Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/141

Rh perhaps the equivalent of from one to three dollars a month.

The coming of a teacher into any village is an important event. He is looked up to by all and always addressed in high talk, while he in turn speaks to other people in low talk and looks upon people who cannot write Chinese characters in the palms of their hands as being too ignorant for anything. This art of writing the characters in one's hand is much practiced; so much so that often when you ask a man his name, instead of answering by word at once he spreads the palm of his left hand before you and with the index finger of his right hand he proceeds to go through all the motions as if he were writing his name in large Chinese characters on the palm of his hand. If you fail to catch these mysterious strokes, and are therefore unable to comprehend the meaning and call the great man's name, he will at once brand you as one of the common herd.

Our teacher smokes a long-stemmed pipe, and to show all the world his utter contempt for all sorts of manual labor he lets the nails on his little fingers grow to an enormous length, which sign brands him at once as a gentleman and a scholar who disdains to work with his hands.

But to return to our schoolroom. There is no furniture of any sort to be found in it except a few small boxes which the boys have for their ink stones and brush pens. Of course there will be a whorrow, or earthen pot, in which a smoldering fire is kept for the master to light his pipe, and beside this fire pot