The Washington times., 1894-12-30
QUEER KOREAN WAYS.
Men rly All Their Manners and Custom.
Arc Imported from China.

Nea rly All Their Manners and Customs
Arc Imported from China.
The Koreans are strange mixture Of
Chinese and Japanese. A correspondent OF
the London Times, who has lately described
them, says that. though their faces arc al
mos. Japanese, their customs, through their
having become thoroughly imbued with
Chinese ideas, are much more Chinese than
japanese. And they have even yentured to
invent few customs of their own.
The Korean winter is long and bitter; but
the Korean has anticipated the American in
prosiding his house with furnace. His fur
mace, however, is constructed on a different
principle from The Americans. Practically
his whole cellar is furnace. 1t has an open
ing out of doors, and into this opening the
Korean before he goes to bed at night stufIs
quantity of fuel, which smolders all night and
heats the house-which never has more than
one story-to an uncomfortable degree
Next to the Eskimos the Koreans are the
heartiest eaters and heartiest sleepers in the
world. Their favorite dish is young dog, and
their favorite drink, japanese beer. They
devour great quantities of fish. like all Ori-
entails, and watermelons are their favorite
fruit.
Their country nbounds in all manner OF ami
mails, wild and domestic. There are tigers,
bears. deer. COWS, horses. dogs, cats, boars,
kinds OF birds
There are also snakes in great numbers
for the Korean not only venerates but ioees
the snake. No Korean ever kills a snake
He feeds it and does everything he can to
make il comfortable. The poorest and the
hungriest Korean will share his evening meal
with the reptiles that crawl about the rocks
that bound his garden.
The traveller sees few goats In Korea, but
that Is because they are so much esteemed
that they may be reared by no one but the
king. They are used solely for sacriflcial
and other religious purposes.
The signboards on the Korean roads are
curiosity. Each is shaped like an old-fash-
ioned coff1n, aud is topped by the grinning
Korean face OF Chang-Sun. great soldier
WHO lived about 1000 years ago, and who
opened the eonftry with roads and paths. Te
this day. therefore. he beams upon travellers
all over the land and his name is recorded
with the directions and other information on
the signboard
The Korean hotel is only rest house where
the traye.er may cook aud eat his own meals.
aud wrap himself In his own blanket and
sleep. The average Korean wants little more
than these things, except chance to write
poetry and paint pictures. Every educated
Korean is poet and painter, and the major
i,y of Koreans arc highly educated, as Korean
education goes.
The Koreans social position depends on
the briliancy with which he can pass COM
petitive examinations. Scholarship takes the
precedence OF all things but royaity-it is es-
teemed above common sense.
The real religion OF the country Is ancestor
worship and the terror OF devils. In every
Korean house burns perpetual fire. which is
sacred to the dead ancestors of the house
hold. To tend this fire and see that it never
runs the least risk of going out is the first
and most important duty of the housewife.
Bind men in Korea invariably practice the
profession of casting out devils. They
frighten the tiends to death by means of dia-
bolical noises, or catch them in bottles and
carry them to places from which they never
escape.
The person of the Korean king is wholly
sacred. To touch the kings person with a
weapon or an instrument of metal is the
highest treason. This principle has its dis
advantages. for n1nety-four years ago King
Tieng-tsong-tai-dang died of an abscess
rather than permit a subject to touch his
body with knife.