Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/525

 her in, she wept and screamed and struggled. The prefect stopped them.

The mudangs are not the only people who have influence with the spirits. The pansu is even more conversant with their tricks and better able to overcome their evil propensities. We have noted that the mudang is a sort of medium, and moves the spirits through her friendship with them, but the pansu is an exorcist rather than a medium. He is the enemy of the spirits, and is able to drive them rather than coax them. The profession of the mudang is much older than that of pansu, the latter being the product of the past few centuries, while the former have existed from the remotest antiquity.

As we have said, the word pansu means "decider of destiny," and we judge truly from this name that the chief office of this blind fakir is to tell fortunes. He is frequently called upon, however, to exorcise evil spirits. He is looked upon as little superior to the mudang, though his sex protects him from many aspersions that are cast upon the character of the mudang. There are a few female pansus, but they have nothing to do with the spirits, and they are as low in the scale as the mudang. The office of pansu in Korea, like that of masseur in Japan, is confined to the ranks of the blind, and the prevalence of scrofulous diseases