FOOTNOTES:
[36] General Dye, late of the U.S. army, was instructor of the Old Guard. Mr. Sabatin, a Russian subject, was temporarily employed as a watchman to see that the sentries were at their posts.
CHAPTER XXIV
BURIAL CUSTOMS
After the interpreter difficulty had appeared as before insurmountable, I was provided with one who acquitted himself to perfection, and through whose good offices I came much nearer to the people than if I had been accompanied by a foreigner. He spoke English remarkably well, was always bright, courteous, intelligent, and good-natured; he had a keen sense of the ludicrous, and I owe much of the pleasure, as well as the interest, of my journey to his companionship. Mr. Hillier equipped me with Im, a soldier of the Legation Guard, as my servant. He had attended me on photographing expeditions on a former visit, and on the journey I found him capable, faithful, quick, and full of “go,”—so valuable and efficient, indeed, as to “take the shine” out of any subsequent attendant. With these, a passport, and a kwan-ja or letter from the Korean Foreign Office commending me to official help (never used), my journey was made under the best possible auspices.
The day before I left was spent in making acquaintance with Mr. Yi Hak In, receiving farewell visits from many kind and helpful friends, looking over the backs and tackle of the ponies I had engaged for the journey, and in arranging a photographic outfit. Im was taught to make curry, an accomplishment in which he soon excelled, and I had no other cooking done on the journey. For the benefit of future travellers I will mention that my equipment consisted of a camp-bed and bedding, candles, a large, strong, doubly oiled sheet, a folding chair, a kettle, two pots, a cup and two plates of enamelled iron, some tea which turned out musty, some flour, curry powder, and a tin of Edward’s “dessicated soup,” which came back unopened! To the oft-repeated question, “Did you eat Korean food?” I reply certainly—pheasants, fowls, potatoes, and eggs. Warm winter clothing, a Japanese kurumaya’s hat (the best of all travelling hats), and Korean string shoes completed my outfit, and I never needed anything I had not got!
The start on 7th November was managed in good time, without any of the usual delays, and I may say at once that the mapu, the bugbear and torment of travellers usually, never gave the slightest trouble. Though engaged by the day, they were ready to make long day’s journeys, were always willing and helpful, and a month later we parted excellent friends. As this is my second favorable experience, I am inclined to think that Korean mapu are a maligned class. For each pony and man, the food of both being included, I paid $1, about 2s., per day when travelling, and half that sum when halting. Mr. Yi had two ponies, I two baggage animals, on one of which Im rode, and a saddle pony, i.e. a pack pony equipped with my sidesaddle for the occasion.
Starting from the English Legation and the Customs’ buildings, we left the city by the West Gate, and passing the stone stumps which up till lately supported the carved and colored roof under which generations of Korean kings after their accession met the Chinese envoys, who came in great state to invest them with Korean sovereignty, and through the narrow and rugged defile known as the Peking Pass, we left the unique capital and its lofty clambering wall out of sight. The day was splendid even for a Korean autumn, and the frightful black pinnacles, serrated ridges, and flaming corrugations of Puk Han on the right of the road were atmospherically idealized into perfect beauty. For several miles the road was thronged with bulls loaded with faggots, rice, and pine brush, for the supply of the daily necessities of the city; then, except when passing through the villages, it became solitary enough, except for an occasional group of long-sworded Japanese travellers, or baggage ponies in charge of Japanese soldiers.
The road as far as Pa Ju lies through pretty country, small valleys either terraced for rice, which was lying out to dry on the dykes, or growing barley, wheat, millet, and cotton, surrounded by low but shapely hills, denuded of everything but oak and pine scrub, but with folds in which the Pinus sinensis grew in dark clumps, lighted up by the vanishing scarlet of the maple and the glowing crimson of the Ampelopsis Veitchii.
On the lower slopes, and usually in close proximity to the timber, are numerous villages, their groups of deep-eaved, brown-thatched roofs, on which scarlet capsicums were laid out to dry, looking pretty enough as adjuncts to landscapes which on the whole lack life and emphasis. The villages through which the road passes were seen at their best, for the roadway, serving for the village threshing floor, was daily swept for the threshing of rice and millet, the passage of travellers being a secondary consideration; everything was dry, and the white clothes of the people were consequently at their cleanliest.
At noon we reached Ko-yang, a poor place of 300 hovels, with ruinous official buildings of some size, once handsome. At this, and every other magistracy up to Phyöng-yang, from 20 to 30 Japanese soldiers were quartered in the yamens. The people hated them with a hatred which is the legacy of three centuries, but could not allege anything against them, admitting that they paid for all they got, molested no one, and were seldom seen outside the yamen gates. There the mapu halted for two hours to give their ponies and themselves a feed. This midday halt is one bone of contention between travellers and themselves. No amount of hunting and worrying them shortens the halt by more than ten minutes, and I preferred peace of spirit, only insisting that when the road admitted of it, as it frequently did, they should travel 12 li, or about three and three-quarter miles, an hour. At Ko-yang I began the custom of giving the landlord of the inn at which I halted 100 cash for the room in which I rested, which gave great satisfaction. I had my mattress laid upon the hot floor, and as Im, by instinct, secured privacy for me by fastening up mats and curtains over the paper walls and doors, these midday halts were very pleasant. Almost every house in these roadside villages and small towns has a low table of such food as Koreans love laid out under the eaves.