Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/548

 propitious grave sites, and so the dwellers in the country are much better qualified than the denizens of the metropolis. It is ordinarily the Rip Van Winkle style of man, who prefers walking over the hills with his dog and pipe rather than doing an honest day's work, that evolves into a geomancer.

The first step in his novitiate is the mastery of the book called "The Great, Important, Celestial Instrument." Having learned the theoretical side, he then begins to take practical lessons under a competent teacher. They wander over the hills together, discussing the merits of the different burial sites and determining their relative values. A man's prospects in life may be blighted by burying his father's body in an unpropitious spot. More agues, sprains, murrains and blights are caused by this than by any or all other causes. When the candidate has been all over his allotted district, and has studied all the available places and has made out a mental list of charges, ranging from several hundred dollars for a first-class site down to a few cents for an indifferent one, he graduates, buys him a yundo, "wheel picture," - in other words, a compass, - and is ready to " hang out his shingle." He has now taken the degree of "Earth Specialist," or, as we might say, the degree of B.E., Bachelor of Earth.

We must imagine him, then, in his office waiting for trade. A young man comes in and states that his father is dead and a suitable burial site must be found at once. The geomancer accompanies the young man to his home, where a substantial meal is set forth, to be washed down with plenty of wine. This forms the retaining fee. He then puts out feelers in all directions to learn about how much the young man is able to pay, and, having made up his mind on this cardinal point, he leads the youth over the hills and discourses on the various sites.

The first question to be asked about any site is whether it has a good "advancing dragon." This is the line or range of hills leading down to the site. The declivity where a long unbroken line of hills drops to the level of the valley is usually a