# The passing of Korea/Chapter 19

CHAPTER XIX
KOREAN INDUSTRIES
The implements used are of the crudest. The plough is a very primitive affair with a single handle and is drawn by a bullock. The ploughshare is of iron, and the work is fairly effective, though subsoiling is not possible. For the most part human excrement is used as a fertiliser, and, where this is not obtainable in sufficient quantities, grass or leaves are substituted. After the ploughing all agricultural processes are carried on by hand, - cultivating, reaping, threshing and winnowing. A study ​of their methods shows that the Koreans get the best results possible from the amount of labour and capital expended. They understand irrigation, drainage and rotation of crops.
In the manipulation of their produce and in preparing it for market they show commendable skill. Their rice is nicely hulled, and sometimes dusted with powdered kaolin to make it white. They separate the bark of flax and ramie by putting it in a pit upon hot stones and then pouring in water. For many centuries the tough paper which they make from the bark of the paper-mulberry has been famous throughout the Far East, and Mongols and Manchus always demanded large quantities of it in the lists of their tribute.
The Korean ginseng has already been described. Long centuries of apprenticeship have made the Korean an adept in the cultivation and preparation of this useless but highly prized plant. It is a fact with which many Americans may not be acquainted, that ginseng is consumed almost solely for its supposed aphrodisiac qualities, and the huge amounts produced in America and exported to China simply add fuel to the basest passions of man. It may not be as harmful as opium, but the moral principle involved is precisely the same.
A wild variety of this plant, called " mountain ginseng," commands fabulous prices, and a large number of people are annually engaged in searching for it.
The Koreans have developed a keen sense of the value of by-products. The straw and bran from their cereals are carefully utilised, and in a general way it may truthfully be said that what the Korean throws away is not worth keeping.
POULTRY PEDDLER
HULLING RICE
The work of gathering and transporting fuel engages the attention of many thousands of people. The Koreans differ from the Japanese in that, while the latter keep themselves warm by the use of heavy blankets, and in winter are most frequently seen crouched about their charcoal braziers, the Korean heats his house generously and depends upon his hot stone floor for comfort. The effect, while perhaps no better from a hygienic standpoint, is decidedly more comfortable. It is also much more costly. People have wondered why Korea looks so barren compared with Japan. The reason lies right here. Koreans keep their wood cut down to the quick, to provide themselves with fuel, while the Japanese let the forests grow. The Japanese are the more picturesque, but the Koreans are more comfortable. Wood forms but a small part of Korean fuel. The common people usually burn grass or small fagots. This they feed slowly into the fire, utilising every particle of the heat.
One firing in the morning and one at night suffice to cook the food and to keep the stone floor warm. One of the most characteristic sights about Seoul is the long lines of bullocks and ​ponies bringing in their bulky loads of grass and fagots. Every morning and evening when the fires are simultaneously lighted a thick pall of smoke hangs over the city for two hours or more. On still winter nights it is so dense that one is almost choked by it, and there is no doubt that the prevalent bronchial troubles are aggravated by this means. Everywhere on the hillsides you will see boys scraping up the dead grass with their ingenious bamboo rakes. In Seoul a man's fuel bill ordinarily amounts to about a quarter of his income. In the country it is of course much cheaper.
In a country entirely destitute of salt wells or mines, and dependent upon the sea for this great necessity of life, we are not surprised to learn that an unusually large number of people are engaged in salt-making. This is all the more evident since the appliances are so poor and human labour has to make up the deficit.
On wide, flat plains near the eastern coast oblong fields are prepared with ditches between them. Sea-water is pumped or ladled into these ditches and then thrown upon a loose brown loam, which covers the hard-packed surface of the fields to a depth of three or four inches. As the water evaporates, it leaves this brown loam saturated with salt. This is then scraped into piles and carried to vats where the heavy brine is drained off.
BOYS GATHER GRASS FOR FUEL DEAD CHILD TIED TO TREE
On the west coast there are many places where sea-water is ladled directly into the kettles and boiled down without any intermediate process of evaporation.
Sericulture is one of the historic industries of Korea, and can be carried on by a gentleman without derogation from his dignity. The in frequency of thunder-storms favours the industry, and the product is considerable, though not sufficient to figure in trade reports.
In textile industries Korea holds no very high place. Rough cotton, hemp and grass cloth are woven in clumsy hand-looms, and a cheap, plain silk is produced. The dyeing arrangements are very crude, and the product cannot in any sense be compared with that of China or Japan. Certain portions of the peninsula are almost ideal for the production of both cotton and silk, and the time will doubtless come when these important staples will be much more extensively cultivated.
History and archaeology show that at one time Korea produced good examples of the ceramic art, but to-day only the crudest work is done in this line. The same is' true of metal castings. Not for many centuries has Korea cast a great bell like those which hang in various towns and monasteries, as eloquent reminders of past and forgotten skill.
The goldsmiths and silversmiths turn out some interesting and curious pieces, but the monotony of design and carelessness of finish detract very greatly from their value, and the apparent ignorance of the use of alloys to harden the precious metals lessens the usefulness of the product. A kind of bronze work, mostly in the form of native dinner services, is turned out in considerable quantities, but the old work is so much superior to the new that here too we must conclude that the handicraft has deteriorated.
Mining is an industry as old as history. Gold is found all over the peninsula, and the Koreans mine it with great enthu ​siasm. It is mostly placer mining, but in the north one frequently runs across more ambitious attempts in the shape of shafts. The Koreans build a fire on the ledge, and when the rock is hot they throw on water, which cracks the quartz and makes it possible to dig it out with their rude picks. This primitive method makes it impossible to proceed in any but a vertical direction, and if the vein should happen to run obliquely it is soon lost. They crush the ore beneath great round granite boulders, which are rocked back and forth over it by the use of levers or handles fastened to its sides. Only the free gold is obtained, and the waste is very great.
We have it on the authority of expert foreign miners that gold is found very irregularly in the Korean veins. For a distance it may be very rich, and then the vein will narrow to almost nothing for many feet or yards and then open out again freely. There seem to be no great masses of rock in which there is a small but even amount of the yellow metal, as is the case in the Rand in South Africa. This makes Korean gold-mining more of a venture than in some places.
Absence from home and distance from constabulary control breed the same contempt for the amenities of life among miners here as elsewhere.
In spite of the fact that so large a portion of the peninsula is of granite, there are extensive portions where coal is found. In the vicinity of Pyeng-yang there are rich anthracite veins, and on the east coast bituminous coal is found in various places. When properly opened up, these valuable resources will be of immense importance to the country.
PLACER GOLD-MINING
Copper, silver, lead and nickel are all found in moderate quantities in the peninsula, but with the exception of silver they are not of enough account to warrant extended description.
The primitive occupations of hunting and trapping still have their followers in Korea. In the north there is a regular guild or brotherhood of tiger-hunters, and their bravery and pluck are beyond dispute. It was from their ranks that the garrison of Kang-wha was chosen, which inflicted such punishment upon the French in 1866. The chances which' these hunters take in the pursuit of their chosen calling would make your modern Nimrod stare with incredulity. They use old match-locks, which are discharged by letting the smouldering end of a thick cord fall into the flash-pan. This cord is wound around the arm, and when the moment for action comes, the hunter blows upon the smouldering end and fastens it in a fork of the hammer, so that when the trigger is pulled there is some small chance of the thing "going off." One of these hunters well described the difference between their antiquated weapons and the modern repeating rifle:
       "Korean hunter meet tiger. Bang! Wreough! Dead hunter! Foreign man meet tiger. Bang - click - bang - click - bang ! Dead tiger!"
Cobblers, coopers, hatters, farriers, blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, joiners, carvers, dyers, tailors, carters, saddlers and all the other handicraftsmen who go to make up the industrial army of a complicated civilisation are sufficiently described by their names. It might be well to add that the tools which these men use are of the most primitive kind. Every native nail is hammered out by hand. Every yard of twine is twisted by hand. This is what insures the growth of foreign commerce, for an American firm can place nails on the Korean market ​at a price which throws the native product completely in the shade.
It is this progressive displacement of native labour which stirs up these people and makes them question the value of their former conservatism.
GAMES
Korea is no exception to the rule that the various nations of the world develop peculiar and distinctive forms of amusement. There are some forms that all have in common, but there are others that have only to be mentioned and the hearer places them at once. Of such are cricket, base-ball, curling, bull-fighting, skiing and lacrosse.
Korea also has its own pet diversion stone-fights. This amusement is something of an anomaly, for Koreans are naturally the mildest and most inoffensive of people; but one has only to spend the first month of the year here to learn that the people are as passionately fond of this dangerous sport as Americans are of base-ball.
The fact that these fights occur only in the first month of the year illustrates the general fact that in no country is the periodicity of sports more marked than here. There is a special season for stone-fights, kite-flying, pitch-penny, swinging, topspinning and the like. The reason why the stone-fights occur only in spring is because then only are the fields bare and ample space is available for the contest. After the winter has kept the Korean imprisoned for three long months in the cramped quarters of his little thatched hut, the touch of spring means much more to him than it does to us, who live in comparatively spacious houses. His dormant physical energy awakes to new life, and he simply must come out and romp over the hills, open the safety-valve and give vent to his repressed faculties. The stone-fight originated seven hundred years ago, in the days of the former dynasty, when it was invented for the delectation of an imbecile King. It was at first confined to the palace ​grounds, but it soon spread abroad and became the national game.
Different sections of the same town may be pitted against each other, but more often contiguous villages defy each other and fly the banner of challenge. Out they pour into the empty, fenceless fields, some armed with thick clubs and protected by heavy padded helmets, while others merely throw stones. The champions of either side prance up and down before their respective factions, twirling their clubs and breathing out threatenings and slaughter. Stones begin to fly, most of them falling short of the mark, and the rest being deftly dodged. After the two warring factions have reinforced their courage by streams of most libellous invective, and have worked themselves up to the fighting pitch, they move toward each other warily, the stones fly more thickly, the champions prance more vaingloriously. Meanwhile the multitudes of white-clothed non-combatants, who cover the surrounding hills, shout encouragement to their respective favourites. The champions gradually close with each other and give and receive sounding thwacks on the head or shoulder, while over them the stones fly thick and fast. Suddenly a deafening yell goes up from one side and a wild charge is made. The opposite side gives way, and it looks as if the day were won, but as soon as the first ardour of the pursuit is over the fugitives turn and make a counter-charge. Unlucky is the wight who is overtaken before he gains the thick of his own ranks again. And so it goes on by the hour, rush and counterrush, wild shoutings of delighted spectators, clouds of dust, broken pates, profanity unlimited and gruesome gaps where erstwhiles were gleaming teeth. The excitement is much the same as that of the Spanish bull-fight, and the same fierce, elemental passions are let loose in participants and spectators alike. Rarely does a season pass but three or four men are killed in these encounters, but if the excitement runs too high the police or gendarmes are likely to interfere. In the heat of action houses are sometimes razed, but as a usual thing the fight ​results only in bruised arms, broken heads and unlimited invective. The heaviest traffic on the electric tramway is when the crowds go out of the city gates to watch these stone-fights. One day last year thirty-four thousand people were carried, a number twice as large as the average. It would be safe to say that in the environs of Seoul twenty-five thousand persons witnessed the fights that day.
Kite-flying is a national institution here as in China and Japan. The kites are not so elaborate as in the neighbouring countries, but the interest in the sport is fully as great, for there are what may be called kite-fights that are very exciting. By dextrous manipulation the rival kite-fliers get their strings crossed. Then comes the contest of pure skill, to see which can saw the string of the other in two first. You see the tiny kites high in the air darting this way and that, seemingly without rhyme or reason, but all the time their owners are manoeuvring for position, just as rival yachtsmen do in our own land. When one of them thinks that the right moment has arrived, he makes his kite dash across the path of the other and clinch in the final struggle. Sooner or later one of the strings is cut, and the liberated kite floats away on the breeze, followed by a crowd of eager boys. The kites, though scientifically constructed, cost but very little, but the cord must be of the finest, and it must be smeared with a kind of paste mixed with pulverised glass. This makes it better able to saw the other cord in two.
AN ARCHERY TOURNAMENT
On the great festival of the fifth day of the fifth moon Koreans give themselves up to the delights of swinging. Sometimes the lofty branch of a pine-tree is used, but more often two great poles are erected for the purpose. These are held in place by guys, and are variously ornamented. The Koreans are adventurous swingers, and accidents are not infrequent. The rough straw ropes break sooner or later, and someone gets a nasty fall, which terminates the sport for that season.
Girls take pleasure in a sort of see-saw on the I5th of the first month. This is not the same as ours. The board is only six or seven feet long and is laid over a fulcrum only five inches high. The girls stand on the ends and jump up and down, the impact of each throwing the other several feet into the air. They would not be able to preserve their equilibrium except for a strong cord, like a clothes-line, over their heads, to which they cling. On this same festival there are mighty tugsof-war in the country villages. The ropes are huge hawsers, eight or ten inches thick, and upwards of a hundred feet long. The village turns out en masse, men, women and children, and pull until they are exhausted. This always takes place at night under the full moon.
In the autumn and winter the favourite sport of the young men is a sort of battledore and shuttlecock. The shuttlecock is a cash piece wrapped in paper, the latter being twisted into a tail which makes the shuttlecock always fall properly. Strangely enough, the Koreans use the side of the foot for a battledore, and to unaccustomed eyes it looks ridiculous enough to see two men hopping about on one foot, trying to keep the shuttlecock in the air. This is a purely Korean development of this game.
They are very fond of trying feats of strength in what they call " arm wrestling." The two contestants sit down at a table and place their elbows squarely upon it. Then they grasp each ​other's thumbs, and each man tries to bend the arm of the other over backward until it touches the table. This is a genuine and severe test of strength, as anyone will discover by trying it.
Hide-and-seek and blind-man's-buff are common, and little girls go about with wooden or rag dolls strapped to their backs like true babies. Jack-stones, fox-and-geese, cat's cradle and other juvenile games are also played.
As for sedentary games, the chief places are occupied by chess and padok. In a very general way their chess resembles ours, but the board is somewhat different, and the rules are so changed that knowledge of one method does not help in playing the other. The game of padok is far more difficult than either Korean or European chess. It consists in enclosing spaces on a wide go-bang board with white and black discs. The foresight and the mathematical ability required to play this game successfully are astonishing. It is a Chinese invention, and surely does credit to its inventor. Poe says that the game of draughts requires a higher quality of mind than chess, but padok, while requiring the same kind of skill as draughts, is probably ten times as difficult.
For gambling purposes Koreans use dominoes and " cards," the latter being made of stiff oiled paper half an inch wide and eight inches long. Coolies on the street corners, waiting for a job, while away the time playing a game that is a cross between backgammon and fox-and-geese, scratching the necessary lines on the hard earth in lieu of a " board." If you see half a dozen heads together, you will know that a game is in progress, and that the stakes are high, perhaps even five cents. As each man throws the dice, he gives his thigh a resounding slap. This is supposed to bring luck, just as we have seen people in more enlightened lands murmur fond entreaties into the dice-box before throwing.
These are, of course, not all the games Koreans play, but they are the commonest and most distinctive.