Korea & Her Neighbours/Chapter XXXV

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 prac- tised magic, and the " supernatural call." This call, of which much is made, consists in the assurance of dsemoniacal posses- sion, the daemon being supposed to seize upon the woman, and to become in fact her doppe I ganger, so completely is his personality superimposed on hers. The daemon is almost inva- riably a member of the Korean "Daemoneon" Mr. Jones mentions a woman who claims that her indwelling daemon 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 daemons, 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 daemon call the woman snaps every tie of cus- tom 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 Daemons, gaining power by cabalistic formulae or ritual to drive them off, or even bury them, while the mu-tafig supplicates and propitiates them. It is impossible to live in a place which has not a 7nu-fang 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 daemons, which are divided into the occasional and periodic, the latter being Daemon 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 daemon 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 7jm-tang, and arrange for the paraphernalia and the offerings to the daemons. It is essential that the festival day should be chosen by divination, by either a S'dn-li or a Pan-su acquainted with magic, and that the sorcerers should bathe frequently and ab- stain from animal food for seven previous days.

The village daemon festival has a resemblance at some points to the Shinto matsiiri of Japan. On the festa day a booth, much decorated with tags of brilliant color, is erected near the daemons' 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 daemons 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.

The private festa, the Chol-muri Kaut, one of thanksgiving to the household daemons, 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, tmt-tang 2,xt hired, and the fetishes of the daemons 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 mti-tang, and through her makes oracular revelations of the future. At another stage deceased parents and ancestors appear in the mti-tangj 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 daemon shrines outside the city walls, and not in private houses.

One of the very common occasions which requires the pres- ence of a mu-tang is the ceremonial known as the Rite of Pu- rification, defilement being contracted by a birth or death or any action which brings in an unclean daemon, whose obnox- ious entrance moves the guardian or friendly daemons 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 formulae by the mu-tang f the mont-gari, or tutelary spirit is found, and by means of prayers and offerings is induced to resume his place, and the unclean daemon is exorcised and expelled. The beat- ing 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 Ko- reans, so strong is the belief in the complete daemoniacal pos- session of the mu-fang, 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 commer- cial 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-ta7tg, by an appeal to her familiar daemon, 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 imi-tang, and in the din thus created she hears the utterance of the daemon.

The arranging for the sale of children to daemons is a farther function of the mti-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 daemon by the imi- tang with fitting rites. Thenceforward, on the 15th day of the ist 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 daemon 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 daemon 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 concern- ing the sale of the child are written, are laid up in her own house in the room devoted to her daemon. 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 daemons ordinarily, but which, on great occasions, are used as banners. At the Peri- odic Festivals offerings are made on behalf of these children, who, though they live with their parents, know the sorceress or mu-taiig as Shin, and are considered her children.

The mu-tang rites are specially linked with the house d^mon and with Mama the smallpox daemon. The house daemon 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 dis- appears 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 ofiice 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 mit-ta7ig 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 daemon. This ceremony involves a family in very considerable expense.

The universal belief that illness is the work of daemons 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 daemon, instead of being ex- orcised, bottled, or buried, is treated with the utmost respect. The name by which the disease is called, "Mama," is the daemon'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 1 2th day, when the mu-tang is again summoned, and a farewell banquet is given. A miniature wooden horse is pre- pared, 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 worship- pers of Buddha, after the gross and debased cult which exists in Korea, and place his picture along with those of the dae- mons 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.

The daemons whose professed servants the Shamans are, and whose yoke lies heavy on Korea, are rarely even mythical beings, who might possibly have existed in human shape. They are legion. They dwell in all matter and pervade all space. They are a horde without organization, destitute of genus, species, and classification, created out of Korean superstitions, debased Buddhism, and Chinese mythical legend. There have been no native attempts at their arrangement, and what- ever has been done in this direction is due to the labors of Mr. G. H. Jones and Dr. Landis, from whose lists a few may be chosen as specimens.

The 0-ba7ig-chang-kun are five, and some of the more impor- tant preside over East Heaven, South, West, North, and Middle. In Shaman's houses shrines are frequently erected to them, bearing their collective name to which worship is paid. They are held in high honor and are prominent in Pan-su rites. At the entrance of many villages on the south branch of the Han the villagers represent them by posts with tops rudely carved into hideous caricatures of humanity, which are ofttimes deco- rated with straw tassels, and receive offerings of rice and fruit as village protectors.

The Shin-chang are daemon generals said to number 80,000, each one at the head of a daemon host. They fill the earth and air, and are specially associated with the Pan-stt, who are capable of summoning them by magic formulae to aid in divi- nation and exorcism. Shrines to single members of this mili- tant host occur frequently in Central Korea, each one contain- ing a highly-colored daub of a gigantic mediaeval warrior, and the words, " I, the Spirit — dwell in this place."

The Tok-gabi are the most dreaded and detested, as well as the best known of all the daemon horde. Yet they seem nondescripts, and careful and patient examination has only succeeded in relegating them to the class of such myths as the Will o' the Wisp, and Jack o' Lantern, elevated, however, in Korea to the status of genuine devils with fetishes of their own. They are regarded as having human originals in the souls of those who have come to sudden or violent ends. They are bred on execution grounds and battlefields, and wherever men perish in numbers. They go in overwhelming legions, and not only dwell in empty houses but in inhabited villages, terrifying the inhabitants. They it was who, by taking posses- sion of the fine Audience Hall of the Mulberry Palace in' Seoul, rendered the buildings untenable, frightful tales being told and believed of nocturnal daemon orgies amidst those doleful splendors. People leave their houses and build new ones because of them. Their fetishes may be such things as a mapu^ s hat or the cloak of 2iyamen clerk, rotten with age and dirt, enshrined under a small straw booth. Besides the devilry attributed to the Tok-gabi they are accused of many pranks, such as placing the covers of iron pots inside them, and pounding doors and windows all night, till it seems as if they would be smashed, yet leaving no trace of their work.

The actually unclean spirits, the Sagem, the criminal class of the vast *^ DcBmoneon^^^ infest Korean life like vermin, wandering about embracing every opportunity of hurting and molesting man. Against these both Pan-su and um-tang wage continual war by their enchantments, the Pan-su by their exorcisms, either driving them off or catching them and burying them in disgrace, while the mu-tang propitiate them and send them off in honor.

Another great group of daemons is the San-Shin Ryong — the spirits of the mountains. I found their shrines in all the hilly country, along both branches of the Han, by springs and streams, and specially under the shade of big trees, and on ampelopsis covered rocks, a flat rock being a specially appro- priate site from its suitability for an altar, and thus specially "fortunate." The daemon who is the tutelary spirit of ginseng, the most valuable export of Korea, is greatly honored. So also is the patron daemon of deer hunters, who is invari- ably represented in his shrine as a fierce looking elderly man in official dress riding a tiger. Surrounding him are altars to his harem, and there are also female demons, mountain spirits, who are pictured as women, frequently Japanese.

The tiger which abounds in Central and Northern Korea is understood to be the confidential servant of these mountain daemons, and when he commits depredations, the people, be- lieving the daemon of the vicinity to be angry, hurry with offerings to his nearest shrine. The Koreans consider it a good omen when they see in their dreams the mountain dae- mon, either as represented in his shrine, or under the form of his representative, the tiger. These mountain daemons are specially sought by recluses, and people ofttimes retire into solitary mountain glens, where by bathing, fasting, and offer- ings they strive to gain their favor. These spirits, believed to be very powerful, are much feared by farmers, and by villagers living near high mountains. They think that if when they are out on the hillsides cutting wood they forgot to cast the first spoonful of rice from the bowl to the daemon, they will be punished by a severe fall or cut, or some other accident. These spirits are capricious and exacting, and for every little neglect take vengeance on the members of a farmer's household or on his crops or cattle.

The Long-shin^ or Dragon daemons, are water spirits. They have no shrines, but the Shamans conduct a somewhat expensive ceremony by the sea and riversides in which they present them with offerings for the repose of the souls of drowned persons.

The phase of Daemonolatry which is the most common and the first to arrest a traveller's attention is also the most obscure. The Sojtg Whoafig Dan (altar of the Holy Prince), the great Korean altar, rudely built of loose stones under the shade of a tree, from the branches of which are suspended such worthless ex votos as strips of paper, rags, small bags of rice, old clouts, and worn-out shoes, look less like an altar than a decaying cairn of large size.¹ A peculiarity of the Song Whoang Dan is that they are generally supposed to be frequented by various daemons, though occasionally they are crowned by a shrine to a single spirit. Korean travellers make their special plea to a travellers' daemon who is supposed to be found there, and hang up strips of their goods in the overhanging branches, and the sailor likewise regards the altar as the shrine of his guardian daemon, and bestows a bit of old rope upon it. Further than this, when some special bird or beast has destroyed insects in- jurious to agriculture, the people erect a shrine to it on these altars or cairns, on which may frequently be seen the rude daub of a bird or animal.

Two spirits, the To-ti-chi Shin and the Cho7i-Shin, are regarded as local daemons, and occupy spots on the mountain sides. They receive worship at funerals, and a sacrifice similar to that offered in ancestral worship is made to them before the body is laid in the earth. Two Shamans preside over this, and one of them intones a ritual belonging to the occasion. The shrine of Chon-Shin is a local temple, a small decayed erection usually found outside villages. In Seoul he has a mud or plaster shrine is which his picture is enshrined with much ceremony, but in the country his fetish is usually a straw booth set up over a pair of old shoes under a tree. For the observances connected with him all the residents in a neighborhood are taxed. He may be regarded as the chief daemon in every district, and it is in his honor that the mu-tang celebrate the triennial festival formerly described.\

The Household Spirits are the last division of the Korean Daemoneon. Song 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 Fan-su, to the crossbeam. Prostrations and invocations marked this stage. When the building of the house was com- pleted, an auspicious day was again chosen by divination, and a great ceremony was performed by the mu-tang for the en- shrining of the daemon 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 Songju was sup- posed to have had time to feed spiritually on the offerings, they were placed before the guests, and a great entertainment followed.

Tiju, or the lord of the site, is the next great daemon, 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 offer- ings, which are of food, are made on the ist, 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 daemon, 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 daemons who are attached to the family and not the house, the first of them being Cho IVajig, 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 IVang is often the daemon familiar of a mu-tang.

Ti Ju No. 2, is the fate or luck of the family, and every household is ambitious 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 daemons is an ancient and his- torical daemon, Choi Sok, who is regarded as the grandfather of San Chin-ch'oi Sok, the daemon of nativity. His fetish, un- less it becomes rotten or is accidentally destroyed, descends from father to sou. He has several fetishes, and when he re- ceives homage at the Triennial Festival, the mu-tang puts on the dress of an official. He is the daemon of nativity and the giver of posterity, and is a triple daemon. Korean women hearing of the Christian Trinity have been known to say that Sail chill enables them to understand the mystery ! He is be- lieved to have the control of all children up to the age of four. He avenges ceremonial defilement such as the sight by an ex- pectant 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 daemon of riches, is the Japanese Daikoku and the British Mainmon. 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 daemon who takes charge of the external fortunes of the family, and is also the mercury of the household daemons. 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 daemon of the gate whose fetish hangs over the entrance.

Dr. Landis has classified the Korean daemons as follows: —

Spirits high in rank

1. Spirits of the Heavens.

2. Spirits of the Earth.

3. Spirits of the Mountains and Hills.

4. Spirits of the Dragons.

5. Guardian Spirits of the District.

6. Spirits of the Buddhist Faith (?)

Spirits of the House

7. Spirit of the ridge pole. This is the chief of all the spirits of the House.

8. Spirit of goods and furniture.

9. Spirit daemon of the Yi family.

10. Spirit of the kitchen.

11. Attendant spirits of No. 9.

12. Spirits which serve one's ancestors.

13. The Guards and servants of No. 9.

14. The Spirits which aid jugglers.

15. Spirits of goods and chattels, like No, 8, but inferior in rank.

16. Spirits of smallpox.

17. Spirits which take the forms of animals.

18. Spirits which take possession of young girls and change them into exorcists.

19. Spirits of the seven stars which form the Dipper.

20. Spirits of the house site.

Various kinds of Spirits

21. Spirits which make men brave.

22. Spirits which reside in trees. Any gnarled shrub or malformed tree is supposed to be the residence of one of these spirits. Spirits which cause persons to meet either a violent death or to die young. Any one who has died before reaching a cycle {i.e. 60 years) is supposed to have died owing to the influence of one of these spirits. It is needless to say that they are all evil.

23. Spirits which cause tigers to eat men.

24. Spirits which cause men to die on the road.

25. Spirits which roam about the house causing all sorts of calamities.

26. Spirits which cause a man to die away from home.

27. Spirits which cause men to die as substitutes for others.

28. Spirits which cause men to die by strangulation.

29. Spirits which cause men to die by drowning.

30. Spirits which cause women to die in childbirth.

31. Spirits which cause men to die by suicide.

32. Spirits which cause men to die by fire.

33. Spirits which cause men to die by being beaten.

34. Spirits which cause men to die by falls.

35. Spirits which cause men to die by pestilence.

36. Spirits which cause men to die by cholera.

The belief in the efficacy of the performances of the jnu- tang is enormous. In sickness the very poor half starve them- selves and pawn their clothing to pay for her exorcisms. Her power has been riveted upon the country for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The order is said to date back 4,000 years, to have been called in China, where it was under official regulations, mu-ham. Five hundred years ago the founder of the present dynasty prohibited mu-tang from living within the walls of Seoul — hence their houses and temples are found outside the city walls.

Women are not mu-tang by birth, but of late years it has become customary for the girl children of a sorceress to go out with her and learn her arts, which is tending to give the profession a hereditary aspect. It is now recruited partly in this fashion, partly from among hysterical girls, and partly for a livelihood, but outside of these sources, a daemon may take possession of any woman, wife, maid, or widow, rich or poor, plebeian or patrician, and compel her to serve him. At the beginning of the possession she becomes either slightly or seriously ill, and her illness may last four weeks or three years, during which time she dreams of a dragon, a rainbow, peach trees in blossom, or of a man in armor who is suddenly meta- morphosed into an animal. Under the influence of these dreams she becomes like an insane person, and when awake sees many curious things, and before long speaks as an oracle of the spirits.

She then informs her family that messengers from Heaven, Earth, and the Lightning have informed her that if she is not allowed to practise exorcism, they or their domestic animals will die. Should they insist on secluding her, her illness shortly terminates fatally. If a daughter of a noble family becomes possessed, they probably make away with her, in the idea that if madness takes this turn, the disgrace would be indelible.

But things usually go smoothly, and on being allowed to have her own way the first thing she does is to go into a vacant room and fill it with flowers as an offering to the daemons. Then she must obtain the clothing and professional parapher^ nalia of a deceased mii-tang. The clothing may be destroyed after the daemon has taken full possession of his new recruit, but the drums and other instruments must be retained. After the possessions of the deceased mu-tang have been bestowed on the new one who claims them, she proceeds to exorcise such bad spirits as may be infesting the donor's house, so as to en- able his family to live in peace, after which she writes his name on a tablet, and placing it in a small room invokes bless- ings on him for three years.

After this ceremonial has been observed the mu-tang, fully possessed by a daemon, begins to exercise her very important and lucrative profession. Her equipment consists of a number of dresses, some of them very costly, a drum shaped like an hour- glass, four feet in length, copper cymbals, a copper rod, with tinklers suspended from it by copper chains, strips of silk and paper banners which float round her as she dances, fans, um- brellas, wands, images of men and animals, brass or copper gongs, and a pair of telescope-shaped baskets for scratching, chiefly used in cases of cholera, which disease is supposed to result from rats climbing about in the human interior. The scratching sound made by a peculiar use of these baskets, which resembles the noise made by cats, is expected to scare and drive away these rodents.

The preliminaries of exorcism are that the mu-tang must subject herself to certain restraints varying from a month to three days, during which time she must abstain from flesh and fish, and must partially fast. Before an exorcism ashes are steeped in water and the sorceress takes of this, and sprinkles it as she walks round the house, afterwards taking pure water and going through the same ceremony.

The almost fabulous sums squeezed by the mu-tang out of the people of Seoul are given in a previous chapter. It will be observed that in Korea sickness is always associated with daemoniacal possession, and that the services of the Pa7i-su^ or mu-tangy are always requisitioned, European medicine and surgery are the most successful assailants of this barbarous and degrading system which holds the whole nation, in many respects highly civilized, in bondage, and the influence of both as practised in connection with "Medical Missions" is tending increasingly in the direction of emancipation.

It would be impossible to say how far the nw-tang is self- deceived. In some of her dances, especially in one in which she exorcises " The daemon of the Yi family," one of the most powerful and malignant of the daemon hierachy, she works herself into such a delirious frenzy that she falls down foaming at the mouth, and death is occasionally the result of the frantic excitement.

The "Daemon of the Yi Family" is invoked in every district once in three years by the mu-tafig in a formula which has been translated thus — "Oh Master and Mistress of our Kingdom, may you ever exist in peace. Once in every three years we invoke you with music and dancing. Oh make this house to be peaceful." If this malignant spirit arrives at a house he can only be appeased by the death of a man, an ox, or a pig. Therefore when the mu-tang becomes aware that he has come to a house or neighborhood, a pig is at once killed, boiled, and offered up entire — the exorcist takes two knives and dances a sword dance, working herself into a "fine frenzy," after which a box is made and a Korean official hat and robes are placed within it, as well as a dress suitable for a palace lady. The box is then placed on the top of the family clothes chest, and sacrifices are frequently offered there. This daemon is regarded as the spirit of a rebellious Crown Prince, the sole object of whose daemon existence is to injure all with whom he can come into contact.

A man sometimes marries a mu-tang, but he is invariably "a fellow of the baser sort," who desires to live in idleness on the earnings of his wife. If, as is occasionally the case, the mu- tang belongs to a noble family, she is only allowed to exorcise spirits in her own house, and when she dies she is buried in a hole in a mountain side with the whole paraphernalia of her profession. Some mu-tang do not go abroad for purposes of exorcism. These may be regarded as the aristocracy of their profession, and many of them are of much repute and live in the suburbs of Seoul. Those who desire their services send the necessary money and offerings, and the viu-tang exorcise the spirits in their own houses.

The use of straw, ropes, and of pieces of paper resembling the Shinto gohet, during incantations, with a certain similarity between the Shinto and the Shaman ceremonies, might suggest a common origin, but our knowledge of the Daemonism of Korea is so completely in its infancy, that any speculations as to its kinships can be of little value, and it is only as a very slight contribution to the sum of knowledge of an obscure but very interesting subject, that I venture to present these chapters to my readers.

The Koreans, it must be remarked, have no single word for Daemonism or Shamanism. The only phrase in use to express their belief in daemons who require to be propitiated is, Kiir- sin wi han-na7i Kot (the worship of Spirits). Piilto is Bud- dhism, Yuto Confucianism, and Sd7ito Taoism, but the termi- nation 7b, " doctrine," has not yet been affixed to Daemonism.

¹Mr. G. H. Jones suggests the idea that these uncouth heap of stones were originally munitions of war over which tutelary daemons were supposed to brood, and thinks that the transition to an altar would be a very natural one.