considering our village religion, so that the reader may approach the subject from a wide view-point.
Our village religion is truly and simply religion, not some particular system of religion. It cannot be called Confucianism, it is not Buddhism, neither is it fetichism pure and simple. Our village people are spirit worshipers, and they are willing to add anything to their religion that will help them to be on good terms with the spirits. The educated gentleman will tell you that he is a follower of the great teacher, Confucius, but you have only to look around his house to find many objects of spirit worship that have no connection whatever with Confucianism. And so it is with another, who claims to be devoted to Buddhism; he does not exclude from his system much that belongs to Confucianism or to fetichism. There is doubtless much in the religious practices and beliefs of our village people which has been handed down from a past so remote and misty that no one can even guess where it had its origin. This is not true of Buddhism, which came into Korea about the middle of the fourth century, or of Confucianism, which made its appearance in this country not far from the same date. Long before that date the Koreans had religion, and much of the ancient system has been retained and is in practice at the present time.
To the mind of the Korean the whole universe is filled with spirits, which inhabit earth, water, and sky. They are of different ranks, and among them are to be found all sorts of good, bad, and indifferent ones. Some are spirits pure and simple, and never had a
