The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1895-03-13
QUEER coREAN WAYS.
Nearly All Their Manners and Customs
Are Imported from China,

The Coreans are strange mixture of
Chinese and japanese. A correspond
ent of the London Times, who has lately
described them, says that, though their
faces are almost japanese, their Gus
toms, through their having become
thoroughly imbued with Chinese ideas,
are much more Chinese than japanese.
And they have even ventured to invent
few customs of their own.
The Corean winter is long and bitter,
but the Corean has anticipated the
American in providing his house with
furnace. His furnace, however, is con-
structed on a different principle from
the Americans. Practically his whole
cellar is furnace. 1t has an opening
out of doors, and into this opening the
Corean before he goes to bed at night
stuffs 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 Coreans are
the heartiest eaters and heartiest sleep
ers in the world. Their favorite dish is
young dog, and their favorite drink
Japanese beer. They devour great
quantities of fish, like all orientals, and
Watermelons are their favorite fruit.
Their country abounds in all manner
of animals, wild and domestic. There
are tigers, bears, deer, COWS, horses,
dogs cats, wild boars, eagles, storks,
woodcoUks, and many other kinds of
birds.
There are also snakes in great num-
bers, for the Corean not only venerates
but loves the snake. No Corean ever
kills snake. He feeds il and does
everything he can to make it comfort
able. The poorest and the hungriest
Corean will share his evening meal
with the reptiles that crawl about the
rocks that bound his garden.
The traveller sees few goats in Corea,
but that is because they are SO much es-
teemed that they may be reared by no
one but the kin g. They are used solely
for sacrifcial and other religious pur-
poses.
! The signboards on the Corean roads
are curiosity. Each is shaped like an
old-fashioned coffin, and is topped by
the grinning Corean face of Chang-Sun,
a great soldier who lived about 1000
years ago, and who opened the country
with roads and paths. To this day,
therefore, he beams upon travellers all
over the land, and his name is recorded
with the directions and other informa-
ton on the signboard.
The Corean hotel is only resthouse
where the traveller may cook and eat
his own meals. and wrap himself in his
own blanket and sleep. The average
Corean wants little more than these
things, except chance to write poetry
and paint pictures. Every educated
Corean is poet and painter, and the
majority of Coreans are highly edu.
Gated, as Corean education goes.
The Corean's social position depend.
on the briliiancy with which he can pas
competitive examinations. Scholarship
takes the precedence of all things bu
royalty-it is esteemed above common
sense.
The real religion of the country /
ancestor worship and the terror of dev
lis. In eI cry Corean house burns F:
perpetual fire, which is sacred to tht
dead ancestors of the household. II
tend this fire and see that it never run
the least risk of going out is the frs
and most important duty of the house
wife.
Blind men in Corea invariably prac
tice the profession of casting out devils
They frighten the fiends to death b,
means of diaboical noises, or cate
them in bottles and carry them t.
places from which they never escape.
The person of the Corean king
wholly sacred. To touch the king
person with weapon or any instru
ment of metal is the highest treason
This principle has its disadvantages
for ninety-four years ago King Tieng
tsong- -tai-dang died of an abscess rathe
than permit a subject to touch his bod
with knife.