hat.
Indoors, the shoes are not worn, the custom of Japan being prevalent,
namely, to leave them at the door as one mounts the first step into the
room. The middle lower classes and peasantry are seldom found parading
the streets with anything besides what I have described, with the
exception of the long pipe which they, like the _Mapu_ or the coolies,
keep down the back of the neck when not using it. Merchants, policemen,
and private gentlemen are arrayed, in winter especially, in a long cotton
or silk gown similarly padded, an overall which reaches below the knees,
and some, especially those in the Government employ, or in some official
position, wear either without this or over this an additional sleeveless
garment made of four long strips of cotton or silk, two in front and two
at the back, according to the grade, almost touching the feet and divided
both in front and at the back as far up as the waist, round which a
ribbon is tied. This, then, is the everyday wardrobe of a Corean of any
class. You may add, if you please, a few miscellaneous articles such as
gaiters and extra bags, but never have I seen any man of Cho-sen walk
about with more habiliments than these, although I have many times seen
people who had a great deal less. The clothes are of cotton or silk
according to the grade and riches of the wearer. Buttons are a useless
luxury in Cho-sen, for neither men nor women recognise their utility; on
the contrary, the natives display much amusement and chaff at the stupid
foreign barbarian who goes and cuts any number of buttonholes in the
finest clothing, which, in their idea, is an incomprehensible mistake and
shows want of appreciation.

Their method of managing things by means of loops and ribbons, has an
effect which is not without its picturesqueness, perhaps more so than is
our system of "keeping things together" in clothing matters. After all it
is only a matter of opinion. The inhabitants of the land of Cho-sen, from
my experience, are not much given to washing and still less to bathing. I
have seen them wash their hands fairly often, and the face occasionally;
only the very select people of Corea wash it daily. One would think that,
with such a very scanty and irregular use of water for the purpose of
cleanliness, they should look extremely dirty; but not a bit. It was
always to me irritating to the last degree to see how clean those dirty
people looked!

But let us notice one or two more of the peop