not bear comparison with what goes under that name in our own lands. Embroidery upon silk is considered by Koreans to be one of their finest achievements in the line of art. Some of it is fairly well executed, but the very best will not begin to compare with even ' the medium grades in China or Japan. Painting sketches of branches of trees, sprays of flowers, bunches of grass, and old stumps and rocks with a brush pen and India ink is a favourite form of artistic work, and here we find regularly formulated laws. Each blade of grass must droop in accordance with a fixed law, and each flower must stand at just the right angle from the stem. After many years of familiarity with these things, even the Westerner finds a certain amount of interest in these pictures, and while they would be called the veriest daubs by the uninitiated, we must confess that they make a certain approximation to what we might call real art. It is a question, however, whether it is worth the time it takes to learn to appreciate it.
In the line of ceramics Korea has nothing to show. Long centuries ago she may have had some slight claims to consideration along this line, but there are very few evidences of it to-day. It is common for travellers to buy small iron boxes ornamented with inlaid silver or nickel. The work is crude, but the Greek key pattern which is usually followed redeems them from utter contempt. Some of the silver filigree work that is done, especially in the far northeast, is worthy of mention, but the artisans have only a few set designs, and these they follow so slavishly as to suggest the idea that they are heirlooms. Inlaying mother-o'-pearl in a kind of lacquer upon boxes, chests, and cabinets has a pleasing effect, but the inartistic forms of the objects thus decorated detract much from the general result. In this also the key pattern is most prominent.
