The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1896-07-25
A COREAN FUNERAL.
Antics Performed by the
Natives at Buriola.


A funeral procession In Corea Il very
different from the sad and solemn cere-
mony we are accustomed to In Europe.
When the time for buria. has come, the
coffin containing the dead body IL
placed in an open palanquin, which is
gayly painted in the brightest colors,
and decorated with paper Japanese
lanterns This palanquin is carried
shoulder high by the bearers, and is &C.
companied by professional mourners,
who are known as the ssdancers of the
dead" These men, says a foreign ex-
change, are three in number, and ono
Of them performs in front of the coffin,
while the other two dance, one on each
side. They are grotesquely dressed,
and wear on their heads those horrible
and fantastic masks in which the
Chinese delight, and which their SOL
diers formerly wore to strike terror into
the enemy. During the whole of the
ceremony they keep their positions
round the palanquin, performing the
dance of the dead. and throwing them
selves into the most horrible contor-
tions.
But the Coreans have q superstition
that the coffin is accompanied by ghost
ly attendants as well as by the human
mourners. They believe that every
man has two spirits, good and bad
one, which sway every action during
life, and in death dispute the posses
sion of his body. No C0rean can be
happy in the after life unless his evil
spirit has been prevented from follow
ing him into the grave, and it is the
1uty of the palanquin bearers to see
that the evil spirit is not allowed to
take possession of the dead mans body.
For this purpose they employ every ruse
and strntagem that wit can invent or
that tradition has handed down to de-
ceive the evil spirit.
The procession etarts at . slow and
dignided pace, very often in direction
exactly opposite to that in which the
burial ground hes When the bearers
think that the evil spirit has been lulled
into security, they suddenly jump,
pslanquin, cofi1n and all, over a hedge,
and run across country at full speed.
Then they stop without any warning.
and take another direction, wading
through streams. forcing their way
through woods, and trying to conceal
themselves behind every obstacle that
comes in their way, in the endeavor to
throw the eviA spirit off their track,
and prevent it lrcn following them to
the grave. When this desirable end
has been accomplished to their satis-
faction, the circuitous journey is
brought to an end, and the dead man
is triumphantly inferred with only his
good spirit in attendance.
But the curious part of this super
stition is that although the evil spirit,
which is supposed to be terribly cum
mag and malicious, is thus thrown off
the scent. vet the good but simple spirit
never loses sight of the procession, and
always presides 1T tho burial. When
the funeral Is over, but one thing more
remains to be done, and that Is to put
the good spirit in its last resting place.
For this purpose an ornamental box or
urn Is prepared, into which the good
spirit submissively enters, and then the
urn, which thus contains all that was
good IN the spiritual part of the dead
Corean, is placed among the souls Of
his ancestors in the mortuary chamber
0f the family 1855