oreans also have a dish much resembling the Italian maccaroni or
vermicelli. Of this large bowls may be seen at all the eating-shops in
Seoul, and it is as a food apparently more cherished by members of the
lower than by those of the upper classes. Previous to being eaten, it is
dipped in a very flavoury sauce, and, although they are not quite so
graceful in the art of eating as are the Neapolitan _Lazzaroni_, still
with the help of a spoon and as many fingers as are available, the Corean
natives seem to manage to swallow large quantities of this in a very
short time.

Among the lower classes in Corea tea is almost unknown as a beverage. In
its stead they delight in drinking the whitish stuff produced by the rice
when it has been boiled in water, or as an alternative, infusions of
ginsang. They also brew at home two or three different kinds of liquor of
different strengths and tastes, by fermenting barley, rice and millet.
The beer of fermented rice is not at all disagreeable, and their light
wine also is, so far as wines go, even palatable. However, I may as well
state once for all that I am no judge of these matters, and, as my time
is chiefly employed in the art of oil-painting, and not in that of
drinking, I hope to be excused if I think myself better up in "oils" than
in wines!!

Presuming that my reader has survived this pun, I will now go on to state
that it is a common thing in Corea to begin a dinner with sweets, and
that another curious custom is for all present to drink out of the same
bowl of wine passed round and of course re-filled when empty. The dinner
is served on tiny tables rising only a few inches above the ground, and
similar to those of Japan. Fish, as is the case with most Easterners, are
eaten raw; first, however, being dipped in the liquid which resembles
Worcestershire sauce. To cook a fish is simply looked upon as a shameful
way of, spoiling it, unless it has gone bad, when, of course, cooking
becomes necessary. Fish are, however, most prized by the Coreans when
just taken out of the water.

Hard-boiled eggs form another favourite dish in the land of Cho-sen, and
turnips, potatoes, and a large radish similar to the _daikon_ of Japan,
are also partaken of at Corean dinners. The poorer classes seem to relish
highly a dreadful-looking salad, of a small fish much resembling
whitebait, highly flavoured with quantities of pepper, black sauce and
vinegar, with bits of pork-meat frequently thrown in