The Days of a Man 



the remote parts of the country. Outside the city she 

 always wore a native costume of white. Any one 

 wearing blue, the color of both the Japanese uniform 

 and the coarse garb of the Japanese laborer, was lia- 

 ble to be shot from ambush. This condition was an 

 inevitable result of the military domination which 

 followed the murder of Prince Ito, a wise man whose 

 plans for the reconciliation of Korea have been 

 totally frustrated by the Japanese militarists. 

 The quaint Our time for sightseeing was as usual limited, but 

 old cny we f oun( j i t possible to visit certain places of historic 

 and aesthetic interest, while the life of the city itself, 

 quaint, conservative, and largely dirty, afforded con- 

 tinual diversion. Here we seemed to catch a breath 

 of "the unmitigated East." Through the imposing 

 city gates, locked at night, poured by day a constant 

 stream of foot passengers in white, porters bent low 

 with burdens some of which were incredibly 

 large laden ponies and bullocks. Along the main 

 Yang Ban streets stalked the Yang Ban 1 or native noblemen in 

 characteristic pale-blue, pink, or light-green gauze 

 robes, white, pointed shoes, and narrow, high, black- 

 lacquered "stovepipe" hats made of mohair. A 

 thin, long-stemmed, ornamental pipe usually com- 

 pleted the costume. 



As we visited the old palaces and temples in Seoul, 

 we were constantly reminded of the well-known fact 

 that Japanese architecture as a whole was Korean in 

 immediate origin, though back of Korea stood China. 

 At the same time I found, I think, the solution of a 

 problem that had previously puzzled me. In many 

 ancient paintings in Japan appear Korean tigers and 



1 Meaning "two divisions" that is, the two noble classes, civil and 

 military; usually written "Yung Ban." 



C 390 3 



