which you cannot live up to, you are only made wretched, and
your education makes you feel all the more keenly the miseries of human
life. Besides, with very few exceptions, as one is born an artist, or a
poet, one has to be born a gentleman to be one. All the education in the
world may make you a nice man, but not a noble in _the_ strict sense of
the word."

Partly, in consequence of habits of thought like this, and partly,
because it answers to leave the public in ignorance, superstition, which
is one of the great evils in the country, is rather encouraged. Not alone
the lower classes, but the whole people, including nobles and the King
himself, suffer by it. It is a remarkable fact, that, a people who in
many ways are extremely open-minded, and more philosophic than the
general run of human beings, can allow themselves to be hampered in this
way by such absurd notions as spirits and their evil ways.

A royal palace, different to, but not very far from, the one described in
the previous chapter, was abandoned not very long ago for the simple
reason that it was haunted. Thus, there are no less than two palaces in
the capital, that have been built at great expense, but deserted in
order to evade the visits of those most tiresome impalpable individuals,
"the Ghosts." One of these haunted abodes we have inspected, with its
tumble-down buildings; the other I will now describe.

[Illustration: THE HAUNTED ROYAL PALACE]

The buildings comprising this palace are still in a very excellent state
of preservation, and, being erected on hilly ground, form a very
picturesque ensemble. The different houses are of red lacquered wood,
with verandahs on the upper floors. The illustration shows a front view
of one of the principal buildings, situated on the summit of the hill. At
the foot of this hill, by a winding path and steps, a picturesque little
gate and another house is reached. A little pond with water-plants in it,
frozen in the midst of the thick ice, completes this haunted spot. The
largest of all the structures is the audience-hall, richly and grandly
decorated inside with wooden carvings, painted red, white, blue and
yellow. The curled-up roofs are surmounted at each corner with curious
representations of lucky emblems, among which the tiger has a leading
place.

Talking of tigers, I may as well speak of a strange custom prevailing in
Corea. The country, as I have already pointed out, is full of these
brutes, which, b