“ If it is granted, the lender frequently never sees principal or interest ; if it is refused, he is arrested, thrown into prison on some charge invented for his destruction, and beaten until either he or his relations for him produce the sum demanded. To such an extent are these demands carried, that in Northern Korea, where the winters are fairly severe, the peasants, when the harvest has left them with a few thousand cash^ put them in a hole in the ground, and pour water into it, the frozen mass which results then being earthed over, when it is fairly safe both from officials and thieves. ”

“ With a splendid climate, an abundant, but not superabun- dant, rainfall, a fertile soil, a measure of freedom from civil war and robber bands, the Koreans ought to be a happy and fairly prosperous people. ”

“ Among the modes of squeezing are forced labor, doubling or trebling the amount of a legitimate tax, exacting bribes in cases of litigation, forced loans, etc. If a man is reported to have saved a little money, an official asks for the loan of it. ”

“ To the west the valley is absolutely closed in by a wall of peaks. The bridle-path, a well-engineered road, when it ascends the very steep ridge of the watershed in many zigzags, rests for 100 feet, and descends the western side by seventy- five turns. ”

“ The road, which was said, and truly, to be a very bad one, crosses a small plain, and passing under a roofed gateway be- tween two hills which are scarred by remains of fortifications running east and west, enters upon really fine scenery, which becomes magnificent in about 30 //, at first a fertile mountain- girdled basin, whose rim is spotted with large villages, and then a narrowing valley with stony soil, and a sparse popula- tion, walled in by savage mountains of emphatic forms, swing- ing apart at times, and revealing loftier peaks and ranges then glittering with new-fallen snow. ”

“ The woman who lives in the one hovel on the pass nciakes a good living by receiving money from travellers, who offer rice cakes and desire prayers. The worship is nearly all done by proxy, and the rice cakes do duty any number of times. ”

“ Besides, the men through whom any such scheme must be carried out are nearly universally corrupt both by tradition and habit. Reform was jerky and piecemeal, and Japan irritated the people by med- dlesomeness in small matters and suggested interferences with national habits, giving the impression, which I found prevail- ing everywhere, that her object is to denationalize the Koreans for purposes of her own. ”

“ Gold washing is carried on to a great extent along this stream, which is a tributary of the Tai-dong, and some of the work- ings show more care and method than usual, being pits neatly lined with stone in their upper parts. Eighty cents per day is the average earning of a gold-seeker there. ”