cymbals down a well, depositing him in it after them, that we were rid of the agonies of this additional nuisance. [Illustration: WITHOUT THE WALLS OF SEOUL] CHAPTER XXI Drought—Starvation—Inland Disturbances—Rainfall and disease It is difficult for us in England to understand how far-reaching may be the evils, resulting from the complete failure of the rainfall, in countries where the population relies upon it for their daily bread. A brief mention, in the Press, of the lateness of the monsoon gives no sign of the anxiety with which many millions of people are regarding the approaching harvest. Water means life to the rice-fields, and a drought implies, not alone the failure of a staple crop, but famine, with disorder and starvation, disease and death, as its accompaniments. A drought in the rice-fields makes a holocaust of the people in the winter. The forces of law and order at the disposal of the Government of India place some restraint upon the populace. In the Far East, where the civil administration is incompetent to deal with the exigencies of the situation, and the systematic dispensation of relief is unknown, the decimation of the population and the complete upheaval of the social fabric follows closely upon the break-down in nature. Indirectly, too, the consequences of famine in India prove this. An even more emphatic evidence of the effects of a drought, where the population live upon the rice crop, is afforded by the appalling loss of life and the grave eruption of disorder, which took place in Korea as the consequence of the famine in 1901. Widespread ruin overtook the country; the inland districts were thronged with mobs of desperate people. Persons, normally peace-loving and law-abiding, banded together to harass the country-side, in the hope of extorting sufficient food to keep their families and themselves from starvation. Hunger drove whole communities from the villages to the towns, where no provision for their welfare existed. Anarchy prevailed throughout the country, the dire needs of the population goading them to desperation. A horde of beggars invaded the capital. Deeds of violence made the streets of Seoul unsafe after darkness, and bandits carried on their depredations openly in the Metropolitan Province. From a peaceful and happy land of sunshine and repose, Korea was transformed, in a few months, into a wilderness of misery, poverty, and unrest.