Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/235

Rh or three times daily in the form of a good, square meal of the best the family can afford. In families that can afford it, a special room is set apart for this purpose. Where the special room is not to be had, the shrine is erected on the porch or in any nook or corner that may be available. A white curtain, of its own peculiar pattern, is hung up, and behind it is placed the table on which the food is offered, and a high armchair in which the spirit is supposed to sit while eating. It is rather remarkable that an ordinary dinner table is not more than fourteen inches in diameter and twelve inches high (the person sits on the floor while eating), but that this table at which the spirits are supposed to eat is large enough to seat two or four people in American style. On the table a full meal is placed, and along with it the long-stemmed pipe, wine, and other such luxuries as the family can afford. Nothing is lost, as the food is allowed to remain only a short while, when it is carried away and eaten by some member of the family. When the three years have passed, the table is stored away in an outhouse or other place till such time as it shall again be needed. On each recurring anniversary of the death a sacrificial feast must be given. To this all the sons and daughters, with other relatives, are invited. At such times a great feast is prepared, and many families for this purpose run themselves hopelessly into debt. There is much drinking connected with these feasts, and the loafers in the village look forward to them with much pleasure as a time when they shall have their fill of feasting and drinking. The