upon which the worshipers place food and drink for their departed ancestor, while in a semicircle about the altar stand a number of images of animals, the guardian spirits of the departed, for the Korean believes that every man has three souls, and that at death one of these goes to Hades or wanders about on earth, another takes up its residence in the ancestor tablet carefully preserved in the home of his descendants, while the third soul goes into the grave and abides there. While there are no regularly ordained priests in connection with spirit-worship, we find a vast number of magicians, geomancers, exorcists, and other interpreters of the spirit world organized loosely into guilds with certain rules and requirements as to the study of magic and the nature of spirits. Among these shamans two classes are especially powerful—the mutangs and the pansus. mutangs are always women of a low type, in close league with the world of evil spirits. For a consideration they will persuade the spirits to desist from their pernicious work. The pansus are blind, and control the under-world of evil by means of force. As might be supposed, festival, wedding, and funeral occasions are the times when these persons reap their richest harvests, for these events are outstanding opportunities for the malicious spirits to get in their disastrous work. A unique example of the professional service of the mutangs is the custom of selling a boy to a demon. The ceremony takes place at some sacred spot

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and is conducted with strange rites and sacrifices which continue at regular intervals after the sale is actually completed. The demon's name is then assumed by the boy and in consideration of this ceremony of sale he is supposed to receive unusual protection and assistance during the rest of his lifetime. Something of the extent and importance of these superstitions in the life of the people can be gathered from the tremendous cost of spiritworship. Mrs. Isabella B. Bishop, in Korea and Her Neighbors, estimates that the fees of the shamans alone amount to two and a half million dollars annually.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES

Shamanism is best studied and understood in those matters which have to do with death, rather than in the events and experiences of life itself. Its teachings are revealed to the best advantage about the deathbed, in the preparation for burial, in the funeral ceremonies, the selection of the grave, and the worship that afterward goes on at this shrine. The influence of ancient ancestorworship is, of course, strong at this point, and then, too, here is the place where the present world touches the vast unseen universe of spirits. Therefore we can easily understand how the doctrines of spirit-worship are so clearly revealed in the presence of the great mystery.

As soon as a man dies three bowls of rice and three pairs of shoes are prepared and taken to some

selected spot as an offering to the spirits This equipment is intended for the departed and his two spirit guardians who have the long trip to make into the world beyond. Then a sorcerer is called in to determine the lucky day for the funeral, and a geomancer to select a lucky burial place. The mourning clothes of ragged, patched sackcloth are donned, and the uncanny wailing for the dead begins. So full of fear are the people that everything about the funeral must be carried on with the strictest care, lest the evil spirits be offended. We had to bargain with an undertaker for an hour to secure some material having to do with funerals, for exhibit purposes, and then, because of the peculiar sacredness of the decorations, were compelled to pay at least five times their intrinsic value to secure them. The body of the dead in preparation for burial is wrapped in straw and placed on a gaudy bier carved with hideous faces to scare away the evil spirits. In the funeral procession there are first the torch-bearers, then the spirit-chair, in which is carried the ancestral tablet, the receptacle of one of the departed's spirits, followed by the bearers with the corpse. Afterward come the chief mourners, relatives, and friends, with the exception of women, who are not allowed to take part in the ceremony. The grave is generally finely located on some beautiful, sunny hillside. In life a dark, malarial valley is good enough, for in such places many of the villages are located, but in death the best