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KOREAN OFFICER.

which makes them free and heirs to all their goods; for
this reason they are obliged to wear mourning for them,
as for their father, in return for all the pains they have
taken to instruct and bring them up.

"The monasteries and temples are built at the public
charge, every one contributing proportionably to what
he is worth.

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"There is still another sort of people like these religious men, as well in regard of their abstinence as their serving the idols, but they are not shorn and may marry. They believe, by tradition, that once all mankind had but one language, but that the design of building a in the tower to go up to heaven caused the confusion of means, tongues. The nobles frequent the monasteries very the wo

ancient custom-of which they are very tenacious-take care to assemble the youth, to make them read the his tory of the country and the condemnations of great men who have been put to death for their crimes. To perfect them in their learning there are assemblies kept yearly in two or three towns of each province where the scholars appear to get employment, either by the pen or by the sword.

"Parents are very indulgent to their children, and in return are much respected by them. They depend upon one another's good behavior, and if one withdraws after an ill action the other does the like. It is other wise with the slaves, who have little care of their children, because they know they will be taken from them as son as they are able to work or do any business.

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The bearers sing and kindred make the air

"As soon as one dies, his kindred run about the streets shrieking and tearing their hair; then they take special care to bury him honorably in some part of a mountain shown them by a fortune-teller. They use two coffins for every dead body, being two or three fingers thick, shut close, and put one within the other to keep out the water, painting and adorning them as every one is able. They generally bury their dead in spring and autumn. As for those that die in summer, they put them into a thatched hut raised upon four stakes, where they leave them till rice-harvest is over. When they intend to bury them they bring them back into the house, and shut up in their coffins with them their clothes and some jewels. In the morning, at break of day, they set out with the body, after a good repast and making merry all the night. keep time as they go, whilst the ring with their cries. Three days after, the kindred and friends of the party deceased return to the grave, where they make some offerings, and then they eat together and are very merry. The meaner sort only make a grave five or six feet deep, but the great men are put into stony tombs raised on a statue of the same substance; at the bottom whereof is the name carved, with the qualifications of the party there buried, mentioning what employments he enjoyed. Every full moon they cut down the grass that grows on the grave, and offer new rice there; that is their greatest festival, next to the New Year. They reckon by moons, and every three years they add one, so that the third year has thirteen, whereas the other two have but twelve moons each. They have conjurers, diviners or soothsayers, who assure them whether the dead are at rest or not, and whether the place where they are buried is proper for them; in which point they are so superstitious that it often happens they

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daughters had any share, ing to their husbands but is fourscore years of age of managing his estate an who maintain their fathe deal of respect. When t of the estate he builds a his father and mother, w them.

"Their language, their metic are very hard to 1 to express the same thin and sometimes slow, es great lords. They use the first and chiefest li which they use for print The secon

lic affairs.
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swer petitions and make like; the commonalty c third is more unpolishe common sort. It is easi the others, names and t ing noted down with ve

"The Chinese supers and water), dominates a to crowds of sorcerers, who fatten upon the pu would think of building den or tomb, without The influences of the potent; and one of the the pole stuck up on mo bells or tiny cymbals ji their malign breath. A from America are utiliz shuey is the great na which innumerable pr pupils.

"The air is far from ulous with active and mountain, water-course ney, has its tutelary ge prayer, gifts or penanc

"Temples in honor large cities of Korea. sacrifices of pigs, she magistrate at particul very similar to those p of the spirits of earth

Clothes. When a fathe clares himself incapable ns it up to his childre always pay him a gres est has taken possessio t the public expense i e lodges and maintain

writing and their arith They have many word hey sometimes talk fas their learned men and veral sorts of writingof China and Japa - books and for all pub e the common writing use it to an governors letters of advice, or the ad this writing. The erves women and the e in this character than er before heard of be fine pencils. led Fengshuey, (wind and gives employment llers and geomancers people. No Korean selecting a field, gar one of these gentry believed to be ever

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that when my servant returned from marketing in the to me: morning he remarked, "All chosen town clean to-day." to me This had special reference to the many huts and booths that he erected temporarily by dealers in fruit and merchandise thinking along the sides of the main streets. The royal palace his wor is in the northern part of the city, and the streets along nations, which the procession passed are unusually wide (for He has Seoul streets), and, being cleansed from their filth, they light. made a very good appearance.

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All of our mission went to see his majesty. The young men whom we are teaching English offered to get us a good place to "ku kiung"-see sights. We accepted their offer. We have been many times impressed with the kindness of the Koreans toward us, and this added another to the list. They secured a small room, had it cleaned, put down nice, clean boards, took some of our chairs to sit on, and hired three soldiers. When we reached the place, and the people saw foreign ladies, the crowd increased wonderfully had, and fast, and pressed into the house to see them. The soldiers were not regularly armed, and it soon became evident to them, as well as to us, that it took more than their uniform and "ka"-go-to make the people "stand back." They soon supplied themselves with good oak clubs, and by swinging these faithfully and using their lungs frequently they managed to keep a small place in front of the house clear. Without their services it would have been impossible for us to have remained there. Mrs. M. F. Scranton took with her the United States flag, which we put up.

While waiting for the king one could not but be impressed that the "boy of the street" was present in full force, making the air melodious with what would be equivalent in America to "lemonade" and "peanuts," and seemingly doing a brisk business.

Along the middle of the street new earth was strewn. Every few minutes some official, with a few attendants, passed, nearly always mounted on a donkey, which is the animal used by officers on such occasions. Some of these men had a very patriarchal appearance.

The procession proper was headed by eunuchs from the royal palace; these were followed by soldiers who marched along the sides and in the center of the street. A general of high rank stopped in front of us, and I thought he did it in honor of our flag, but my interpretor told me he stopped for the king. The royal banner, a large empty sedan chair and waiters, passed, music followed next, the step became livelier, considerable rattling of what to me was old iron, but really the sign

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A KOREAN CHIEF, HIS SECRETARY AND SERVANT

taken a very advanced step in building this first hospi-
tal and placing it wholly under the control of one who
is known to be a missionary, accepting also the services
there of two other missionaries-Dr. J. W. Herron,
M. D., and Rev. H. G. Underwood. Dr. Allen has
treated many of the nobles, and the whole royal family.
This example of confidence in him has led the people to
an immediate patronage of the hospital. About seventy
patients are treated daily. The sanitary condition of
the population is described as horrible, and Drs. Allen
and Herron are likely to have all the patients they can
these brethren, nor Rev. Mr.

it in communicating t as they are able to do his first lame attempts sufferers in his hospi Church pray for these field!"

Dr. Allen writes: "

and was yesterday cal their summer residen mitted to the 'Ang p safe in saying no othe tered one of these pla inch of the old

It was commenced last year, and the letters we have tration previously published indicate that the prospect is very missions. encouraging for a very successful work. In another history t place will be found a concert exercise on Korea, which body mo will give further information respecting Protestant Mis- his thirti sions in Korea. into the in the so in his lor

General.

God's Everlasting Sign.

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f Christianity as 8001 y Dr. Allen tells us of Christian hopes to the earnestly should the their remote, strange

treat the royal family. he King's mother ver side. I was ad n's quarters, and a nor ever openly er

In this review of the Missionary Work, and its results direct and indirect, one more grand fact remains to be considered, briefly, viz: the reflex influence of missions upon all who earnestly engage in them, or support them with sympathy, gifts and prayer. It is inconceivable that any work which is not supremely owned of God should develop such character in the workers. The seal and sanction of God is upon missions, for the very vanguard of the Church is found in the heroic, self-sacrificing souls who represent us in front of the citadels of heathenism. These men and women are the foremost disciples of Christ; some of them seem both to lift mortals up and to bring angels down; they realize to us the days of heaven upon earth, in the sanctity of their lives and the ideality of their unselfish services.

We see the Moravians going into the lazar house, and entering the leper villages of Africa, cheerfully isolating themselves from the "clean," and identifying themselves with the "unclean," for life, that they may point the accursed victims of loathsome disease to him who can cleanse the leprosy of the soul. We hear Dober and his co-laborers at St. Thomas, when told that they could not preach to those ignorant slaves, resolutely reply, "then we will sell ourselves as slaves, and preach while we work by their side!"

We follow John Eliot, "the Apostle of the Indians," spending twelve years in learning their difficult language, reducing it to a written form, publishing a grammar, and writing on its title page that holy maxim that has since passed into the uninspired Scriptures of the Church, "Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ, will do anything; " we look at him patiently translating the Bible into the Indian tongue, gathering those rude children of the forest into Christian settlements, and closing his fifty years of toil for their salvation by

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