p with five strings, if I
remember right, and the more complicated sort of lute with twenty-five
strings, the _kossiul_; a large guitar, and a smaller one; the _kanyako_
being also in frequent use. Most of these instruments are played by
women; the flutes, however, are also played by men.

CHAPTER VI

Corean children--The family--Clans--Spongers--Hospitality--Spinning-tops
--Toys--Kite-flying--Games--How babies are sent to sleep.

One great feature of Cho-sen life are the children. One might almost say
that in Cho-sen you very seldom see a boy, for boyhood is done away with,
and from childhood you spring at once to the sedate existence of a
married man. Astonishing as this may sound, it is nevertheless true. The
free life of a child comes to an end generally when he is about eight or
nine years of age. At ten he is a married man, but only, as we shall see
later, nominally. For the present, however, we shall limit ourselves to a
consideration of his bachelor days.

[Illustration: COREAN MARRIED MAN, AGE 12]

It must be known that in Corea, just as here, boys are much more
cherished than girls, and the elder of the boys is more cherished than
his younger brothers, should there be more than one in a family,
notwithstanding that the younger are better-looking, cleverer and more
studious. When the father dies, the eldest son assumes the reins of the
family, and his brothers look to him as they had before done to their
father. He it is who inherits the family property and nearly all the
money, though it is an understood rule that he is bound either to divide
the inheritance share and share alike with the rest of the family, or
else keep them as the father had done. Thus it is that Corean families
are, for the most part kept together; one might almost say that the
kingdom is divided into so many clans, each family with the various
relations making, so to speak, one of them. Family ties are much regarded
in the Land of the Morning Calm, and great interest is taken by the
distant relations in anything concerning the happiness and welfare of the
family. What is more, if any member of the clan should find himself in
pecuniary troubles, all the relations are expected to help him out of
them, and what is even more marvellous still, they willingly do it,
without a word of protest. The Corean is hospitable by nature, but with
relations, of course, things go much further. The house belonging to one
practically belongs to t