Corea or Cho-Sen: the Land of the Morning Calm

CHAPTER XII

The royal palace--A royal message--Mounting guard--The bell--The royal precinct--The Russian villa--An unfinished structure--The Summer Palace--The King's house--Houses of dignitaries--The ground and summer pavilion--Colds--The funeral of a Japanese Minister--Houses of royal relations--The queen--The oldest man and woman--The King and his throne--Politics and royalty--Messengers and spies--Kim-Ka-Chim--Falcons and archery--Nearly a St. Sebastian--The queen's curiosity--A royal banquet--The consequences.

CHAPTER XIII. Students--Culture--Examination Ground--the Three Degrees--the

Students--Culture--Examination ground--The three degrees--The alphabet--Chinese characters--Schools--Astronomers--Diplomas--Students abroad--Adoption of Western ways--Quick perception--The letter "f"--A comical mistake--Magistrates and education Rooted superstition--Another haunted palace--Tigers--A convenient custom.

CHAPTER XIV

Religion--Buddhism--Bonzes--Their power--Shamanism--Spirits--Spirits of the mountain--Stone heaps--Sacred trees--Seized by the spirits--Safe-guard against them--The wind--Sorcerers and sorceresses--Exorcisms--Monasteries --Temples--Buddha--Monks--Their customs and clothing--Nuns--Their garments--Religious ceremonies--The tooth-stone.

CHAPTER XV

Police--Detectives--The plank-walk--The square board--The wooden blocks for hands and feet--Floggings--The bamboo rod--The stick--The flexible board--A flogging in Seoul--One hundred strokes for three-halfpence --Wounds produced--Tender-hearted soldiers--Imprisonment--Exile--Status of women, children, and bachelors--Guilds and the law--Nobles and the law--Serfdom--mild form of slavery.

CHAPTER XVI

Executions--Crucified and carried through the streets--The execution ground--Barbarous mode of beheading--Noble criminals--Paternal love--Shut out--Scaling the wall--A catastrophe--A nightmare.

CHAPTER XVII

The "King's procession"--Removing houses--Foolhardy people--Beaten to death--Cavalry soldiers--Infantry--Retainers--Banners--Luxurious saddles--The King and his double--Royal palanquins--The return at night.

CHAPTER XVIII

Fights--Prize fights--Fist fights--Special moon for fighting--Summary justice--The use of the top-knot--Cruelty--A butcher combatant Stone fights--Belligerent children--Battle between two guilds--Wounded and killed--The end of the battle postponed--Soldiers' fights.

CHAPTER XIX

Fires--The greatest peril--A curious way of saving one's house--The anchor of safety--How it worked--Making an opposition wind--Saved by chance--A good trait in the native character--Useful friends.

CHAPTER XX. A Trip to Poo-Kan--a Curious Monastery.

A trip to Poo-kan--A curious monastery.

CHAPTER XXI

Corean physiognomy--Expressions of pleasure--Displeasure--Contempt --Fear--Pluck--Laughter--Astonishment--Admiration--Sulkiness--Jealousy --Intelligence--Affection--Imagination--Dreams--Insanity--Its principal causes--Leprosy--The family--Men and women--Fecundity--Natural and artificial deformities--Abnormalities--Movements and attitudes--The Corean hand--Conservatism.

LIST OF PLATES

PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR AN OFFICIAL GOING TO COURT THE PEKIN PASS A WATER-COOLIE H.R.H. PRINCE MIN-YOUNG-HUAN AN INFANTRY SOLDIER A STUDY FROM STILL-LIFE

CHAPTER I

Christmas on board--Fusan--A body-snatcher--The Kiung-sang Province--The cotton production--Body-snatching extraordinary--Imperatrice Gulf--Chemulpo.

It was on a Christmas Day that I set out for Corea. The year was 1890. I had been several days at Nagasaki, waiting for the little steamer, Higo-Maru, of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (Japan Steamship Company), which was to arrive, I think, from Vladivostock, when a message was brought to me saying that she was now in port, and would sail that afternoon for Tsushima, Goto, and the Corean ports.

I went on board, and, our vessel's anchor being raised at four o'clock, we soon steamed past Battenberg Island and got away from the picturesque Bay of Nagasaki. This was the last I saw of Japan.

The little Higo was not a bad seaboat, for, following good advice, her owners had provided her with rolling beams; but, mind you, she had by no means the steadiness of a rock, nor did she pretend to cut the water at the rate of twenty knots an hour. Still, taken all in all, she was a pretty good goer. Her captain was a Norwegian, and a jolly fellow; while the crew she carried was entirely Japanese, with the exception of the stewards in the saloon, who were two pig-tailed subjects of the Celestial Empire.

"Numbel one Clistmas dinnel has got to-night, Mastel," expostulated John Chinaman to me in his pidgen English, as I was busy making my cabin comfortable. "Soup has got, fish has got, loast tulkey has got, plan-puddy all bulning has got. All same English countly. Dlink, to-night, plenty can have, and no has to pay. Shelly can have, Boldeau can have, polt, bea, champagne, blandy, all can have, all flee!"

I must say that when I heard of the elaborate dinner to which we were to be treated by the captain, I began to feel rather glad that I had started on my journey on a Christmas Day.

There were a few Japanese passengers on board, but only one European, or rather American, besides myself, and a most pleasant companion he turned out to be. He was Mr. Clarence R. Greathouse, formerly Consul-General for the United States at Yokohama--at which place I first had the pleasure of meeting him--who was now on his way to Corea, where he had been requested by the Corean Government to accept the high and responsible position of Vice-Minister of Home Affairs, as well as of legal adviser to the King in international affairs.

Curiously enough, he had not been aware that I was to travel on the same ship, and I also never dreamt that I would have had the good fortune of being in such good and agreeable company during a voyage which otherwise would have been extremely dull. Accordingly, when we met again thus accidentally on the deck of the Higo, the event was as much to our mutual satisfaction as it was unexpected.

The sea was somewhat choppy, but notwithstanding this, when the steward appeared on the companion-way, beaming all over, in his best silk gown and jacket, and rang the dinner-bell with all his might, we gaily responded to his call and proceeded below.

Heavens! it was a Christmas dinner and no mistake! The tables and walls had been decorated with little paper flags and flowers made of the brightest colours that human fancy could devise, and dishes of almonds and raisins filled the centre of the table. There were little flags stuck in those dishes, and, indeed, everywhere. A big cake in the middle had prudently been tied to the table with a string, as the rolling motion of the ship was rather against its chances of keeping steady in the place that had been assigned to it, and the other usual precautions had been taken to keep the plates and glasses in their proper positions.

Our dinner-party consisted of about eight. At one moment we would be up, with our feet on a level with our opposite companion's head; the next we would be down, with the soles of their boots higher than our skulls.

It is always a pretty sight to see a table decorated, but when it is not only decorated but animated as well, it is evidently prettier still. When you see all the plates and salt-cellars moving slowly away from you, and as slowly returning to you; when you have to chase your fork and your knife before you can use them, the amusement is infinitely greater.

"O gomen kudasai"--"I beg your pardon"--said a Japanese gentleman in rather a hurried manner, and more hurriedly still made his exit into his cabin. Two or three others of his countrymen followed suit during the progress of the dinner, and as number after number of the menu was gone through, so that we who remained had a capital time. Not many minutes also elapsed without our having a regular fusillade of bottles of champagne of some unknown brand, and "healths" were drunk of distant friends and relatives.

Mr. Greathouse, who, like many of his countrymen, has a wonderful gift for telling humorous stories, of which he had an unlimited supply, kept us in fits all evening, and in fact the greater part of the night, so that when we passed the islands of Goto and Tsushima we were still awake and in course of being entertained by his Yankee yarns.

The next day we reached the Corean port of Fusan. I well remember how much I was struck when we entered the pretty harbour and approached the spot where we cast anchor, by the sight of hundreds of white spots moving slowly along the coast and on a road winding up a hill. As we drew nearer, the white spots became larger and assumed more and more the form of human beings. There was something so ghostly about that scene that it is still vividly impressed upon my mind.

There is at Fusan not only a Japanese settlement, but also a Chinese one. About two and a half miles distant round the bay, the native walled town and fort can be plainly seen, while in the distance one may distinguish the city and castle of Tong-nai, in which the Governor resides. If I remember correctly, the number of Europeans at this port is only three or four, these being mainly in the employ of the Chinese Customs service.

We had hardly come to a standstill when a curious-looking being, who had come to meet the steamer in a boat, climbed up the rope-ladder which had been let down on the starboard side and came on board. He was a European.

"Do you see that man?" a voice whispered in my ear. "He is a body-snatcher."

"Nonsense," I said; "are you joking, or what?"

"No, I am not; and, if you like, I will tell you his story at luncheon." And surely what better time could be chosen for a "body-snatching" story than "luncheon." Meanwhile, however, I lost not my chance, and while conversing with somebody else, the snatcher found himself "snatched" in my sketch-book. It is not every day that one comes across such individuals! I went to speak to him, and I must confess that whether he had as a fact troubled the dead or not, he was none the less most courteous and polite with the living. He had, it is true, at times somewhat of a sinister look in his face; but for his unsteady eyes, you might almost have put him down as a missionary. He informed me that codfish was to be had in great abundance at Fusan, and that the grain export was almost entirely done by the Japanese, while the importation of miscellaneous articles was entirely in the hands of the Chinese.

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