During the day we saw three funerals, and I observed that a Japanese detachment which occupied the whole road filed to the right and left to let one of the processions pass, the men raising their caps to the corpse as they did so. These funerals gave an impression of gaiety rather than grief. Two men walked first, carrying silk bannerets which designated the woman about to be interred as the wife of so and so, a married woman having no name. Next came a man walking backwards with many streamers of colored ribbon floating from his hat, ringing a large bell, and accompanying its clang with a dissonance supposed to be singing. The coffin, under a four-posted domed cover and concealed by gay curtains, was borne on a platform by twelve men, and was followed by a large party of male mourners, a man with a musical instrument, a table, and a box of food. None of the faces were composed to a look of grief. On the dome were two mythical birds resembling the phœnix. The dome and curtains were brilliantly colored, and decorated with ribbon streamers. Two corpses, each extended on a board and covered with white paper pasted over small hoops, lay in the roadway at different places. These were bodies of persons who had died far from home and were being conveyed to their friends for burial. Later we met another funeral, the corpse carried as before on a platform by twelve bearers, who moved to a rhythmic chant of the most cheerful description, the whole party being as jolly as if they were going to a marriage. There was a cross in front of the gay hearse with an extended dragon on each arm, and four large gaily painted birds resembling pheasants were on the dome. Korean customs as to death and burial deserve a brief notice. When a man or woman falls ill, the _mu-tang_ or sorceress is called in to exorcise the spirit which has caused the illness. When this fails and death becomes imminent, in the case of a man no women are allowed to remain in the room but his nearest female relations, and in that of a woman all men must withdraw except her husband, father, and brother. After death the body, specially at the joints, is shampooed, and when it has been made flexible it is covered with a clean sheet and laid for three days on a board, on which seven stars are painted. This board is eventually burned at the grave. The “Star Board,” as it is called, is a euphemism for death, and is spoken of as we speak of “the grave.” During these days the grave-clothes, which are of good materials in red, blue, and yellow coloring, are prepared. Korean custom enjoins that burial shall be delayed in the case of a poor man three days only, in that of a middle class man nine days, of a nobleman or high official three months, and in that of one of the Royal Family nine months, but this period may be abridged or extended at the pleasure of the King.