f these being
the same as that of beasts in the other case.

A ceremony is to be found in the Land of the Morning Calm which
corresponds pretty closely to "_Tutti i morti_" of Italy; I mean, the
merry picnicking of distressed parents and relatives when they go and
pray on the tombs of their dead. In Corea the occasion is usually
celebrated on the first day of the first moon, or, in other words, on
New Year's Day. The family goes soon after sunrise, _en masse_, to the
burial-place, where prayers are offered, and long sticks of incense burnt
filling the air with the perfume so familiar to all who know the East.
Food and drink are also generally brought and consumed by the mourners on
such expeditions, with the result that the day which begins with praying
generally ends with playing. Similar rejoicings are again indulged in
during the third moon, when the tombs are usually cleaned and repaired,
and the stone figures and horses washed and scrubbed, amidst the
hilarious screams of the children and the less active picnickers.

The tombs of the kings do not differ very much from those of the richest
noblemen, except that they have a kind of temple near them. At one time
it was believed that the coffins in which the royal bodies were buried,
consisted of solid gold. People who are well informed, however, maintain
that there is no foundation for this statement about the royal graves,
and that, on the contrary, they are almost as simple as those of the
richer noblemen.

A strange tale was told me, which I shall repeat, as I know it to be
true. It is to this effect: A few months previous to my visit to Seoul, a
foreigner had visited the king soliciting orders for installations of
telephones. The king, being much astounded, and pleased at the wonderful
invention, immediately, at great expense, set about connecting by
telephone the tomb of the queen dowager with the royal palace--a distance
of several miles! Needless to say, though many hours a day were spent by
His Majesty and his suite in listening at their end of the telephone,
and a watchman kept all night in case the queen dowager should wake up
from her eternal sleep, not a message, or a sound, or murmur even, was
heard, which result caused the telephone to be condemned as a fraud by
His Majesty the King of Cho-sen.

I should mention that a very good specimen of a Corean tomb is to be seen
a few _lis_ outside the East Gate, on the hillside, and that another,
somewhat smal