fourteen to twenty feet long; the top of the roof being about fourteen. The walls are of stone and mud, the door moves on the bar, which forms one of its sides; this bar is prolonged, and works in holes in the beam above, and a stone below. There was a back door to the house which we examined. On opening this we found a bare bank of earth as high as the house, at the distance of three feet from the walls, and a hedge rising still higher on the top; this effectually excluded all light. This minute survey of the house being completed, we returned to our friends, who seemed in some measure re-assured. We tried to prevail upon them to accompany us in our walk, in hopes that the rest of the cottagers might be induced to return when they saw how peaceably we were disposed. Captain Maxwell used every sign he could think of to no purpose, and tired at length of these attempts, took hold of the oldest man's hand, drew it through his arm, and walked off with him. I followed his example with the other; and this familiarity amused the natives, who now accompanied us in perfect good humour. The ease and apparent indifference with which they walked along with us was curious, and had so little of awkwardness in it, that one might have supposed it to be the fashion of Corea to walk arm in arm. Having reached the house which we had before examined, we sat down in the verandah, and made signs that we wished to smoke a pipe with them. In the meantime a boat was observed to come to the landing-place; the crew quitted her and came towards us at a rapid pace. The quick manner of these people, so different from the ordinary behaviour of the Coreans we had seen, made us apprehend that some violence was meditated; but in this we were mistaken, for they sat down with us, gave us their pipes to smoke, and laughed immoderately at some of our words: we took the hint from them, and laughed heartily whenever we observed that any thing good had been said amongst them; this was well received, and proved afterwards a good mode of introduction.