Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/345

 MISCELLANEA.

Korean Beliefs.

Collected by Jas. S. Gale, (Canadian) Presbyterian Missionary, eleven years in Korea, author of Korean-English Dictiojiary (4to, i,i6o pp., printed in Yokohama, 1897).

Collecting items of folklore in a country like Korea is by no means easy. If I make inquiries of natives who are strangers to me, immediately their suspicions are aroused, and they will not answer more than to say that such a thing does not exist. To inquire for even the number of houses in a village, or what the land produces, much tact is needed, or you create bad feeling at once. The only way I know of is to keep one's ears open when natives are talking to one another, for much will be suggested by such a conversation, and it will often give a clue to questions that you can have honestly and correctly answered by your own par- ticular friends. Customs I find to be, like language, a possession of which the owner is unconscious. For example : a Korean says something, and you ask him to repeat it. He is not able to repeat it exactly, for he is conscious only of the thought that was in his mind, not of the language used, so he will answer by ex- pressing the thought more definitely in some other form, but as for an exact repetition, it will not be forthcoming. So with their customs, they follow them out in the same unconscious manner. Rouse them suddenly and ask them about the matter, and the likelihood is they will deny that such a thing exists at all, and yet they may be absolutely free from any dishonesty in the matter. We are unconscious of the air, for it exists everywhere. Custom is everywhere. The administration of justice is largely a matter of custom. The transfer of land is by custom only and not a matter of law. Marriage too is but custom. The government takes no cognizance of it. The Farthest East is wrapped up in custom, and the native is in many cases the last man to be aware of its existence.