These two races, coming from the North in the one case and drifting up from the South in the other, at the time of the Ayraan invasion of India, peopled the north and south of Korea. Finally merging among themselves, they gave to the world a composite nation, distinct in types, habits, and speech, and amalgamated only by a rare train of circumstances over which they could have had no control. It is by the facial resemblances that the origin of the Koreans may be traced to a Caucasian race. The speech of the country, while closely akin to Chinese, reproduces sounds and many verbal denominations which are found in the languages of India. Korea has submitted to the influence of Chinese arts and literature for centuries, but there is little actual agreement between the legends of the two countries. The folk-lore of China is in radical disagreement with the vague and shadowy traditions of the people of Korea. There is a vast blank in the early history of Korea, at a period when China is represented by many unimpaired records. Research can make no advance in face of it; surmise and logical reflections from extraneous comparisons alone can supply the requisite data. Posterity is thus presented with an unrecorded chapter of the world’s history, which at the best can be only faintly sketched. [Illustration: MEANS OF LOCOMOTION] CHAPTER IV The heart of the capital—Domestic Economy—Female slavery—Standards of morality—A dress rehearsal [Illustration: A SANG-NO] The inhabitants of the Hermit Kingdom are peculiarly proficient in the art of doing nothing gracefully. There is, therefore, infinite charm and variety in the daily life of Korea. The natives take their pleasures passively, and their constitutional incapacity makes it appear as if there were little to do but to indulge in a gentle stroll in the brilliant sunshine, or to sit cross-legged within the shade of their houses. Inaction becomes them; nothing could be more unsuited to the character of their peculiar costume than vigorous movement. The stolid dignity of their appearance and their stately demeanour adds vastly to the picturesqueness of the street scenes. The white-coated, white-trousered, white-socked, slowly striding population is irresistibly fascinating to the eye. The women are no less interesting than the men. The unique fashion of their dress, and its general dissimilarity to any other form of feminine garb the world has ever known, renders it sufficiently characteristic of the vagaries of the feminine mind to be attractive.