SERFS OR COOLIES. 
131 
account of Korea to which I have had access, 
namely, that of Hamel, who has given us the 
Travels of some Dutchmen in Korea.” The only 
references, however, in his work to the dress of 
these singular people are very brief, though suffi- 
ciently characteristic. “ These men,” he says, “ are 
clad after the Chinese fashion, excepting only their 
hats, which are of horsehair ; ” and again, “ The 
poorer sort have no clothes but what are made of 
hemp and pitiful skins.” 
The serfs, or Coolies, as we may term them, don 
a loose wide jacket of a coarse cotton material, tied 
across the chest, in a somewhat slovenly manner, 
by a string. This jacket, which reaches, as hir as 
the waist, is furnished with short, wide sleeves. 
The lower portions of their bodies are protected by 
short, wide trowsers, reaching down to just above 
the knee, their legs and feet being bare. Their hats, 
when they have any, are large slouching sombreros, 
made of brown felt Many men whom I saw 
striding in from the villages, with long staves like 
alpenstocks in their hands, were clothed in thick. 
