However, we had not long to wait. The deputy or vice-magistrate was shortly afterwards announced, and before he left, he gave Mr. Underwood to understand that his honor the magistrate had been imbibing rather freely and was not altogether responsible for his honorable (?) conduct, and that he, the deputy, hoped, therefore, that we would overlook his slight playfulness in arresting and beating our poor innocent people. These little aberrations were, he said, quite frequent, and of course when once we understood what was to be expected and the reason, no concern need be felt. We were, of course, immensely comforted and soothed by this explanation, and rested with quiet minds in the happy consciousness that it was entirely uncertain what sort of magisterial and honorable earthquake or cyclone might strike us next; assured it would be all right, as he intended no harm in his sane moments. The poor deputy, in a strait betwixt two (the magistrate near at hand, and the Foreign Office in Seoul, represented by our passport), had been trying to smooth over the magistrate’s uncivil reception of the passported foreigners, by offerings of said chickens, eggs, etc., and this was the explanation of the strange combination of presents and punishments. Drunkenness is, I am sorry to say, very common in Korea. The people do not, as in Japan and China, raise tea, and even the wealthiest have apparently only recently learned the use of either tea or coffee, which the common people are far too poor to buy. Milk, strange to say, they have never used, and they are therefore without a harmless beverage which they can offer their friends on convivial occasions. As it is, they resort only too generally to wines and some very strong alcoholic drinks, which they make themselves.