KOREA. 243 



coming to blows. I took as much of the shore work as 

 possible ; and never, I think, was my patience more 

 sorely tested, a mob of these gaunt, dirty, white-robed 

 beings always followed us to the peaks, or wherever I 

 went, howling and gesticulating, and sometimes pelting 

 us with stones. One day, when on shore, I met quite 

 a rata avis, in the shape of a polite old man, who 

 insisted on my having some of his tobacco. On this 

 same island, amongst some stunted firs, I invariably 

 saw an enormous number of magpies, seemingly the 

 same as our own, except perhaps that these birds were 

 rather smaller. 



I had an excellent opportunity once of examining 

 a native's house. It was built on a small island, no 

 other house being near, and like all others, whether 

 in villages or isolated, had an artificially raised and 

 levelled yard round it. This yard is always sur- 

 rounded by a high wall, as if to screen, which it does, 

 the movements of the owners from their next neigh- 

 bour's observation. The house was twenty feet by 

 eight, and six feet high in the centre, but only four 

 where the roof rested on the walls, which were very 

 thick, made of mud, and whitewashed over. It was 

 divided into three compartments, each quite separated 

 from the other, and each having an entrance from 



