The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-01-17
SEoUL'S QUEEREST.
The One Eyed Woman in the Grass
 Green Cloak.

The One Eyed Woman fin the Grass
 Green Cloak.
 From my point of view, the princi- pal and almost the only charm that Seoul has for the newcomer lies in the novelty of the costumes that it pre- sents," says George Kennan, writing about the capital Of corea in "The Outlook. Tt is not interesting archi- tecturally, and it is detestably and dis gustingly unclean; but its street scenes particularly in the unmodifed parts of the old town, are unlike anything to be found elsewhere in the East. I have already referred to the strange impression made by population clothed wholly in white; to the grotes- quely absurd headgear of the mourn CTS: to the partly naked women, and % the effeminate, girlish appearance of the boys; but in Seoul there is an- other figure which is quite as striking as any of these. and that is the one eyed woman in the grass green cloak. Just as you are beginning to get accustomed to the woman in white, with her handbreadth shoulder jacket, her bunchy skirts and her semi-nude ap- pearanee, you run up against the wo- man in green, whose custom is bizarre enough to give you 8 fresh shock of surprise. Her outer garment, which is all that can be seen, may be roughly described as a green silk waterproof, with white neck yoke and sleeve cuffs. held together in front by means of 1 four long ribbon tie-strings. Two of these strings are bright scarlet and two dull, reddish purple, and they hang down in front nearly to the ground. z.~
 1 A grass green waterproof, trimmed with scarlet and purple ribbons, would be striking enough, even if it were wcrn iii the American way; but it is l not so worn. On the contrary, the meek yoke, or collar, is thrown over the head, and the cloak is drawn around the face so as to conceal all except one eye, while the sleeves, which are mere shams without openings for \ the arms, hang down from the wear 1 CTS ears. Anything more extraordin- ary than this grass green burnoose, l with it's scarlet and purple strings and its dangling, white margined ear sleeves, would be hard to imagine; and when, in crowded street or mar ket place, you see a dozen of these polychromatic apparitions and an equal number of basket headed mourners gliding noiselessly to and fro in a throng of white robed ghosts who are flaming themselves or smoking long stemmed pipes, you feel like rubbing your eyes to make sure that you are awake. ,-
 "These women in green are the wives Of men who belong to what may be called the Corean middle class and their costume is traditionally said to have had it's origin in a ruse de guerre practised by the women of Seoul when the city was attacked by the enemy at night in the absence of all it's male defenders. The wives of the latter, it is said, caught up weapons, threw their husbands jackets over their heads, and manned tor womaned) the walls; and there they fought so brave ", or made such g brave show of fight ing, that the attacking force, taking them for men, abandoned the assault and withdrew. @
 Tn commemoration of this achieve ment the women and their descendants were permitted to wear as badges oi honor, the jackets that they had thrown over their heads when they rushed to the walls, This explanation of the green cloak sounds like a story invented to fit an observed fact; but the persistence of color in this partie- uiar garment while all other chothine remains white, and the transformation of useful sleeves into conventional shams which now hang down from the ears, seem to indicate survival oi some ancient and significant custom. '