Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/532

 expect of good and what he must avoid or put up with of evil.

Still another way to tell the fortune is to throw four little pieces of wood like half an inch of lead-pencil split in two. The combinations, that are made in three throws, of the flat or rounded sides that turn up, will tell what is to happen. Some of the formulae are as follows: The man will be like a rat in a granary (lean in spring and summer and fat in autumn and winter), like a candle at night, like flowers meeting the springtime, like a king without a realm, like a moth about a candle, like a stork that has lost his home, like a tortoise in a box, like a dragon in the sea, like a dead man come to life. Each of these tells its own story and needs no comment. A Buddhistic element is seen in the simile, like a monk who has returned to the world.

It will be seen that this book which we are describing is like a domestic medicine book in our own land. Those that cannot afford to hire a mudang to cure them will have recourse to its pages, and this accounts for the enormous sale which the volume enjoys. It affirms that the human body is subject to two kinds of diseases, - those which can be cured by medicine and those that require exorcism. Some people have foolishly tried to cure both kinds by drugs. The hermit Chang laid down the rules for exorcising the demons of disease, and he wisely said that if in any case exorcism does not succeed, it is certain that the disease is one that must be cured with medicine. Note the implication that exorcism should be tried first, which is a pretty piece of special pleading in behalf of the profession. The book tells on what days of the month special diseases are likely to break out, and the name of the spirit that causes them. Whichever one it is, the work must be begun by writing the name of the imp on a piece of white or yellow paper (according to the day on which it is done) together with the name of the point of the compass from which the spirit comes, wrap a five-cash piece in this paper and throw it out of the door at the imp. These imps are supposed to be the spirits of people that have died, and they are