ich a woman is always so well provided, take every
opportunity of showing you how pretty they are and of admiring them,
particularly when they get to know who you are, where you hail from, and
who your Corean friends are. The ugly ones, of course, are always those
who make the most fuss, and should you see a woman in the street hide
her face so that you cannot see it at all, you may be very sure that her
countenance is not worth looking at, and that she herself is perfectly
conscious of Nature's unkindness to her.

As for several months I was seen day after day sketching in the streets,
the people got to know me well, and since the Coreans themselves are very
fond of art, although they are not very artistic themselves, I made
numerous friends among them, and even, I might say, became popular.

Vanity is a ruling characteristic of all people, and acting on this
little weakness I was able to see more of the Corean damsel than most
casual travellers.

[Illustration: A LADY AT HOME]

We find, it is true, _pros_ and _cons_ when we come to analyse her
charms, but taking the average maid, she cannot be said to be worse in
Corea than she is in other countries. She can be pretty and she can be
ugly. When she is pretty, she is as pretty as they make them, and when
she is the other way she is as ugly as sin, if not even worse. But let us
take a good-looking one. Look at her sad little oval face, with arched
eyebrows and with jet black, almond-shaped eyes, softened by the long
eyelashes. Her nose is straight, though it might to advantage be a little
less flat, and she possesses a sweet little mouth, just showing two
pretty teeth as white as snow. There seems to be so much dignity and
repose about her movements when you first see her, that you almost take
her for a small statue. Hardly will she condescend to turn her face round
or raise it up to look at you and even less inclined does she seem to
smile, such is her modesty; once her shyness has worn off, however, she
improves wonderfully. Her face brightens, and the soft, affectionate,
distant look in her eyes is enough to mash into pulp the strongest of
mankind. She is simple and natural, and in this chiefly lies her charm.
She would not compare in beauty with a European woman, for she is neither
so tall nor so well developed, but among women of far-Eastern nationality
she, to my mind, takes the cake for actual beauty and refinement. The
Japanese women of whom one hears so much,