FOOTNOTES:

[20] A kwan-ja, being an official passport, lays a traveller open to the suspicion that, like officials, he will take the best of everything he can get without paying for it, and this dread, added to a natural distrust of foreigners, led to more or less unwillingness to receive us in many places, the mapu having to console the people by asseverating that I paid the full price for all I got, and that even when I tore a sheet of paper from the window I paid for it!

[21] February, 1896.

[22]

I

’Twas years ago that Kim and I
Struck hands and swore, however dry
The lip might be or sad the heart,
The merry wine should have no part
In mitigating sorrow’s blow
Or quenching thirst. ’Twas long ago.

II

And now I’ve reached the flood-tide mark
Of life; the ebb begins, and dark
The future lowers. The tide of wine
Will never ebb. ’Twill aye be mine
To mourn the desecrated fane
Where that lost pledge of youth lies slain.

III

Nay, nay, begone! The jocund bowl
Again shall bolster up my soul
Against itself. What, good-man, hold!
Canst tell me where red wine is sold?
Nay, just beyond that peach tree there?
Good luck be thine, I’ll thither fare.

[23]

LOVE SONG

Farewell’s a fire that burns one’s heart,
And tears are rains that quench in part,
But then the winds blow in one’s sighs,
And cause the flames again to rise.
My soul I’ve mixed up with the wine,
And now my love is drinking,
Into his orifices nine
Deep down its spirit’s sinking.
To keep him true to me and mine,
A potent mixture is the wine.
Silvery moon and frosty air,
Eve and dawn are meeting;
Widowed wild goose flying there,
Hear my words of greeting!
On your journey should you see
Him I love so broken-hearted,
Kindly say this word for me,
That it’s death when we are parted.
Flapping off the wild goose clambers,
Says she will if she remembers.
Fill the ink-stone, bring the water,
To my love I’ll write a letter;
Ink and paper soon will see
The one that’s all the world to me,
While the pen and I together,
Left behind, condole each other.

[24]

I asked the spotted butterfly.
To take me on his wing and fly
To yonder mountain’s breezy side.
The trixy tiger moth I’ll ride
As home I come.

[25] In January of 1897, the population of Wön-san was as follows:—

Japanese1,299
Chinese39
American8
German3
British2
French2
Russian2
Danish1
Norwegian1
1,357

Estimated Korean population, 15,000.