Of the seaweeds there are several different kinds: some of them are used as fertilizers, some are used for food and some are sold to the Japanese for making carbonate of soda. The first kind is gathered on the seashore, but the other two have to be obtained from the bottom of the sea. It is strange to say that the diving for these weeds as well as for the pearl oysters is entirely done by women. Dressed in a kind of bathing suit with a sickle in one hand and a gourd with bag tied to it in front of them, they swim out from the shore as far as half a mile: boats cannot be afforded and they dive, probably a depth of forty or fifty feet, to the bottom, cut the weeds with the sickle, or if they find a pearl oyster, tear it off from the stone, and then put it into the bag which is kept floating by the gourd. They do not go back before the bag is filled, which often takes more than half an hour. Altho they are magnificent swimmers, one cannot help admiring their endurance, when he thinks that this work is begun in February. Of late Japanese supplied with diving apparatus, have been coming to Quelpart and catching all the pearl oysters, so that the poor women have to be satisfied with the weeds only. The magistrates told us that these Japanese never asked for permission nor paid anything for catching the pearl oysters. If it is so, the imposition upon the weak Koreans is surprising.
The Quelpart women not only dive for weeds and oysters but do the largest part of all work. Even ox loads of grain are brought to the city market for sale by women. The carrying of the water is done entirely by the women, who have often to go a long distance to fetch it. For carrying the water they use broad low pitchers set in a basket, which is fastened with strings around the shoulders and carried on the back. I never saw this done anywhere else in Korea as it is considered very disgraceful for a woman to carry anything on her back. I was told by the Koreans whom we had with us, that if on the mainland a man made his wife to do so he would be driven out of the village. Native hats, hair bands and skull-caps, which are extensively manufactured on the island are also mostly made by women. In fact the women of Quelpart might be called the Amazonians of Korea. They not only do all the work but greatly exceed the men in number, and on the streets one meets three women to one man. This is because so many men are away sailing. The women are more robust and much better looking than their sisters on the mainland. As almost everything is done by the women, there remains nothing else for the men to do but to loaf, and to do them credit they do it well. Except for a shop here and there in which a man is presiding with a long pipe in his mouth, it is very difficult to find a man doing anything. For this, however, they are not any better off, as all the islanders seem to be strikingly poor. Not only the food, but the clothes and houses are much worse than on the mainland. Dog skins are extensively used for making clothes. Hats, the shape of a tea-cup, overcoats, leggings, like those worn by the Chinese, and stockings are all made of dog skin with the hair outside, which for greater warmth are used untanned. A suit of such clothes is handed down from generation to generation, and the smell of it is far from being sweet. The women’s clothes as well the men’s trousers and shirts are made of native or Manchester sheeting. To make the sheeting stronger they dip it into the juice pressed out of some kind of a wild persimmon. This makes it a dirty brown color, which saves the trouble of washing it. The cloth is thus worn until it falls to pieces. Besides skin hats the men also use felt hats of the same shape as those worn by the Seoul chair coolies, only much larger, the brims measuring more than two feet in diameter. The one exception in respect of clothes is made by the people in the magistracies who wear the same white clothes and black hats as the people on the mainland.
The houses consist of one six foot room and an open kitchen. The walls, ceiling and floor of the room are bare, and the floor has no flues for heating it. Instead of this a large hole is dug in the floor of the kitchen and in the cold weather a fire is kept there day and night. Around this fire they eat, work, and sleep. This again is different in the cities where the houses are much the same as on the mainland. All the houses with a few exceptions are thatched. On account of the strong winds the thatch is fastened by a net of straw ropes two inches thick and eight inches apart.
The needs of the people for things outside of their own products seem to be so small that a few shops supply them all. In the capital, Chai-Joo, there are some eight small shops; in Tai-Chung one; and in Chung-Ui perhaps one. These are probably the only shops on the whole island and from them the people obtain the few needed foreign articles, such as shirting, dyes, thread, needles, nails, etc. The periodical markets which are held on the mainland and in all the towns and many villages every five days, are altogether absent, and on the whole trading seems to be yet in its infancy. The things exported from Quelpart are pearl oyster, seaweed, native medicine, cosmetic oil, horse and cow hides, horses and cattle. The cosmetic oil is pressed from the seeds of the fruit of the Ditnea Strawmium or, as the Koreans call it, Tang Paik. This tree grows abundantly all over the southern part of the island. It is evergreen and blooms in February with beautiful crimson flowers. On the mainland this tree is very rare.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
The Magic Ox-Cure.
A wealthy country gentleman, whom we will call Mr. Cho, tiring of the otium cum dignitate of provincial life and wishing to throw himself into the vortex of official activity, came up to Seoul and became the ante-room loafer and flatterer in general to one of the highest dignitaries in the land. Morning and evening he inquired assiduously after his patron’s health and backed up his words with frequent and costly gifts. Of course this began to tell upon his finances and after ten years of perseverance he received word from his family in the country that he was bankrupt and that as his household were about to die of starvation they must write and let him know.
This disclosure aroused Mr. Cho to violent anger against the official who had so long accepted his gifts with complacency but had never suggested any equivalent in the shape of a government position. He hurried to the official’s house and explained that as his property was all gone be must return to his shattered home and his starving family.
“Very well,” replied the official. “Of course you will consult your own convenience.” This made Cho’s anger burn seven times hot. He stalked from the room and posted to his country place vowing that he would find some way to bring the unfeeling official to terms.