With the First Ironclads, Koreans rammed and burned Japanese warships 350 years ago. HISTORIC KOREA—Continued from page 30 fear of it than the actual casualties. Equally famous was a large round battleship, known as the Giant Tortoise. This wonderful weapon, which won two naval battles, was covered all over with iron plates and spikes, to prevent boarding. Its prow, shaped like a turtle's beak, was most sinister and fearsome; not only was it used as a ram, but it also emitted fiery arrows, fired by bowmen within. Great Scholars The Koreans, however, had more taste for scholarship than war. They invented moveable metal type, that is, modern printing, before anyone else in the world. Popular education was particularly well developed. Higher schooling was in six ‘liberal arts’, which consisted of: ceremonial, music, archery, charioteering, literature and arithmetic. Although Korea repelled the Japanese in 1599, she never recovered from the destruction of that war, and many of her skilled tradesmen were taken as prisoners to Japan, transferring Korea's traditional craftsmanship to that country. In the nineteenth century, when Western powers started to become interested in Korea, decline had already set in. The Koreans refused to come to any terms with the West, and did not even allow European ships to land. They wished to keep foreign greed far from their shores. Japan, however, was able to intrigue her way slowly into Korea, by pretending to An engagement document of this sort is presented to the bride's father to seal an engagement. Before marriage a bridegroom is not allowed to see his bride, but has to trust to a description of her supplied by his father's go between.