His Royal Highness might be compelled to
conduct his examination of it at the right distance. This had the desired
effect, and, as he now gazed at it, he found the likeness excellent and
to use his words "just like a living other-self." It seemed to him a most
inexplicable circumstance that when he got his nose close to the canvas
the picture appeared so different from what it was when inspected at the
right distance. This sitting also ended with a feast, and everything
passed off in the best of ways.

The result of this amicable intercourse with the Royal Princes was that
calls had to be duly exchanged according to the rules of Corean
etiquette. Both Princes came again in their state array to call upon me
in person, a privilege which I was told had never before been bestowed on
any Europeans, not even the Diplomatic Agents in the land, after which
upon the following day I proceeded to return their calls.

The morning was dedicated to the commander-in-chief, Prince
Min-Young-Huan. Since to go on foot, even though the distance was only a
few hundred yards from Mr. Greathouse's, where I was living, would have
been, according to Corean etiquette, a disgrace and an insult, I rode up
to his door on horseback. His house stood, surrounded by a strong wall of
masonry and with impregnable iron-banded gates, in the centre of a large
piece of ground. His ensign flew at one corner of the enclosure, and a
detachment of picked troops was always at his beck and call in the
immediate neighbourhood. At the door were sentries, and it was curious to
note the way in which guard is mounted in the land of Cho-sen.

I suppose what I am going to narrate will not be believed, but it is none
the less perfectly true. The Corean Tommy Atkins mounts guard curled up
in a basket filled with rags and cotton-wool! Even at the royal palace
one sees them. The Cho-senese warrior is not a giant; on the contrary, he
is very small, only a little over five feet, or even less, so that the
round basket which contains him is made only about four feet in diameter,
and three-and-a-half feet deep. In the inner enclosures of the royal
palace, where two soldiers at a time are on guard, the baskets are
bigger, and the two men contained in them squat or curl up together like
two birds in a nest. Their rifles are generally left standing against the
wall; but, occasionally, when the position to be guarded is a very
responsible one, they are nursed in the basket.

The