244 KOEEA. 



the outside, which served both as door and window. 

 One end was the kitchen, with several fire-places, and 

 jars of water ranged round. The other end was a 

 store-room, in which rice and millet-seed, besides 

 dried fish and some corn, was stored in earthen jars. 

 The centre compartment was the sleeping-place. A 

 little way from the dwelling-house stood the cow-shed 

 and outhouse, and here also was another store of rice 

 and grain. Their winter-padded clothing was all out 

 airing on the bushes, under cover of which bushes the 

 inhabitants evidently were hiding. Brass spoons 

 formed part of their very few utensils. The use of 

 spoons amongst these people, if general, is curious, as 

 both Chinese and Japanese stick to the chopstick. 



Neither temple nor shrine of any description did I 

 see, with the single exception at Port-Hamilton, where 

 a small Buddhist temple of old and dilapidated appear- 

 ance stood just outside one of the villages. A priest 

 from the mainland occasionally came over and visited 

 this place. The headman of one of the villages told 

 me they thought our object in visiting and staying 

 about amongst their barren islands, muddy water, and 

 inhospitable shores, was simply and only to seize and 

 carry off their women, and probably kill the men ! 

 Usually when the ship anchored near a settlement. 



