Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/214

180 It has been said by some one that the Korean grave is the most beautifully arranged grave in the world. As above stated, it is often alone, though near the large towns the hills are completely covered with them. The ideal grave is located on a hill overlooking a valley to the south, with high mountains in the distance. A crescent-shaped place is cut into the hillside, and the grave dug in the center of it. When filled, it is finished up in a perfect hemisphere. The mound will be large or small, in proportion to the social rank of the occupant. For a person of wealth and rank it is often as much as fifteen or twenty feet in diameter. The mound, with the crescent and the entire site, is turfed and always kept scrupulously clean, nothing but the green grass being allowed to grow upon it. There are certain days in the year set apart for the purpose of offering sacrifice to the dead, and just before these days the graves are attended to with the greatest care. Those who can afford it have stone images of men and animals, usually sheep, placed on two sides of the grave, facing each other; while just in front is a neatly cut stone, which is used as an altar on which the sacrifices are offered.

In the case of royal graves, no other grave is allowed within a distance of about three miles in all directions. On my way from here to Seoul I pass the grave of the late queen, and the remains of many graves are seen on the hills in the surrounding country.