Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1895-04-26
QUEER cOaEAN WAYS.
Nearly Al Their Manners aud Customs
Are Imported from China.

The Coreans are a strange mixture of
Chinese and japanese. 4 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
"A few customs of their own.
The Corcan winter is long and bitter,
but the Corean has anticipated the
American IN providing his house with
furnace. Ills furnace, however, is con-
structed on different principle from
the Americans. Practically his whole
cellar Il "A furnace. II has an opening
out of doors, and into this opening the
Corean before he goes 10 bed at .niget
stuifs a quantity of fuel. which smolders
all night and heats the house which
never has more than one story 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 bears, eagles. storks.
woodcocks, 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 n snake He feeds il and does
everything he can TO make ii comfort
able. The poorest and the hungrest
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 king. They are used solely
for sacrificial 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 Chaug-Sun,
a great soldier who lived about loo
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 a resthouse
where the traveller may cook ami eat
his own meals. and wrap himself in his
own blanket and sleep. The average
Corean wants little more than these
things. except a chance TO write poetry
and paint pictures Every educated
Corean is a poet and painter and the
majority of Coreans are highly edu-
Gated, a Corean education goes.
The Corean's social position depends
on the brillancy with which he can pass
competitive examinations. Scholarship
takes the precedence of all things but
royalty-it is esteemed above common
sense.
The real religion of the country is
ancestor worship and the terror of dew
lis. In every COrean house burns
perpetual fire, which is sacred TO the
dead ancestors of the household. 70
tend this tire and see that il never runs
the least risk of going out is the first
and most important duty Of the house,
wife.
Blind men in Corea invariably prac-
tce the profession of casting out devils.
They brighten the fiends to death by
means Of diabolcal noises, or catch
them in bottles and carry them to
places from which they never escape.
The person of the Corean king is
wholly sacred. To touch the kings
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 rather
than permit subject to touch his body
with "A knife