PARAPHERNALIA OF A KOREAN SORCERESS IN UNITED 

 STATES NATIONAL MUSELM. 



By I. M. Casanowicz, 



Assistant Curator, Division of Old World Archeology, United States National Museum. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The collection described in this paper consists of paraphernaha of 

 a Korean sorceress or exorcist employed in the exercise of her callino-. 

 The various articles were acquired by the Ignited States National 

 Museum in 1896 through the agency of the late Hon. W. W. Rock- 

 hill, formerly envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of 

 the United States to China. It is at present installed in the Section 

 of Historic Rehgions in the old building of the Museum. 



THE RELIGION OF KOREA.' 



The earhest reUgion of the Koreans was veiy probably like that of 

 most primitive peoples, some species of animism, consisting in the 

 worship of the powers and elements of nature conceived as spirits. 

 In 372 A. D. Buddhism v/as introduced into Korea from China, 

 which by the middle of the sixth century was fully established, and 

 for three centuries, from the tenth to the fourteenth, was the dominant 

 rehgion of Korea, exercising also great political influence. With the 

 accession of the last reigning dynasty of Korea (the Ni Taijo) Budd- 

 hism fell into disgrace and Confucianism was established as the 

 official cult. Confucian ethics are still the basis of morality and the 

 social order. Ancestor worship is also universal. It is however, 

 shamanism, which is the belief in a host of inferior deities or spirits, 

 for the greater part malevolent, who determine the fortunes of life, 

 and are to be appeased or coerced by means of spells or incantations 

 and offerings — a survival of the primitive animism, that dominates 

 the broad masses of Korea. To the Korean the world is populous 



• It is to bs remembered, with regard to the statements made in the following pages, that what was true 

 in Korea yesterday may not be true to-day or will not be true to-morrow. Things and conditions are now 

 changing in the "immovable east," and it may be assumed that the present political and social status of 

 Korea, as part of the empire of Japan, is also exercising a modifying influence on the religious views and 

 practices of the people. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 51-No. 2168. 



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