attains a good size, and its hair is thick and long. We have seen skins eleven and a half feet long, with hair two inches and more in length. This ugly beast will pass through the streets of a village at night in the dead of winter, and the people are fortunate if he does not break in a door and carry away a child. No record is kept of the mortality from this cause, but it is probable that a score or more of people perish annually in this way. Legend and story are full of the ravages of the tiger. He is supposed to be able to imitate the human voice, and thus lure people out of their houses at night. Koreans account for the fierceness of his nature by saying that in the very beginning of things the Divine Being offered a bear and a tiger the opportunity of becoming men if they would endure certain tests. The bear passed the examination with flying colours, but the tiger succumbed to the trial of patience, and so went forth the greatest enemy of man.
Deer are common throughout the land, and at the proper season they are eagerly sought for because of their soft horns, which are considered of great medicinal value. Wealthy Koreans who are ailing often go among the mountains with the hope of being in at the death of a young buck, and securing a long draught of the warm blood, which they look upon as nearly equivalent to the fountain of eternal youth. The exercise required for this is in itself enough to make an ill man well, so the fiction about the blood is not only innocent but valuable. The bear is found occasionally, but is of a small breed and does comparatively little damage. The wild boar is a formidable animal, and is considered fully as dangerous to meet as the tiger, because it will charge a supposed enemy at sight. We have seen specimens weighing well toward four hundred pounds and with formidable tushes. The fox is found in every town and district in the country. It is the most detested of all things. It is the epitome of treachery, meanness and sin. The land is full of stories of evil people who turned out to be foxes in the disguise of human form. And of all foxes the white one is the worst,
