592 FliOCEEDIXGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.51. 



with active and malevolent beings who are ready at any moment to 

 fall upon him in wrath. "If he goes among the mountains, they are 

 there; if he goes into his inner room, they are there; if he travels to the 

 remotest corner of the earth, they will follow him."^ They haunt 

 every tree, mountain, watercourse; they are on every roof, ceiling, 

 fireplace, and beam; they fill the chimney, the living room, and the 

 kitchen; they waylay the traveler on the road; in short, they are 

 everywhere. To their influence the Korean attributes every ill by 

 which he may be afflicted, bad luck in any transaction, official male- 

 volence, loss of power or position, and especially sickness, whether 

 sudden or prolonged. 



The countless legions of spirits which populate the earth, the 

 clouds, and the air, and are lurking everywhere, may be divided accord- 

 ing to their attitude to man, into two main classes: (1) Demons 

 in the proper sense — that is, self-existent spirits whose designs are 

 always mahcious, and spirits of departed persons, who died in poverty 

 and distress and are now naked, hungry, and shivering vagrants, and 

 therefore inflict calamities on the living who neglect to supply their 

 wants; and (2) spirits whose natures are partly kindly, and ghosts of 

 prosperous and good people. But even these are easily offended and 

 act with extraordinary capriciousness.^ 



EXORCISTS AND SORCERERS. 



There are two classes of shamans ^ or sorcerei*s in Korea : The Pansu 

 and the Mutang. They do not constitute an order, nor are they 

 linked by a common organization, but are nevertheless practically 

 recognized as a sort of priesthood, inasmuch as they are the mediators 

 and intercessors between the spirits and the people. The word Pansu 

 is composed of fan, "to decide," and su, "destiny," which designate 

 the bearer of the name as a "fortune-teller." But this describes the 

 office of the Pansu only in part. Mutang is also made up of two parts, 

 mu, "to deceive," and tang, "company." The individual is some- 

 times called m.u-nyu "deceiving woman." So that Mutang may be 



1 H. B. Hiilbert, The Passing of Korea, New York, 1906, p. 408. 



2 The belief in the possibility of the reappearance of the ghost or specter of the dead, either by being raised 

 from the nether-world by a sorcerer or sorceress (comp. i Samuel xxviii, 11 ff.), or returning on its own 

 accord, with the power of inflicting harm on the living, was also general among the ancient Semites and 

 Egyptiiins, and is still in vogue in the East. Especially were and are still dreaded the spirits of such as 

 died a premature or violent death or who had not received the requisite fimerary rites and offerings. Com- 

 pare Morris Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, Giessen, 1905, vol. 1, pp. 358, 372; R. Camp- 

 bell Thompson, Semitic Magic, Its Origin and Development, London, 1905, pp. 2, 7, 18, 93; A. E. W. Budge, 

 P^gyptian Magic, London, 1901, p. 219; Oeorg Steindorff, The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, New York, 

 1905, p. 119; James Henry Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, New 

 York, 1912, p. 192; T. Canaan, Aberglaube und Volksmedizin im Lande der Bibel (Abhandlungen des 

 Hamburpishen Kolonialinstituts, vol. 20, Hamburg, 1914, p. 11). In like manner was it believed that 

 the sorcerers by their exorcisms could "lay" such perturbed spirits. 



3 " Shaman may be applied to all persons, male or female, whose profession is to have direct dealings with 

 demons and to possess the power of securing their good will and averting their malignant influences by var- 

 rious magical rites, charms, and incantations, to cure diseases by exorcisms, to predict future events,and to 

 interpret dreams." — I. B. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbors, p. 401. 



