ISO 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



[vol. 45 



becoming puffed up by their sudden elevation in rank. A month 

 later placards announcing that the petition was granted were posted 

 throughout the country. The butchers in Seoul had for some 

 months been allowed to wear hats; but if a country butcher wore 

 one, he was greeted by some such remark as " You dog of a butcher, 

 what are you doing wearing a hat like one of us ? " Butchers are 

 considered lower than beggars, as it is said " something might be 

 made out of a beggar, but it is impossible for a butcher ever to rise." 

 When a boy attains the age of seven years he starts a topknot, 

 which when grown is never changed in form as long as he lives. 

 The topknot was the cause of an amusing episode in .Seoul in 



Fig. 3. — Headband and topknot. (No. 77,112, U. S. N. M.) 



1895. Like many other nations when first adopting European cus- 

 toms, the Koreans went to extremes. An edict was issued that all 

 topknots should be cut off, and, as the people naturally objected, 

 soldiers were sent out in the city to forcibly cut off all topknots that 

 had not been removed in compliance with the edict. This created 

 such consternation that farmers would not bring their produce to 

 the city markets, and such suffering resulted from want of food that 

 the edict was abrogated and topknots were once more in full favor. 

 Every Korean, at all times, day and night, wears a band around 

 the head (fig. 3). The hats are perched on top, never low on the 

 head, and are secured by pins (fig. 4) to the topknot and by strings 

 tied under the chin. Among the nobility, circular or ring-shaped 



