The National tribune., 1907-08-01

stances. tolerated OF allowed WITHIN tne
walls of Korean cities, and all priests
are forbidden to enter the gates of any
city under penalty of death.
| All Sorts of Spirits.
Every people except cannibals and
| Koreans have a religion of some kind
The Koreans once had gods, or the
| things that stood to them in the posi-
ton of a Superior being, and SO when
Buddhism was suddenly snatched away
from the Koreans they tumbled back a
few centuries into the old superstition
of Shamanism, or a kind of nature wor-
ship. 1t is a primitive worship which
| peoples the earth with spirits. good and
| bad, as we'll as giving them to the ele-
ments, the sky and the morning star.
To these spirits the Korean offers sacri-
| flee when a member of his family dies,
and il is deemed necessary by even we'll
educated people there to be on good
terms with these spirits, as they are
considered to be invisible rulers of fate.
In Korea there are spirits for every
| thing; malevolent ones for disease, de-
| formity, deviitry of any kind, and good
| ones for the graces of life. Diseases,
| old age never cause death in the be-
| lief of the Korean. Evil spirits control
those who go hence.
| They people the mountains with all
kinds of spirits, and are afraid of their
lives on mountain slope after night.
They carry armloads of stones, which
they throw into darkness at the spirits,
and these graciouSly retreat under those
conditions and do no harm. They also
have sacred trees" to propitiate these
spirits. On these trees are hung con-
glomerate assortment of bits of glass,
rags, silk, and other offerings to propi-
tiate the spirits.
Korean Dress.
The dress of the Korean is a cross
between a kimono, pajamas and rain
coat. About the only way that you can
tell man from woman in Korea
when you meet them is by the hat or
head covering. The women wear loose
outer garments with sleeves big enough
to make two more. and this nondescript
| thing is hastily pulled up from the back
of the neck over the head when stran-
gers are met on the street, and the wide
sleeves are held over the face in front,
so you can imagine what a sight a wo-
man must be. But the meni The
things they wear on their heads are
called hats" They look like inverted
fiawerpots on pie pan. Corea is in
fact the home of the hat The condi-
ton Of the man in Korea is established
by the style of his hat, and hats never
vary one iota. 1t isn't the home of the
miliiner. by any means, for the hats are
manufactured exactly so, and have been
for five centuries. There are hats for
the married man. the bridegroom, the
mourner, the priest, the peddler, the
bullock driven. the chairman, the mes
|senger. the soldier, the student, and the
court hat. The curious thing about the
Korean hat is that ii is quite transpar-
ent, and has none of the virtues that we
think hat ought to possess, but may
be this is all right, because the Korean
never removes his hat from the time he
arises in the morning until he goes to
bed. He couldn't. you know. 1t is an
chored. tied down, banded down, all but
nailed fast to his queer little head The
rich wear hats made of horsehair and
the comrnoner wears a hat made of fine
! ly split bamboo; so fine is this shredded
that il looks like white horsehair when
woven. Both these materials are woven