and I shall not bear you any malice. My
present object is to describe some of the punishments inflicted on
criminals, and, though they are, as a whole, quaint and original, I
cannot say that they are pleasing, either to see or to read about.

First of all, you may not be aware that there is in Seoul a sharp and
well-regulated body of police, always ready to pounce on outlaws of any
kind; and that there is hardly a crime committed, the delinquent in which
fails to be immediately collared. These guardians of the peace do not
wear any particular uniform, but are dressed just like the merchant
classes; and thus it is that, unknown, they can mix with people of all
sorts, and frequently discover crimes of which they would otherwise
probably never hear. Instead of being mere policemen, they rather do the
work of detectives and policemen combined; for, by ably disguising
themselves, they try to get on familiar terms with people about whom they
are suspicious; and in many a case, after having become a bosom-friend of
one of these officials and acknowledged and confessed his evil deeds to
him, the culprit finds himself arrested and very likely beheaded.

In speaking of their mode of arrest, I purposely used the word
"collared"; for no better term can express the action of the Corean
policeman. The man is taken before the magistrate soon after his arrest,
and should he offer resistance he is dragged before him by his top-knot
or his pig-tail, according respectively as he is a married man or a
bachelor. If he is strong and restive, a rope with a sliding knot is
passed round his neck, after his hands have been firmly tied behind his
back. After his interview with the magistrate at the _yamen_, if he be
found guilty, he is generally treated with very great severity.

If the crime has been only of the minor degree the culprit undergoes the
plank-walk, a punishment tiresome enough, but not too harsh for Coreans.
The following is a rough description of it. A heavy wooden plank, about
twelve feet long and two feet wide, with an aperture in the centre, is
used, the man's head being passed through the aperture and then secured
in it in such a way that he cannot remove it. Thus arrayed he is made to
walk through the streets of the town, his head distorted by the weight he
has to carry, and his body restrained by the dragging of the plank either
in front of him or at his back. The passers-by point at him the finger of
scorn, as, in his hel