Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island. Hall Basil
visible were seated on the top of the hill watching us, the village itself being quite deserted; but shortly after our anchoring, the inhabitants began to assemble from different parts of the island. Of these several were women, some of whom had children on their backs, and others carried them in their arms. They looked stout, were fairer in complexion than the men, and were dressed in a long white robe, loose and open in front, with a petticoat of the same colour reaching a little below the knees; their hair was tied in a large knot behind; a small piece of white cloth was thrown loosely over the head to protect them from the rays of the sun. Some women were engaged in husking rice in a mortar with a wooden beater; these had no dress above the waist. The men and boys were seen carrying loads on a wooden frame hooked to the shoulders.
In a square flat place near the village a number of women and children were employed winnowing corn by pouring it from a height, so that the husks blew away. Fishing-nets were spread to dry on most of the houses. We landed about five o'clock, and found in the village only two men, who obstinately remained at one place without speaking, and looking anxious that we should go away; they refused the buttons which we offered them, and resisted our persuasions to accompany us to the upper part of the village, which we were anxious they should do, to shew that we had no intention of hurting any thing, but merely to look about us. We went on alone, and on reaching a deserted house thought it a good opportunity to examine it. Before the door, on a neat clean level space, enclosed by a hedge covered with a sweet-scented white flower, we found several heaps of corn and straw, and several of the wooden mortars in which the rice is pounded, also a number of vessels, some filled with water and others with rice. Cooking utensils were lying about, and a number of fishing lines coiled neatly in baskets, and split fish spread out to dry on the top of little corn ricks on one side of the court. The inside was dark and uncomfortable; the mud floor was full of hollow places; the walls were black with soot, and every thing looked dirty. On the left of the entrance two large metal boilers, twenty inches deep, were sunk in the brickwork, the upper part being about a foot above the floor. The fire-place was between the boilers, and on the hot embers lay three split fish. On the wall opposite to the fire were shelves, having a number of cups, basons, and cooking utensils, principally of coarse stone ware, and some few of a sort of bell-metal. The number of inhabitants in one house must be considerable, if we can form an estimate from the quantity of their dishes and vessels. There were three neat small pieces of furniture on one of the shelves, the use of which we could not discover; they were made of wood, elegantly carved and varnished, with a round top about a foot in diameter, and four legs a foot and a half long. The roof was well constructed, the rafters being mortised into the ends of the horizontal beams, and tied to the middle by a perpendicular beam or King-Post. Over the rafters is laid a net-work of rods, to which the thatch is tied. There was no chimney to this house, and only one window made of slender bars of wood, forming square spaces three inches by two, covered by a thin semi-transparent paper defended by the roof, which extends so far beyond the wall as to shelter it not only from the rain but from the sun. Most of the houses had a sort of raised verandah under the eaves, about a foot or more above the ground, extending from the door on either hand to the end of the house; these places were neatly levelled, and must afford a cool seat. The walls of the houses are from six to eight feet high, and from fourteen to twenty feet long; the top of the roof being about fourteen. The walls are of stone and mud, the door moves on the bar, which forms one of its sides; this bar is prolonged, and works in holes in the beam above, and a stone below. There was a back door to the house which we examined. On opening this we found a bare bank of earth as high as the house, at the distance of three feet from the walls, and a hedge rising still higher on the top; this effectually excluded all light.
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