being the accomplishments of dancing-girls and demi-mondaines. The arts of embroidery, dressmaking, sewing, and weaving absorb their attention until they have gone through the gamut of domestic economy. Occasionally women of the upper class learn to play the kumungo, an instrument some five feet long and one foot wide, bearing a faint resemblance to a zither and emitting a melancholy and discordant wail. There is one other stringed weapon, the nageum, but the awful screech of this unhappy viol overwhelms me, even in recollection. The usual and most simple amusement for the middle classes is the gentle, aimless stroll, for the purpose of "look see." Swinging, rope-games, dice, dominoes, and dolls find some favour as distractions.
If some little improvement has become noticeable in educational matters under the enlightening influence of the missionaries, great fault must be found with the condition of the law. It is, of course, not always possible to graft upon the legal procedure of one country a system of administration which works well in another. Specific outbursts of violence, arising from identical causes, assume different complexions when considered from the point of view of those who are proceeding to institute reforms. It may be submitted, further, that a certain element of barbarism in punishment is rendered necessary by the conditions of some countries, imposing a restraint upon a population which would scoff at punishment of a more civilised description. If exception may be taken to the penal code of Korea, it must be remembered that in the Far East the quality of justice is not tempered with mercy. Many punishments are still openly and frankly barbarous, while others are distinguished by their excep-
