Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/23

Rh mother, however, used to send him secretly nice food and delicacies.

Among ignorant people the impression of the hand is signed as an autograph to legal documents, but never to marriage documents.

Human statues are not made at the present time, but in olden times figures of large size were sculptured in wood and stone.

Reddish hair and beard and blue eyes are not unknown; my informant had seen a number of such cases.

The classes of the people in Korea rank much as they do in Japan; they are in the following order: 1. Nobles. 2. A class like the Japanese samurai, which is inherited. 3. Soldiers. In Japan the teachers would come third, but they have no rank in Korea. 4. Farmers. 5. Merchants. 6. Coolies. 7. Butchers, peddlers, and gypsies.

Suicide is uncommon. When it occurs it is among the country people. Forms of suicide are usually hanging, the taking of poison, inhaling fumes of charcoal, and cutting the throat; the most usual form is that of hanging. My informant had never heard of more than four or five instances of suicide. Infanticide is not known. People in the western part of Korea often kill each other in fights. A curious story was told me by a Korean, who vouched for its truth. Two men, strangers to each other, were stopping at a hotel; one of them went away forgetting to pay his bill; the other paid his bill, and, on leaving, the landlord demanded pay for the one who had defaulted, supposing him to be his friend. This he refused to do, and a dispute over the matter led to a fight, in which the landlord was accidentally killed. The man who had forgotten to pay heard of the row and murder, and hastened back and inquired of the other why he killed the landlord. Explanations followed, and the forgetful man, in remorse at having been the cause of such a tragedy, killed himself; whereupon the survivor, in horror at having caused the death of two, immediately committed suicide.

A brutal sport is not uncommon wherein men engage in stone-throwing, and a number are often killed outright. It is considered a great feat if one can catch a stone and return it. They also fight with sticks and clubs. Boys imitate the men in these kinds of fights.

The Koreans regard their country as possessing eight remarkable objects: 1. An artificial pond thirty miles in length. 2. A mountain known as Kumgansan, having twelve thousand peaks of white stone. This may be the mountain known as Pak-tu, or White Head, which is likened to a piece of porcelain with a scalloped rim. The flora is said to be white, and the mammals white-haired. (If true, a case of protective coloration.) 3. A hole in