Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/519

 asking her what spirit it is that is causing it. She may reply by naming some spirit, or she may declare that she must see the patient first. After accepting a fee of two or three dollars, she will name a fortunate day on which to hold the kut, which will be either at her own house or at that of the patient, according as he has means to pay. The elaborateness of her preparations will also depend upon the fee. If the trouble is caused by the spirit of a dead relative, great care must be taken; but if by a common spirit, then a little ordinary food thrown into the street will generally suffice to cause its departure. The test is by throwing a common kitchen knife out into the road after the food. If it falls with the blade pointing away from the door the spirit has gone; but if the blade points back toward the door, then the spirit will require further argument before leaving. When the patient is a man of large means the ceremony may be performed at some neighbouring shrine.

Arriving at the patient's house, the mudang takes charge of the whole place, arranges the food and stations the friends of the sick man at particular points. She is accompanied by an assistant, and when all is ready the latter sits down and begins scraping on a kind of basket. This is supposed to attract the spirit. The mudang begins to dance about and to call upon the spirit to come. She works herself up to a perfect frenzy, and at this point the audience believes the spirit has taken possession of her body. Every word now is that of the spirit, not of the woman. She screams out the name of the spirit that has come, and tells what they must do to cure the patient, which directions generally include the payment of an extra sum of money. At last the spirit promises to take away the disease, and then the mudang, after a few more frantic leaps and screams which betoken the leaving of the spirit, suddenly becomes quiet and shows no signs of her previous excitement. She does not try to make the deception more complete by pretended exhaustion nor by falling down like a dead person. The grossness of her employer's superstition renders such finesse quite unnecessary. It is perhaps needless to add