EXPLORING UNKNOWN CORNERS OF THE "HERMIT KINGDOM" 



29 



THE KOREAN PEASANT WOMAN'S NECK MUSCLES ARE AS WELL DEVELOPED EOR 

 BURDEN-BEARING UPON THE HEAD AS ARE THOSE OP THE SOUTHERN DARKY 



The man of the family usually prefers to do his bit between his shoulders, his load being 

 strapped to a bamboo rack (see illustrations on pages 32 and 44). 



Every house is raised a foot or two above 

 the ground, and a wide flue runs beneath 

 the floor, emerging at the other end in a 

 tall chimney, made in the north from a 

 hollow log. When a fire is built at the 

 entrance to the flue, the smoke and heat 

 are drawn beneath the house, keeping the 

 rooms warm during even the coldest days 

 of winter (see page 38). 



At Muryantei we left the push railway 

 and, with our equipment piled in three 

 creaking bull-carts, proceeded westward 

 toward Musan, the largest town in north- 



eastern Korea. The valley up which we 

 traveled was extensively cultivated, and 

 with its two rows of telephone and tele- 

 graph poles along the road presented an 

 astonishingly occidental appearance. Ex- 

 cept where a group of picturesque, thatch- 

 roofed huts nestled into the hillside or 

 strung themselves along the edge of a 

 streamlet, there was little to suggest that 

 we were not among the foothills of Mon- 

 tana or Wyoming, in my own country, 

 10,000 miles away. It was most disap- 

 pointingly civilized, but interesting withal. 



