Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/522

 Neither the ancestors nor the guardian spirit of the house must be sacrificed to, for it would displease the smallpox spirit. The inmates of the house must eat clear rice without beans in it, for this would leave the patient with a black face. No animal must be killed, for this would cause the sick man to scratch his face and aggravate the disease. No washing nor papering must be done, for this would cause the nose of the patient to be permanently stopped up.

After the ninth day all these restrictions are removed excepting the driving of nails, papering of walls and killing of animals.

The thirteenth day is the one on which the spirit is supposed to depart. A feast is set for him ; a piece of sari wood is made to personate a horse, and a straw bag is put on its back with rice and money inside. A red umbrella and a multi-coloured flag are attached, and the whole is set on the roof of the house. This horse is provided for the departing spirit to ride, and must be forthcoming whether the case has ended fatally or not. On that day the mudang comes and goes through an elaborate ceremony, in which she petitions the spirit to deal kindly with the patient and not to leave him pock-marked.

The "dragon spirit séance" demands a brief mention. Every river or stream, as well as the ocean, is the abode of a dragon spirit, and every village on the banks of a stream has its periodical sacrifice to this benignant power. Not only so, but the freight-boats have their ceremony, and the ferry-boats, fishing-boats and war-boats and boats that carried the annual envoys to China, - all have their special forms of worship toward the great dragon. The great importance of this sacrifice lies in the fact that the dragon has control of the rainfall, and he must be propitiated in order that agricultural pursuits may not be endangered. The ceremony is usually performed by a mudang in a boat, accompanied by as many of the leading people of the village as can crowd in. Her fee is about forty dollars. The most interesting part of the ceremony is the mudang's dance, which is performed on the edge of a knife blade laid across the