“ As a poor man gifted with many sons, for whom he cannot provide, sometimes presents one to the government as a eunuch, so he may give a girl to be a gesaiig. The gesang are trained from a very early age in such accomplishments as other Korean women lack, and which will ensure their attractiveness, such as playing on various musical instruments, singing, dancing, reading, reciting, writing, and fancy work. ”

“ The common people meet in the streets, the house fronts, and the inns. They ask each other endless questions, of a nature that we should think most impertinent, regarding each other's business, work, and money transactions, and for the latest news. It is every man's business to hear or create all the news he can. What he hears he embellishes by lies and exaggera- tions, Korea is the country of wild rumors. What a Korean knows, or rather hears, he tells. ”

“ Allen, who has had special opportunities of becoming acquainted with the inner social life of Korea, says that they are the source of much heartburning to the legal but neglected wife, who in no case is the wife of her husband's choice, and that Korean folklore abounds with stories of discord arising in families from attachments to gesang, and of ardent and pro- longed devotion on the part of young noblemen to these girls, who they are prevented from marrying by rigid custom. ”

“ They never talk politics, it is too dangerous, but retail the latest gossip of the court or city and the witticisms attributed to great men, and tell, hear, and invent news. The front rooms of houses in which the men live are open freely to all comers. In some circles, though it is said to a far less extent than formerly, men meet and talk over what we should call "questions of literary criticism," compare poetic compositions, the ability to compose a page of poetry being the grand result of Korean education, and discuss the meaning of celebrated works—all literature being in Chinese. ”

“ That there are "seekers after righteousness" here and there I do not doubt, but I believe that the one "craving" of the far East is for money—that "unrest" is only in the east a synonym for poverty, and that the spiritual instincts have yet to be created.
On the Sunday I went with Dr. Scranton of Seoul to the first regular service ever held for women in Phyong-yang. There were a number present, all daemon-worshippers, some of them attracted by the sight of a "foreign woman." ”

“ These birds flap their wings, snap their beaks, and dance round in admiration of the beautiful bud which they evidently intend to pluck as soon as they have enjoyed it sufficiently in antic- ipation. Their movements all this time are very graceful, and they come closer and closer to the flower keeping time to the soft music. ”

“ An elderly man, who had made a good living by sorcery, came and gave Mr. Moffett the instruments of his trade, saying he " had served devils all his life, but now he knew that they were wicked spirits, and he was serving the true God."
On the same afternoon four requests for Christian teaching came to the missionaries, each signed by from fifteen to forty men. ”

“ There was no Korean post, and the Japanese military post and telegraph of- fice absolutely refused to carry messages or letters for civilians. Wild rumors, of which there were a goodly crop every hour, were the substitute for news.
A subject of special interest and inquiry at Phyong-yang was mission work as carried on by American missionaries. At Seoul it is far more difficult to get into touch with it, as, being older, it has naturally more of religious conventionality. ”

“ Men live in company in each others' houses. Domestic life is unknown. The women in the inner rooms receive female visitors, and the girl children are present. The boys at a very early age are removed to the men's apartments, where they learn from the conversation they hear that every man who respects himself must regard women with con- tempt.
We left Phyong-yang for Po-san in a very small boat in which six people and their luggage were uncomfortably packed and cramped. ”

“ She was surrounded by Japanese junks, Japanese soldiers crowded her gangways, and Japanese officers were directing the loading. We hooked on to the junks and lay in the rain for an hour, nobody taking the slightest notice of us. ”

“ Some public men keep open house, giving their servants as much as ^60 a day for the entertain- ment of guests. Men who are in easy circumstances go con- tinually from one house to another to kill time. ”