Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/535

 shadow, and it becomes apparent that the Heavenly Dog has "bitten off more than he can chew," there is a sudden change in the music, a stir in the crowd. They press forward eagerly, and at that instant a man leaps into the centre of the ring, wearing a hideous mask and blood-red sleeves that hang down to the ground. The dance is not to be described in words. The impression that remains, after the years have mellowed the memory of the spectacle, is that there were two kinds of motion, one of the feet and one of the hands. Imagine a half-intoxicated man standing on one foot and trying to put a sock on the other. This was the principal figure that the feet cut. With both the long sleeves the man tries to defend himself against the attack of a very determined swarm of bees. This is the whole combination, first on one foot and then on the other, while the bees continue to get in their work. Before long other actors join the rout, and the performance becomes a mere exhibition of buffoonery, which soon becomes tiresome. But the whitecoated crowd, the wild whirl of the dance, the weird snarl of the pipes and over all the fitful gleam of the great fires, it all makes a picture not soon to be forgotten.