horses. I said horses, but it is hardly 
 fair to dignify these ponies with the name of horse. 
 There are many ponies in the country, but they do not 
 cut much figure in the farmer's stockyard. He does 
 not use them very much ; in fact, he never plows them 
 nor drives them, for he has nothing in the shape of a 
 carriage or wagon. They are used for carrying packs 
 on their backs. The farmer comes to market with a 
 load of brushwood on his pony or cow, the load almost 
 completely hiding the animal, so that it has the appear- 
 ance of a moving brush heap. 
 
 Our village farmer, while making rice his principal 
 crop, also gives much attention to beans, peas, millet, 
 buckwheat, etc., which are much used as food for both 
 man and beast. The beans take the place of com in 
 
134 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 our country for feeding stock, and when the rice 
 grows low in the bag the farmer and his family mix 
 beans with the rice, though they do not like it that 
 way. In mountain districts, where rice is scarce, the 
 people live largely on millet and potatoes. 
 
 I must not close this chapter without telling you 
 about the jiggy, which is to.be fotmd on every farmer's 
 back a good part of the time. It is a sort of human 
 pack saddle, made by taking two pieces of a small pine 
 with limbs at the same angle and framing them to- 
 gether by means of two or three cross pieces, and then 
 a little straw rope and rriatting complete the work. 
 The straw ropes or bands are tied to the jiggy so that 
 they fit over the shoulders of the person carrying it. 
 Thus the jiggy is supported from the shoulders, and 
 rests on the back from the shoulders to the loins. It 
 is wonderful what loads these men can carry. No one 
 comes to Korea with a trunk too heavy to be carried 
 on a jiggy. It is said that a man has been known to ' 
 carry a load, of five hundred pounds the distance of a 
 mile without stopping to rest. Every farmer has his 
 jissy> not only for himself, but one for each of the 
 boys around the place. In this way much of the farm 
 produce is carried from the field to the house, atid 
 from the house to the market. When the farmer goes 
 to market with a load of wood or produce on his cow, 
 he also takes a load on his jiggy. This is a much bet- 
 ter device for carrying loads than the long pole which 
 is used for the same purpose in China and Japan. I 
 think the jiggy originated in Korea, and has never 
 been adopted to any extent by any other people; and 
 
THE JIGGY LOADED WITH JARS. 
 
The Villfige Farmer. 135 
 
 yet for carrying heavy burdens it is by far the best 
 device that I have seen in any part of the world. 
 
 Our farmers have a very interesting custom of help- 
 ing one another with their work. It is no unusual 
 sight to see two or three dozen men, boys, and some- 
 times women at work in the same little field. This 
 does not mean that they are all employed by one farm- 
 er, but it means that they are helping each other. They 
 will work out one man's farm to-day, and to-morrow 
 they will do another, and so on till all who are interested 
 have their fields worked out in turn. 
 
 It has been said over and over again by travelers in 
 Korea that they "are a lazy lot." I want to say just 
 as many times over and over again that this is not 
 true. , I can readily see how this impression would in- 
 variably be formed by one who spends only a few 
 weeks in this country, and that mostly around the 
 open ports. Let that same man come and live with 
 me among the farmers for a few years and study con- 
 ditions as they are, not as they seem to be, and I am 
 sure that he will agree that I have told the truth on 
 this subject. The globe-trotter comes to Seoul, and in 
 the morning he gets up and has his breakfast- about 
 nine o'clock, and then walks out to see the city. He 
 finds things rather quiet — in fact, altogether dull, as 
 compared to what he is accustomed to in the home- 
 land. There are not many people on the, streets, and 
 those who are move as if they had all day to get to 
 the next corner; so he looks at them and reaches the 
 conclusion that they are all lazy. If he had been up 
 an-d out at four o'clock this morning, he would have 
 
136 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 found these same sleepy-looking streets simply buzz- 
 ing with people, every one bent on selling or buying 
 something. And even now, if he would get on a 
 wheel and take a spin outside the gate for a few miles, 
 he would find the road crowded with men and boys 
 who had already come into the city from a distance 
 of many miles, sold their produce, and are now far 
 on the way back home. 
 
 The farmer rises early, has his breakfast, and goes 
 out to work. About nine o'clock his wife comes ou't 
 to the field with a "snack," which he eats, and .after 
 having a smoke he lies down for a nap. Here he is 
 seen by the globe-trotter, who again cries out "lazy !" 
 at the same time forgetting that this man was at work 
 while he was having his morning nap. At noon he 
 goes to his house and takes a square meal of rice and 
 kimchie and takes another little nap, after which he 
 returns to the field and works till time to have the 
 afternoon "snack," which is similar to the one in the 
 forenoon. Then, after another long smoke, he goes 
 to work and continues as long as he can see. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Village Mechanic. 
 
 Our village mechanic belongs to a somewhat lower 
 strata socially than that to which the farmer belongs. 
 I do not understand the reasons for this, but the fact 
 remains just the same that one who makes things in 
 this country must take low rank in the social scale. For 
 instance, the shoemaker is considered one of the lowest 
 men in the village. And so with the one who tans 
 hides or in any way works with leather. The butcher 
 is perhaps the lowest man in all the country; he is 
 so low that until within the last few years he was not 
 allowed to wear a hat. This may be accounted for in 
 part from the strong Buddhist influence which has 
 been in the country for centuries past. This sect does 
 not eat meat of any sort, on the ground that it is 
 wrong to take life ; so it can easily be seen that a man 
 whose business it is to take life would be considered 
 a very low fellow. But why the maker of willow bas- 
 kets and the fans which the farmer uses in cleaning 
 his grain should be considered low, I fail to find any 
 reason. The fact remains that the maker of all such 
 articles is considered but little above the butcher, who 
 is the lowest of all. The blacksmith, the carpenter, 
 and workmen of kindred trades are considered a lit- 
 tle better. 
 
 The average American would lose heart at the first 
 sight of the carpenter and his outfit, if he were think- 
 
 (137) 
 
138 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 ing of building a house. In the first place, let it be 
 understood that there are no sawmills in the country. 
 There are two or three that have been brought in by 
 foreigners for the purpose of doing their own sawing, 
 but the ordinary carpenter never saw one and has no 
 idea of any such thing. When he wants lumber, he 
 finds his fellow-craftsman whose business it is to pull 
 a whipsaw and talks to him. A log is secured, one 
 end is raised, and a block is placed under it so that 
 one man can , squat under it while another stands on 
 top, and they pull a saw up and down till the work is 
 .done. The saw is about two or three inches wide 
 and five feet long, and is fastened in a frame with a 
 rope the twisting of which makes the sa\v tight. All 
 the carpenter's saws are made on this same pattern. 
 His adz is a block of wood with an iron point. He 
 uses an adz where an American carpenter would use 
 a hatchet. His planes, chisels, and all other tools are 
 of the same simple make. As for brace and bits, he 
 never heard of such things. The wonder of it all is 
 that he, with so few tools and of such poor quality, is. 
 able to turn out as good a job as he does. Every one 
 who visits Seoul is likely to be struck with the beauti- 
 ful cabinets which are to be seen in the shops, many of 
 them trimmed with brass and nickel and inlaid with 
 mother-of-pearl. These are all made by our village 
 carpenter with his poor kit of tools. Another line of 
 work for which Korea is far-famed is its brassware. 
 This is made in the same crude way, without any 
 modern machinery. The whole plant for making tlie^ 
 fine brassware can be built for fifty dollars, including 
 
The Village Mechanic. 139 
 
 the shop and all the furnishings. The vessels are cast 
 and then finished on a lathe which is operated by the 
 feet of the workman, who sits while performing his 
 task. The motion of the lathe is forward and back- 
 ward, the tool cutting only half the time. The ware 
 when finished is very beautiful, and is much admired 
 by nearly all visitors to Korea. ' 
 
 As in the days of Jeremiah, so to-day in Korea the 
 potter's house is to be found; and it is an interesting 
 sight to see him fashion a vessel upon the wheel. It is 
 a matter of history that the Koreans developed the art 
 of pottery-making many centuries ago, and were the 
 most proficient people in this line of work to be found 
 in the East. The Japanese learned this art from the 
 Koreans. One time they invaded the country and 
 carried away all the most skilled artisans in this line ; 
 so they have developed the art to a very high degree, 
 while the Koreans have not been able to hold their 
 own. However, our village potmaker is able to supply 
 the needs of his countrymen. In the potter's house 
 the wheel is to be seen, just as it was in the days of 
 Jeremiah. I doubt that it has been changed in the least 
 from that day to this. It is made of a piece of a log 
 the end of which is smoothed so that it has a surface 
 of about eighteen inches in diameter at both ends. The 
 middle is cut away, so that when finished it has very 
 much the appearance of a large spool from which the 
 thread has been taken. This is placed in a hole in 
 the ground so that it will easily revolve on a pivot in 
 the lower end; at the same time the upper end comes 
 a Kttle above the ground which forms the shop floor. 
 
140 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 The operator sits on the ground with his feet on the 
 lower end of the wheel, revolving it rapidly or slowly 
 as he likes, while the vessel is being formed from the 
 lump of clay which has been placed on the top of the 
 wheel. Our village people use many sorts of this 
 pottery, varying in size from a jar which holds forty 
 /gallons to a small bowl which is used on the table. 
 These earthen jars are much used about every house; 
 they take the place of buckets in other countries. 
 They are used for storing grain and all sorts of sup- 
 plies that must be kept about the place. After the 
 pots and jars leave the wheel, they are dried in the 
 sunshine and then placed in a kiln, where they are 
 baked till hard. The best quality are glazed, though 
 many of them are left unglazed. 
 
 The blacksmith shop is an interesting place to all 
 who take notice of such things. It is not much like 
 the "smithy under a spreading chestnut tree" of 
 which Mr. Longfellow has written so beautifully, 
 though it is a smithy just the same, and cuts no small 
 figure in the village where it stands. The forge is 
 constructed of mud and stone, mostly of mud, with a 
 bellows made like a box, with a few valves and doors 
 which take in and let out the wind at every stroke of 
 a piston which is pulled back and forth for this pur- 
 pose. If it be a large shop, the bellows is construct- 
 ed after the pattern of the one used in the foundry, 
 described in another chapter. The anvil is a block of 
 iron little larger than a man's fist, and is fastened in 
 a block of wood only a few inches high. The smith 
 sits or squats on the ground while he is doing his work. 
 
The Village Mechanic. 141 
 
 When there is heavy forging to be done, he has a man 
 to do it with a heavy hammer while he holds the iron 
 and indicates to the helper where to strike. When an 
 edged tool has been finished, it could hardly be called 
 sharp; it has not been touched with a file nor other 
 instrument for sharpening it. The purchaser must 
 look to the edge, and so he proceeds to rub it on a 
 stone till it is sharp enough for use. In this manner 
 the carpenter's tools, the farmer's implements, the 
 shoes for the ponies, the oxen, and many other things 
 are produced by the village smithy. 
 
 There are many different sorts of shoes used in this 
 country, and so shoemaking takes a large place among 
 people who make things. I spoke before of the shoe- 
 maker's being a low man, but this applies only to the 
 leather shoe. The most common shoe, and the cheap- 
 est, is made of rice straw. It is a sort of sandal, and 
 is worn more or less by all classes, but is particularly 
 the shoe of the poor. , It is made in nearly every vil- 
 lage and by almost any member of the family. Then 
 comes the twine shoe, which is made of hemp twine 
 and is a better shoe than the straw one. It is made 
 by people who are more skilled and make it a busi- 
 ness, and it cuts no small figure in the manufacture 
 and commerce of the country. The leather shoe is 
 worn by the higher-class people, and is made by regu- 
 lar shoemakers in their homes, not in great factories, 
 as would be found in our country. Then there is the 
 ever-present wooden shoe, which is to be found about 
 every house, and is used when there is mud or snow 
 on the ground. It is interesting to see the shoemaker 
 
142 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 with his small adz, chisel, and maul digging out these 
 shoes from a block of Wood. They are so shaped that 
 they fit the foot and need no fastening of any sort to 
 hpld them on. Two blocks protrude from the bottom 
 about three inches, thus keeping the feet from the 
 snow and mud. These shoes are worn by all classes 
 and all ages, the little tots wearing them from the 
 time they can walk. 
 
 The pipe-maker is an important mechanic, since 
 nearly all the men and many of the women smoke the 
 filthy weed, and all use the same style pipe. They are 
 made of a composition of copper and tin, the best 
 quality being made of silver. The pipe-maker often 
 takes his kit of tools on his back and makes the round 
 of the markets, setting up shop for a few hours at a 
 time by the roadside wherever he is needed. In addi- 
 tion to his pipe-making, he takes small jobs such as 
 would usually go to the tinker for repairs. 
 
 In all these different trades there is nothing that 
 corresponds to the factory, but the work in all these 
 various lines is carried on in a part of the house oc- 
 cupied by the workmen. Some of the trades which 
 call for much room, such as pottery-making, tanning, 
 and so forth, have houses for the purpose, which may 
 be apart from the dwelling. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Village Merchant. 
 
 Next to the official class stands the farmer, and 
 next to the farmer stands the merchant in the social 
 scale. There are many merchants, though many of 
 them do a very , small business, and they would not 
 rank as merchants at all in a country like the United 
 States. Formerly there was a most powerful orgarii- 
 zation known as the Peddlers' Guild. This was com- 
 posed of both traveling and local merchants, and made 
 one of the most powerful organizations in the country. 
 It engaged in politics as a sort of side line to such an 
 extent that the officials dared not run counter to its 
 wishes. Within the last decade it has largely lost its 
 powerj both politically and commercially, though we 
 sometimes hear talk of its being revived. In the palmy 
 days of this guild it ruled with an iron hand, and could 
 have taught the labor unions of the West some "tricks 
 of the trade." This feature of union in guilds is not 
 only among the merchants, but among tradesmen and 
 business in other lines. I now recall having ma'de a 
 trade with a horseman for a certain price, only to have 
 him break it because the head man of the stables in his 
 town would not let him carry it out. So with the vil- 
 lage merchant he must "stand in with the boys," or he 
 will not be allowed to do business in the markets. At 
 the present time stores are to be found in Seoul and 
 all the larger towns, and in many smaller villages there 
 
 , (14.3) 
 
144 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 are shops which carry a small stock of merchandise. 
 This is all an innovation of the last twenty years, and 
 does not amount to much in the commerce of the coun- 
 try as a whole. As formerly, so it is at the present, a 
 large part of the trade is done in the open markets, 
 and not in stores. Our village merchant who keeps a 
 shop will have a roomj perhaps eight by eight feet, in 
 the front of his house, opening onto the village street. 
 The front of the store is so arranged that it can be tak- 
 en completely out during the day, when it is open for 
 business, and closed up at night by planks which have 
 been used during the day for shelves on which the 
 goods have been displayed. Our merchant will have 
 a mat spread in the middle of the room, and there he 
 will sit and smoke his long-stemmed pipe while waiting 
 for customers. When a customer calls he does not 
 enter the store, but stands in the street in front of the 
 store and calls for what he wants. The merchant, 
 without rising from his seat, reaches whatever article 
 is wanted and hands it to the customer with a sort of 
 don't care air that would make a Westerner think he 
 cared very little whether he sold it or not. This is not 
 the case, however, and he is only playing don't care. 
 The price asked is usually about twice that which he 
 is willing to receive. When the price is announced 
 there is a regular battle of words that is sufficient to 
 make an American think that there is likely to be a 
 fight in town. But all this talk is in the best sort of 
 humor, though the voice is pitched on a high key and 
 the earnestness displayed is sufficient to meet the de- 
 mands of a much more important transaction. After 
 
The Village Merchant. 145 
 
 many words the trade is closed, this article laid aside, 
 and the next one called for, only to be followed with 
 a like battle of words before the trade can be com- 
 pleted. When all have been selected, the merchant 
 takes up his abacus and, running his fingers, over the 
 buttons a few times, tells the customer what is the 
 amount of his bill. 
 
 In Seoul some of the stores have a much better 
 stock and do business in larger houses, though tHey 
 do not impress the stranger as, being up-to-date. In 
 these large stores there are no counters. Only a part 
 of the store has a floor, which is raised about a foofi 
 above the ground; and on this floor the salesmen are 
 seated, with the goods piled up in heaps near by or 
 stored on shelves along the back of the store. The cus- 
 tomers stand on the ground while they trade ; the sales- 
 man may keep his seat or rise, as the case may de- 
 mand. The women of the high class do not go shop- 
 ping. Don't they miss lots of fun? And do not the 
 salesmen gain a lot thereby? The high-class gentle- 
 men also do very little shopping, since it is entirely 
 too much like work for them. It is the custom of 
 many of these shops to advertise their business by dis- 
 playing their goods on the street and in front of the 
 building, which, I have said, is open on the street. 
 Others display only a few goods, while the stock is 
 stored in closets or small rooms in the back of the 
 shop. The shoe merchant will have a lot of old cast- 
 off shoes displayed in front of his shop, thereby show- 
 ing what line he carries. 
 10 
 
146 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 There is still another class of small merchants who 
 use no house at all, but take a stand on the street 
 and display their wares on a piece of straw mat. This 
 is often the m,ethod taken by the hat merchant, who 
 has his boxes in which the hats are kept displayed on 
 a mat in the street. Likewise the small dealer in brass- 
 ware takes his stand on the street, displays his stock, 
 and waits for his customers. 
 
 But our real village merchant does not belong to 
 any of the above-described classes. He is a man of 
 the road, though we could hardly call him a "knight 
 of the grip." These are the men that travel from place 
 to place to attend the markets. By regular established 
 rules the market is held in the market towns every 
 fifth day. These market towns' are selected both with 
 a view to the convenience of the merchants and the 
 people living in the surrounding villages. If you 
 passed through one of these market villages any day 
 when the market was not on, you would never suspect 
 that in a few days it would be transformed into a busy 
 mart, with hundreds of people driving hard bargains 
 with one another in the very streets that now appear 
 so sleepy in their forsaken condition. The only differ- 
 ence that a stranger would see between a market town 
 and any other village would be the small straw- 
 thatched booths which are to be seen in and around 
 the market place. In some of these booths will be 
 noticed a stone furnace which is to hold the rice pot, 
 and these will be noted as places where food and native 
 rice wine are sold ; in other Words, a restaurant and a 
 saloon combined. 
 
THE POTTERY JtEKCHANI. 
 
The Village Merchant. , 147 
 
 . Our village merchant takes his line of goods, what- 
 ever it may be, and goes out on the round of the 
 markets, attending one-every day, often returning to 
 the same place every fifth day. If he is able to afford 
 it, he will have a pony, cow, or a donkey, on which he 
 will carry as much of his stock as he can, and the re- 
 mainder will be carried on his own back. Those not 
 able to afford a beast of burden carry their entire 
 stock from place to place each, day. Many of the 
 farmers who are not regular merchants appear at the 
 market for the purpose of selling produce or buying 
 goods. 
 
 Hefe in one place is to be seen the rice merchant 
 with his stock in straw bags, and near by is the salt 
 merchant with his stock spread out on a straw mat 
 with the measuring box lying by. This salt has prob- 
 ably been carried on his donkey or on his own back 
 for a disance of a hundred or more miles. It has all 
 been made on the coast, and must find its way inland 
 as best it can. It has probably had a long ride up the 
 river by native boat, and from there across the moun- 
 tains and through the valleys it has been carried on the 
 backs of men anc^ beasts. There is the pot peddler 
 with his wares, and the man with the brassware, in- 
 cluding spoons and chopsticks. These pot peddlers 
 often have their wives and children with them, every 
 one loaded with just as much as he can carry, the 
 men and boys carrying theij wares on a jiggy and the 
 women and girls carrying theirs on their heads. The 
 mother is sometimes seen with a heavy load of the 
 pots on her head, while the baby is strapped on her 
 
148 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 back. When they have followed the rounds of the 
 markets till all their stock has been sold, they return 
 home, only to load and start again. These people sell 
 their wares from village to village without waiting to 
 reach the markets. 
 
 The cloth merchant is there with his stock of for- 
 eign piece goods, which is much in demand. For- 
 merly all the cloth used in the country was made in 
 the homes of the people. There is much of it thus 
 made at the present, but by far the larger part of it 
 is now imported from England, America, and Japan, 
 with some from China. This is principally the white 
 cotton sheeting of various grades. It finds its way to 
 the people through our village merchants, many of 
 whom in this special line are Chinamen. The man with 
 silks of native and foreign makes and with the va- 
 rious qualities of linens is also at the market. The 
 hardware man with all the farming implements is on 
 hand. Also the shoe merchant will be found with his 
 stock spread out by the roadside, where he can catch 
 the man who feels the sand cutting his heel through 
 the bottom of His shoe. 
 
 It is not possible for me to mention all the different 
 sorts of articles that are found in these markets. Suf- 
 fice it to say that nearly everything that is needed about 
 the Korean house will be found in the large markets. 
 It may go without saying that these are busy places 
 during the hours that the market lasts. Toward the 
 close of the day the merchants begin to pack up and 
 start for the place where the market will meet the next 
 day. The drinking of the rice wine is indulged in 
 
The Village Merchant. 149 
 
 throughout the day, and in the afternoon there is much 
 loud talking and quarreling, with a little topknot-pulling 
 thrown in. 
 
 In many of these markets there is still another man 
 with his wares spread on a mat, while he stands and 
 talks to the people about him as if he had something 
 to say and knew how to say it. He is not a merchant 
 who is there for the sake of gain. It is true that he 
 has something to sell, but not for the sake of profit. He 
 is a colporteur or a missionary with his stock of Scrip- 
 tures and tracts, which he offers for sale at such a low 
 price that the people are astonished at him. Then, 
 too, he is saying such strange things about people lov- 
 ing one another — yes, even their enemies. And, even 
 more, he is telling them of a wonderful Person who 
 died to save all men from sin and is now willing to 
 save all who will believe on him. This all sounds very 
 strange in the market place where every man's hand is 
 against that of his fellow, hoping if possible to seize 
 the long end of the rope in every pull. It is in these 
 markets that many thousands of people have heard 
 the gospel for the first time. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 The Village Doctor. 
 
 In all M:he world there is probably no country more 
 burdened with doctors than Korea. I had a mind to 
 write "cursed with doctors," but I thought that this 
 might not be understood, even though I tried to ex- 
 plain what I meant. When I remember that this is to 
 be read by people who hold the doctor in the highest 
 esteem, I myself being ^mong that number, I do not 
 want to write one sentence that would in any way cast 
 reflection on the doctor as we know him. 
 
 It would not be true to say that our village doctor 
 knows nothing of remedies that are helpful to suffer- 
 ing humanity, and is therefore altogether worthless. 
 He is not so much to be condemned for what he does 
 not know as for what he pretends to know. I am sure 
 that I am within the bounds of truth when I say the 
 country would be much better off without him than it 
 is with him — that is to say, I believe that he does much 
 more harm than he does good. He is usually an ig- 
 norant man, even from the standpoint of his own 
 countrymen. He lias not been trained in any medical 
 school ; he has never even heard of such an institution. 
 Whatever he may know that is of any value to human- 
 ity is what has been learned and handed -down from 
 generation to generation of the use of teas made from 
 herbs and barks. As for his knowledge of anatomy, 
 he has never heard of such a thing, and does not even 
 (ISO) 
 
The Village Doctor. 151 
 
 know that he has an anatomy, so far as any scientific 
 knowledge of the same is concerned. And yet the 
 way he can stick rusty needles into his patients with- 
 out killing them all might lead one to think that he 
 possesses much knowledge of anatomy. 
 
 It should be said in the beginning that the people 
 believe in the village doctor, and this accounts for the 
 wonderful hold that he has upon them. In times of 
 sickness they turn to him with the same hope that our 
 people go to the best-trained physicians and the best- 
 equipped hospitals for help. Our village doctor ^makes 
 no pretensions at surgery, unless the use of the needle 
 and the red-hot iron can be placed under this head. 
 He is always provided with the needles, and is always 
 ready to stick them into any one that comes along with 
 a complaint. For all sorts of paing in the limbs, joints, 
 or any other part of the body these rjeedles are used. 
 A man traveling till his ankles are sore and swollen 
 will call a doctor and have them pierced many times 
 with the needle. This is supposed to cure. I have 
 not tried it, and therefore am not competent to judge. 
 Indigestion is sometimes treated in the same way. I 
 called to see a friend of mine and found him very ill 
 with indigestion. He had been suffering for a long 
 time, and though he had used much medicine he did 
 not improve. So the doctor had applied more heroic 
 measures in the shape of the needle and fire. He 
 showed me the pit of his stomach, which reminded me 
 of a pepper box lid because of the large number of 
 holes which had been made by piercing it with a 
 needle. And then when this had not reached and re- 
 
152 Village Life in Korean 
 
 I 
 moved the trouble, a spot as large as the end of my 
 thumb had been burned right in the pit of the stomach. 
 This was not an unusual case, but is only one given 
 to illustrate the skill of our village doctor. Often 
 when some disease refuses to be cured by the use of 
 the needles, a red-hot iron is run into the part affected. 
 
 Many of the children have scars which were made 
 by applying fire to some part of the body in time of 
 sickness. The most common places where these scars 
 are to be found are the top of the head and the small 
 of the back. This is usually done in infancy or early 
 childhood. Some severe sickness seizes the child, and 
 the doctor comes and with some sort of inflammable 
 material burns a spot on the top of the head. The peo- 
 ple have great faith in this remedy, as the great 
 number of scars abundantly attest. I now recall a 
 story told me by a man with a scar on the top of his 
 head. He said that when he was a baby he died, and 
 the doctor burned a place on his head and he came 
 back to life. It is no unusual thing to see children 
 with a scar on each side of the small of the back which 
 was burned there to drive out some sickness that re- 
 fused to yield to other treatment. 
 
 The medicines for internal use are many, and many 
 of them of such composition that I dare not write the 
 names on this page. I may mention only a few of 
 them, such as tigers' claws and teeth, with the bones 
 thrown in for good measure. Crows, magpies, and 
 other birds that are not considered good for food are 
 nevertheless sold in the markets for medicine. I was 
 walking along in the country one day when I noticed 
 
The Village Doctor. 153 
 
 a boy carrying a pony's hoof which had been cut off 
 just above the ankle joint. On inquiring what he was 
 going to do with it, he said it was to be used for medi- 
 cine. At another time one of our neighbors came to 
 borrow our rat trap, saying that her Httle girl was 
 sick and the doctor had said a roasted rat would make 
 her well. Time would fail me to write of all that 
 might be said on this subject, even if it were possible 
 to express it in language that was suitable for these 
 pages. With the mention of one other muc^h-esteemed 
 remedy, I shall turn from this part of the subject. 
 That remedy is the horns of a certain kind of deer 
 which is found in the country. These are supposed to 
 cure a large number of diseases, and sell for a very 
 large price, when the poverty of the people is taken 
 into consideration. Not three miles from where I am 
 writing this lives a wealthy gentleman who has a deer 
 which he keeps for the purpose of selling the horns, 
 which are cut as fast as they grow out. The blood of 
 the deer is supposed to restore strength and vigor to 
 one in a low state of health. 
 
 The druggist and the doctor are often combined in 
 the same person. But where this is not the case there 
 is no written prescription; the doctor tells what the 
 trouble is, and the druggist with the aid of his books 
 is able to make out the prescription and fill it. The 
 drug stores are interesting. I have spent many nights 
 in them when traveling in the country and happened 
 to stop with a druggist. His drug room and his re- 
 ception room are one and the same, hence I have slept 
 many nights among the drugs. The drugs consist of 
 
154 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 numerous sorts of barks, roots, and herbs. These are 
 all tied up in paper bags, on which the names are 
 written in huge Chinese characters, and hung to the 
 rafters of the room. There will be a mortar for crush- 
 ing the drugs, which is made of iron in the shape of 
 a boat. Into this the drugs are placed and crushed by 
 rolling an iron wheel over them. Then there is a 
 sort of cutting knife similar to that used for cutting 
 straw for horses, which is used to cut the long weeds 
 and barks that may be used in filling the prescriptions. 
 I saw a man filling a prescription which was com- 
 posed of these various sorts of herbs. He carefully 
 weighed out nine small heaps of a certain kind of herb, 
 then he took another and weighed out the same num- 
 ber of piles, and so with a third sort, and so on till 
 he had taken seven different kinds of herbs for each 
 heap. Then he ordered that these should be taken 
 and boiled three at a time in a bowl of water, thus 
 making three doses of the entire lot. The bowl to be 
 used was the common rice bowl, which holds about a 
 quart. Strange to say, the man lived to tell the story. 
 I have seen him many times since. Once our cook was 
 seen taking some pills which were about the size of 
 the end of your little finger. On being asked how many 
 of them he took at a dose, he said that he was taking 
 forty of them a day. One of our doctors in charge of 
 one of our mission dispensaries told me recently of a 
 girl that was brought to him to see if he could do any- 
 thing for her eyes. She was entirely blind and her 
 eyes very badly inflamed. On inquiring what they had 
 been doing for her, he was told that her eyes had been 
 
The Village Doctor. 155 
 
 sore for a long time and that somebody had said red 
 pepper was good for them, so they had been putting 
 powdered red pepper into her eyes for some time. 
 
 Smallpox is so common in this country that it is 
 not considered worth while to try to escape it by 
 quarantine or otherwise. In fact, it is not supposed 
 to be a contagious disease, but is caused by the visit 
 of a very great and honored spirit that resides some- 
 where in the south country and is supposed to visit 
 every one at some time, so the people take it for 
 granted atid await his coming. While this idea is 
 still prevalent throughout the country, nevertheless 
 vaccination has during the past two decades made con- 
 siderable headway, a.nd is thereby putting this spirit 
 out of business, in some households at least. As has 
 been before stated, it is the custom of the country to 
 address all children in low talk ; ,but when the great 
 smallpox spirit visits them and while he remains they 
 are addressed in high talk in honor of the honorable 
 guest which they are entertaining. When the dis- 
 ease has run its course and the child is about well, a 
 great feast is held in honor of the spirit, and it is pro- 
 ' vided with a wooden horse and plenty of food and 
 sent on its way rejoicing back to the south land, where 
 it is supposed to reside. I have many times seen the 
 little paper flags flying and the remains of the offer- 
 ings outside the village ^where the spirit has been fed 
 and sent away. 
 
 I shall not soon forget the first case of smallpox 
 that I ever saw. I had been in the country a little 
 more than a year, and was traveling in the interior 
 
156 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 and had stopped in a small village to preach to some 
 people in front of an inn. While there I saw a boy a 
 short distance away with a baby strapped on his back. 
 As the face of the child was one solid coat of scabs, it 
 occurred to me at once that this was smallpox, and so I 
 inquired what sort of sickness the child had. I did 
 not understand the answer, as they gave me a name 
 for the disease I had not before heard (I have since 
 learned that it is the honorable term) ; but when I in- 
 quired if it were not smallpox, using the common 
 term, the answer was "Yes." It is needless to say that 
 I concluded that my duty was farther down the road, 
 and I moved accordingly without much delay. Only 
 a day or two following this experience, while standing 
 in the street of a village telling the story of Jesus, I 
 noticed a boy standing just in front of me with a 
 fully developed case of the honorable disease. Again 
 I broke up the meeting without a formal dismissal and 
 moved on up the road. However, I have learned to 
 trust the Lord and the big scar on' my left arm, and 
 am not so much afraid of the great spirit as I was at 
 that time. 
 
 There is a very strange superstition connected with 
 this disease that causes people not to bury a. child when 
 it dies of smallpox until the other children in the? 
 family have recovered from the disease, in case there 
 be others to have it. They say the spirit will be in- 
 sulted by digging the grave, and will cause other 
 children of the family to have a severe case, scratching 
 their faces and thus leaving them badly disfigured for 
 life. Hence the body of the dead child is wrapped in 
 
The Village Doctor. 157 
 
 straw matting and tied up to a tree or placed on a 
 scaffold out of reach of the dogs and allowed to remain 
 there till such a time as it can be buried without of- 
 fending the spirit. I went with some friends outside 
 the "dead man's gate," and we counted more than 
 thirty little bodies wrapped in straw and lying on 
 sticks that had been driven into cracks in the city 
 wall. How long they remained there I nevef knew, 
 but as this was nothing unusual at that season of the 
 year no one took any special notice of it. 
 
 When we look at the village doctor and his methods 
 of treating disease and the fearful sanitary conditions 
 under which the people live, it is no wonder that more 
 than half of the children die before reaching maturity. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 The Village Marriage. 
 
 The subject of this chapter is one that creates an 
 interest wherever named and in whatever language 
 spoken. There is perhaps no people among whom it 
 has a larger place than the Koreans. From the day 
 one is born, the chief concern of the parents and near 
 relatives will be that of a suitable marriage. Hence 
 the negotiations for such marriage are often begun at 
 a very early age and carried on to completion without 
 any consent on the part of those whom it most ef- 
 fects. Let it be clearly understood that the business of 
 every Korean is to get married. And the sooner this 
 business is completed, the better satisfied those will be 
 upon whom it devolves to see that it is carried out. 
 Early marriage is the rule, and I might say that this 
 is a rule almost without exception, so far as the girls 
 are concerned. It has been said time and again with 
 much truth: "There are no old maids in Korea." 
 There are doubtless many girls in this country who, 
 if left to their own choice, would not marry; but as 
 they have no choice in the matter, they must submit 
 to those who have the care of them as parents or guard- 
 ians. 
 
 On one occasion one of our Christian men was talk- 
 ing with me about arranging a marriage for one of 
 the girls in a mission school. I insisted that the girl 
 should be allowed to remain in school for several 
 (158) 
 
The Village Marriage. 159 
 
 years yet, as she was not old enough to be married 
 anyway, whereupon he answered by saying : "No Ko- 
 rean girl can be unmarried at twenty years of age and 
 be considered a pure girl." It should be remembered 
 in this connection that the way of counting age in this 
 country differs from that in the United States, so that 
 a person called twenty here is often no more than 
 seventeen or eighteen. Every child is counted a year 
 old when born, and the following New Year's day it 
 is counted two years old. So that a child born on the 
 last day of the year will be counted two years old the 
 following day, when, in fact, it is not twenty- four hours 
 old. This method of counting must always be taken 
 into consideration when reckoning the age of Koreans. 
 We are therefore safe in laying down the age of 
 eigliteen as the dead line beyond which no Korean 
 maiden should venture to pass. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the betrothal takes place in early 
 childhood, and I am told that fr.iends sometimes make 
 the engagement, under certain conditions, even before 
 the children are born. From what has already been 
 said it will be seen that there is little room left for 
 love and courtship in the matter of marriage, where 
 everything is arranged by those who have the care of 
 the children.' A man has a son that he thinks should 
 be married, and so he begins to look out for some one 
 with a girl that must be married. In the first place, 
 it is wholly a business matter, just as much as that 
 which meets the farmer when he needs another mule 
 on his farm. It is more often, however, that the boy's 
 mother will be more anxious to have him married 
 
i6o Village Life in Korea. 
 
 early because of the Hirect help it will be to her to ha^e 
 a daughter-in-law to help her work. It should be re- 
 membered that the young couple live in the house 
 with the boy's parents, and so his wife means one 
 more servant in the family. To the mother-in-law she 
 is a real slave, it being one of the very first duties of 
 every wife to serve well the parents of her husband in 
 whatever capacity they may require. 
 
 Marriage is always arranged by parties other than 
 those who are most affected by it. There are in every 
 community persons known as go-betweens whose busi- 
 ness it is to make matches and arrange engagements'. 
 This go-between deals with the parents of the con- 
 tracting parties, and not with the parties themselves. 
 In many cases the parents make the bargain without 
 the services of the go-between. But that individual 
 scores a victory, and one that counts for something 
 financially, when some one has an undesirable boy that 
 must have a wife; or when some fond parent has a 
 daughter that is steadily growing old and no one cares 
 to take her off his hands, it is then that she gets in her 
 most telling work. Many interesting stories are told 
 of how these shrewd old women manage to deceive 
 the parents of some candidates for a bride by working 
 off one that is lame, hunchbacked, deaf, or even blind 
 or, worse still, idiotic. Thus it may happen that a boy 
 brings his bride home to learn that she is entirely un- 
 suited to be his wife because of some physical or men- 
 tal deformity. And it may just as often happen that 
 the bride resting her eyes for the first time on her lord 
 and mastdr will be shocked at his ugliness or deform- 
 
The Village Marriage. l6i 
 
 ity. But the deed has been done, and there is no help 
 for the bride but to take what fate has given her and 
 make the best of it. With the husband it is quite dif- 
 ferent, since he has the right to send his wife away if 
 she does not suit him. 
 
 There is no fixed age at which Ae children are en- 
 gaged or married. This is left entirely with the par- 
 ents, whose business it is to make the match. It is 
 no unusual thing to see a little bridegroom not more 
 than ten or twelve years old. This is most likely to be 
 the case with the high-class and well-to-do people, who 
 have little trouble in m^aking matches. The poor people 
 often find it difficult to get wives for their sons or 
 husbands for their daughters, as the case may be. I 
 have often been approached by anxious mothers with 
 requests to get wives for their sons. Not long since I 
 visited a poor family who had one son. He was about 
 fourteen and not engaged. This was a source of great 
 trouble to the parents, especially to the mother, whose 
 one desire then seemed to be to have a wife for that 
 son. I have told in another chapter somewhat' of the 
 reasons for this inordinate desire on the part of par- 
 ents to see their children married and feel the arms of 
 grandchildren about their necks. It means far more 
 to them than we can imagine. Therefore we should be 
 slow to condemn before we have done all in our power 
 to givt. them the light and show them the more excel- 
 lent way. 
 
 Within the last few days I have had to deal with a 
 case that will illustrate the way in which some of 
 these engagements are made among the poor. Some 
 II 
 
i62 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 years ago there lived a man in this community who 
 had a wife and one little girl. They were very poor, 
 and for some reason best known to himself the hus- 
 band left the wife and little girl and turned his face 
 to parts unknown. What was this poor woman to do ? 
 How she was to keep the wolf from the door was the 
 question that was to be faced with every returning 
 day. There seemed just one thing to do, and that was 
 to find a man who would be willing to take the little 
 daughter as a prospective wife and close a trade by 
 which they might be able to get food sufficient to keep 
 them from starving. In the meantime we had started 
 to preach the gospel in this community, and the mother 
 and girl had heard and accepted it and were attend- 
 ing church and professing to be Christians. This 
 added a new difficulty to the case, since in a commu- 
 nity of so few Christians it would be hard to find a 
 Christian husband for the girl. However, it was not 
 long till the mother had found a young man some fif- 
 teen years older than the girl who was willing to 
 make the trade. He had attended Church a few times, 
 and promised to do the doctrine and be a true believer. 
 The contract was closed, and he was to, provide food 
 for the mother and the girl till she was large enough to 
 be married. In the meantime the mother and daugh- 
 ter did the cooking and other work for the man. The 
 mother and girl proved faithful to the Church, and 
 were baptized in due time; but the man stopped at- 
 tending church and went from bad to worse, till it 
 was evident that he was a very bad man. As the girl 
 grew older and began to realize what was before her. 
 
The Village Marriage. 163 
 
 sKe was very unhappy at the prospect, and began to 
 look about to see if there was not some way of escape. 
 But what door of hope was there for her? Was she 
 not engaged to be married to this man ? And did that 
 not at least settle it till the marriage had actually taken 
 . place? We must not forget that in Korea engage- 
 ments are not like pie crust, made to be broken, but are 
 made to stand almost any sort of a test till the wed- 
 ding day, after which event the binding force is no 
 stronger than the will of the husband in the case. So 
 the outlook for poor little Rhoda ( for this is the name 
 I gave her when she was baptized) was not at all 
 bright. But in their distress they doubtless prayed 
 much, anci came to the leaders in the Church for ad- 
 vice and help. The matter was brought to my at- 
 tention, and my sympathy was all with little Rhoda; 
 but how to make my sympathy count for something 
 was not, so easily decided. The advice of some of the 
 Church people was to have nothing to do with it, as 
 it was a very serious matter to meddle with engage- 
 ments in' this country. Others said it would not do 
 to allow it to go on, as Rhoda would lose both soul 
 and body if she were compelled to marry this man. 
 I followed the latter advice, and had a trusted helper 
 to see the groom to-be and ascertain on what terms 
 he would be willing to set the girl free. It di-d not 
 take him long to decide that the sum of fifteen dollars 
 to reimburse him for what he had spent on them dur- 
 ing the past three years would be sufficient to induce 
 him to give a quitclaim on the girl. But where was 
 tfie money to come from? The mother and the girl 
 
164 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 could not raise so much, even if they were to sell 
 everything they had, including their clothes. They 
 came to me, and it so happened that I had a little of 
 the Lord's money that a friend had sent to me to use 
 as I thought best ; so the trade was closed and Rhoda 
 was redeemed from a life of slavery to this worthless 
 man, and is now free and happy. 
 
 But what is to be her future? Who can guess? 
 She is now thirteen years old, and that means that 
 she has not many years of single life ahead of her. 
 I may say here that our Christians have a rule by 
 which the girls are not to marry till they are eighteen 
 years old, native count, so this rule will help Rhoda to 
 escape for a few more years. 
 
 But the marriage about which I started out to tell. 
 The day is usually decided by the parents of the con- 
 tracting parties calling on a sorcerer or a sorceress 
 and having that individual select a lucky day for the 
 marriage. Before this day has been set, the parents 
 of the bridegroom have provided the clothes for the 
 bride and sent them to her home — not simply one 
 suit to be worn the day of the marriage, but as many 
 suits as they are able or willing to give. It is often 
 the case that these are the only fine clothes that the 
 bride will ever receive. Included in his outfit is a 
 hairpin and a pair of silver rings. Up to this time 
 the girl has always worn her hair braided and hang- 
 ing down her back ; but the day that she is to be mar- 
 ried her hair is parted in the middle, combed smoothly 
 back, twisted into a roll low on the back of the neck, 
 and securely fastened with the silver pin. This pin 
 
The Village Marriage. 165 
 
 varies in size, owing to the size of the pocketbook of 
 the party who buys it, but it is usually about the size 
 of the little finger, and six inches long, with a head 
 on one end. This pin and the two large silver rings 
 are the most highly prized possessions of the Korean 
 bride. The rings are worn on the third finger of the 
 left hind, and are so large that the fingers are com- 
 pelled to stand apart when they are worn. 
 
 It is not possible to go into details here and describe 
 the different costumes and customs that figure in all 
 grades of society. They are all on the same general 
 style, and are adhered to in accordance with the finan- 
 cial ability of the contracting parties. So I shall try 
 to give a clear idea of a middle-class marriage, and 
 let the reader fill in for the more elaborate of the rich 
 and deduct from that of the poor who cannot have 
 even a feast for their friends. 
 
 The day has at last arrived and the groom is dressed 
 in a real wedding costume — ^not his own, but one that 
 has been rented for the occasion. It has been worn 
 by many grooms before, and will be worn by many 
 more. This is a real official costume, such as is worn 
 by high officials when they gp into the presence of the 
 king. It consists of silk robes, high boots, and a pe- 
 culiar cap with earlike wings protruding from the sides, 
 which means that the ears of an official are always 
 open to the words of his king. Thus dressed, the 
 groom, riding upon a pony or a donkey and escorted 
 by men dressed in servants' attire carrying rtiany-col- 
 ored lanterns and a huge umbrella in front of him, 
 proceeds to the home of the bride. Here he does not 
 
i66 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 meet the bride, as might be supposed, but finds that 
 she has likewise been arrayed in her wedding cos- 
 tume, which has been hired for the occasion, and is 
 now ready to be carried to his home. Did I say car- 
 ried? Yes, and that is the word, since she will be 
 literally carried by men who have been hired for this 
 purpose. She will be cai-ried in a closed chair which 
 will completely hide her from the view of mortal eyes. 
 This chair is carried by two or four men, according 
 to the wealth of the family. A tiger's skin is often 
 spread over the chair, which is the mark of rank and 
 royalty; so that this poor middle-class girl may be 
 allowed to use the marks of royalty on this one day 
 in her poor life. In this chair she will be carried to 
 the home of the groom, where the marriage takes 
 place. There is no official or priest required to per- 
 form the ceremony ; but in the presence of the parents 
 and such friends as may have been invited -(these con- 
 sist mostly of married women ; unmarried girls are not 
 allowed to be present), the bride is led forth. Yes, 
 literally led forth, and, I might add, "as a sheep to the 
 slaughter," for she has no sort of clear conception of 
 what is before her. The groom takes his place on a 
 piece of matting and stands erect, while the go-be- 
 tween or other woman leads out the bride. This is his 
 first sight of her, and he does not see her now, for 
 she has so much powder on her face that he cannot 
 see her. Let me say just here that the art of powder- 
 ing the face has been reduced to perfection in this 
 country, and those of our sisters in Christian America 
 who insist on keeping up this heathen custom should 
 
The Village Marriage. 167 
 
 take lessons from their Korean sisters till they have 
 learned how to do it in proper style. 
 
 The bride has never seen the groom-, and does not 
 see him now; her eyes are closed so she cannot. In 
 the final preparation for the marriage her face has 
 been powdered till it is as white as it is possible to 
 make it, not one vestige of her color being left to ap- 
 pear. This white powder has been laid on and rubbed 
 in till the face appears more like a piece of white 
 china than that of a smiling bride. Did I say smiling? 
 That certainly is not the word to be used here, for a 
 Korean bride never siniles nor has any other expres- 
 sion on her face except the most stolid and inexpress- 
 ible expression that one could well imagine. After 
 the white powder has been well laid on and thoroughly 
 rubbed in, the tint, or red paint, is put on. A round 
 spot about the size of a dime is painted on each cheek 
 and one in the center of the forehead a little above 
 the eyes; the lips are also painted red. These spots 
 are as red as scarlet, and stand out in striking contrast 
 to the stolid white of the face. The eyes are then 
 closed, and in some cases pasted shut, so that it is im- 
 possible for her to see anything. Likewise her mouth 
 is closed ; and while it is not pasted shut, it is ordered 
 shut, as no Korean bride is supposed to speak a single 
 word on the day of her marriage. Thus with her 
 eyes pasted shut and her mouth closed she is led forth 
 to her future lord and master, where by the help of the 
 woman leading her she makes a bow, not simply of the 
 head, but of the entire body, till the face almost touch- 
 es the matting at her master's feet. This bow is re- 
 
i68 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 peated three times, and is responded to by the groom 
 with two bows and a half, the last one on his part 
 being only a half bow, indicating his superiority to 
 her. A cup of wine is then passed by the woman be- 
 tween the bride and the groom and touched to their 
 lips, but not tasted by either of them. Likewise cer- 
 tain sorts of fruits are passed back and forth between 
 the bride and the groom; then she is led to the place 
 where the parents of the groom are seated, and makes 
 the same low bow to both of them, thereby pledging 
 herself to be faithful to them as long as they shall 
 live. Then she is led to her room and seated on the 
 floor, and a table with food is brought and placed 
 before her, but of this she does not eat. The groom 
 now lays aside his royal costume and, donning his 
 ov/n clothes, goes about his business, which is not 
 likely to be anything more serious than to have a seat 
 with the other men and take a smoke from his long- 
 stemmed pipe. The first night is spent In the bride's 
 new home, and the following day, if they can afford 
 it, they return to the bride's home and spend three 
 days, after which they return to the home of the 
 groom and take up the regular duties of life. There 
 is a feast given by the parents of the groom to all the 
 invited friends, in which there is much drinking of 
 the native wine. 
 
 To the mind of every thinking person tliere is sortie- 
 thing solemn about every marriage. It is often said 
 that it is a leap in the dark, and one never knows 
 where the landing will be. If this be true, and it is 
 to* a certain degree in Christian countries, what must 
 
The Village Marriage. 169 
 
 be the force of the statement when applied to con- 
 ditions as above described! My heart always goes 
 out to these poor girls who are sent away to the homes 
 of people of whom they know almost nothings but must 
 go with the one idea of being subject to the laws of 
 that home. Often they go without any consent on their 
 part or any sympathy from those whose duty it is to 
 sympathize with them in all their troubles. I now 
 recall an incident that occurred some years since which 
 I shall not soon forget. I was away out in the country 
 in the mountains on a preaching tour, and stopped 
 one Friday evening to spend the night in an inn. 
 That night a rain came on and continued the next day 
 so we could not travel, so there was nothing to do but 
 to stay there till Monday. Sunday morning I heard 
 some one crying in the woman's department — for it 
 should be remembered that I was out in the men's de- 
 partment and had not seen the "inside of the house," 
 as the women's department is often called. The cry- 
 ing continued till my heart was touched with the piti- 
 ful wailing of the child, and I asked the men that were 
 with me what was the trouble and why the child con- 
 tinued to cry so much. The answer was : "It is only a 
 bride that is about to be taken to her husband's house." 
 In the afternoon two men came with a chair. There 
 was no groom on horseback attended by lantern bear- 
 ers and other friends, but just these two men who were 
 to carry the chair and in it the poor littlp girl, who 
 had most likely never spent a single night away from 
 her father's house. Now she was to go, where she did 
 not know ! She knew only that it was the custom of 
 
I/O Village Life in Korea. 
 
 the people among whom she was born and among 
 whom she must live and die to send their girls away 
 to become the wives of boys or men of whom they 
 had heard little and knew less. The poor little bride 
 was led out and placed in the chair, her little body 
 trembling with fear and emotion, while the sobs from 
 her little heart could not be suppressed into quietness. 
 I stood there and looked as she entered the chair. 
 The curtains were drawn down tightly around and 
 she was hidden from the sight of mortal man; but 
 those sobs could not be suppressed by the black cur- 
 tains of a closed chair. The men took up the chair 
 and slowly made their way up the winding path on 
 the mountain side, and I could hear the cries of that 
 child coming as from the heart of despair! The par- 
 ents and other friends present seemed no more af- 
 fected by her cries than if they had been only the 
 squealing of a pig which had been sold and was being 
 driven away by its owner. 
 
 O heartless custom of heathen ages ! Who are you 
 and what is your power, that you shall thus be al- 
 lowed to rob innocent childhood of its joy and plunge 
 these young lives into a night of inky blackness, whose 
 deep despair cannot be reached and fathomed by hu- 
 man imagination? 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 The Village Funeral. 
 
 Funerals, to thinking persons, are sad in any coun- 
 try and under all conditions. But here in Korea, as 
 well as in all other unchristian countries, one is im- 
 pressed with the sadness of the occasion as he cannot 
 be in a Christian country. I used to read the account in 
 Mark's Gospel of our Lord raising Jairus's daugh- 
 ter, and could not understand why the Lord should 
 have seemed to be so thoughtless of the feelings of 
 those that wept as to rebuke them as he did, saying: 
 "Why make ye this ado and weep ?" Since coming to 
 Korea and seeing something of the "ado" of an East- 
 ern funeral, I think I can understand how the Lord 
 could use these words, which to those not understand- 
 ing the circumstances might seem harsh. The peo- 
 ple to whom those words were addressed were doubt- 
 less those who were not at all afifected by the death, 
 but were professional mourners who were there for 
 what, they could get out of it in the way of actual pay 
 or in their part of the feast' that would be given. 
 
 Such is the manner of funerals in this country to the 
 present day. There is much ado, and little that seems 
 to a Westerner to indicate real sorrow. Like nearly 
 everything else in this country, the funeral rnust be 
 conducted in the approved style which has been handed 
 down from the shades of the past'. It is impossible 
 for the poor to make the grand display that alwavs 
 
 (171) 
 
172 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 accompanies the funerals of the wealthy. I shall here 
 try to give some idea of how a funeral is conducted 
 among the middle-class people. The death of a fa- 
 ther is more to be deplored than that of any other mem- 
 ber of the family, and so the funeral will be more elab- 
 orate. In fact, young people and children could hardly 
 be said to have a funeral. They are buried as soon 
 after death as possible, and with as little ceremony as 
 the case will admit. Not so with parents and older 
 persons, who are kept from three to five days in the 
 case of ordinary people; while distinguished persons 
 and members of the royal family are kept from three 
 to five months. 
 
 When a father dies, all the members of the family 
 gather about the boy and begin to wail; not at once, 
 but after waiting long enough for the spirit oi the 
 dead to have departed, so it will not be disturbed by 
 the mourners. This wailing is done according to fixed 
 rules, and cannot be looked on as an outburst of grief 
 and sorrow. The men of the family take their places 
 according to age, rank, etc., on one side, and the wom- 
 en in the same order on the other side, and then the 
 wailing begins, due preparations having been made 
 by the men taking down their topknots and allowing 
 their long hair to fall loosely about their head and 
 shoulders. The voice is pitched to a high key, and the 
 cry is "I-go! I-go! I-go! Eh-tek-ha-na?" The mean- 
 ing of which, as nearly as it can be translated, is : "O ! 
 O ! O ! What shall I do ?" This wailing is kept up 
 for a certain time, some one has said fifteen minutes 
 by the clock, and then all is quiet. I have witnessed the 
 
The Village Funeral. 173 
 
 death of but one Korean, and he was a low-class man, 
 but I can assure you that it was a sad sight. The dying 
 man was lying on the floor, and around him were 
 gathered tne mother, wife, and other friends. They 
 were all more or less excited, while some of them were 
 busy talking to him, though he was entirely uncon- 
 scious. They were saying to him : "Why do you labor 
 so hard? Hurry up and go. Hurry up and go." All 
 the while his face was covered with a cloth, making 
 breathing much more difficult. When at last he was 
 dead, every one turned from him and set up such a 
 wail as I had never heard before and hope I shall 
 never hear again. ' 
 
 As soon as the death is announced, or soon there- 
 after, some one hastens to the kitchen and prepares 
 three bowls of rice. At the same time three pairs of 
 straw shoes are prepared, and these, with the rice, are 
 taken to a convenient place and left as an offering to 
 the spirits. The place is sometimes the top of the 
 house or a near-by hill; or it may be they are carried 
 to a crossroads and placed on the ground. Thus 
 more than once in my travels have I seen the rice and 
 the shoes beside the road. These aj-e supposed to be 
 for the spirit of the one who has just died, and for the 
 two policemen who have come to accompany him on 
 the long journey. This journey is a long one, so , 
 they must be well fed and shod before rthey start. 
 This custom, if there were nothing else, is proof of 
 the belief of the Koreans in a future state. Soon 
 after death some friend of the deceased takes an in- 
 ner garment of the dead man, and, going to the top 
 
174 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 of, the house, standing above the place where the body 
 is lying and waving the garment in the air, calls the 
 name of the dead man, announcing to the spirits that 
 he is dead. 
 
 As soon as possible after death all the members of ■ 
 the family dress in the regulation mourners' costume, 
 which is made of a sort of coarse linen or grass cloth, 
 of a yellow, muddy color. I am quite sure that this 
 is the real "sackcloth" of which we read so much in 
 the Bible. All black or other colored articles of cloth- 
 ing are laid aside, and only white or yellow, the color 
 of the sackcloth, is worn. A mourner will not even 
 use a black umbrella during the period of mourning, 
 which lasts for three years in the case of a father. 
 When a death occurs in the royal family, the entire 
 nation puts on mourning. In such cases the ordinary 
 white clothes are not exchanged for the sackcloth, 
 but the black hat is replaced with a white one, and all 
 other colored articles are laid aside. It is a strange 
 sight to see a whole nation dressed in mourning for 
 two or three years at a time. 
 
 The costume worn by a son in mourning for a fa- 
 ther or mother consists of a cap, long coat, and leg- 
 gings, all made of coarse sackcloth. The long coat 
 reaches almost to the ankles, and is not hemmed around 
 the bottom; the sleeves are great bags that would 
 easily hold a bushel each, and the entire coat is made 
 after the most baggy pattern and fastened around the 
 waist with a hemp rope as large as a man's thumb. 
 The mourner's hat never fails to attract the attention 
 of those who are not accustomed to it. It is made of 
 
w^ 
 
 
 A MOURNER IN FULL COSTUME. 
 
The Village Funeral. 175 
 
 coarse, yellow straw, is cone-shaped witli a bamboo 
 frame fastened in the top to support it on the head, 
 while it is tied under the chin with a rope as large 
 as your little finger. It will hold about three pecks, and 
 completely hides the face of the wearer when prop- 
 erly placed on his head. In addition to this, the gen- 
 tleman has a piece of sackcloth about eighteen inches 
 wide fastened on two sticks which he carries out in 
 front of his face when he walks on the streets. The 
 meaning of all this is that the man is a great sinner, 
 is in some way responsible for the death' of his 
 parent, and therefore is not fit to be seen by any one. 
 He has also sinned against heaven, and must, therefore 
 not look up to heaven. How different is all this with 
 those of us who know God's love, and in the very 
 midst of our deepest sorrow can still look up and know 
 that our Father still loves us ! 
 
 Just here I cannot refrain from an exhortation to all 
 Christians who may chance to read this. Look at 
 these poor heathen in their blindness, and see how 
 they are bound by the law of custom, and see how 
 they are compelled to wear this hideous mourning out- 
 fit. Then in all candor see what difference there is 
 between this and the iron law of fashion that expects 
 every woman to dress in black and hide her face be- 
 hind a mass of black crape because a loved one has 
 passed on to the home beyond. Why should men and 
 women who believe in Christ and his redeeming power 
 don these hideous trappings of hopeless heathenism, 
 while at the same time they profess to^believe that 
 their loved ones are at rest with the Lord? The time 
 
176 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 has come for Christian women to arise in their power 
 and forever cast aside this heathen custom which we 
 have inherited frofn the dark and hopeless past. 
 
 The manner of preparation for the funeral will de- 
 pend on the financial condition of the parties con- 
 cerned. In many cases. the body is wrapped in straw 
 matting, securely bound and tied, and then buried 
 without a coffin ; though when able to afford it, a plain 
 coffin of pine planks is used. The time of -the funeral 
 will be decided by calling a sorcerer, who will select a 
 lucky day and state the very hour when the burial 
 shall take place. Among the high classes it is usually 
 at night that the funeral takes place. I have not been 
 able to learn any reason for this, iinless it is from the 
 fact that the scene can be made more ^ectacular at 
 night than in the day. The bier on which the 
 body is carried is made of a framework of wood, 
 painted in all the colors of the rainbow, with green 
 and red predominating. This is draped in fancy-col- 
 ored silks and covered over with a canopy suspended 
 from upright sticks fastened in the four corners. On 
 different parts of the bier are carved and painted hid- 
 eous faces, for the purpose of frightening off any evil 
 spirit that might think of venturing too near. The 
 bier is placed on two long poles which have shorter 
 transverse poles under them, to which are fastened 
 straps or ropes, which rest on the shoulders of the 
 bearers and are readily adjusted to the different heights 
 of the men. The number of bearers will vary with 
 the wealth of the family. Anyvvhere from two to thir- 
 ty or more men are employed. It makes no difference 
 
The Village Funeral. 177 
 
 how long the distance may be, the bier is carried by 
 men all the way. 
 
 The usual order of the procession is about as fol- 
 lows: The torchbearers come first. These torches are 
 made by splitting cedar poles into small pieces so they 
 will readily burn but not fall apart. They are about 
 six feet long and lighted at one end. These are not 
 carried for the purpose of giving light, but are dragged 
 on the ground most of the time, being lifted and whirled 
 above the heads of the bearers just often enough 
 to keep them burning. Then comes the master of cer- 
 emonies, usually on a horse in case of elaborate fu- 
 nerals. The next in order is the spirit chair, in which 
 the ancestral tablet is carried, and in which the soul 
 of the deceased is supposed to ride. This chair is a 
 part of every undertaker's outfit, and is somewhat on 
 the pattern of the sedan chair which is in common use, 
 though it has its own peculiar shape and size. This 
 is carried by two men going just before the bier. Im- 
 mediately following the bier are the chief mourners, 
 either walking or in chairs trimmed in white. These 
 are dressed in coarse sackcloth and wear very tall 
 caps of the same material, with a piece like the han- 
 dle of a basket extending over the top. Following 
 these come other relatives and friends made up of 
 men and boys. Women never take part in the general 
 procession, except slaves, who may often be seen walk- 
 ing by the side of the spirit chair. Before, behind, and 
 on both sides of the procession there are numbers of 
 men and boys carrying lanterns, which are made of 
 many-colored cloth and paper and in many shapes and 
 
 12 
 
178 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 sizes ; and as they are whirled and twirled by the bear- 
 ers, they throw a variegated light over the entire 
 scene which makes one think of the land of shades. 
 
 Many in the procession are neither relatives nor 
 friends, but are bent on having a good time and drink- 
 ing all the free wine they want. Often the men that 
 carry the bier are so full of bad wine that they can 
 hardly walk, and so swing from side to side as they 
 go. These bearers and the mourners keep up a sort 
 of wail that cannot be described, but will never be for- 
 gotten if once heard. It can be 'easily heard for a 
 half mile, and nothing -more weird in the way of a 
 noise can well be imagined. It was only this morning, 
 between one and two o'clock, that I was awakened by 
 these weird cries as they passed out into the hills be- 
 yond the town. I recall now almost with a shiver the 
 creepy feeling that I had the first time I was awakened 
 out of sleep by this sort of wailing. It was when I 
 had not been long in the country, and I was away out 
 in a village all alone, sy far as my own race was con- 
 cerned. Sometime near the middle of the night I was 
 aroused by these unspeakable cries from a procession 
 in the distance. At first I did not know what they 
 meant, but was not long in deciding. The mourners 
 were walking rapidly, and the cries came nearer and 
 nearer, till they passed through the village and on into 
 the blackness of the night, where the sound of the wail- 
 ing was lost in the distance. 
 
 The grave site will be decided by a geomancer, who 
 is called for this purpose and who claims to be able 
 to locate the most lucky sites; and on the selection of 
 
The Village Ftmeral. 179 
 
 such, sites very much depends, since it , may bring 
 wealth, honor, and untold blessings to the family if 
 a good site is selected^ and may, on the other handj 
 bring all sorts of calamities if a bad one is chosen. 
 The site selected may be a long distance and will add 
 much to the cost of the funeral; but all tliis counts 
 for nothing, since the wise man has said that no other 
 place will be so lucky as the one selected. There are 
 no cemeteries, in the true sense of the word, in Korea. 
 The graves are placed at such places as may be thought 
 best by the geomancer, and without any thought of 
 grouping them together. It is not an uncommon 
 sight to see one lone grave high up on the side of a 
 mountain or on the top of a high hill, far away from 
 any other grave! Many a family goes into debt from 
 which they can never recover for the purpose of giv-. 
 ing a father a great funeral. It may be all right for 
 the father to live on short rations for years before he 
 dies, but after death he must- be well provided for if 
 his sons wish to stand as respectable men in their com- 
 munity. 
 
 If a death occur in the winter, when it is difficult 
 to dig a grave, the body is wrapped in straw and laid 
 on the ground at some place near the housei, and cov- 
 ered over, with a little dirt and a lot of straw, and is 
 allowed to remain there till spring, when the funeral 
 can be properly conducted. It is a sad sight to pass 
 one of these places in the early morning and see the 
 sons of the dead man, dressed in their sackcloth, bend- 
 ing over the body and wailing at the top of their voices. 
 
i8o Village Life in Korea. 
 
 It has been said by some one that the Korean grave 
 is the most beautifully arranged grave in the world. 
 As above stated, it is often alone, though near the large 
 towns the hills are completely covered with them. The 
 ideal grave is located on a hill overlooking a valley to 
 the south, with high mountains in the distance. A 
 crescent-shaped place is cut into the hillside, and the 
 grave dug in the center of it. When filled, it is fin- 
 ished up in a perfect hemisphere. The mound will be 
 large or small, in proportion to the social rank of 
 the occupant. For a person of wealth and rank it is 
 often as much as fifteen or twenty feet in diameter. 
 The mound, with the crescent and the entire site, is 
 turfed and always kept scrupulously clean, nothing 
 but the green grass being allowed to grow upon it. 
 There are certain days in the year set apart for the pur- 
 pose of ofifering sacrifice to the dead, and just before 
 these days the graves are attended to with the greatest 
 care. Those who can afford it have stone images of 
 men and animals, usually sheep, placed on two sides 
 of the grave, facing each other; while just in front is 
 a neatly cut stone, which is used as an altar on which 
 the sacrifices are offered. 
 
 In the case of royal graves, no other grave is al- 
 lowed within a distance of about three miles in all di- 
 rections. On my way from here to Seoul I pass the 
 grave of the late queen, and the remains of many 
 graves are seen on the hills in the surrounding country. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 The Village Lawsuit. 
 
 My object in writing this chapter is to give some 
 idea of the common procedure in the courts of jus- 
 tice, or perhaps it would be more correct to say courts 
 of injustice. I shall not attempt an exhaustive study 
 of the subject, but give only the view that one gets 
 from living among the people and being compelled to 
 listen to their "tales of woe." In this respect matters 
 are doubtless better than they were in former times, 
 but there is yet room for abundant improvement. 
 
 The whole evil has its roots in the greatest of all 
 evils in government — the one-man power. The entire 
 system of law and government in Korea is built on 
 the idea that the king is the father and ruler of the 
 people; and in his hands their interest must rest. 
 This being the case, every official is responsible to the 
 king and not to the people. So it makes little diilfer- 
 ence what the people may think of him and his way of 
 doing business, his chief thought being to advance 
 his own interest and please his king. The usual 
 method of obtaining office has been by purchase, the 
 size of the applicant's pocketbook being the standard 
 by which his fitness was judged rather than, his intel- 
 lectual and moral fitness. The salaries connected with 
 the various offices were small, and the official was ex- 
 pected to look out for his living from the people. If 
 
 (i8i) 
 
i82 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 the common reports of the people are to be relied upon, 
 the average official did not fail in this particular. 
 
 With no codified system of laws, and this one-man 
 power running through the entire system, it can be 
 seen at once how easy it was fof all sorts of evils to 
 thrive. Then another evil that is to be found every- 
 where is that of class distinction; so that it is almost 
 impossible for a man of low class to get justice against 
 one of high class, though if there Be plenty of cash in 
 sight any one may stand a chance of getting what he 
 wants in the courts. 
 
 The man before whom the village lawsuit must be 
 decided is not a judge who has been selected because 
 of his knowledge of the laws of the country, either 
 written or unwritten, but he is the man above de- 
 scribed, with the long money bag. There is no such 
 thing as regular terms of court, at which time matters 
 of law are settled. ' There are no lawyers, juries, or 
 other officials to talce part in the court. It is the one 
 man in whom all power is centered as jury, lawyer, 
 and judge. There is just one such man in every coun- 
 ty; and for the lack of a better name we may call 
 him a magistrate, though he has much more power 
 than is attached to that official in the United States. 
 He is sometimes a local man, appointed from among 
 the people of the district over which he is to preside, 
 though he is more often a gentleman living in the capi- 
 . tal and knowing very little of the conditions of the peo- 
 ple whom he is expected to govern. He has the use of 
 the official buildings and residence, which are always 
 the best in the community. It falls to the lot of this 
 
The Village Lawsuit. 183 
 
 individual to collect the taxes for the general govern- 
 ment, and for this purpose he has around him^ an 
 army of "hangers-on," who, like so many birds of 
 prey, are ready to devour everything in sight. The 
 rule for collecting taxes seems to be to want all you 
 can get, and take all you can find. When a 'given 
 sum of money is needed by the central government, an 
 order is sent to the governors of the provinces, and 
 from them to the 'magistrates, and on to thfe people 
 through the army of "hangers-on," who are always 
 willing to undertake such work for the good of the 
 country. It would be hard to tell how much the 
 sum has grown on its way from the king to the peo- 
 ple; but of course the men who collect this money 
 must be paid for their trouble. Not a week ago a 
 man called on me to collect taxes on our mission prop- 
 erty. He had no receipt to give, and I recognized 
 him as one of the men of the community who had 
 been doing common coolie labor about our place when 
 we were house-building. I asked him if he had re- 
 ceived an office from the government, and his an- 
 swer was, "No." I learned later that this is the way 
 things are run under the new reform goverment which 
 is now in control. So many houses (about ten) are 
 grouped together, and the community required to bring 
 in the taxes for the same. This will give some idea of 
 the many chances that exist for crookedness in the 
 matter of financing the government 
 
 It will be seen at a glance that our magistrate is a 
 man of no small importance in the community where 
 he resides. He stands in very close relation to the 
 
184 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 king and other high officials, who will hold him to a 
 stjict account in the matter of financial returns. They 
 will doubtless not bother about looking into the meth- 
 ods used by him in collecting these same funds. To 
 them the methods count for nothing, as long as the 
 cash is forthcoming. It sometimes happens that the 
 people stand all they can, until the limit of endurance 
 is reached; then, rising in their power, they beat the 
 magistrate and send him forth from the county. In 
 some instances he has been killed outright. When a 
 difficulty arises among neighbors which cannot be set- 
 tled by the community in an unofficial way, it is re- 
 ported to the magistrate, and then our village lawsuit 
 is on in good earnest. Those concerned in the matter 
 are called to appear before the magistrate, and it is 
 well understood by all parties that it is not wise to 
 appear in that august presence empty-handed. So here, 
 as in other countries, it is a costly business for those 
 who go to law with their neighbors. The policemen, 
 if such they can be called, who go out and bring the 
 people to trial are a tough lot, and often beat and 
 abuse the accused most unmercifully. When they fail 
 to find the accused, they take some of his relatives in- 
 stead. I believe the present government claims to 
 have abolished this practice, though I am not sure 
 that it is living up to its claims. I have known of more 
 than one case where a relative has been imprisoned 
 instead of the offender. Some years since one of my 
 colporteurs was arrested and thrown into prison dur- 
 ing a spell of bitter cold weather with no charge 
 whatever against him, except the fact that his brother 
 
The Village Lawsuit. 185 
 
 had deserted from the army. It required several 
 days' work by friends, , using the influence of the 
 United States Minister, before this man was released. 
 A man walked about twenty-five miles to see if I 
 could in any way assist him in getting his mother 
 released from prison. I never understood clearly the 
 nature of the charges that had been made against the 
 man who came to see me, but it was for charges 
 against himself that his old mother had been carried 
 away and locked up in jail. Of course there was noth- 
 ing that I could do to assist in such a case, and he had 
 to return and wait for the time when he could in some 
 way redeem his mother. 
 
 Another case of which I happened to know the facts 
 will give some light on the village lawsuit. An Amer- 
 ican citizen had some difficulty in collecting some 
 money due him by a Korean. After waiting a long 
 time, with no good results, he called on the magistrate 
 and stated his case. The official agreed to call the 
 man and see that matters were made right. A day 
 was agreed upon when the gentleman would be passing 
 that way again, and the official promised to have the 
 Korean present and settle the affair. The day ap- 
 pointed came around and the American, according to 
 agreement, appeared on the scene, only to learn that 
 the offending party had not been brought to trial, but 
 that his wife was there a prisoner in his stead. The 
 American was thoroughly disgusted, and told the of- 
 ficial in no uncertain tones that they had done very 
 badly, and ordered them to release the woman at once 
 and allow her to return to her home. To the best of 
 
i86 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 my knowledge, the matter was dropped and no more 
 effort was ever made to collect the money. 
 
 The accused parties are always made to testify 
 against themselves. In many cases the most fearful 
 tortures are applied in order to extort testimony. One 
 method used is that of binding the limbs above the 
 knees and at the ankles, then inserting two hand spikes 
 between them and slowly prying them apart till in 
 many cases the bones are broken. The most common 
 way is by flogging in the most unmerciful manner. 
 The accused must always approach the court in the 
 most humble and submissive attitude. This is begun 
 by making lov/ bows as soon as the gate leading to the 
 court room is entered. I said court room, but this 
 must be explained. There is no court room in the 
 true sense of that term. The magistrate sits on the 
 floor in his little office, usually about eight feet square, 
 and through an open window conducts his court, 
 while the accused and others interested in the pro- 
 ceedings stand in the courtyard. These bows iare real 
 Eastern bows, made by knocking the forehead on the 
 ground. As soon as the gate is entered the first bow 
 is made, and then every few steps till the accused 
 stands in the presence of the court. 
 
 The prisons are often cold and damp and without 
 any place to sleep but the cold stone floor. The hands 
 and feet of the prisoners are often made fast in the 
 stocks. Another method of securing the prisoner is by 
 the use of the kang, which is a board about six feet 
 long with a hole near one end, which is so arranged 
 that it can be placed around the neck and made fast. 
 
The Village Lawsuit. 187 
 
 This, of course, makes running out of the question and 
 walking very difficult. One seldom sees a more pitiful 
 sight than these poor creatures walking about the 
 prison yards with the kangs about their necks. 
 
 The usual method of punishment is by spanking or 
 beating with a paddle. It is for his honor to say how 
 many blows shall be given and how often the dose shall 
 be repeated. The amount of cash that can be raised by 
 the prisoner and his friends may work wonders in fix- 
 ing the number of blows and the number of times 
 necessary to repeat the treatment in order to effect a 
 cure. . . 
 
 I have not. seen the paddle remedy fully administered, 
 but was one time near enough to form a good idea of 
 what it is like. I shall never forget the time. It was 
 one Sunday morning in the dead of winter, with snow 
 on the ground, and the wind blowing as if it were be- 
 hind time and doing all in its power to catch up. I 
 was visiting one of our churches in a magisterial town. 
 The church was near the official quarters, being sepa- 
 rated only by a high wall and a small field. Early Sun- 
 day morning I heard a peculiar sort of calling about 
 the official quarters. ' I shall not attempt to describe 
 this noise, but those who have once heard it will un- 
 derstand what I mean. I learned afterwards that this 
 is a peculiar sort of way that the servants about the 
 place have of announcing the orders of his honor when 
 he is about to begin a trial. It was not long till I heard 
 the "whack" of the paddle, followed by a suppressed 
 cry, as if some one was uncomfortable. I went out 
 where I could get a better view of what was going on. 
 
l88 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 I could not see the men because of the wall which sur- 
 rounded the place, but I could plainly see the paddle 
 as it was lifted high above the head of the operator and 
 on its return trip to the after part of the anatomy of 
 the poor fellow who was tied flat on his face on the 
 frozen ground. This paddle was about six feet long, 
 four inches wide, and as thick as your hand. I have 
 since seen the paddle at close range. The man using it 
 seemed to be in no sort of a hurry to complete his task, 
 as he was very deliberate about every blow, giving it 
 plenty of time to soak in well before it was disturbed 
 by the next one. Imagine, if you can, what the suffer- 
 ings of that poor man must have been, stripped of his 
 clothes, bound-, and stretched on the frozen ground, and 
 given twenty or more blows as above described ! The 
 thing wrought upon my nerves till I coul-d hardly eat 
 breakfast. When we inquired what it was for, the an- 
 swer was : "O, he was a bad fellow and needed a spank- 
 ing." No one about us seemed to care or to be con- 
 cerned in the least. It was nothing new to the natives. 
 
 I was told by a Korean gentleman that he had seen 
 two men spanked till they died. It is no unusual thing 
 for one to be unable to walk for many days after he 
 has been ofHcially spanked. And yet there are a few 
 of the people in the United States, in the twentieth 
 century, who are advocating a return to the whipping 
 post of the Dark Ages. If spanking could reform a peo- 
 ple, the Koreans would have been reformed long ago. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 The Village Religion. 
 
 In the beginning of tiiis chapter it will be well to 
 state clearly what is meant by the term "religion." In 
 the dictionaries and other books many definitions may 
 be found, none of which are entirely satisfactory. So I 
 venture to give a definition of the much-used term "re- 
 ligion." In this definition there is no attempt at the 
 etymological rneaning, but the meaning as it is in the 
 mind of one who stops to look at results rather than at 
 beginnings. Religion is the sum total of all man's be- 
 lief in a spiritual realm. 
 
 It has often been said that no people have been found 
 in any part of the world who did not have some sort 
 of religion. It may just as truly be said that no indi- 
 vidual who is capable of believing anything has been 
 found who does not believe in religion. Many persons 
 may be found who will affirm that they do not believe 
 in the existence of spirits, and therefore have no re- 
 ligious belief. But it is only necessary to watch such 
 people to see the evidence of belief in the spiritual 
 realm. Take the educated American who scoffs at re- 
 ligion and assign him to berth No. 13 in a sleeping car 
 or to room No. 13 in a hotel or ask him to make one of 
 a party of thirteen at dinner, and see him refuse ! All 
 this is a part of his religion. The same is true of the 
 man who hangs a horseshoe over his door just for luck. 
 I mention a few of these fundamental principles before 
 
 (189) 
 
190 Village Life in Korea. , 
 
 considering our village religion, so that the reader may 
 approach the subject from a wide view-point. 
 
 Our village religion is truly and simply religion, not 
 some particular system of religion. It cattnot be called 
 Confucianism, it is not Buddhism, neither is it fetich- 
 ism pure and simple. Our village people are spirit 
 worshipers, and they are willing to add anything to 
 their religion that will help them to be on good terms 
 with the spirits. The educated gentleman will tell 
 you that he is a follower of the great teacher, Con- 
 fucius, but you have only to look around his house to 
 find many objects of spirit worship that have no con- 
 nection whatever with Confucianism. And so it is 
 with another, who claims to be devoted to Buddhism ; 
 he does not exclude from his system much that be- 
 longs to Confucianism or to fetichism. There is doubt- 
 less much in the religious practices and beliefs of our 
 village people which has been handed down from a 
 past so remote and misty that no one can even guess 
 where it had its origin. This is not true of Buddhism, 
 which came into Korea about the middle of the fourth 
 century, or of Confucianism, which made its appear- 
 ance in this country not far from the same date. Long 
 before that date the Koreans had religion, and much 
 of the ancient system has been retained and is in prac- 
 tice at the present time. 
 
 To the mind of the Korean the whole universe is 
 filled with spirits, which inhabit earth, water, and sky. 
 They are of different ranks, and among them are to 
 be found all ^orts of good, bad, and indifferent ones. 
 Some are spirits pure and simple, and never had a 
 
The Village Religion. igi 
 
 temporal or physical existence; while others are the 
 disembodied spirits of human beings. 
 
 The chief of all the spirits is Hanqnim, who is the 
 creator of all' things and sends the sunshine and the 
 rain. It is this spirit that comes nearest to the Chris- 
 tian's idea of God; so this is the term used by the 
 Protestant denominations for indicating God. Strange 
 to say, this, the greatest of all the spirits, receives the 
 least attention in the worship of the people. This is 
 probably from the fact that he is considered good, and 
 the religion of Korea is one of fear and not of love. 
 It is not worth while to bother the good spirits, since 
 they will do no harm; but the bad ones must be pla- 
 cated. In times of severe drought, by special com- 
 •mand of the king, sheep are sacrificed to Hananim. 
 There are no temples or shrines dedicated to Hanan- 
 im except the altars on which the above-stated sac- 
 rifices are offered. So it can hardly be said that the 
 village religion has much to do with the great spirit 
 Hananim. 
 
 Spirit worship builds no temples. In this respect 
 it is unlike Buddhism, which builds many fine temples 
 and supports large numbers of officiating priests. 
 Spirit worship is content with its fetiches and shrines, 
 which are to be found everywhere throughout the 
 country. As such it maintains no priests, but the mu- 
 dang and the pansu correspond in some measure to 
 the priests of other systems of religion. The mudang 
 is always a woman, and belongs to the lowest and 
 most abandoned class. She claims to be in direct 
 league with the evil spirits which infest the world. 
 
ig2 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 and can appease them and persuade them to leave 
 those in whom they have taken up their abode for the 
 purpose of afflicting them in body or mind. The re- 
 ligious feeling of the people is so strong that even 
 the highest and best educated classes do not hesitate 
 to call for the mudang when they are in trouble. 
 There is probably no other class of women in the land 
 that make so much money as do the mudangs. 
 
 The pansu may come from any class of society, but 
 his profession, like that of the mudang, is considered 
 among the lowest. The pansu is always blind, and is 
 supposed to be able to control the spirits not by per- 
 suasion but by power. They tell fortunes, and claim 
 to be able to drive out evil spirits from sick people. 
 The spirits are often soundly thrashed by these men, 
 the evidence of which may be seen in the sticks with 
 which they have been beaten. I have often seen bun- 
 dles of these sticks, about as large as a broom handle 
 and about two feet long, beaten into splinters at one 
 end, caused by the severe thrashing which the poor, 
 unfortunate spirit had received at the hands of the 
 pansu. Sometimes an unruly spirit is driven into a 
 bottle and corked up with a stopper made from the 
 wood of a peach tree, and then delivered to a mudang 
 to be carried away and buried. As a class the pansu 
 live well and make plenty of money. Many of them 
 are to be seen on the streets of Seoul feeling their 
 way along with a bamboo switch and calling out in a 
 loud voice for customers. Then again they are often 
 seen hurrying along, led by some one who has come 
 
The Village Religion. 193 
 
 for them to drive the evil spirit out of some one that 
 is sick. 
 
 The services of the mudang and the pansu are 
 called for in deciding lucky days for marriages, fu- 
 nerals, days for starting on a journey, and many 
 other things of common everyday life. Every village 
 has its days when special feasts are given in honor 
 of the spirits, and on these occasions the mudang and 
 the pansu take part. 
 
 It is impossible to go far in any direction without 
 seeing the evidences of spirit worship. Every house 
 has its group of presiding spirits. The spirit or mas- 
 ter of the house site is usually to be found in the back 
 yard, and his abode consists of an earthen vessel con- 
 taining some unhulled rice covered over with a bunch 
 of rice straw in the shape of a small booth. There is 
 the abode of the master of the house, which is made 
 by a mudang. She makes it of paper, which is folded 
 several times, with rice and money between the folds; 
 then it is thoroughly soaked in wine, after which it is 
 thrown against the ridgepole or other part of the 
 house, where it sticks fast and remains as the residing 
 place of the master of the house. There is also the 
 spirit to whom the women look for special blessings. 
 It is always found in the women's department, and is 
 made by filling a three-cornered bag with rice and 
 hanging it in a place set apart for the purpose. There 
 are other spirits too numerous to mention, all of 
 which must come in for a part of the worship of 
 every house. The spirits of departed relatives come 
 jn for much attention. They must be fed and clothed, 
 13 
 
194 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 so there are baskets filled with cloth and clothes which 
 have been dedicated to the spirits and put away in 
 some safe place, where they are most religiously kept 
 and handed down from one generation to another.^ 
 Then there are other ofiferings made of bits of paper, 
 old shoes, sackcloth, and shoes made especially for 
 the spirits hanging around in different parts of thq 
 house. 
 
 The entrance to our village is guarded by a group 
 of wooden posts, the tops of which are carved into 
 the form of faces which, judging from their hideous 
 appearance, would frighten off the bravest of the 
 spirits. On these devil posts, as they have been well 
 named, are often seen bits of paper, strips of cloth, and 
 bunches of human hair which have been tied there as 
 offerings to the spirits. 
 
 At almost every place where a road crosses a hill- 
 top there is a shrine to the spirit of the mountain, and 
 on many hill and mountain tops where there is no road 
 these are also found. These shrines are of great va- 
 riety, the most common ones consisting of a pile of 
 stones under a tree, to the branches of which are tied 
 offerings to the spirits consisting of fancy-colored 
 silks and other cloth, bits of paper, hair, old shoes, 
 old garments, little bags filled with offerings such 
 as are supposed to be acceptable to the spirits. At 
 some of these there are well-built houses. These are 
 always small, some covered with tile and others with 
 straw. In them are pictures of old men to represent 
 the spirit of the mountain, and a considerable collec- 
 tion of offerings such as above described, in addition 
 
DEVIL POSTS. 
 
The Village Religion. 195 
 
 to which are found peculiarly shaped stones, small cast- 
 iron horses, and sometimes a stone Buddha. At many 
 of these there is as much as a carload of stones 
 which have been brought by the worshipers. How 
 long they have been accumulating no one can tell. It 
 is miore than probable that if Abraham had passed this 
 way he would have seen some of these same roadside 
 shrines. A strange part of this worship, if so it may 
 be called, is that of the passer-by stopping and spit- 
 ting on the pile of stones to show his respect for the 
 spirits. Cooked rice and other food may often be seen 
 lying on the stones, where it has been placed by some 
 burdened soul who is seeking help from the unseen 
 realm. More than once as I have passed these places 
 my heart has been saddened by the sight of women 
 who had brought tables of the best food they could 
 command and, placing them before the pile of stones, 
 were prostrate upon the ground, rubbing their hands 
 and calling upon the spirits to come and eat. 
 
 At some of the more pretentious shrines the mm- 
 dangs hold their performances when trying to per- 
 suade some evil spirit to depart from some sick per- 
 son. I remember well that on one occasion Mrs. 
 Moose and I were passing one of these shrines, when 
 our attention was called to the place by the ringing of 
 bells, the beating of drums, and the clanking of cym- 
 *bals. We turned in to see what was going on, and 
 we shall not soon forget the scene. There was a 
 spread of the greatest array of Korean foods and 
 fruits that we had ever seen. A poor, pale-faced 
 young woman was sitting by, and we understood that 
 
196 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 it was for her that this offering was being made. Tlie 
 mudang was in the midst of her wild dance, trying 
 to persuade the spirit to leave the sick woman. The 
 dance was indescribable, but the impressions of that 
 scene remain with me till this hour. There were 
 drums, bells, and clanking cymbals, all of which were 
 beaten at such a rate as to almost deafen the hearers; 
 and in the midst of this clanking of brass and roar of 
 drums the shouts and calls of the mudang were clearly 
 heard as she whirled, danced, and leaped into the air 
 as if she were in the very act of laying hold on the 
 spirit that was causing all the trouble. This idiotic 
 performance continued till the mudang seemed almost 
 exhausted, when it suddenly closed. Mrs. Moose 
 spoke a few words to the sick woman, telling her of 
 the One who can save both body and soul, and we 
 went on our way with sad hearts. 
 
 There is one other form of our village religion that 
 must be noticed, that of ancestral worship, which is 
 Confucian in its origin. This is the stronghold of 
 Confucianism in Korea, and in it many fruitful evils 
 have their root, some of which are child marriage, the 
 inordinate desire for male offspring, concubinage, the 
 low estimate placed upon woman, and many others. 
 The rites of ancestral worship can be performed only 
 by a son, and therefore a son is absolutely necessary 
 to the future and eternal happiness of parents. An 
 adopted son may perform these rites, but a daughter 
 cannot. 
 
 During the period of mourning, which lasts for 
 three years for parents, the sacrifice is offered twice 
 
The Village Religion. 197 
 
 or three times daily in the form of a good, square 
 meal of the best the family can afford. In families 
 that can afford it, a special room is set apart for this 
 purpose. Where the special room is not to be had, 
 the shrine is erected on the porch or in any nook or 
 corner that may be available. A white curtain, of its 
 own peculiar pattern, is hung up, and behind it is 
 placed the table on which the food is offered, and a 
 high armchair in which the spirit is supposed to sit 
 while eating. It is rather remarkable that an ordinary 
 dinner table is not more than fourteen inches in di- 
 ameter and twelve inches high (the person sits on 
 the floor while eating), but that this table at which 
 the spirits are supposed to eat is large enough to seat 
 two or four people in American style. On the table 
 a full meal is placed, and along with it the long- 
 stemmed pipe, wine, and other such luxuries as the 
 family can afford. Nothing is lost, as the food is al- 
 lowed to remain only a short while, when it is carried 
 away and eaten by some member of the family. When 
 the three years have passed, the table is stored away in 
 an outhouse or other place till such time as it shall again 
 be needed. On each recurring anniversary of the 
 death a sacrificial feast must be given. To this all the 
 sons and daughters, with other relatives, are invited. 
 At such times a great feast is prepared, and many 
 families for this purpose run themselves hopelessly 
 into debt. There is much drinking connected with 
 these feasts, and the loafers in the village look for- 
 ward to them with much pleasure as a time when they 
 shall have their fill of feasting and drinking. The 
 
198 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 man who can furnish the biggest spread at these an- 
 nual feasts is the man that is held in the highest es- 
 teem by his' neighbors. 
 
 It was only last winter that I came upon a house 
 where the tribes had met for this feast. It was a bit- 
 ter cold day, the ground covered with snow, with the 
 wind blowing a gale. It was such a day as makes one 
 long for shelter. We were making our way up a steep 
 mountain pass; and as it was about noon, our party 
 (which consisted of one missionary besides myself, 
 two Korean Bible women, and two men) was tired 
 and hungry. The missionary and I had food enough 
 for our dinner, but we did not care to eat till our Ko- 
 rean friends could get something. At last we came to 
 a hut on the mountain side and asked for food, only to 
 be told by the occupants that they did not have any. 
 However, they let us go in out of the wind, where we 
 proceeded to divide our small stock and make the 
 best of it. In one room of the house we saw a large 
 supply of food which had been prepared and spread 
 out ready for the feast which was to take place the fol- 
 lowing day. This family was so poor that the wife 
 and children were not half clothed, the woman having 
 nothing on her body but one thickness of thin cotton 
 cloth. And yet the strong hand of the law and custom 
 of our village religion demanded and brought forth 
 this great supply of food to be offered to the dead. 
 Before we left, the story of Jesus and his love was 
 faithfully told, but I fear that it found no lodgment in 
 those dark minds, which were already filled with re- 
 ligion. 
 
The Village Religion. 199 
 
 This iron-handed law of ancestral worship holds not 
 only the ignorant folk of our country village, but with 
 a never-yielding grasp it lays hold upon the educated 
 of the higher classes. The hardest battle that Chris- 
 tianity has to fight in conquering this country is cen- 
 tered in and finds its stronghold around this law of an- 
 cestral worship. 
 
 Some years ago this whole matter of ancestral wor- 
 ship was very forcefully brought to my attention. A 
 missionary friend of mine was assisting m'e in a study 
 class at one of my country churches. In this church 
 was a family composed of a mother, son, his wife and 
 children, and one unmarried sister. They were all 
 members of the Church except the old mother, who 
 would not accept our new religion. I learned while 
 there that the mother and the brother of her husband 
 (the husband being dead) had arranged to marry the 
 daughter to a man whose wife had died only a few 
 weeks before. The man was fifty-two years old and 
 had two sons, each of whom was older than the girl 
 he was to marry, she being about seventeen. It was 
 very unusual that she should have been allowed to 
 grow to such an age without being engaged. The old 
 mother, however, was thoroughly businesslike, and had 
 doubtless been waiting to make a match that would be 
 worth while. At last the time had come, and here was 
 her chance ; for the aforesaid gentleman was the lead- 
 ing man in the community, one of the wealthiest in 
 the county, and had a strong pull on things politically, 
 his brother at that time being magistrate of the coun- 
 ty. It was a fine chance from the old mother's stand- 
 
200 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 point, but somehow or other the girl could not see 
 the fitness of the thing, and refused to give her consent 
 to the arrangement. But that mattered Httle or noth- 
 ing, since her "big father," the term given to the elder 
 brother of a father, and her mother had agreed that 
 it must be done. The brother claimed to be opposed 
 to the match on the ground that the man was not a 
 Christian, and in his heart I believe this was true ; but 
 he was not blind to the fact that it would mean much 
 to him to be connected by this alliance to the "biggest 
 man in the county." 
 
 The Christian friends of the girl were much exer- 
 cised concerning the matter, and made a strong appeal 
 to us to try to break the engagement and save the 
 girl from a fate which they seemed to think worse 
 than death, for, they said : "She will lose both soul and 
 body." I agreed to consider the matter and see what 
 we could do. At first the brother agreed to go with 
 us to see the man and try to persuade him to break 
 the engagement. This, however, he refused to do 
 when the final test came. I spoke to the girl, and she 
 assured me that she did not want to be the man's wife 
 and begged me to break the engagement and save her. 
 The day before we were to leave, one of the Christian 
 women told me that the girl would eat opium and die 
 before she would become that man's wife. This was 
 too miMch for me, and I determined to go and see the 
 man, even if the brother would not go with me. When 
 I announced this purpose to the old woman, she became 
 furious. She raved and fumed, declaring that from 
 the days of the ancients nothing like this had ever hap- 
 
The Village Religion. 201 
 
 pened in this kingdom — that a foreigner should come 
 and interfere with the marriage of one's girl. Seeing 
 that I would not change my m,ind, she became more 
 furious. Running into the yard, she leaped into the 
 air and, throwing herself upon the ground, tried 
 to make out that she would die. As her daughter-in- 
 law and some other women were carrying her into the 
 house I left the yard and started for the home of the 
 groom to-be, which was about fifteen miles away. My 
 missionary friend went with me, and on our bicycles, 
 after a hard ride against the wind, we arrived at the 
 town where our man lived. We had never seen him, 
 and did not know a person in the town. But we soon 
 learned where he lived, and, presenting ourselves at his 
 gatCj called for admission, which was not granted us. 
 We continued to wait and call till some one came and 
 said the man was not at home, to which we replied by 
 saying that we would wait till he came. After waiting 
 some time a son of the man, dressed in full mourning, 
 came and passed us by without stopping to speak. 
 Soon he came out and assured us that his father was 
 not at home and insisted on knowing our business, to 
 which we replied by saying that we wished to see his 
 father and would stay till he returned. He again in- 
 sisted on our telling him what we wanted, and assured 
 us that he would tell his father and it would be all 
 right. We told him that we did business direct, and 
 would not leave till we saw his father, if we had to 
 wait all night. When we had waited in the cold till 
 almost dark, the son came out and said that his father 
 had returned and invited us to come in. We went in 
 
202 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 and were given the best place in the room (the warm- 
 est spot on the floor), and at once two tables of rice 
 were brought in, and we were told that it was too late 
 for us to think of going, and we must spend the night 
 with them. This we agreed to do, and so fell to and 
 did the best we could with the tables of rice which had 
 been placed before us. In the meantime, the father did 
 not come into the room where we were, but waited in 
 an adjoining room till we had finished supper. He then 
 came in, and we proceeded at once to set his mind at 
 ease by telling him the object of our visit. He was at 
 once greatly relieved when he learned that it was noth- 
 ing more serious. I told him that the girl was a Chris- 
 tian and that she did not want to marry him, and that 
 she would not prepare the sacrifice for ancestral wor- 
 ship. (I knew it was then being offered for his dead 
 wife.) On hearing my statement he assured me that 
 he did not want the girl, and would have nothing more 
 to do with her. The business of the hour being fin- 
 ished, he lighted his long-stemmed pipe and gave him- 
 self up to comfort. 
 
 We soon found the two grown sons to be very talk- 
 ative, and after answering many questions and talking 
 about many things, the gospel not being left out, the 
 time for retiring came round, and in company with a 
 number of men we took blocks of wood for pillows 
 and one comfort which had been given us, and, lying 
 down on the warm floor where we had been sitting, 
 tried to sleep. About midnight, just as I was get- 
 ting off to sleep, I was aroused by the most woe-begone 
 wailing and calling that I had ever heard. It was 
 
The Village Religion. 203 
 
 those selfsame intelligent young men or their repre- 
 sentatives out at that hour of the night wailing and 
 calling for the spirit of their dead mother. It is hardly 
 necessary to add that there was little sleep for us that 
 night, and we were glad when the sun brought the 
 light so that we might go on our way, which we did, 
 feeling that we had done something to make one poor 
 Korean girl happy. 
 
 I may add, in closing this story, that it was only a 
 few weeks till some member of the gentleman's family 
 committed murder, and the family were compelled to 
 flee for their lives. The old mother and all concerned 
 lived to see the day when they were very glad that I 
 had broken the engagement. The girl is now the wife 
 of one of our fine young Christians, and, so far as I 
 know, is happy. 
 
 What Paul said that day when he "stood in the 
 midst of Mars' hill, and said. Ye men of Athens, in all 
 things I perceive that ye are very religious," might be 
 just as truthfully said by any missionary who enters 
 one of our Korean villages of the present day. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Village Church. 
 
 The term Church, as here used, stands for the Prot- 
 estant Church. The Romanists are here, and have been 
 from about the middle of the seventeenth century, at 
 which time Roman Catholic missionaries working in 
 China came in contact with Koreans. Prof. H. B. 
 Hulbert tells us in his history that in 1780 a young 
 man was baptized in Peking, and brought back many 
 books, crosses, and images, and thus the new faith was 
 started on its course in this country. There seems to 
 have been much study of the new doctrine, and much 
 opposition on the part of the king and his officials ; so 
 that in 1791 the government began to take extreme 
 measures against the Catholic converts, many of whom 
 were at that time put to death. A year later the first 
 ordained priest (Pere Tsiou, a Chinese) was sent from 
 China to Korea. In spite of opposition from the of- 
 ficials, they continued to increase in numbers till the 
 great persecution of 1866, in which thousands of them 
 died rather than deny the faith. Among those put to 
 death at that time were several French priests, who 
 died rather than forsake their converts and leave the 
 country. It seems a great pity that from such seed- 
 sowing the fruit produced is not of a better quality. 
 So far as I have been able to observe, there is little' 
 difference between the Catholic convert and his hea- 
 then neighbor. It is true that they have changed their 
 (204) 
 
The Village Church. 205 
 
 fetich for the images ordered by Rome, but the change' 
 in the life of the convert is not so apparent. They now 
 claim something more than fifty thousand converts. 
 
 This chapter is not intended to be a history of the 
 rise and growth of Protestant missions in Korea. 
 And yet, for the benefit of those who have not fol- 
 lowed this modern miracle of missions, a few facts of 
 history are here given. It was in September, 1884, 
 the 22d day, that Horace N. Allen, M.D., who has the 
 honor of being the first Protestant missionary to the 
 Hermit Kingdom, arrived in Seoul. He was trans- 
 ferred from China by the Board of Missions of the 
 Presbyterian Church (North), and he had no little 
 part in founding our village Church. Not only in the 
 capacity of a skilled physician did he take part in lay- 
 ing the foundations of the Church, but in after years, 
 when he entered the consular service of the United 
 States and rose from Secretary to the Legation to 
 Minister of the United States, he was always the 
 friend of the missionary and the cause he represents. 
 And I may truthfully add that he was the friend of 
 every one who had truth and right on his side. In 
 the spring of 1885 Rev. H. G. Underwood, of the 
 Presbyterian Church, and W. B. Scranton, M.D., with 
 his wife and mother, and Rev. H. G. Appenzeller and 
 wife, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, arrived in 
 Korea and began their work as missionaries. From 
 that time to this the eyes of the Church in Christian 
 lands have been turned toward this country, and the 
 growth in the force of missionaries has been steady. 
 Since the coming of the above-named missionaries the 
 
2o6 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 following denominations have founded missions here: 
 the Presbyterian (South), the Australian Presbyteri- 
 an, the Canadian Presbyterian, the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, South, the Church of England, Independ- 
 ent Baptist, the British Evangelical Mission, the Sev- 
 enth-Day Adventist, the Young Men's Christian As- 
 sociation, and the Salvation Army. The relation of 
 most of these bodies with one another is most cordial. 
 The four bodies of Presbyterians have united and 
 founded one native Presbyterian Church. The two 
 Methodist missions work in the closest relation, being 
 united in their efforts to build up the Church without 
 any overlapping of territory or waste of means and 
 men. There is a General Council of Missions, com- 
 posed of nearly all these missions, which directs the 
 publication of Sunday school literature, Church papers, 
 and a common hymnal, which is used in all the Metho- 
 dist and Presbyterian Churches. The British and For- 
 eign and the American Bible Societies have been inter- 
 ested in the work from the very beginning, and both 
 have an agency here at the present time. Without the 
 help of these societies it would have been impossible for 
 the different missions to have carried on their work as 
 they have. 
 
 Mention should be made of the work done by Rev. 
 John Ross, of Manchuria, who had been deeply inter- 
 ested in the Koreans whom he had met in Manchu- 
 ria. Even before Dr. Allen reached Korea Mr. Ross 
 had with the aid of Koreans translated the New Testa- 
 ment, and many copies had found their way into Ko- 
 rea. No doubt these .books did much toward prepar- 
 
The Village Church.' 207 
 
 ing the way for the more perfect translation which 
 has since been made. 
 
 Of course the first missionaries found no Church, 
 and had httle to start with besides faith in God, on 
 whose help they depended. At first it was slow work, 
 and the workers doubtless often grew tired and won- 
 dered when they would see the fruits of their labors. 
 Thank God, most of them have lived to see an abun- 
 dant harvest and have been permitted to "come re- 
 joicing, bring their sheaves with them." From the 
 very beginning, the work has not been confined to 
 Seoul and the other large cities, but the workers have 
 gone to the country, and, entering the villages, have 
 proclaimed the glad tidings to as many as would hear. 
 The result of this is that the Church in Korea is pre- 
 eminently a village Church. This does not mean that 
 the cities have been neglected, but it does mean that 
 the common people in Korea, like those in the days 
 of our Lord's ministry, have heard the word gladly, 
 and thousands of the village farmers and men of all 
 walks in life have come in, and to-day compose a 
 large part of the Church in this land. 
 
 Come with me and let us attend services in one of 
 our village churches. It is Sunday morning, and we 
 are just a little late for the opening of the Sunday 
 school, which is already under way. Here we find 
 the people using the same literature that is being used 
 by nearly all the Sunday schools in the country. This 
 will be good news to some people, who have been dis- 
 posed to lie awake at night because of a lack of unity 
 among the diiiferent denominations in the mission field. 
 
2o8 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 You will notice that this Sunday . school is not made 
 up of children, with a few older heads to keep them 
 straight, but is composed of the membership of the 
 Church, including all ages. 
 
 The Sunday school having been dismissed for a 
 short recess, let us have a look at the church building. 
 You doubtless already have been looking at it, since I 
 am quite sure you never saw anything like it before. 
 It is in the shape of an L, so as to make it easy to 
 divide into two rooms, at the same time allowing the 
 entire congregation to see the preacher, who stands 
 in one corner. The men and boys occupy one side, 
 and the women and girls the other. They are not sup- 
 posed to see each other, hence this arrangement of the 
 church. In buildings not constructed on the L shape 
 a curtain or other partition separates the men from the 
 women. 
 
 Now that the congregation is gathering for the 
 preaching service, come and take your place with me 
 on the platform, so you can see everything that is 
 going on in the house. Notice that everybody takes 
 off his shoes at the door and the men keep on their 
 hats. Everybody bows in silent prayer before taking 
 his seat. There are no chairs or benches of any 
 kind. The floor is covered with clean straw matting, 
 and on this the people find comfortable seats, since 
 this is what they are used to in their houses. The pas- 
 tor announces a hymn and pauses a moment to give 
 everybody time to find it, for all the people want to 
 sing. Yes, they all love to sing ; but such singing you 
 never heard, and doubtless will never hear, outside of 
 
The Village Church. 209 
 
 a Korean congregation. They can sing all the hymns 
 in the book, but sing them all to one tune. I am quite 
 sure you will not call it good music, but I verily be- 
 lieve that it is a joyful noise unto the Lord. We 
 should not think it strange that these people cannot 
 sing according to the rules of music, since, from their 
 childhood, they have been taught to wail and mourn; 
 to sing and to rejoice have been almost entirely un- 
 known to them. In fact, they have no songs worthy 
 the name, and one rarely ever hears any sort of sing- 
 ing among the heathen except an attempt at singing 
 that is often heard from men who are under the influ- 
 ence of liquor. The boys don't even know how to 
 whistle. Those who have come in touch with the mis- 
 sionaries are now learning the art, and it is a real 
 pleasure to hear a boy whistling as he goes about his 
 work or play. The hymn finished, the congregation is 
 called to prayer and every one bows. This bow is 
 made by prostrating the body till the face rests on the 
 hands, which are spread out on the matting upon the 
 floor. Thus in this humble attitude they follow the 
 leader in prayer, all joining in the Lord's Prayer at 
 the close. Another hymn is sung in a whole-hearted 
 manner, and the collection is taken. This is a real 
 part of the worship, and every one who can possibly 
 do so takes part in it. There will be very few people 
 in the congregation who will not put something into 
 the basket when it comes their way. It is true that 
 the entire collection will not amount to very much, if 
 measured by the standard of the United States dollar ; 
 neither would the combined wages of the entire con- 
 14 
 
2IO Village Life in Korea. 
 
 gregation be much. But when measured by their abil- 
 ity, this collection would put to shame the most of our 
 congregations in Christian lands. Taking everything 
 into consideration, I have not seen people in any other 
 country who are more liberal in their contributions to 
 the Church than the members of our village Church. 
 Now the preacher announces the Scripture lesson to be 
 read, giving chapter and verse. He pauses while the 
 people take their New Testaments and turn to the 
 place to be read. He must wait till they all find it if 
 he wishes to be heard, for nearly every one who can 
 read has a New Testament (the translation of the Old 
 Testament has not yet been completed), and will not 
 be satisfied until the place is found, so the reading 
 may be followed with eye as well as with ear. Then 
 the preacher preaches, and keeps at it just as long as 
 he wishes, for the law of our village congregation 
 does not demand that he stop as soon as the clock 
 has succeeded in ticking off thirty minutes. If he 
 preaches an hour, it is all right, and in many instances 
 I have seen the service go right on for three or four 
 hours. However, these long services are not the 
 rule, but I mention the fact here to show that our peo- 
 ple are willing to spend a long time in a service when 
 occasion demands it. At the close of the sermon the 
 preacher is embarrassed because he has so many peo- 
 ple who would be glad to lead in prayer that it is hard 
 for him to decide upon whom to call. Not only the 
 men, but the women as well, are ready to lead in prayer 
 any time they are called upon to do so. As a rule, any 
 baptized member will lead in prayer, if asked to do so. 
 
The Village Church. 211 
 
 When the benediction is pronounced the entire congre- 
 gation bows prostrate before the Lord and continues 
 for a moment in silent prayer. It is hard to find a 
 more impressive scene than that afforded at the close 
 of the service in one of the large congregations, where 
 twelve or fifteen hundred people are seen lying with 
 their faces on the floor, engaged in silent prayer. What 
 a contrast with the scene in some other quarters of 
 the globe, where many rush for their hats and cloaks 
 while the benediction is being pronounced, and, before 
 the "amen" has been reached, the aisles are crowded 
 with people making for the doors. 
 
 Now come around to the church on Wednesday 
 night at the hour of prayer meeting, and you will find 
 practically the same congregation, the exception being 
 in the case of those who are out of the village or 
 those whose homes are too far for them to come at 
 night. It is a part of their religion to attend Wednes- 
 day night prayer meeting. What could be more in- 
 spiring than to see a thousand people at prayer meet- 
 ing on a cold winter night ? 
 
 A glimpse into a few of these village churches will 
 answer the question so often asked: "Do missions 
 pay?" Take a peep into the churches in the city of 
 Pyeng-yang, where twenty years ago there was not 
 a single Christian, and where the first missionaries 
 were stoned in the streets and their native helpers ar- 
 rested, put in jail, and beaten nearly to death. Now see 
 the half dozen or more churches, with their thousands 
 of believers crowded into them at every service. Some 
 of these congregations are so large that the men and 
 
212 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 women cannot meet at the same time, separate serv- 
 ices being held for them every Sunday, nothwithstand- 
 ing the buildings will accommodate from twelve to 
 fifteen hundred people. To see these churches crowd- 
 ed at the midweek prayer meeting, when the mercury 
 is playing hide and seek around the zero point, is to 
 answer for all time this oft-repeated question. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that these churches are not 
 built by money received from the mission boards, but 
 as a rule are built by the congregations without any 
 outside help. In centers where very large churches 
 are needed for the accommodation of Conferences, 
 Bible study classes, etc., some help from the boards 
 has been asked; but it must be understood that the 
 rule is, each congregation provides its own church 
 building. In this respect, as well as in other matters 
 of self-support, Korea furnishes one of the best ex- 
 amples among all the mission fields in the world. It 
 is no unusual thing for the missionary, on his first visit 
 to a group of new believers, to find that they have al- 
 ready provided themselves with a church building which 
 meets all their needs. It is true that the cost of these 
 buildings is not much, if measured by the United 
 States currency; but in many cases the sacrifice made 
 to build them is much greater than it is for the build- 
 ing of a hundred-thousand-dollar church in the United 
 States. The churches are often the best buildings in 
 the village and always compare favorably with the 
 dwelling houses of the people. 
 
 Our village Church is a mission Church. In the 
 matter of giving the gospel to their neighbors our 
 
The Village Church. 213 
 
 Christians are to be commended. It is no uncommon 
 thing for a Church to support its own pastor and one 
 or more colporteurs or Bible women to go out into the 
 vilalges beyond and tell the story of the cross. Cir- 
 cuits or groups of Churches often unite in this work, 
 and some of them are now supporting missionaries of 
 their own people to preach to the Koreans who are 
 living in the North, in Chinese and Russian territory. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 Some Members of the Village Church. 
 
 Now that we "have looked at the village church, I 
 want to introduce you to some of its members, so that 
 you may have a closer view and become better ac- 
 quainted. This is my friend and fellow-laborer in the 
 Lord, Mr. Ye Duck-su. Ye is the surname, which al- 
 ways stands first in Korea, and Duck-su is the given 
 name. A dozen years ago Mr. Ye lived in a village on 
 the bank of the Im-jin River, and was known as one 
 of the bad men of the community. He was a drunk- 
 ard, gambler, and wife-beater, at the same time being 
 well acquainted with the whole tribe of evils that keep 
 company with the above-named sins. He was not un- 
 acquainted with the village lawsuit, and knew what it 
 was to be under the paddle. But, as in most other 
 cases, the paddle could not reform him, and he went 
 from bad to worse, till one day a colporteur selling 
 Christian tracts and portions of Scripture came to his 
 village. He met the colporteur, heard the story of 
 the gospel, and it sounded good to him. He received 
 a tract as a gift from the colporteur and began to read 
 it. He could read, but that was about all that could 
 be said in favor of his education. 
 
 The faithful colporteur did not forget to look up 
 
 Mr. Ye the next time he came around. He himself 
 
 had been saved from a life of sin and shame, and was 
 
 fully persuaded that his Saviour could save this man 
 
 (214) 
 
Some Members of the Village Church. 215 
 
 who had fallen so low and remained in sin so long. 
 He did not have to wait long till he saw the fruit of 
 his labor, for Mr. Ye soon made up his mind to "do 
 the doctrine," and was doing it. He began at once 
 to attend the little church that had been started in the 
 village, and soon showed by his changed life that he 
 was in real earnest. He stopped his gambling and 
 drinking and went to work to make an honest living 
 for himself and family. This was not an easy matter, 
 with no money and few friends; but he had found a 
 new Friend, the one that sticketh closer than a brother, 
 and with faith in him he started out to do the best he 
 could. His work was carrying a jiggy, which is very 
 hard work, low but honest. These jiggy men are to 
 be found in every commtmity. They are the public 
 drays of the country. By sticking close to his job Mr. 
 Ye could make enough to support himself and family. 
 This was good for the poor wife and children, who had 
 seen hard times in other days. It is no wonder that 
 they soon joined him in "doing the doctrine" and be- 
 came true believers. This went on for several years. 
 In the meantime he had received baptism with the first 
 class that was baptized in the little church, and was 
 known by the community as one of "the Jesus doctrine- 
 doing men." By hard work and close living he man- 
 aged to get a little money ahead, and so started in as 
 a merchant ; not a merchant prince, it is true,' but a 
 merchant, just the same — a traveling merchant. He 
 bought a tubful of dried fish, a sort of shrimp, of 
 which the Koreans are very fond, put it on his 
 jiggy, and, taking the jiggy on his back, started out 
 
2i6 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 to try his hand as a travelmg merchant. When the tub 
 was empty, he returned, filled it, and started out again. 
 He succeeded, and soon found that this was better than 
 acting as a public dray. When he started on these trips 
 he would hang around his neck a little bag, into which 
 he would slip a few copies of the Gospels, some tracts, 
 and his hymn book. Wherever he went, he told the 
 story of Jesus, and to all who would buy he sold a 
 Gospel or a tract. His business carried him to many 
 villages and sometimes a long distance from home, so 
 that he was known all over the countryside as "Ye 
 Duck-su, the Jesus doctrine-doing man." During this 
 time he had been appointed class leader in the Church 
 to which he belonged. This gave Brother Ye a new 
 title. Ye Soak-chang, this being the name for class 
 leader in Korean. The class leader in our village 
 Church is a man of influence and standing in the 
 Church. The pastor does not get around to every 
 Church many times during the year, and in his absence 
 the congregation must look to the class leader to con- 
 duct the services and lead in all the Qiurch work. 
 
 Brother Ye continued to prosper till he was able to 
 buy one of the best houses in the village, and some 
 farm land also. This was indeed a great contrast when 
 compared with the shack in which he lived when he 
 first heard the gospel of Jesus. Now he farmed some, 
 and ran his other business as a sort of side issue. This 
 gave much more time at home, and therefore more time 
 for Church work, which was a great joy to him. He 
 was never too busy to drop everything and walk, some- 
 times as much as thirty miles, to attend a Quarterly 
 
Some Members of the Village Church. 217 
 
 Conference, or any other meeting of the Church at 
 which his presence would be desired. I had been his 
 pastor for a number of years, and had learned to love 
 him very much for his work's sake. I was much in 
 need of a native colporteur to open work in a new field, 
 and so invited Mr. Ye to go with me on a preaching 
 and Scripture-selling trip through this territory. He 
 agreed to go, and at the time appointed he appeared at 
 my house dressed in his white suit of cotton cloth. He 
 lived thirty miles from my house, and we were going 
 about seventy-five miles in another direction. He took 
 a big bundle of Gospels and tracts on his back and we 
 started out, he walking and I on my bicycle, riding 
 where I could and walking and pushing when it was 
 impossible to ride. The bicycle in Korean is "the self- 
 going machine." I am quite sure that the man who 
 named it had never tried one up a long grade on a hot 
 summer day. 
 
 When we entered a village the news would soon 
 spread through the entire place that the foreigner and 
 the "self-going machine" had come. All hands would 
 drop everything and come out to see the show. The 
 men, the boys, and the old women would crowd around 
 to get a good look; while the young women and girls 
 could be seen peeping through the brush fences which 
 surround the houses. 
 
 Mr. Ye, standing in their midst like Saul of old (he 
 was higher than most of his countrymen), would 
 straighten himself up to his full height and say : "Look 
 here, please! Hear what I have to say!" Then he 
 would say: "All ye that labor and are heavy-laden. 
 
2i8 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 come unto me, and I will give you rest." Then he 
 would talk to the people about burdens and rest. They 
 understood what burdens meant, for some of them were 
 standing there then with their jiggies on their backs, en 
 the way to bring some heavy burden. The women, too, 
 understood what burden-bearing meant. They had 
 known little else all their lives. Even then many of 
 the little girls were standing around with a baby broth- 
 er or sister tied on their backs ; they all knew what it 
 meant. But the other part of the subject was new to 
 most of them. Rest! What did they know about it? 
 Mr. Ye explained to them that the burden about which 
 he was talking was not the jiggy, but the one on their 
 hearts, the burden of sin, and that the One who said 
 "Come" was God's only Son, Jesus, who had died to 
 save us all from sin. Then he would quote John iii. 
 i6, tell them of God's love, and beg them to accept 
 God's love and believe on Jesus, at the same time tell- 
 ing them how Jesus had saved him from a life of sin 
 and shame. 
 
 After about a month of this work, I made up my 
 mind that I could trust Mr. Ye to go put as a witness 
 for the Lord, and so asked him how he would like to 
 give up his farm and other business, and just go out 
 and preach and sell books all the time. He said it 
 would be very good. I told him that he would have to 
 move to a strange town, to which he replied: "Ac- 
 cording to the pastor's word, I will do." So I told 
 him all right; his salary would be five dollars a month, 
 and he could begin work as soon as he could arrange 
 to move. He called a few friends with their jiggies, 
 
Some Members of the Village Church. 219 
 
 who took his household goods that he cared to move; 
 he too took a load, while his wife strapped the baby 
 on her back, and they started out with the two other 
 boys walking. Across the rivers, over the mountains, 
 and through the valleys they went, till at last they 
 reached their new home, seventy-five miles away. That 
 new home was in this town where I am writing this 
 page. At that time there were very few Christians in 
 all this part of the country. Mr. Ye is with me still, 
 and is one of my best and most trusted helpers in the 
 work. Since writing the above Mr. Ye has been called 
 home. It was not my privilege to be with him at the 
 last, as I was out in the district holding meetings when 
 the messenger came for him. Mrs. Moose was with 
 him almost to the last, and just before the end she 
 asked him If he wished to leave any message for me, 
 to which he replied: "Tell the pastor, 'The Lord is my 
 Shepherd.' " 
 
 Yun Syen-kun. — Mr. Yun was one of the first con- 
 verts to come into the Church under the ministry of 
 Dr. C. F. Reid, founder of the mission of the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church, South, in Korea. 
 
 Mr. Yun was a low-class man, and, like nearly all 
 of his class, ignorant and degraded. Soon after hear- 
 ing the gospel he accepted it, and showed by his life 
 and conversation that he was a new man. He took up 
 the study of the Scriptures with such zeal and ear- 
 nestness that he was soon employed as a colporteur, 
 and continued in that work for about five years, when 
 the Lord called him from labor to rest. He was a 
 man of strong convictions, and one that dared to do 
 
220 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 things. Thus he was able to break away from the 
 customs of his country, as men of weaker courage 
 were not able to do. He was one of the first among 
 Korean Christians to cut his hair, thereby forsaking 
 the much-treasured topknot. Ten years ago, when I 
 came to Korea, there were but four men among our 
 Christians who had cut their hair, he being one of 
 that number. It took a man with courage in those 
 days to use the scissors on his topknot. I mention this 
 to show that Mr. Yun was a man of courage, as his 
 Christian life often proved him to be. 
 
 His progress in the study of the Scriptures was 
 nothing short of marvelous. I remember with what 
 joy he received the entire New Testament when the 
 first edition came from the press. I now recall how 
 he took a copy and tried it in his huge pocket to see 
 if it would be possible for him to carry it there and 
 thus have it always with him. He not only read the 
 Word, but he remembered it. Not only did he re- 
 member the words, but he remembered the chapter, 
 and the verse, so that he became nothing short of a 
 walking concordance. He also sought for the mean- 
 ing of the truth, and when he could not be sure he 
 marked the passage and inquired of. the first mission- 
 ary he met. It was a great joy and privilege to travel 
 in the country with him, as I have done many days, 
 and see with what zeal he entered into his work. He 
 both inspired and made me ashamed when I con- 
 trasted my lack of zeal with the way he threw his 
 whole soul into the business of studying and preach- 
 ing the Word. In those days we used to make long 
 
Some Members of the Village Church. 221 
 
 trips into the country where there were no Christians, 
 and we always had to stop in the inns. It made httle 
 difference how long the day's journey had been or 
 how tired he was, the first thing Mr. Yun did on reach- 
 ing an inn was to preach to everybody in sight. Some- 
 times the courtyard of the inn would be filled with 
 men and boys, and he would preach for a long time. 
 His next thought would be the study of the Word, 
 when he would take his seat on the floor and study by 
 the hour. 
 
 When he had been a Christian four or five years, the 
 great revival began in Korea. In fact. Dr. R. A. 
 Hardie, with whom he worked, was the leader in the 
 beginning of the revival, and meetings were held in 
 some of the churches which Mr. Yun had helped to 
 build. It was during one of these revival meetings 
 that Mr. Yun began to search his heart as he had 
 never before done. Under deep conviction he arose 
 and confessed to what he called stealing. Twenty 
 years before he had been employed in the government 
 mint where the old copper cash were made. On one 
 pay day he had received about two dollars more than 
 was due him, and he kept it and said nothing^ Now, 
 under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, he looked 
 back on that as an act of theft, confessed the sin, gave 
 the money to his pastor, and requested him to return 
 it to the government. It was returned, and Dr. R. A. 
 Hardie, who was his pastor at the time, now holds the 
 receipt, from the government for the same. This was 
 doubtless the first conscience money that this govern- 
 ment ever received. From this meeting he continued 
 
222 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 to grow in grace as his body gradually grew weaker, 
 being destroyed by tuberculosis. He continued to 
 travel, sell Scriptures, and preach till he was so weak 
 that he could no longer go, and he was compelled to 
 remain in his room. It was about this time that he 
 told how one night he could not sleep. He was busy 
 examining his heart to see if there were any uncon- 
 fessed and unrepented sins therein. He realized that 
 he did not love his wife as he ought ; and realizing that 
 this was sin, he called his wife from her sleep in the 
 next room and told her all about it and promised to 
 love her as long as he lived. I fancy that in all the 
 history of Korea he was the first man that ever thus 
 made love to his wife at midnight. 
 
 The night he went home one of his Christian neigh- 
 bors called early in the evening to watch by him, and, 
 seeing that the end was near, went out to call another 
 friend. He was gone only a few minutes, and on his 
 way back all at once the sky above and the earth around 
 him were lighted up as with a great light. Looking up, 
 he saw a great, bright light falling from the sky ; and 
 when it was just over the straw-thatched house in 
 which lay the dying saint, it burst and disappeared. 
 He entered the room and found Mr. Yun dead. This 
 light greatly impressed those who saw it, and they 
 said the Lord loved him so well that he sent a light 
 to lead him up to heaven. We who did not see it may 
 say it was only a meteor, and perhaps we are right. 
 But who knows but that it was sent just at that time 
 for a purpose ; and, after all, maybe the simple village 
 folk were right. 
 
Some Members of the Village Church. 223 
 
 Mr. Yun was widely known throughout our Church, 
 and enjoyed the confidence of both missionaries and 
 native Christians. Till this day in many communities 
 the mention of his name is like the pouring forth of 
 precious ointment. 
 
 Chyeng Choon-su. — Lest some might conclude that 
 our gospel reaches only the low and ignorant, I will 
 now introduce to you one of our preachers. Rev. 
 Chyeng Choon-su. 
 
 , Mr. Chyeng is a gentleman both by birth and edu- 
 cation. From the standpoint of his fellow-country- 
 men, he is a gentleman of standing, though he would 
 not have been selected as a perfect type of a good 
 Confucianist. By the time he was twenty-five years 
 of age he would have passed for a scholar, and it was 
 not long thereafter before he was a graduate in all the 
 common vices of his class, including drinking, gam- 
 bling, and such sins. He went from bad to worse, 
 till he thought it best to leave home, since there were 
 no more people in that community whom he could 
 "beat" for anything more. So, with little or no money, 
 he started out for the city of Wonsan, which was a 
 long way from his home. On the way he pawned a 
 silver pocketknife for drink. (Some years after he be- 
 came a Christian he passed this way, redeemed the 
 knife, and preached the gospel to the innkeeper to 
 whom he had pawned it.) When he arrived in Won- 
 san, he stopped at an inn, hoping to make his board by 
 gambling or in any other way that he might be able 
 to "beat" it. It happened that the innkeeper was a 
 Christian, and was not long in making the fact known 
 
224 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 to his new guest. It was the first time Mr. Chyeng had 
 ever heard of the Jesus doctrine. The landlord of- 
 fered him a New Testament and asked him to read it. 
 This he promptly refused to do on the ground that it 
 was printed in the native script instead of in the 
 Chinese character which a high-class gentleman like 
 himself was supposed to read. This vanity was soon 
 satisfied by his being furnished with a copy of the 
 Chinese Bible. Having nothing else to do, he set to 
 reading it to see what it was like. The result was in- 
 deed wonderful. The word found its way to his 
 heart, and he was soon sitting humbly at the feet of 
 any one who could tell him more of the wonderful 
 story and the Saviour which it revealed. 
 
 He was not long in finding our missionaries and ask- 
 ing them to teach him the doctrine. This they were 
 only too glad to do. It so happened that one of the 
 new missionaries was at that time in need of a lan- 
 guage teacher, so Mr. Chyeng, being a scholar, was 
 given this position. Mr. Chyeng soon proved to be 
 not only a teacher of his pupil, but he became a most 
 devoted follower of his teacher and the Jesus doctrine 
 which he professed. I now recall a statement made 
 by the missionary whose teacher he was when he had 
 been with him several months. Somebody asked him 
 how he liked his new teacher. Laughingly he replied 
 that he had found but one fault with him, and that 
 was he spent too much time in prayer. At any time 
 during their study hours, if the conversation stopped 
 for a few minutes, he would prostrate himself on the 
 floor and begin to pray. The missionary by the above 
 
Some Members of the Village Church. 225 
 
 remark wished to show how earnestly Mr. Chyeng 
 was "doing" the doctrine. 
 
 He soon gave abundant evidence of his true repent- 
 ance and his sound conversion. Among other sins 
 that he confessed in public was the way he had ill- 
 treated his poor young wife, who had died several 
 years before. He said she lay in her room sick and 
 helpless for a long time, and then in deep distress he 
 cried: "O, if I could only now remember that I ever 
 Just once did anything for her ! O, if I had given her 
 just one drink of water!" Then he went on to tell 
 how he cursed her because she died on New Year's 
 day, and thus kept him from having a good time with 
 his friends. He begged all to pray for him that God 
 would forgive his sins and help him to lead a holy life. 
 He is now one of our preachers, and is working in 
 one of our most important city Churches, though he 
 spends much time in traveling in the country and 
 preaching to the humble village people. He is a 
 preacher that needeth not to be ashamed. Many of 
 his sermons would do credit to many a man who writes 
 D.D. after his name. He is much loved and trusted 
 by those who have known him from the beginning of 
 his Christian life. 
 
 Yun Che-ho. — I now have the pleasure of intro- 
 ducing to you the Hon. T. H. Yun, the first Korean 
 who ever joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 South. Mr. Yun is entirely different from the other 
 friends to whom you have been introduced. He is a 
 gentleman both by birth, and by practice. He is a 
 son of one of the leading men of the kingdom, his fa- 
 
 15 
 
226 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 ther having filled at different times nearly all of the 
 highest offices within the gift of the king. When he 
 was quite young he, with his father, was compelled to 
 leave the country because of a change in political af- 
 fairs. Going to Shanghai, China, they were there met 
 by some of the missionaries of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, South, and were so pleased that the young 
 Mr. Yun entered the Anglo-Chinese College and re- 
 mained there for several years. It was here that he 
 first heard of Jesus and accepted him as his Saviour. 
 From Shanghai he went to the United States and en- 
 tered Emory College, Oxford, Ga., where he remained 
 for some time and proved himself to be a faithful 
 student. He afterwards studied in Vanderbilt Uni- 
 versity, Nashville, Tenn., and traveled extensively 
 throughout the country, especially in the South. 
 
 Upon his return to Korea, a dozen years ago, he 
 took a lively interest in the efforts of the reformed 
 party to give a better government to the people. He 
 was appointed Vice Minister of the Educational De- 
 partment, which position he filled for some time with 
 credit to himself and honor to his government. He 
 afterwards held various places of trust, filling all with 
 honor, till he was again called to the high councils of 
 State and was appointed Vice Minister of Foreign Af- 
 fairs and continued in the same till the government 
 was taken over by the Japanese. From that time he 
 has had nothing to do with politics, but has given his 
 life to the purpose of training boys and young men to 
 be worthy leaders in both Church and State. He ac- 
 
Some Members of the Village Church. 227 
 
 cepted the call of his Church, and is now the President 
 of the Anglo-Korean College, Songdo, Korea. 
 
 Mr. Pak. — Now let me present my fellow-worker, 
 Mr. Pak. You may see him, but he cannot see you, 
 because he has been totally blind from childhood. 
 
 At the age of twelve he was sent by his parents to 
 learn the business of a sorcerer, his teachers being blind 
 men. He was very bright and made rapid progress in 
 his profession, which he was practicing for a living 
 when he first heard the name of Jesus, which was about 
 a dozen years ago. He was doing well from a busi- 
 ness standpoint, and was not in need of a change of 
 doctrine for the sake of getting a better living. He 
 had married a bright young girl some years before, 
 and was getting on nicely. His wife, unlike most of 
 her sisters, could read, and so became a great help to 
 him, as, will be seen. 
 
 The new Jesus doctrine appealed to Mr. Pak, and 
 he decided to accept and believe it. His mind once 
 made up, he destroyed all his paraphernalia used in 
 capturing and expelling evil spirits, and at once be- 
 came a devout student of the Scriptures as recorded in 
 the four Gospels and the Acts, which were all the books 
 of the New Testament that had at that time been trans- 
 lated and printed. His wife would read to him, and 
 he committed to memory, verse by verse and chapter 
 by chapter, till he could repeat all of the four Gospels 
 and the Acts. He had been a Christian less than three 
 years when I met him for the first time ; he could then 
 quote any verse in these five books. It was only neces- 
 sary to name the figures, with the name of the book. 
 
228 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 and he would recite at once, as Matthew x. 5, Acts xx. 
 15, etc. As fast as other portions of the New Testa- 
 ment were published he memorized them also. 
 
 He is not only able to recite Scripture, but he is 
 able also to apply it and teach his fellow-men to be- 
 lieve it.. He gave up all his means of support when 
 he accepted Christ, and after he had proved himself 
 so apt in the use of the Word he was employed as a 
 colporteur at four dollars a month. He is still in the 
 same work, and has had a small raise in his wages. 
 He has during these years walked thousands of miles 
 and sold thousands of portions of the Scriptures, 
 preached to thousands of people, and led many of them^ 
 to accept Christ as their Saviour. 
 
 Mrs. Pak. — Mrs. Pak, no relative of the above Mr. 
 Pak, is now a Bible woman working under the direc- 
 tion of Mrs. Moose. She was about fifty years old 
 when she heard for the first time the name of Jesus. 
 She lived with her husband in a village hid away in 
 the mountains, seventy-five miles from the nearest 
 missionary. She heard the gospel from a native col- 
 porteur and decided to believe. She could not read, 
 but her desire to know more of the truth led her to 
 learn to read, and in a short while she could read quite 
 well. I remember how she used to go ahead of me 
 when I read the Scriptures in her home, and quote the 
 verse that I was reading. She had been a Christian 
 for many months before she ever saw a foreign mis- 
 sionary. I had the pleasure of baptizing her and her 
 husband some three years after the gospel had first 
 been preached to them by a native, as above stated. 
 
BIBLE WOMEN. 
 
Some Members of the Village Church. 229 
 
 Her husband has been dead several years, and she has 
 lost most of her property and suffered much persecu- 
 tion for the cause of the gospel. She now spends much 
 of her time in traveling from house to house and from 
 village to village telling her fellow-countrywomen of 
 the Saviour and his power to save from sin. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 WHAt Christianity Is Doing for the Village. 
 
 In order that we may better understand what Chris- , 
 tianity is doing for the village, it will be wise to take a 
 hasty review of conditions as they were and are now 
 where the gospel has not been preached. To one 
 reared in a Christian country, surrounded by all the in- 
 stitutions of Christian civilization, it is indeed hard to 
 realize the barrenness and destitution of a village or 
 community into which Christianity has never gone. 
 
 If we take the things which we prize most in our 
 civilization and write them down in a column, and then 
 try to find something in our village to write in a col- 
 umn over against them and to fill the same place in the 
 village life that these things fill in our lives, we shall 
 be able to form some idea of the barrenness of village 
 life where it has not been touched by Christianity. 
 
 I. The Bible. 2. Sunday. 3. Home. 4. Schools. 
 5. Literature. 6. Love and courtship. These are not 
 given as a complete list of the things which mean most 
 to us, but are intended only to suggest what our lives 
 would be even if these few things were blotted out. 
 
 The Bible. — There is nothing that can take its place 
 in any civilization, and absolutely nothing to be com- 
 pa'-ed with it in the village life of Korea. It is true 
 that there is the philosophy of Confucius, which has 
 had its place in shaping the lives and conduct of mil- 
 lions of Orientals ; but it can in no sense be said to fill 
 the place of our Bible. 
 (230) 
 
What Christianity Is Doing for the Village. 231 
 
 Sunday. — Sunday or any day corresponding to it is 
 entirely unknown in our village life. There is no day 
 set apart for rest and worship which can be compared 
 with our Sunday. The fact is, there is no week by 
 which time is measured; but time is counted by the 
 moon, the year being divided into twelve or thirteen 
 moons, as the case may be. With every new moon 
 comes -the first day of the mioon (or month, as we 
 would say) ; then in order follow the second, third, 
 and so on till the new moon comes around again. New 
 Year's day is the great holiday of all the year, at which 
 time all the village people don their best clothes and 
 give themselves up to feasting and frolicking according 
 to the traditions that have been handed down through 
 the ages. This season of feasting and cessation from, 
 ordinary labors lasts from the first to the fifteenth day 
 of the first moon. There are other days which are set 
 apart during the year for ancestral worship and other 
 feasts, but none mean to the unchristianized Korean 
 what Sunday means to us. 
 
 Hom.e. — There is no word in the Korean language 
 for that something which we call home. Absolutely 
 nothing that carries the meaning contained in our word 
 "home" can be found in the language. There is a rea-, 
 son for this, and that reason is the fact that the idea 
 does not exist. There are houses, and those houses are 
 occupied by families; but those sacred relations which 
 are absolutely indispensable to the home are not found 
 where the gospel has not gone. The exalted place oc- 
 cupied by the men and the low place assigned to the 
 women make it impossible for that unity in the family 
 
232 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 which must be a part of every true homie. This chapter 
 could be filled with instances which prove the absence 
 of the true spirit of home. 
 
 The family does not eat together. The men have 
 their meals served to them in the best rooms, while the 
 women usually eat theirs in the cook shed, which has 
 nothing but the ground for a floor. Christianity is 
 changing this so that Christian families now take their 
 meals together, always asking a blessing before eating, 
 and often reading a portion of Scripture. One good 
 man told me that at their meals they had read the New 
 Testament through twice and were half through again. 
 Think of it — they are so thankful for what the Bible 
 has brought to them that each day before eating their 
 rice (and it is rice) they take time to learn more of the 
 blessed Word ! Another woman said she lived with her 
 husband many years before she ever ate a meal with 
 him, but since they had both become Christians they 
 now have their meals together. Sometimes when I 
 have been tallying to men about the duty of loving their 
 wives, some one would speak up and say : "How could 
 a man live with his wife if he did not whip her ?" 
 
 I saw a man leading his wife through the streets 
 and beating her; and when she threw herself upon the 
 ground, refusing to go farther, he stamped her in the 
 chest and kicked her till I feared he would kill her on 
 the spot. All this, too, in the presence of a policeman 
 in full uniform, who made no effort to protect the 
 woman. I remonstrated with the man till he stopped 
 beating her, but he forced her on through the street, to 
 what fate I know not. 
 
What Christianity Is Doing for the Village. 233 
 
 In Korea one sees many women with their noses cut 
 off, and on inquiry will be told that their noses have 
 been cut off by husbands who were jealous. In former 
 years this was very common, but is not so frequent at 
 the present, though I have seen many such women. 
 
 One day a Christian woman came and begged Mrs. 
 Moose for medicine for a womian who was suffering 
 from burned feet. In company with Mrs. J. W. Reed, 
 who is a trained nurse, Mrs. Moose went to see the 
 woman. They found a young woman with both of her 
 feet so badly burned that the bones of the toes were 
 exposed. The feet were dressed and the story of the 
 burning related. The' husband had been unkind to the 
 wife, and she had run away and hid herself in a stack 
 of straw for four days ; then she went to the house of 
 her husband's grandmother,, who received her and gave 
 her food. The husband found his wife, bound her to 
 a ladder, then tied bunches of dry grass to each foot 
 and set them on fire, with the result that her feet were 
 burned till they were in the horrible condition above 
 described. The grandmother's hands were bound with 
 grass and burned in the same way as a punishment for 
 giving aid to the woman. After a few visits and treat- 
 ments by Mrs. Reed the feet began to improve, at 
 which the husband was angry and forbade Mrs. Reed 
 and Mrs. Moose doing anything more for her, saying 
 that he would kill them if they came again. Once when 
 Mrs. Reed and my daughter went to dress" the wounds, 
 the husband sat outside the door whetting a large knife, 
 for the purpose of frightening them so they would not 
 come again. After this the Christian woman who had 
 
234 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 told us about the case advised that Mrs. Reed go no 
 more-, saying that while he probably would not hurt 
 Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Moose, he Would abuse his wife 
 for receiving treatment from themL In fact, he said 
 that if her feet got well he would burn them again, so 
 she could not run away. 
 
 To give some idea of how this crime was looked upon 
 by the community and by those in authority, it may be 
 stated that the man held a position as mail carrier and 
 his crime was known to those in authority, but nothing 
 was ever done with him. 
 
 Schools.- — Before the coming of the gospel to Korea 
 there was nothing worthy the name of schools, if they 
 are to be judged by the standard of a liberal education. 
 What did exist under the name of schools was for 
 boys and men, the girls and women being entirely left 
 out. So we are forced to mlark out schools as among 
 the blessings which we enjoy that were unknown in 
 our Korean village before the coming of the gospel. 
 
 Literature. — It is true that Korea has been making 
 books for many centuries. Even before Europe had 
 learned the art of printing the Koreans were printing 
 books with movable type. But these books were never 
 intended for the mass of the people ; only the few who 
 ranked as scholars could read them. Twenty years 
 ago there was not a newspaper published in all the 
 land. Now there are a number of dailies and weeklies, 
 some of them being published in the native script, which 
 is the language of the common people ; so that today 
 many of the common laborers are better informed than 
 were the scholars of twenty years ago. And yet, even 
 
What Christianity Is Doing for the Village. 235 
 
 to-day, aside from Christian literature there are but 
 few books within reach of the common village people. 
 
 Love and Courtship. — These terms are here used 
 in the highest and best sense, and are intended to 
 cover all the social relations of young people of both 
 sexes which lead up to marriage, which is always the 
 foundation of the true home. In our /village life 
 there are no social meetings of any sort that bring the 
 young people together. As has been said in another 
 chapter, the wife is selected by the relatives of the hus- 
 band without his having anything to do with the mat- 
 ter. Of course under these circumstances there can 
 be no courtship, and in most cases little or no love. If 
 a Korean man loved his wife, he would be ashamed to 
 acknowledge it. 
 
 But things are changing, even in Korea, and Chris- 
 tianity is by no means the least of the forces now lib- 
 erating her from her own dark past and leading her 
 into a brighter and better day. 
 
 It has been my privilege to see wonderful changes in 
 Korea since coming here in 1899. At that time Chris- 
 tians were counted by tens and hundreds; now they 
 are numbered by thousands and hundreds of thousands. 
 At that time our mission was in its infancy, having 
 three men and three women (not counting wives) on 
 the field. We had about twenty-five groups of be- 
 lievef-s, all told numbering between three and four 
 hundred. Our last annual report shows that we have 
 306 societies or organized Churches, not counting 
 many groups that meet regularly for worship. In 
 these societies there are 6,017 full members, with 
 
236 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 3,792 probationers. Besides these, there are thousands 
 of new.behevers whose names have been enrolled as 
 seekers but have not yet advanced to the roll of proba- 
 tioners. There are also hundreds of baptized children 
 not included in these figures, but who are faithful in 
 attendance on Sunday school and Church services and 
 will be coming into the Church by vows from year to 
 year. Some of the children that I baptized since coml- 
 ing here are now full members of the Church, having 
 taken Jesus as their Saviour and assumed the obliga- 
 tions of Church membership. We have forty-six pri- 
 mary schools, with 1,176 pupils, nearly all of whom 
 are professed Christians. 
 
 We have three hospitals and dispensaries, in which 
 12,256 treatments were given last year. This means 
 not only that medical aid was given to this number of 
 people, but that they heard the story of salvation and 
 healing for tbeir souls. This does not represent the 
 numbers who thus visited the hospitals and heard the 
 gospel, for nearly every patient is accompanied by one 
 or more friends or relatives, so that thousands of peo- 
 ple not included in the above figures heard the gospel 
 from the faithful workers in our hospitals and dispen- 
 saries. 
 
 ' Great as these figures are and much as they show, 
 only the smallest part of what has been accomplished 
 can be told by them. The changed lives, the turning 
 from sin to righteousness, the new ideas set up in the 
 life of the village, often resulting in complete trans- 
 formation of entire communities, are things that can- 
 not be tabulated in figures, but which prove that the 
 
What Christianity Is Doing for the Village. 237 
 
 gospel is still the power of God to the salvation of every 
 one that believeth. 
 
 I have traveled over much of the territory now occu- 
 pied by our mission, and have seen this marvelous 
 growth in which we are rejoicing to-day. In the early 
 years, I used to travel for days without meeting a Chris- 
 tian, always sleeping in the inns; but now one can 
 travel over the same territO'ry for days and weeks and 
 spend every night in a Christian home. 
 
 There is a long stretch of road over which I used to 
 go, always stopping in the inns because there were no 
 Christians in that part of the country. Once Rev. J. L. 
 Gerdine and I were passing that way. We were riding 
 our bicycles and going ahead of our pack ponies. We 
 turned in to an inn for dinner, but were refused, being 
 told that we could find accommodation at the next vil- 
 lage. We went on feeling just a little blue, but soon 
 reached the next inn and were settled for the noonday 
 meal. We had been there only a short while when the 
 landlord learned that we were preachers of the Jesus 
 doctrine, whereupon he said that he had heard of the 
 doctrine before and had saved some money to buy the 
 books the very first chance that he sliould have. Will 
 the reader say that it was an accident that we were re- 
 fused entertainment at the first inn and found this seek- 
 er after truth at the second one ? Our new-found friend 
 soon brought out the money and bought some Scrip- 
 tures and tracts, and said he would "do the doctrine." 
 From that time he continued to study the Bible and to 
 "do the doctrine," and has been a faithful believer ever 
 since. Not only did he believe, but many of his neigh- 
 
238 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 bors became Christians, so that one cannot travel many 
 miles over that road now without passing the house of 
 a Christian. 
 
 I have held miany Quarterly Conferences with mem- 
 bers in attendance who had walked from fifty to a 
 hundred miles in order to be present. This was in the 
 days when we had only one district and two or three 
 Quarterly Conferences; now we have seven districts, 
 with thirty-four Quarterly Conferences. 
 
 One great feature of the work in its transforming 
 power has been the Bible study classes which have 
 been conducted from time to time in all sections of our 
 work. At some of these classes several hundred peo- 
 ple come and spend ten days in earnest Bible study. 
 I have known men and women to walk one hundred 
 and fifty miles to attend one of these classes. At other 
 times I have had them come for miles bringing bags 
 of rice on their backs, so that they might have some- 
 thing to eat while they studied the Word. The last 
 one of these classes that I conducted was so largely at^ 
 tended that the church was crowded to its utmost ca- 
 pacity. The people sat on the floor; and sometimes 
 the church would seem to be full, while people re- 
 mained standing around the doors. I would ask the 
 congregation to stand and sing ; while they stood sing- 
 ing the people outside would crowd in till all the 
 standing room was occupied ; then all would take seats, 
 each being compelled to crowd himself into just as 
 little space as possible. From these classes men and 
 women return to their villages with new visions of 
 life as well as with hopes of heaven and eternal joy. 
 
What Christianity Is Doing for the Village. 239 
 
 In these meetings men get the idea of salvatiop for 
 their fellow-men and freely offer themselves for serv- 
 ice in preaching the gospel to their neighbors. Often 
 hundreds and thousands of days are pledged to be given 
 to the work without money and without price. Some 
 men give as much as three or four months; while 
 others can afford to give but a few days or weeks, as 
 the case may be. 
 
 With a Church willing to make such sacrifices as 
 the village Church is making, it is no wonder that 
 for the past six or seven years there has been a con- 
 tinuous revival throughout the bounds of the Church 
 in Korea. This revival is far-reaching in its power 
 and influence. Drunkards are changed into sober men, 
 and gamblers giva up their games and go to work at 
 honest labor. Husbands and wives who have been 
 quarreling and fighting confess their sins and pledge 
 themselves to love and help each other. Just here I 
 recall one man who attended one of these revival 
 meetings, having walked about thirty-five miles for 
 that purpose, and was so blessed that he returned to 
 his home and entered into a solemn agreement with 
 his wife that there was to be no more "loud speech" in 
 their house. Thieves confess their crimes and restore 
 the stolen goods or pay back the money which they 
 have stolen. One poor fellow came into one ,of these 
 nteetings and confessed that he was a murderer, and 
 asked what he should do. He was told to accept Christ 
 as his Saviour and trust him ; also to go to the official 
 and confess his crime. This he did, very much to the 
 astonishment of that gentleman, who had never heard 
 
240 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 of anything like that before. He took the man in 
 charge and wrote to the governor to know what was 
 to be done with a man who thus confessed his sins and 
 claimed to be forgiven by God. The governor replied 
 that he should be pardoned and set free, which was 
 done at once, the officer giving him a little money to 
 help him on his way. 
 
 The direct answers to prayer have been many and 
 unm^takably clear. Sometimes the sick have been 
 restored to health, and insane people have been re- 
 stored to their I'ight minds. Often the entire night has 
 been spent in prayer. One night I woke just at mid- 
 night and heard the voice of prayer going up from a 
 women's prayer meeting that was being held in the 
 house of one of our Bible women. We afterwards 
 learned that these meetings continued for several 
 nights. At one of our churches in the city of Seoul 
 there was a group of faithful women who were very 
 anxious that a lady missionary should be sent to them 
 for the next year, as they had never had a lady who 
 could give much time to teaching them. There had 
 been talk of moving that church to another part of the 
 city, and this was a great sorrow to many of the mem- 
 bers. They also wanted an organ in their church. 
 Just at the time of our annual meeting, which met that 
 year in Songdo, sixty miles away, these faithful ones 
 decided to give themselves up to prayer, and so for 
 several nights they met in the church and prayed till 
 after midnight for the three objects above mentioned. 
 None of the missionaries knew anything about this 
 prayer meeting till after it was all over. At that an- 
 
What Christianity Is Doing for the Village. 241 
 
 nual meeting it was decided that that church should not 
 be moved from that community. The same bishop who 
 presided over that annual meeting appointed for the 
 first time a young lady missionary, who gave much 
 of her time to that Church, out of which large num- 
 bers of Bible women and native helpers have come. 
 They got the organ also. And yet some people say 
 God does not answer prayer about such things. Chris- 
 tians have been known to go to the mountains and 
 spend the night in prayer for cleansing from sin. At 
 some places early morning prayer meetings have been 
 held in the church, the people meeting before day and 
 praying for a revival in their community. 
 
 In this atmosphere of prayer the campaign for a 
 million souls in one year was started. During the 
 year a million names were not recorded on Church 
 registers, but far more than a million people were ap- 
 pealed to in behalf of their soul's salvation. Hundreds 
 of thousands did accept Jesus as their Saviour, and 
 became earnest seekers after truth as it is in him. Re- 
 cent reports from Wonsan bring the good news that 
 a meeting has just resulted in moreithan two thousand 
 conversions. 
 
 The key to the future of Korea may be found in the 
 power which Christianity is now instilling into the lives 
 of the village people. It is preeminently true that the 
 Church in Korea is the Church of the village people. 
 This does not mean that the Church in the cities is 
 not making progress and doing wonderful things in 
 transforming the lives of the men of the cities. But 
 Korea is a country of villages, and here the great' 
 16 
 
242 Village Life in Korea. 
 
 mass of the population is to be found. And besides 
 this, these people of the villages are as a rule a better 
 class of people, not «o rauch given to the vices that 
 curse all the cities. Let the villages in Korea become 
 completely Christianized, and the fufure of a happy 
 and prosperous people will be assured, regardless of 
 who may hold the reins of power in the political realm.