garment made of four long strips of cotton or silk, two in front and two at the back, according to the grade, almost touching the feet and divided both in front and at the back as far up as the waist, round which a ribbon is tied.  This, then, is the everyday wardrobe of a Corean of any class.  You may add, if you please, a few miscellaneous articles such as gaiters and extra bags, but never have I seen any man of Cho-sen walk about with more habiliments than these, although I have many times seen people who had a great deal less.  The clothes are of cotton or silk according to the grade and riches of the wearer.  Buttons are a useless luxury in Cho-sen, for neither men nor women recognise their utility; on the contrary, the natives display much amusement and chaff at the stupid foreign barbarian who goes and cuts any number of buttonholes in the finest clothing, which, in their idea, is an incomprehensible mistake and shows want of appreciation.

Their method of managing things by means of loops and ribbons, has an effect which is not without its picturesqueness, perhaps more so than is our system of “keeping things together” in clothing matters.  After all it is only a matter of opinion.  The inhabitants of the land of Cho-sen, from my experience, are not much given to washing and still less to bathing.  I have seen them wash their hands fairly often, and the face occasionally; only the very select people of Corea wash it daily.  One would think that, with such a very scanty and irregular use of water for the purpose of cleanliness, they should look extremely dirty; but not a bit.  It was always to me irritating to the last degree to see how clean those dirty people looked!

But let us notice one or two more of the people that are passing by.  It is now snowing hard, and every one carries his own umbrella on his head.  Boys do not wear hats, and are provided with a large umbrella with a bamboo-frame that fits the head, as also are the bachelors.  Here comes one of the latter class.  His face is a finely cut one, and with his hair parted in the middle, and the big tress hanging down his back, he has indeed more the appearance of a woman than that of a man; hence the mistake often made by hasty travellers in putting down these bachelors as women, is easy to understand.  When one is seen for the first time, it is really difficult to say to which sex he belongs, so effeminate does he look.

It is part of the ambition of the male Corean to look wise, no matter whether he is or not as a matter of fact.  And to assume the coveted air of wisdom what more is necessary than to put on a huge pair of round spectacles of Chinese origin with smoked glasses enclosed in a frame of gold or tortoiseshell, and with clasps over the ears?  Oh how wise he looks!  He does indeed!  And you should see his pomposity as he rides his humble donkey through the streets of Seoul.  There he sits like a statue, supported by his servants, looking neither to one side nor to the other, lest he should lose his dignity.