COREA. 
511 
In addition to this general taboo, there is a specific one which 
prohibits certain acts or kinds of labour on certain days, as “digging 
the ground,’ 1 “beginning the erection of a house,” or “starting on 
a journey. But for these you will have to consult a native almanac, 
which not only gives the specific taboo, but also indicates days which 
are regarded as lucky for the performance of certain tasks. 
Hoping these few items may prove of use. 
I am, sincerely yours, 
GEO. H. JONES. 
V. NOTES ON COREAN AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES AND 
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. 
By the Rev. M. JV. TROLLOPE , M.A., Episcopal Mission, Mapu, Corea. 
English Church Mission, Soul, Corea, 
7th June, 1894. 
Dear Mr. Gardner, — I much regret to find, on perusal of your 
letter of 26th May, how slight is the amount of information which I 
am able to give you on the various points you raise. An extended 
course of travel in the interior, and years of intimate intercourse with 
the people, alone would qualify me to answer, with any approach to 
precision and fulness, the great proportion of the ten questions which 
you put to me. In point of fact, barely three and a-quarter years have 
elapsed since I first set foot in Corea, and during that period my 
an 4 attention had been so fully occupied with the internal 
affairs of our infant mission — coupled with the drudgery necessary to 
secure even a moderate acquaintance with Corean language and 
Chinese script — that I have had leisure for but little else. In the 
autumn of 1891 I was absent from Soul for some five or six weeks, 
during which I made a long and somewhat hasty journey via Keum 
Nang San to Wonsan, and thence by P’yungyang back to Soul. 
But with that exception, to which I must add the two occasions on 
which the Bishop has sent me by sea to Newchwang, I have hardly 
set foot outside the neighbourhood of Soul and Chemulpo. My 
circumstances, therefore, during my short sojourn in Corea, have 
obviously not been such as to enable me to be of much service to you 
as a source of information on the points you raise. 
To take those points seriatim : — 
* ^ ro P s • — I have no knowledge of the nature of the crops raised 
m Corea, save such as can be gained by any resident in Soul and the 
immediate neighbourhood ; and as my antecedents have been all 
rather of an urban than of a rural character, I feel completely 
destitute of any capacity for giving information on the subject. 
II. Land Tenure. — Similarly, with reference to land tenure, my 
acquaintance with the subject, such as it is, is limited to the tenure 
of property within the walls, or at least in the immediate neighbour- 
hood, of the capital. 
Property in Soul . — Most of the land upon which the houses in 
the capital stand seems to consist of freeholds of comparatively small 
size conterminous indeed, as a rule, with the limits of the houses by 
which they are occupied. 
