silver or metal bead is attached to the top of the
knot, and a small tortoiseshell ornament fastened to the hair just over
the forehead. This completes the married man's hair-dressing, with which
he is always most careful, and I must say that the black straight hair
thus arranged does set off the head very well. The illustration shows the
profile of a married man of the coolie class, who, of course, wears the
hair dressed just like the others, it being a national custom; only the
richer and smarter people, of course, wear it more tidily, and, probably,
not quite so artistically. Besides, the better class of people are not
content with the process of beautifying themselves which I have just
described, but surround the forehead, temples and back of the head with a
head-band, a curious arrangement made of woven black horse-hair, which
keeps the real hair tight under it, and not only prevents it from being
blown about, but forms a more solid basis for the wonderful hats they
wear. The nobler classes, upon whom the king has bestowed decorations in
the shape of jade, gold or silver buttons, according to the amount of
honour he has meant to accord them, wear these decorations, of all
places, behind the ears, and fastened tight to the head-band.

Thus much on the subject of the Corean's head. I shall spare you, my dear
readers, the description of his body, for it is just like any other body,
more or less well made, with the exception that it is invariably
unwashed. Instead, I shall proceed to inspect with you his wardrobe and
his clothing, which may be to you, I hope, much more interesting. To do
this, let us walk along the main street of the town, where the traffic is
generally great, and examine the people who go by. Here is a well-to-do
man, probably a merchant. Two features at once strike you: his hat, the
_kat-si_, and his shoes; and then, his funny white padded clothes. But
let us examine him carefully in detail. It is a little difficult to
decide at which end one should begin to describe him, but I imagine that
it is the customary thing to begin with the head, and so, coming close to
him, let us note how curiously his hat is made. It is just like a
Welshwoman's hat in shape, or, in other words, like a flowerpot placed on
a flat dish, as seen in the illustration; but the extraordinary thing
about the Corean hat is that it is quite transparent, and has none of the
virtues that, according to our ideas, a hat ought to possess.