The private festa, the Chöl-muri Kaut, one of thanksgiving to the household dæmons, is necessary to secure a continuance of their good offices. The expenditure of the family resources on this occasion is so lavish as frequently to impoverish the household for a whole year. This festa may be biennial or triennial. At the time a pig is sacrificed, offerings are made, mu-tang are hired, and the fetishes of the dæmons are renewed or cleaned. The Ritual for these occasions, if unabbreviated, lasts several days, but among the poor only a selection from it is used. Its stages consist of rituals of invocation, petition, offering, and purification. While these are being recited a household spirit becomes incarnate in the mu-tang, and through her makes oracular revelations of the future. At another stage deceased parents and ancestors appear in the mu-tang, and her personation of them is described by an eyewitness as both “pathetic and ludicrous.” At Seoul this festival is observed by families at the dæmon shrines outside the city walls, and not in private houses.
One of the very common occasions which requires the presence of a mu-tang is the ceremonial known as the Rite of Purification, defilement being contracted by a birth or death or any action which brings in an unclean dæmon, whose obnoxious entrance moves the guardian or friendly dæmons to leave the house. A wand cut from a pine tree to the east of the house is used to bring about their return. It is set working by the muttered utterance of special spells or formulæ by the mu-tang, the mont-gari, or tutelary spirit is found, and by means of prayers and offerings is induced to resume his place, and the unclean dæmon is exorcised and expelled. The beating of a drum and the frequent sprinkling of pure water are portions of this rite.
The utterance of oracles is another great function of the mu-tang. In spite of the low opinion of women held by the Koreans, so strong is the belief in the complete dæmoniacal possession of the mu-tang, and their consequent elevation above their sex, that the Koreans refer fully as much to them as to the Pan-su for information regarding the outcome of commercial ventures, and of projects of personal advancement, as well as for the hidden causes of the loss of wealth or position, or of adversity or illness. The mu-tang, by an appeal to her familiar dæmon, in some cases obtains a direct answer, and in others a reply by the divining chime, or the rice divination. The latter consists of throwing down some grains of rice on a table and noting the combinations which result. The “divining chime” is a hazel wand with a circle of bells at one end. These are shaken violently by the mu-tang, and in the din thus created she hears the utterance of the dæmon.
The arranging for the sale of children to dæmons is a farther function of the mu-tang, and is carried on to a very great extent. 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 dæmon by the mu-tang with fitting rites. Thenceforward, on the 15th day of the 1st moon, and the 3rd day of the 3rd moon, worship and sacrifice are offered to the boulder. After this act of sale the name of the dæmon becomes part of the boy’s name. It is not an unusual thing for the sale to be made to the mu-tang herself, who as the proxy of her dæmon accepts the child in case she learns by a magic rite that she may do so. She takes in its stead one of its rice bowls and a spoon, and these, together with a piece of cotton cloth on which the facts concerning the sale of the child are written, are laid up in her own house in the room devoted to her dæmon. There is a famous mu-tang, whose house I have been in just outside the south gate of Seoul, who has many of these, which are placed on tables below the painted daubs of dæmons ordinarily, but which, on great occasions, are used as banners. At the Periodic Festivals offerings are made on behalf of these children, who, though they live with their parents, know the sorceress or mu-tang as Shin, and are considered her children.
SOUTH GATE.
The mu-tang rites are specially linked with the house dæmon and with Mama the smallpox dæmon. The house dæmon 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 disappears until the rite of purification has been accomplished and he has been asked to return. The ceremonies attending his recall deserve notice. On this great occasion the mu-tang in office ties a large sheet of paper round a rod of oak, holds it upright, and goes out to hunt him. She may find him near, as if waiting to be invited back, or at a considerable distance, but in either case he makes his presence known by shaking the rod so violently that several men cannot hold it still, and then returns with the mu-tang to the house, where he is received with lively demonstrations of joy. The paper which was round the stick is folded, a few cash are put into it, it is soaked in wine, and is then thrown up against a beam in the house to which it sticks, and is followed by some rice which adheres to it. That special spot is the abiding place of the dæmon. This ceremony involves a family in very considerable expense.
The universal belief that illness is the work of dæmons 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 dæmon, instead of being exorcised, bottled, or buried, is treated with the utmost respect. The name by which the disease is called, “Mama,” is the dæmon’s name. It is said that he came from South China, and has only infested Korea for 1,000 years. On the disease appearing, the mu-tang is called in to honor the arrival of the spirit with a feast and fitting ceremonial. Little or no work is done, and if there are neighbors whose children have not had the malady, they rest likewise, lest, displeased with their want of respect, he should deal hardly with them. The parents do obeisance (worship) to the suffering child, and address it at all times in honorific terms. Danger is supposed to be over after the 12th day, when the mu-tang is again summoned, and a farewell banquet is given. A miniature wooden horse is prepared, 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!
In the course of many centuries the office of the mu-tang has undergone considerable modification. Formerly her power consisted in the foretelling of events by the movements of a turtle on the application of hot iron to his back, and by the falling of a leaf of certain trees. Her present vocation is chiefly mediatorial. It is also becoming partially hereditary, her daughter or even daughter-in-law taking up her work. The “call” is considered a grave calamity. Ordinarily these women are of the lower class. They are frequently worshippers of Buddha, after the gross and debased cult which exists in Korea, and place his picture along with those of the dæmons in the small temples in their houses.
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.