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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. 
Wrols iT. 1890. No. 4. 
KOREA AND THE KOREANS. 
By J. B. BERNADOU. 
(Abstract of lecture, with the addition of some new material.) 
TueE Koreans are to be noted among nations for the possession 
of two very different vehicles for the expression of thought, 
which they put to nearly parallel uses for general needs of com- 
munication : a simple and very perfect alphabet, and a complex 
system of hieroglyphics. The alphabet they owe to the Buddhist 
priests, missionaries, who took the idea of letters from their sacred 
books, and developed the Korean symbols for the writing of 
tracts and prayers; the hieroglyphics came from the mother 
country and civilizer, China. 
The needs of a simpler mode of writing for the intelligent, non- 
literary classes of Japan, had led in that country to a similar 
development ; but there progress stopped at a syllabary, and the 
alphabetic stage was not reached. 
Until within the past few years the development of accurate 
maps and charts of Korea has been retarded, partly from a lack 
of reliable information concerning Korean proper names, and 
partly from the absence of systematic surveys of the coast. Very 
recently, however, the difficulties of map making have been con- 
siderably lessened through the efforts of students of the Korean 
language, who have developed exact systems of transliteration, 
VOL, I, 16 
