Korea and her neighbors / A narrative of travel, with an account of the recent vicissitudes and present position of the country

by Isabella L. Bird

The Household Spirits are the last division of the Korean Dæmoneon. Söng Ju, the spirit of the ridge pole who presides over the home, occupies a sort of imperial position with regard to the other household spirits.

His fetish consists of some sheets of paper and a paper bag containing as many spoonfuls of rice as the household is years old on the day when the mu-tang suspends it to the crossbeam of the house.

The ceremony of his inauguration was conducted as follows in the case of a householder who was at once a scholar, a noble, a rich man, and the headman of a large village. A lucky day having been chosen by divination, the noble, after grading the site for his house, erected the framework, and with great ceremony attached such a fetish, duly prepared by the Pan-su, to the crossbeam. Prostrations and invocations marked this stage. When the building of the house was completed, an auspicious day was again chosen by divination, and a great ceremony was performed by the mu-tang for the enshrining of the dæmon in the home. The mu-tang arranged the ceremonial and prepared the offerings, and then with a special wand only used on these occasions, called the spirit who is supposed to be under her control, and returning to the house solemnly enshrined him in the fetish, to which it is correct to add a fresh sheet of paper every year. After Söng Ju was supposed to have had time to feed spiritually on the offerings, they were placed before the guests, and a great entertainment followed.

Ti Ju, or the lord of the site, is the next great dæmon, but investigations regarding him have been very resultless. Little is known, except that offerings are presented to him at some spot on the premises, but not inside the house. These offerings, which are of food, are made on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 15th of each month. This food is afterwards eaten by the family, and a continual offering is represented by a bit of cloth or a scrap of old rope. His fetish is a bundle of straw, empty inside, placed on three sticks, but in some circumstances a flower pot with some rice inside is substituted.

Op Ju, the kitchen dæmon, is the third of the trio which is permanently attached to the house. His fetish is a piece of cloth or paper nailed to the wall above the cooking place.

After these come the dæmons who are attached to the family and not the house, the first of them being Cho Wang, a spirit of the constellation of the Great Bear, a very popular spirit. His shrine is outside the wall, and his fetish, to which worship is paid, is a gourd full of cloth and paper. Cho Wang is often the dæmon familiar of a mu-tang.

Ti Ju, No. 2, is the fate or luck of the family, and every household is ambitions to secure him. His fetish is a straw booth three feet high, in which is a flower pot containing some rice covered with a stone and paper.

The greatest of the family dæmons is an ancient and historical dæmon, Chöi Sok, who is regarded as the grandfather of San Chin-chöi Sök, the dæmon of nativity. His fetish, unless it becomes rotten or is accidentally destroyed, descends from father to son. He has several fetishes, and when he receives homage at the Triennial Festival, the mu-tang puts on the dress of an official. He is the dæmon of nativity and the giver of posterity, and is a triple dæmon. Korean women hearing of the Christian Trinity have been known to say that San chin enables them to understand the mystery! He is believed to have the control of all children up to the age of four. He avenges ceremonial defilement such as the sight by an expectant mother of a mourner or a dead object, and outside a house where there has been a recent birth, a notice warning visitors not to enter is often put up on his behalf. He imposes on plebeian mothers a period of seclusion for twenty-one days after a birth, but for noble mothers one hundred days, for which period the rays of the sun are rigidly excluded from both mother and child.

Pa-mul, the dæmon of riches, is the Japanese Daikoku and the British Mammon. He is worshipped in the granary, and thanks are offered to him as well as petitions. His fetish is a paste jar set up on two decorated bags of rice. A man in Chemulpo, now a Christian, had a very famous fetish, which was originally a jar of beans, but these were changed into clear water, and a mysterious improvement in the fortunes of the family set in from that date, the jar becoming an object of grateful worship. One day it was found broken and the water lost, and from that time his fortunes declined.

Kol-lip is the dæmon who takes charge of the external fortunes of the family, and is also the mercury of the household dæmons. His fetish is enshrined over the gate-house, and consists of a mass of rubbish, old straw shoes for wearing on his travels, cash for spiritual funds, and a fragment of grass cloth for travelling outfit. There is also the dæmon of the gate whose fetish hangs over the entrance.