Page:A modern pioneer in Korea-Henry G. Appenzeller-by William Elliot Griffis.djvu/271

The World of the Imaginary 289 was to foreigners not to be frightened at the noise of guns on New Year's eve, when the populace drove off evil spirits by "burning" gunpowder.

Ephesians and Koreans were alike in their minds, for with them, both the air, heights, and depths were full of demons and every sort of malevolent creature that diseased fancy could spawn. Without seeking to master the metaphysics of the situation, Appenzeller's first and last idea was to start and keep the demons on the run.

When his labourers were digging the foundations for the Pai Chai school in Soul, they were in abject fear of the ghosts and spirits that lurked in the soil. A foreign tree, fir or elm, said to have been planted during the Japanese invasion of 1592, which had stood on the site of the school was blown down in 1885. As a powerful spirit lived in this tree, no one dared to take away or burn the wood; but after A. bought the ground the ghost left. Among other things found to scare folks was the stone tablet inscribed to some ancient person. Around this, the natives gathered with awe. A., who had come to give freedom to the minds of men, had the trover respectably cleaned and then kept it as a historical relic. Aghast at his neglect, or defiance of the ghosts, they expected to see the possessor hurt, or plagued, for not reburying the token, and thus calming the spirits of the dead. A.'s smile and wit quieted their fears, and succeeding days and years helped to improve the climate of belief, as prosperity followed. In a word, ghosts and demons alike made way for truth and education.