i08 
COREANS. 
have the privilege of choosing’ their husbands out of any, even the 
meanest rank, and have even the power of life and death over them, 
as over their paramours, if any of them are caught tripping: but the 
husbands are by no means entitled to expect the same fidelity from 
their royal ladies. Women of the lowest rank are allowed, when they 
receive strangers, to admit them to disgusting familiarities. This 
obliged the missionaries who travelled through this country, to give 
notice, on their approach to any of their houses, that none of the 
female sex might enter within their doors. 
Their religion consists chiefly in a variety of superstitious customs, 
such as powdering their public and domestic idols w'ith tbe dust of a 
kind of red wood, on the first day of the moo!i, and paying a kind of 
worship to that planet. If on that night it happens to shine clear and 
bright, they cry out, Thus may I renew my life as thou dost but 
if the night is cloudy, they imagine the moon has lost her virtue, and 
pay her no respect. We do not hear of their offering any sacrifices to 
their idols, though they commonly consult them about the success of 
their enterprises, thefts, or the like. The king of Congo still styles 
himself sovereign of Aiigoy ; but the king of this little state pavs 
neither tribute iior honour to any foreign power. 
COIIEANS. 
These are the natives of Corea, a country near China. The Co- 
reans are well made, ingenious, brave, and tractable, are fond of 
dancing, and shew great docility in acquiring the sciences, to which 
they apply with great ardour, and honour in a particular manner. 
The northern Coreans are larger-sized and more robust than those 
of the south, have a taste for arms, and become excellent soldiers. 
Their arms are cross-bows and long sabres. Men of learning are 
distinguished from other classes of people by two plumes of feathers 
in their caps ; and when merchants present the Coreans with any 
books for sale, they dress themselves in their richest attire, and burn 
perfumes, before they treat concerning the price. The Coreans mourn 
three years, as in China, for a father or a mother, but for a brother 
only three months. The dead are not interred until three years after 
their decease, and when the ceremony is performed, they place around 
the tomb the clothes, chariots, and horses of the deceased, with 
whatever else he shew^ed t|:ie greatest fondness for while alive, all 
which they leave to be carried off by the assistants. Their houses 
consist only of one story, and are very ill built — in the country being 
composed of earth, and in cities generally of brick, but all thatched 
with straw. The w'alls of their cities are constructed after the Chi- 
nese manner, with square turrets, battlements, and arched gates. 
Their writing, dress, religious ceremonies, and creed, as w'ell as the 
greatest part of their customs, are borrowed from the Chinese. Their 
women, however, are less confined, and have the liberty of appearing 
in public with the other sex, for which they are often ridiculed by their 
neighbours. They differ from the Chinese also in their ceremonies of 
marriage, and in the manner of contracting it ; the parties in this 
country taking the liberty to choose for themselves, without consult- 
