Page:A modern pioneer in Korea-Henry G. Appenzeller-by William Elliot Griffis.djvu/122

106 make admirable rafters, which when black with age resemble Flemish oak.

Smaller beams and slabs are duly framed to form the roof, and on these is laid a heavy mass of earth, into which well baked tiles, overlapping each other, are set. The total effect from the outside, of the better sort of Korean roofs is pleasing, and the native craftsmen excel in geometric combinations and contrasting colours of plain and encaustic tiles, while their thickness and massiveness, by keeping out wind and rain, conduce to one's sense of coziness and comfort. When too old or in ill repair, the roof can yield misery enough, when the elements are raging.

Our description has been of the better sort of dwelling, as occupied by the official or well-to-do classes. The average house in town and country is in every way humbler and has a thatched roof. In autumn, Cho-sen is, like Holland, the land of red roofs, but the color is in patches only, and arises from the red chili peppers laid out on mats to dry.

To complete the outward shell, stone walls are built from end to end enclosing the platform, which contains the flues. The solid level of earth for the floors and the walls of masonry are raised to the height of from four to eight feet. Usually the masonry is of hard pebbles, and rarely of dressed stone, but well cemented at the seams with white mortar. The general effect, when in good repair, is not unpleasing.

By neglect and dilapidation the structure becomes hideously ugly, unkempt and slatternly