Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and JapanKing, F. H. (Franklin Hiram)
Science
Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan
King, F. H. (Franklin Hiram)
Agriculture -- China; Agriculture -- Japan; Agriculture -- Korea
Both days of our journey had been bright and very warm and, although
we took the train early in the morning at Mukden, a young Japanese
anticipated the heat, entering the train clad only in his kimono and
sandals, carrying a suitcase and another bundle. He rode all day,
the most comfortably, if immodestly, clad man on the train, and the
next morning took his seat in front of us clad in the same garb, but
before the train reached Antung he took down his suitcase and then
and there, deliberately attired himself in a good foreign suit,
folding his kimono and packing it away with his sandals.
From Antung we crossed the Yalu on the ferry to New Wiju at 6:30 A.
M., June 22, and were then in quite a different country and among a
very different people, although all of the railway officials,
employes, police and guards were Japanese, as they had been from
Mukden. At Antung and New Wiju the Yalu is a very broad slow stream
resembling an arm of the sea more than a river, reminding one of the
St. Johns at Jacksonville, Florida.
June 22nd proved to be one of the national festival days in Korea,
called "Swing day", and throughout our entire ride to Seoul the
fields were nearly all deserted and throngs of people, arrayed in
gala dress, appeared all along the line of the railway, sometimes
congregating in bodies of two to three thousand or more, as seen in
Fig. 207. Many swings had been hung and were being enjoyed by the
young people. Boys and men were bathing in all sorts of "swimming
holes" and places. So too, there were many large open air gatherings
being addressed by public speakers, one of which is seen in Fig.
208.
Nearly everyone was dressed in white outer garments made from some
fabric which although not mosquito netting was nearly as open and
possessed of a remarkable stiffness which seemed to take and retain
every dent with astonishing effect and which was sufficiently
transparent to reveal a third undergarment. The full outstanding
skirts of five Korean women may be seen in Fig. 209, and the
trousers which went with these were proportionately full but tied
close about the ankles. The garments seemed to be possessed of a
powerful repulsion which held them quite apart and away from the
person, no doubt contributing much to comfort. It was windy but one
of those hot sultry, sticky days, and it made one feel cool to see
these open garments surging in the wind.
The Korean men, like the Chinese, wear the hair long but not braided
in a queue. No part of the head is shaved but the hair is wound in a
tight coil on the top of the head, secured by a pin which, in the
case of the Korean who rode in our coach from Mukden to Antung, was
a modern, substantial tenpenny wire nail. The tall, narrow, conical
crowns of the open hats, woven from thin bamboo splints, are
evidently designed to accommodate this style of hair dressing as
well as to be cool.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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