4. A bottle with a wide mouth is put on the floor, and alongside it a piece of paper inscribed with the name of the unclean daemon, which has been obtained by divination and parley. The paper being touched with the magic wand jumps into the bottle, which is hastily corked and buried on the hillside or at the crossroads.
This singular form of exorcism has a long and unintelligible ritual, in the cases of those who can afford to pay for it, occupying some days, and at greater or lesser length is repeated daily by the Shamans throughout Korea. It is usually succeeded by a form known as the Ritual Pacification, which takes a whole night. This is for the purpose of restoring order among the household dæmons, who have been much upset by the previous proceedings, cleaning the house, and committing it and its inmates to the protection of the most powerful members of the Korean dæmoniacal hierarchy.
The instruments of exorcism used by the Pan-su are offerings to be made at various stages of the process, a drum, cymbals, a bell, a divination box, and a wand or wands.
The Shamans claim to have derived many of their very numerous spells and formulas from Buddhists, who on their side assert that dæmon-worship was practised in Korea long before the introduction of Buddhism, and a relic of this worship is pointed out in the custom which prevails in the Korean magistracies of offering to guardian spirits on stone altars on the hills, pigs, or occasionally sheep, before sowing time and after harvest, as well as in case of drought, or other general calamity. This sacrifice is offered by the local magistrate in the king’s name, and though identical in form with that offered to Hananim (the Lord of Heaven), is altogether distinct from it. Most of the formulæ recited by the Shamans have the reputation of being unsafe for ordinary people to use, but in consideration of the possibility of a great emergency, one is provided, which is pronounced absolutely safe. This consists of fifty-six characters which must be recited forwards, backwards, and sideways, and is called “The twenty-eight stars formula.”[57]
Divination is the second function of the Pan-su, and consists in a forecast of the future by means of rituals, known only to himself, associated with the use of certain paraphernalia. This is used also for finding out the result of a venture, or the cause of an existing trouble, and for casting a man’s horoscope, i.e. “The four columns of a man’s future,” these being the hour, day, month, and year of his birth, or rather their four combinations. This horoscope is the crowning function of divination. In these “four columns” the secret of a man’s life is hidden, and their relations must govern him in all his actions. When a horoscope contains an arrow, which denotes ill-luck, the Pan-su corrects the misfortune by formulæ used with a bow of peach, with which during the recital he shoots arrows made of a certain reed into a “non-prohibited” quarter. One of the great duties of divination is to cast the horoscope of a bride and bridegroom for an auspicious day for the wedding, for an unlucky one would introduce dæmons to the ruin of the new household.
The great strongholds of divination are the “Frog-Boxes” and dice boxes, manufactured for this purpose. The frog box is made like a tortoise, having movable lips, and contains three cash, over which the Pan-su repeats a very ancient invocation, which has been translated thus: “Will all you people grant to reveal the symbols.” The coins are thrown three times, and the three falls present him with the combinations of characters, out of which he manufactures his oracle. The second implement of divination is a bamboo or brass tube closed at both ends, but with a small hole in one to allow of the exit of small bamboo splinters of which it contains eight. The same thing is to be seen on innumerable altars in China. Each splinter has from one to eight notches on it, and stands for a symbol of certain signs on that divining table 3,000 years old, called the Ho-pai, which is implicitly believed in by the Chinese. Two of these splinters give two sets of characters, eight being connected with each symbol. When the Pan-su has obtained these he is ready to evolve his oracle.
Great reliance is placed on the charms which the Pan-su make and sell. Probably there are few adults or children who do not wear these as amulets. They are generally made in the form of insects, or consist of Chinese characters. They are written on specially prepared yellow paper in red ink, and are regarded as being efficacious against illness and other calamities. Amulets are made of the wood of trees struck by lightning, which is supposed to possess magical qualities.
FOOTNOTES:
[52] I desire again to express my indebtedness to the Rev. G. Heber Jones, of Chemulpo, for the loan of, and the liberty to use, his very careful and painstaking notes on the subject of Korean dæmonism, and also to a paper on The Exorcism of Spirits in Korea, by Dr. Landis of Chemulpo. Apart from the researches of these two Korean scholars, the results of my own inquiry and observation would scarcely have been worth publishing.
[53] What is true in Korea to-day may be untrue to-morrow. One month there was a police raid in Seoul upon the mu-tang or sorceresses, another the sisterhood was flourishing, and so the pendulum swings.