It has been unusually hot here this summer, and in August on several occasions large bands of farmers have Yoon to the hills to worship the dragon and peay for rain, and on one occasion they were in such force and well armed that they compelled the vity officials to come out and pray for rain, A peculiar custom was brought to my noticeithe other day, and I hear itsurvi in some of our Southern districts. On occasions of serious drought the elders of a village collect a lot of brass locks snd also one iron lock; on these. th write characters and also write duplicate of the characters on slips of paper. All tha males of the village between the ages of sixteen and sixty then draw slips, and the one who draws that bearing the character on the iron lock is the one who has to sacrifice his personal comfort in order to bring rain. The iron lock is opened and passed through the skin in the front of his throat and then shut tight and he has to wear it until rain comes. Obviously when the drought is prolonged the consequences are serious.
The Fruit seems very late, but as far as one can judge, will be pretty plentiful.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.