“ Women are not mu-tang by birth, but of late years it has become customary for the girl children of a sorceress to go out with her and learn her arts, which is tending to give the profession a hereditary aspect. It is now recruited partly in this fashion, partly from among hysterical girls, and partly for a livelihood, but outside of these sources, a daemon may take possession of any woman, wife, maid, or widow, rich or poor, plebeian or patrician, and compel her to serve him. ”

“ Korean travellers make their special plea to a travellers' daemon who is supposed to be found there, and hang up strips of their goods in the overhanging branches, and the sailor likewise regards the altar as the shrine of his guardian daemon, and bestows a bit of old rope upon it. Further than this, when some special bird or beast has destroyed insects in- jurious to agriculture, the people erect a shrine to it on these altars or cairns, on which may frequently be seen the rude daub of a bird or animal. ”

“ This daemon is regarded as the spirit of a rebellious Crown Prince, the sole object of whose daemon existence is to injure all with whom he can come into contact.
A man sometimes marries a mu-tang, but he is invariably "a fellow of the baser sort," who desires to live in idleness on the earnings of his wife. If, as is occasionally the case, the mu- tang belongs to a noble family, she is only allowed to exorcise spirits in her own house, and when she dies she is buried in a hole in a mountain side with the whole paraphernalia of her profession. ”

“ The universal belief that illness is the work of daemons renders the services of a Pan-su or mu-tang necessary wherever it enters a house, and in the case of smallpox, the universal scourge of Korean childhood, the daemon, instead of being ex- orcised, bottled, or buried, is treated with the utmost respect. ”

“ At the beginning of the possession she becomes either slightly or seriously ill, and her illness may last four weeks or three years, during which time she dreams of a dragon, a rainbow, peach trees in blossom, or of a man in armor who is suddenly meta- morphosed into an animal. Under the influence of these dreams she becomes like an insane person, and when awake sees many curious things, and before long speaks as an oracle of the spirits. ”

“ Some mu-tang do not go abroad for purposes of exorcism. These may be regarded as the aristocracy of their profession, and many of them are of much repute and live in the suburbs of Seoul. Those who desire their services send the necessary money and offerings, and the viu-tang exorcise the spirits in their own houses. ”

“ When the building of the house was com- pleted, an auspicious day was again chosen by divination, and a great ceremony was performed by the mu-tang for the en- shrining of the daemon in the home. The mu-tang arranged the ceremonial and prepared the offerings, and then with a special wand only used on these occasions, called the spirit who is supposed to be under her control, and returning to the house solemnly enshrined him in the fetish, to which it is correct to add a fresh sheet of paper every year. ”

“ She then informs her family that messengers from Heaven, Earth, and the Lightning have informed her that if she is not allowed to practise exorcism, they or their domestic animals will die. Should they insist on secluding her, her illness shortly terminates fatally. If a daughter of a noble family becomes possessed, they probably make away with her, in the idea that if madness takes this turn, the disgrace would be indelible. ”

“ The Korean father desires prosperity and long life for his boy (a girl being of little account) , and the sale of the child to a spirit is he believes the best way of attaining his object. When the so-called sale has been decided on, the father consults the sorceress as to when and where it shall be made. The place chosen is usually a boulder near home, and the child is there " consecrated " to the daemon by the imi- tang with fitting rites. Thenceforward, on the 15th day of the ist moon, and the 3rd day of the 3rd moon, worship and sacrifice are offered to the boulder. ”

“ Danger is supposed to be over after the 1 2th day, when the mu-tang is again summoned, and a farewell banquet is given. A miniature wooden horse is pre- pared, and is loaded for the spirit's journey with small bags of food and money, fervent and respectful adieus are spoken, and he receives hearty good wishes for his prosperous return to his own place! ”

“ The tiger which abounds in Central and Northern Korea is understood to be the confidential servant of these mountain daemons, and when he commits depredations, the people, be- lieving the daemon of the vicinity to be angry, hurry with offerings to his nearest shrine. ”

“ Taking the male and female Shamanate together, the Shamans possess immense power over the people, from the clever and ambitious Korean queen, who resorted constantly to the Pan-su on behalf of the future of the Crown Prince, down to the humblest peasant family. They are in intimate contact with the people in all times of difficulty and affliction, their largest claims are conceded, and they are seldom out of employment. ”

“ On obeying a daemon call the woman snaps every tie of cus- tom or relationship, deserts parents, husband, or children, and obeys the "call" alone. Her position from that hour is a peculiar one, for while she is regarded as indispensable to the community she is socially an outcast. ”

“ They receive worship at funerals, and a sacrifice similar to that offered in ancestral worship is made to them before the body is laid in the earth. Two Shamans preside over this, and one of them intones a ritual belonging to the occasion. The shrine of Chon-Shin is a local temple, a small decayed erection usually found outside villages. In Seoul he has a mud or plaster shrine is which his picture is enshrined with much ceremony, but in the country his fetish is usually a straw booth set up over a pair of old shoes under a tree. ”

“ It will be observed that in Korea sickness is always associated with daemoniacal possession, and that the services of the Pa7i-su^ or mu-tangy are always requisitioned, European medicine and surgery are the most successful assailants of this barbarous and degrading system which holds the whole nation, in many respects highly civilized, in bondage, and the influence of both as practised in connection with "Medical Missions" is tending increasingly in the direction of emancipation. ”

“ A common "test" at this festival is the burning a tube of very thin white paper in a bowl. Its upper end is lighted by the mu-tang^ who recites her spells as it burns. When it reaches the rim of the bowl, if the augury for the future be unfavorable, the paper burns away in the bowl, if favorable, the paper lifts itself and is blown away. ”

“ In Shaman's houses shrines are frequently erected to them, bearing their collective name to which worship is paid. They are held in high honor and are prominent in Pan-su rites. At the entrance of many villages on the south branch of the Han the villagers represent them by posts with tops rudely carved into hideous caricatures of humanity, which are ofttimes deco- rated with straw tassels, and receive offerings of rice and fruit as village protectors.
The Shin-chang are daemon generals said to number 80,000, each one at the head of a daemon host. ”

“ His fetish, un- less it becomes rotten or is accidentally destroyed, descends from father to sou. He has several fetishes, and when he re- ceives homage at the Triennial Festival, the mu-tang puts on the dress of an official. He is the daemon of nativity and the giver of posterity, and is a triple daemon. Korean women hearing of the Christian Trinity have been known to say that Sail chill enables them to understand the mystery ! He is be- lieved to have the control of all children up to the age of four. ”

“ They go in overwhelming legions, and not only dwell in empty houses but in inhabited villages, terrifying the inhabitants. They it was who, by taking posses- sion of the fine Audience Hall of the Mulberry Palace in' Seoul, rendered the buildings untenable, frightful tales being told and believed of nocturnal daemon orgies amidst those doleful splendors. People leave their houses and build new ones because of them. Their fetishes may be such things as a mapu^ s hat or the cloak of 2iyamen clerk, rotten with age and dirt, enshrined under a small straw booth. ”

“ These spirits, believed to be very powerful, are much feared by farmers, and by villagers living near high mountains. They think that if when they are out on the hillsides cutting wood they forgot to cast the first spoonful of rice from the bowl to the daemon, they will be punished by a severe fall or cut, or some other accident. ”

“ The mu-tang rites are specially linked with the house d^mon and with Mama the smallpox daemon. The house daemon is on the whole a good one, being supposed to bring health and happiness, and if invited with due ceremony he is willing to take up his abode under every roof. He cannot always keep off disease, and in the case of contagious fevers, etc., he dis- appears until the rite of purification has been accomplished and he has been asked to return. ”

“ Her equipment consists of a number of dresses, some of them very costly, a drum shaped like an hour- glass, four feet in length, copper cymbals, a copper rod, with tinklers suspended from it by copper chains, strips of silk and paper banners which float round her as she dances, fans, um- brellas, wands, images of men and animals, brass or copper gongs, and a pair of telescope-shaped baskets for scratching, chiefly used in cases of cholera, which disease is supposed to result from rats climbing about in the human interior. ”

“ He avenges ceremonial defilement such as the sight by an ex- pectant mother of a mourner or a dead object, and outside a house where there has been a recent birth, a notice warning visitors not to enter is often put up on his behalf. ”

“ Any gnarled shrub or malformed tree is supposed to be the residence of one of these spirits. Spirits which cause persons to meet either a violent death or to die young. Any one who has died before reaching a cycle {i.e. ”