The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-08-04
COren.

Corea, the beauty of mountain, forest,
ana pralrle, OF prOfuse vegetation, and
plentiful rivers and cataractS. And the
people are notindifferent to these beau
ties; they are Il "Seeing'' race, and
proud (among themselves) of their ma
rlne and mountain views. The country
is fertile, but the climate has great eX-
, tremeS Of heat and cold. The Indian
story OF "the tiger that owns my vii
lage" would be thoroughly appreciated
III Corca, where a very large and fierce
species of that terrible animal abounds,
and the idea of it pervades I'LL works of
art. To Japanese children, Chosen is
known as "the land Of the tiger.n Leo
pardS, bears and wolves are also very
numerous, the wild deer and the wild
hog abound, monkeys are found in the
southern provinces, and alligatorS and
salamanders in the rivers. The people
are large eaters, especially of meat;
small oxen in great numbers supply
them III the south, ana dogs are eaten
commonly. Tea and rice arc rare lux
uries, and fish is chiefly devourcd raw.
Altogether, the "diet" chapter is an
uncomfortable one. Sheep are i'm
ported from China for Sacrificial pur-
poses only, and goats are rare. The
poorer classes are meagrely fed; they
live like the japanese, Oh millct and
beans. All classes use tobacco very
much. We may take it that the man
ners and customs which Mr.. Griflis de-
scribes as existing now are Just the
same as they have been for ages; do
mestic slavery in it's mildest form, for
instance, the position of women, the
fraternal principles on which trades and
Industries are conducted, and the curl
Gus ceremonies of marriage, burial and
mourning.
| Women are not so ill off in Corea as
i'll many other less secluded heathen
countries. They have no rights, and
are disposed of like the other animals;
but they are not ill-treated by their
owners, and though their personal in
significance actually extends to their
having no names, they receive titles of
honor in public, their apartments arc
secure from intrusion, they cannot be
punished forany crime, the males OF the
family being responsible for them, and
| they are free (and Safe) to go about at
all hours. Widows of position arc not
supposed to marry again, and are eX-
pected to mourn all their lives, but a
man whose wife dies wears half mourn
| OF good manners to be vehemcntly sorry
for ones wife, and the sex that makes
every law finds that one easy to keep.
a Corean king is Il rather absurd per
| sonage; nobody must touch him unbid-
den, and any one who accidentally does
SO has henceforth to wear IL red cord
| round the neck. Metal, also, must
never approach the royal person. The
King has despotic power, but it is tenn
pered by many kindly customs; lie hears
| the complaints of his subjects, and is in
constant communication with the popu-
| lace, by means Of commissioners. The
| royal outings are tremendous affairs,
with caparisoned horses, dragon flags,
and the sacred fan and umbrella. The
mobiles are a bad and cruel class, accord
ing to all accounts of them; the officials
and magistrates are ''literary." Liter
| ature has from time immemorial been
held III honor in Corea, from whence
the japanese adopted printing in the
| twelfth century, when Il work of the
Buddhist canon was printed from wooden
blocks. "A Corean book is known
which dates authentieally from the
period l3l7-1324, over a century before
the earliest printed book known in
Europe" The Coreans are Budhists,
but Shamanism has never lost it's hold
| upon them, and the old gods are revcr-
enced still, just as the old myths remain
in modern Greece. The air is not
empty for a Corean, and every month
has its three mlucky days, the 9th, the
18th and the 25th. The worship of
ancestors and the Chinese system of
ethics, or Confucianism, are their rul-
ing principles, and the fulfilment of the
parental and filial relations in an adj
mirable manner IS the distinguishing
virtue of the hermit race.