Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/106

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Village Life in Korea.

elder brothers. It may be a sort of hopscotch that the boys are having, and we would hardly expect the baby to sleep well while this game is in progress; but this is a part of the training that these children get which makes some people imagine they are so good. As the boys skip and jump in lively games the baby's head flops up and down till it appears as if its neck would surely be broken. But the baby seems not to mind, and sleeps right on the same as if it were on a downy bed. The game may be kite-flying, and every boy wants his turn at this. It is really a national sport, and at certain seasons of the year not only the boys but the men also take a lively interest in it. Their kites are entirely different from those of their American cousins. They have no tail, are rectangular in shape, and have a round hole near the center. The frame is slightly curved, so that the kite is concaved, and the wind pouring through the hole carries it onward and upward in its flight. There is a very clever device for handling the cord. Instead of winding it on a stick as our American boys do, the Koreans have a reel made for this purpose, and by this they can regulate their kites at will. The sport becomes very exciting toward the close of the season, which is about New Year. It is then that they engage in kite-fighting by trying to cut each other's cords. Of course the one who cuts the other's cord is the winner of the contest. To accomplish this the boys often pound up glass and mix it with starch, through which the cord is drawn. A cord thus prepared easily cuts any cord that it meets. When once the cord is cut in two,