Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-11-10
COREA AND THE CORRANS.
A Corner of the Earth Now Being Opened
 for Public Inspection.

There IS much natural beauty in the country, tine beauty Of mountain. fOresi and prairie, of profuse vegetation, and plentiful rivers and cHtaracts. And the people are not indifferent to these beau
 ties; they are Seeing" race, and proud lamoug themselves) of their marine ana mountain views. The country Is fertile, but the climate has great extremes Of heat and cold. The Indian story of "the tiger that owns my village would be thoroughly appreciated in COrea, where a very large and fierce species of that terrible animal abounds. and the idea of IL pervades all works Of art. To Japan 8se children, Chosen IS known as "the land of the tiger" Leopards, bears and deer and the wIld nUE abound, m0nfs avs are found III the southern provinces, and alligatOrs and salamanders in the rivers. The people are large eaters, especially of meat; small oxen Tn great numbers supply them in the south, and dogs are eaten commonly. Tea and rice are rare luxuries, and fish IS chiefly devOured raw. Altogether the "diet" chapter ls an uncomfortable one. Sheep are i'm ported from China for sacrihcia! pur. poses only, and goats are rare. The poorer classes are meagerly fed; the, live, like the Japanese, on mlllet ano beans. All classes use tobacco verl much. We may take 1t that the man ners and customs which MT. Griffis de
 scrIbes as existing now are just the same ms they have been for ages; domestic slavery in its mildest form, for instance the position of women, the fraternal principles on which trade and industries are conducted, and the curious ceremO
 nies of marriage, burial, and mourning
 Women are not 80 i'll off in Core as IF many other less secluded heather 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 theiT having no names, they receive titles oi honor in public. Their apartments are secure from intrusion; they cannot be punished for any crime (the males of | the family being responsible for them j. and they are free (and saie) to go about at all hours Widows of position are not supposed to marry again, and are expected to mourn all their lives, but 2 man whose wife dies wears half mourn
 ing for very short time. It Is breach of good manners to be sorry for one's | wife, and the sex that makes every law | fiuis that one easy to keep.
 | \ CJrean king Is rather absurd per | Fonace; nobody must touch him unbId | den, and anyone who accidentally does so ha- to wear red cord around his neck. rhe king has despotic power | but It Is tempered by making kindly | customs; he hears the complaints of hls subjects, and Is ID constant communl
 cation with the populace by means o
 commissioners. The royal outings ar' | tremendous affairs, with caparlsoneC | horses, dragon flags and the sacred flag and umbrella. The nObles are a baG
 and cruel class, according to the ac counts of them; the officials and mBgIs trates are "lIterary." Literature ha from time immemorial been held II
 honor in COrea, from whence the Japan ese adopted printing in the twelfth
 century. when work of tn, 1 Buddhist canon was printed from wood
 en blocks. "A COresn book IS knowr which dates authentIcally from tn period 13l7-2f. over a century before th
 earliest printed book known in Europe. The Coreans are Buddhists, bu Shamanism has never lost its hold upol
 them, and the old gods are reverence,
 still, just as the old myths remain il
 modern Greece. The air is not empty
 for a Corean. and every month has it'
 three unlucky days, the 9th, the 18th
 and the 25tn. The worship of ancestor
 and the Chinese system of ethIcs, O
 ConfucianIsm, are their ruling prin ciples, and the fulfllment of tn
 parental and filial relations ID an admir-
 able manner is the distinguishing virtu
 of the hermit race.-London Spectator