[54] Cham-pan is a title of officials of a certain rank in Government Departments in Seoul, and might be rendered Secretary of Department. Seung-ji probably has the same meaning.
[55] Rev. G. H. Jones.
[56] This detailed account is from notes kindly lent to me by the Rev. G. H. Jones.
[57] The twenty-eight constellations, or stellar mansions, referred to in the Shu King, one of the Chinese classical books, showing the close connection between Chinese and Korean superstition.—W. C. H.
CHAPTER XXXV
NOTES ON DÆMONISM CONCLUDED
The second and larger division of the Shamans consists of the mu-tang. Though the Pak-su Mu, who are included among the mu-tang, are men, the female idea prevails so largely that these wear female clothing in performing their functions, and the whole class has the name of mu-tang, and is spoken of as female.
The mu-tang is universally prevalent, and her services are constantly and everywhere sought. She enters upon an office regarded as of high importance with very little ceremonial, requiring only a little instruction from some one who has practised magic, and the “supernatural call.” This call, of which much is made, consists in the assurance of dæmoniacal possession, the dæmon being supposed to seize upon the woman, and to become in fact her doppelgänger, so completely is his personality superimposed on hers. The dæmon is almost invariably a member of the Korean “Dæmoneon.” Mr. Jones mentions a woman who claims that her indwelling dæmon is known as the spirit Chil-song Shin, supposed to come from the constellation of Ursa Major, and he brought with him a legion of other dæmons, from which the mu-tang derive their honorific title, Man-shin, a Legion of Spirits. This woman in her early married life was ill for three years, and had frequent visions of the spirit, and heard but resisted the “call.” When at last she yielded she was immediately cured, and was received into favor with the spirit!
On obeying a dæmon call the woman snaps every tie of custom 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. In the curious relations of the Shamanate, the Pan-su is obviously the Master of the Dæmons, gaining power by cabalistic formulæ or ritual to drive them off, or even bury them, while the mu-tang supplicates and propitiates them. It is impossible to live in a place which has not a mu-tang Shaman.
The functions of the mu-tang are more varied than those of the Pan-su, but on a par with his exorcisms may be placed her Kauts or Pacifications and Propitiations of dæmons, which are divided into the occasional and periodic, the latter being Dæmon Festivals, one public the other private. The public one is a triennial festa celebrated either by a large village or by an aggregation of hamlets, and occupies three or four days. Its object is the tutelary dæmon of the neighborhood, and its methods are sacrifice, petition, worship, and thanksgiving. The villagers choose two of their number to take entire charge of the festival, and by them a tax for expenses is levied on the vicinity. They also choose the festival day, hire the mu-tang, and arrange for the paraphernalia and the offerings to the dæmons. It is essential that the festival day should be chosen by divination, by either a Sön-li or a Pan-su acquainted with magic, and that the sorcerers should bathe frequently and abstain from animal food for seven previous days.
The village dæmon festival has a resemblance at some points to the Shinto matsuri of Japan. On the festa day a booth, much decorated with tags of brilliant color, is erected near the dæmons’ shrine, and with an accompaniment of mu-tang music, dancing, and lavish and outlandish gesticulations, the offerings are presented to the spirits. The popular belief is that the dæmons become incarnate in the mu-tang, who utter oracles called Kong-su Na-ta, and the people bring them bowls of uncooked rice, and plead for a revelation of their future during the following three years. 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.