Waurren yor Tax "Nonra-Caixa Dany News."
One of the leading influences that has borne upon Corea for weal and woo during its history has been the eunuch. Smooth-faced and sallow, high-keyed as to voice, and with the shadow of an old woman looking out over his cheek bon the tall gaunt figure has been seen for ages scuttling in and out of the palace. 'The influences of some might be adved as male, female, and nonter, and into the last class falls the eunuch.' He is a muustrosity of course, a contradiction of the eternal law, the product of a deformed age, which shows itself in his face and renders him unpleasant to look upon if not repulse How do eunuel come about that Corea should enjoy such numbers of th and that they should live and flourish so abundantly? It is a hard question to answer and yet any Corean will answer it at once, and they will all answer it in the same way. Their answer is recorded in the " Histoire de I'Eglise de Corée," and occasions no surprise on their part, but always surprise and incredulity on the part of the foreigner. It reads, "They wore made eunuchs by dogs' This is how eight out of ten are said to be made; one out of ten is born a eunuch they say, and t one becomes @ eunuch through the ambition of the family, who dessil ntrée to the Palace.
When grown up, eunuchs are taller than ordinary mortals, Nature having been switched of one course projects itself slong another. Then as to the voice, how shall I describe it? It isa girl's voice lacking that subtle something of softness and beauty that makes it a girl's voice. It is the ghost of a voice, an objectionable note like the clack of banshee, and yet withal an excellent voice to whisper with.
In disposition they approach more: nearly to women, 80 Coresns say. There is a common expression which rans Na-si churn kol nainta (as mad asa eunuch). Their age is said to be beyond bounds. They are liberal and generous, are unforgiving if once wronged, are partial and one-sided in their views, all of which traits, according to the Corean, belong women. I have some friends among the eunuchs, and one I know particularly well is a jolly, free and easy, lively girl style of person, that is most refreshing to meet. He usually has some good story to tell or some droll experience that would be interesting to anyone.
The rank and position of the eunuch in society is very high indeed. They are divided into three classes—Chi-so (4308), Obang-pan (559), and Nang-chung (BR The Chi-so class have titles applied to them that are used to princes and officers of the first rauk. Even the Nang-chung are addressed politely and shown all: deference. This, of course, is accounted for from the fact of their being the King's: body servants. They swoop his rooms, shake up his bed, draw the blinds, spread the quilt, put on his clothes, tie his topknot, fix his headband and hat, bring in is table, light his pipe.
They are all round about him with their sallow clammy existences, turning whatever of life there is for him into their emasculated world. They move in and out of the hitch and among the serving-maids. There is not a corner of the Palace, be it the Emperor's or Queen's apartments, that is not free to them. They take turns in waiting on His Imperial Highness, and when off duty return to their private homes. In order to be reckoned as men and not as mere women, they each have a wife and usually an adopted son.
Originally the caunch was intended for the household servant of the Palace and was not supposed to mix in affairs of State, but as time passed ho tasted. the delights of power, and found that buying and selling and trading in office was more interesting and Incrative than simply hanging out bed quilts to air or tasting the King's cabbage pickle or chili peppers. The eunuch has grown to be a mighty man in State affairs. Ho never hoard of Liverpool or New York, but ho it of all the intricacies of Corean Ho is horribly superstitious and plays on the keys of the Emperor's soul by this means. Like a raf of hobgoblins they gather round His Im his original darkness intensely dark. The palaces swarm with them. They are sought out by all "pullers" for office.
Those are dark days for the eunuch. Scores of them have been dismissed from the Imperial service, through the influence of the Japanese, we are told, In the agony of it they have wept, they and His Majesty. Uoreans all understand to begin with that they are victims of fate, in the fact that they are eunuchs, without posterity, which is another word for eternal life. Some hidden law of fate has found its satisfaction in striking the balance against them, Coreans say that men who hook eels in the eyo for a living find their posterity afflicted with what is called so pal nun (four, eight that are not mates, one on one side being a number four eye, the other being a number eight, Mencius says there is prosperity in store for those who heap up good, but wrath for those who heap evil. The Corean argues that since the Na-si (eunuch) has fallen on such day as these, when tears flow over hi beardless checks, he must have heaped up sins and dono much evil. Evil brings desolation and desolation proves evil, Doubtless this may be true. At any rate the eunuch belongs to the ago of the night-gown coat and the long finger-vail, and that age is now past.
In the old procession days when His Majesty went forth in State to visit the gods, there rode about his chair a cohort of eunuchs, with the check and the eye sod chin of the inscrutable East. But, says the Corean, there is no more East, the East is gone; nothing is left but just a hopper fall of mortals, everyone straggling to tread down his fellow. and push him under into the mills of the same gods once worshipped. The eunuch
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.