difficulty is soon overcome. In the main the clothes worn by the men are
the same, only a great difference is to be found in the way these
garments are cut and sewn, just as we can distinguish in a moment the cut
of a Bond Street tailor from that of a suburban one. In Corea, the
tailor, as a rule, is one's wife, for she is the person entrusted with
the cares of cutting, sewing, and padding up her better-half's attire. No
wonder, then, that nine-tenths of the top-knotted consorts look regular
bags as they walk about. The national costume itself, it must be
confessed, does rather tend to deform the appearance of the human body,
which it is supposed to adorn. First, there is a huge pair of cotton
trousers, through each leg of which one can pass the whole of one's body
easily, and these trousers are padded all over with cotton wool, no
underclothing being worn. When these are put on, they reach from the chin
to the feet, on to which they fall in ample and graceful folds, and you
don them by holding them up with your teeth, and fastening them anywhere
near and round your waist with a pretty, long silk ribbon with tassels,
which is generally let hang down artistically over the right side. When
this has been successfully accomplished, the extra length of trousers is
rolled up so as to prevent the "unmentionables" from being left behind as
you walk away, and a short coat, tight at the shoulders and in the shape
of a bell, with short but wide sleeves, is put on to cover the upper part
of the body. This coat also, like the trousers, is padded, and reaches
almost to the haunches. It overlaps on the right hand side, two long
ribbons being tied there into a pretty single-winged knot and the two
ends left hanging. In winter time, the forearm, which in summer remains
bare, is protected by a separate short muff, or sleeve, through which the
hand is passed, and which reaches just over the elbow.

Then come the padded socks, in which the huge trousers are tucked, and
which are fastened round the ankle with a ribbon. And, lastly, now we