150 



KOREA— THE HERMIT NATION 



be seen from the illustnition, the Elmpire type of dress is adopted, 

 giving them somewhat of a stumpy, high-shouldered appearance. 



The Korean girl wears beneath her dress, encircling her bust, a 

 swathing of two or three thicknesses of some thin material, which is 

 drawn tightly about that portion of the female anatomy to which 

 nature generally gives no little prominence, with the result that all 

 Korean girls are flat-breasted. This fashion of compressing the bosom 

 is continued until marriage, when the opposite extreme is adopted, 

 and the bosom is exposed in a horizontal line by the curious arrange- 

 ment of the little jacket, so that a nursing baby has no impediments 

 to displace in his search for food. Babies are cared for after the style 

 of Japan, and seem to be as happy and as well pleased with life. 

 Owing to the miserable sanitary conditions existing in the Korean 

 domestic arrangements, the mortality among children is said to be 

 very high. Those who survive are literally the fittest for the battle 

 for existence. 



A (.KuLI' ol KDKKAN.'' 



