. After him come
ten, twenty, or more other children in their little red jackets, some
armed with a club like their leader, the others with armfuls of stones. A
good mound of this ammunition is also, as a rule, collected in the rear,
to provide for the wants of the battle. The two leaders then advance and
formally challenge each other, the main body of their forces following in
a triangle; and when, after a certain amount of hesitation, the two have
exchanged a few sonorous blows with their clubs on each other's skulls,
the battle begins in earnest, volleys of stones are fired and blows
freely distributed until the forces of one leader succeed in pushing back
and disbanding the others.

A fight of this kind, even among children, lasts for several hours, and,
as can well be imagined, at the end of it there are a great many bleeding
noses and broken teeth, besides bruises in profusion. The victor in these
fights is made much of and receives presents from his parents and the
friends of the family. The principal streets and open spaces in Seoul,
during the fighting period, are alive with these youthful combatants, and
large crowds assemble to witness their battles, taking as much interest
in them as do the Spaniards in their bull-fights, and certainly causing
as much excitement.

More serious than these, however, are the hostilities which occasionally
take place between two guilds. When I was in Seoul, there was a great
feud between the butchers and those practising the noble art of
plastering the houses with mud. Both trades are considered by the Coreans
to belong to the lowest grade of society; and, this being so, the contest
would naturally prove of an envenomed and brutal character. A day was
fixed, upon which a battle should take place, to decide whose claims were
to prevail, and a battle-field was selected on a plain just outside the
South Gate of the city. The battle-field was intersected by the same
small frozen rivulet which also crosses Seoul; and it was on the western
side, near the city wall, where stood a low hill, that on the day
appointed I took up my position to view the fight, sketch and note-book
in hand.

The two armies duly arrived, and placed themselves in position, the
butchers on one side of the stream, the plasterers on the other. There
were altogether about eighteen hundred men in the field, that is to say,
about nine hundred on each side. As I could not get a very good view from
my high point of