Gorea.

Manawatu Herald, 23 October 1894, Page 3

Gorea.

In the Fortnightly Review A. H. Bavage-Landor publishes an account of his visit to Corea, and from it we clip the following : — There is hardly a country I have visited — that is quainter and more interesting than Corea. The Corean people have no arts and no industries. " What is the use of working and making money," said once a Corean tome, "if, when the work is done and the money made, this is taken away from you by the officials, and V you are worn out for having done the work, and aa poor as before, if, mind you, you are fortunate enough not to be exiled to a distant province by the angry magistrate who has enriched himsalf at your expense ? Now," added the Corean, looking earnestly into my face, •' would you work under those circumstances ?" I .__ They are born philosophers, and they make the best of what they hare, or rather of what they have pot. When you bear Cowans talk '

the topic of the conversation is invariably "money"; if it is not "rnonpv" it is •• food." If they have quarrels among tnenißu what can the cauae be but •• cash" ; and if you see a deadly fight in the streets, what could it be about if not for probably the equivalent of a farthing ? As we have dropped on to the subject of fighting, t must say that the lower classes in Corea are much given to it, and the slightest provocation — in money matters — is sufficient to make them come to blows. With otte hand they catch hold of each other by the knot* in which the hair of all married men is tied ofl the tdp of the head, add While a violent process of head shaking is followed by a shower of blows and scratches administered by the free hand, the lower extremities are kept busy distributing kicks which would land on the antagonist, but which j occasionally, in fact often, reach some innocent passer by, as the streets of j Corean cities are seldom wide enough to let four people walk abreast. The women in Corea are most of j them charming and often good look- j ing, though it is rarely that one has j a chance "ot seeing them. They are j kept almost in seclusion, and when j they go out they cover their face with a white or green hood, very similar in shape to the one worn by the women at Malta. Their dress is somewhat peculiar and deserves to be described. They wear huge trousers padded up inside with cotton wool, and socks similiarly padded, which are fastened tight round the ankles to the trousers. Over these is a shortish skirt tied very high over the waist ; and a tiny jacket, generally white, red or green, completes the wardrobe of most Corean women, one peculiarity about this jacket being that it is so short that both breasts are left uncovered, which ia a curious and most unpractical fashion,, the climate of Corea being colder than that of Canada. The bair is very simply made up, plastered down and tied into a knot at the back of the head. A silver pin or two are sometime* worn in it as an ornament.