Page:The National geographic magazine (IA nationalgeograph21890nati).pdf/305



Vol. II.

Koreans are to be noted among nations for the possession two very different vehicles for the expression of thought, which they put to nearly parallel uses for general needs of communication: a simple and very perfect alphabet, and a complex system of hieroglyphics. The alphabet they owe to the Buddhist priests, missionaries, who took the idea of letters from their sacred books, and developed the Korean symbols for the writing of tracts and prayers; the hieroglyphics came from the mother country and civilizer, China.

The needs of a simpler mode of writing for the intelligent, non-literary classes of Japan, had led in that country to a similar development; but there progress stopped at a syllabary, and the alphabetic stage was not reached.

Until within the past few years the development of accurate charts of Korea has been retarded, partly from a lack of maps and

Korean proper names, and partly from the absence of systematic surveys of the coast. Very recently, however, the difficulties of map making have been considerably lessened through the efforts of students of the Korean language, who have developed exact systems of transliteration, of reliable information concerning