Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/330

 by bamboo fibres, and the peculiar gait affected by the carrier swings the buckets just enough to make the fastenings rub together and send forth a strident squeak which, like the horrible yell of the axles of Chinese barrows, warns people to make way for the water-carrier.

In carrying ordinary small packages the Koreans do not wrap them up in paper and tie them with a string as we do. Paper is far too valuable and string is too rare to make this possible; but the article to be carried is placed on a square cloth, and the corners brought up over it and knotted. In going to the market in the morning the Korean will take a long, narrow cloth bag, open at both ends, and into this he will pour his various purchases, perhaps making a knot in the bag to keep them separate. Then he ties the two ends of the bag together, and swings this completed circle over his shoulder and goes home. His method of carrying his long, "bologna-sausage" strings of cash is most peculiar. He inserts the end of the long string beneath the cord which forms his waistband, and which precariously supports his nether garments, and, bringing the other end about his waist, he twists it again through the waist-cord. One would think this a most clumsy and uncomfortable way to carry it, but one good object at least is conserved; that is, the money is effectually concealed beneath his flowing robes, and its existence is unguessed until he chooses to disclose it. To the Westerner this precaution may seem unnecessary, but in the Orient, at least in Korea, people studiously avoid the display of wealth unless they have the influence necessary to protect it from spoliation.

The subject of transportation would be but half covered if we omitted the boats of Korea. From the earliest times these people have been large users of this method of carrying. The mountainous character of the country, the miserable roads and the many possibilities of interference on the highway have driven them to the water-ways. But the high tides and the consequent strong currents on the western coast have also invited them to the water-ways. Our notion of the coast is anything but