On the oficial gates of Corea along the tiles that cover the ridges of the corners, there!'are seated a number of earthenware figures commonly called Son Oh Kong. Son Oh Kong was once a monkey, that turned into a man, and journeyed as far as Tibet, performing all sorts of magic feats. He was entirely invulnerable, and could not be done away with either by water or by fire, A sword would pass through him without the slightest damage. to his internal organism; and to drown him in the depths of the sea was merely to treat him to a ploxsant and refreshing bath, Such was Son Oh Kong and that is the name by which the odd little figures are I think also the Chin-called that ornament the ridge corners of the gate. It is probably intended to indicate to the people that the government sitting behind is inviolable, invulnerable, impossible of being harmed, and that it will live on after all the gazers are dead.
There is still another explanation of the little figures in the gates where they are called Oh Pu Dong (the five that mutually balance), each one being the enemy of his next neighbour and no one of them able to overcome all of the others, There are the elephant, the mouse, the man, the monkey, etc., grouped into a deadlock, euch able to overcome somoone, and yet in tarn ly to be overcome. This is said to insure the govorn-
or a Cesar and to leave the various ment against the danger of a Napoleon officers balanced off so perfectly, that each prevents the other from moving or acting in any way whatever. Some Coreans think that the meaning of little gods on the palace gate has come to pass in the three, parties that now exist in the land.
There is the Emperor and his supporters, ludingfine nearly all of the official class; there is the people which includes all of the uncombed millions and some of the others; there is the Japanese present now everywhere. The Emperor has no confidence in the people, the people have no use for the Japanese, the Japanese have no faith in the Emperor. Reverso it and we are still correct, the Emperor mistrusts the Japanese," the Japanese have no confidence in the people, the people despise the Emperor.
Some Coreans think that these are mutually equal, and so are happy in the thought of being at last a fixture and destined to go nowhere. We shall soe. As one of these parties, the Emperor of Corea is a gentle little man, who has sinned away his day of grace, and now sits unconscious of the crack of doom impending. He has a pleasant face and a gracious smile. Of latw years his tooth have turned yellow and ho is getting puffy under the eyes, but still he is handsome as Coreans go. He has none of the marks of a savage either in his face lines nor in his voice, but seems admirably suited to a drawing-room of the time of Moab and Edom could ho have lived then. He is an abstemious man in his meat and drink, and quiet in all his ways. He smokes little and chews nothing but an amber bead. He is a head shorter than the Crown Prince but wiser on the whole. He likes dress and to play with the stars and garters of his Order of the Indian Empire, and the other decorations that have been brought
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.