KOREA— THE HERMIT NATION 



149 



noticed in their neighbors, and the aquiline nose is not a rarit}'. 

 Unlilie the Japanese, however, the Korean does not wear his hair short, 

 but apparently lets it grow from 3'outh to old age with no attempt at 

 clipping or trimming. 



The Korean boy, up to sixteen years of age, is generally a delight 

 to the eye. With his large, wide-open eyes, smooth skin, plump 

 cheeks, and hair plaited down the back and parted in the middle, he 

 has been compared to an angel. As the years advance, however, his 



A ii(il>;k in kouka 



beauty gives way to the coarseness and stolidity which have become 

 national traits, and by the time the boy becomes a man the angel has 

 disappeared, to be replaced by a very commonplace human being. 



Girls and women, except of the laboring class, are seldom in evi- 

 dence, and those of whom one gets glimpses are not ver}' prepossess- 

 ing, but so far as my observations extended they are plump and well 

 kept, and if it were not for the jilainness of the method of hair-dress- 

 ing would lie regarded as (juite interesting in appearance. As may 



