Fortunately for the child, whose limbs had undergone a good stretching,
the mother let go; but it was certainly not fortunate for the others,
for, following the little ways that women have, even in Corea, she
proceeded to scratch the faces of all within her reach, and I myself came
within an inch of having my eyes scratched out of my head by this
infuriated parent, when to my great relief she was dragged away. As she
re-entered the door of her domicile, she shook her fist and thrust her
tongue out at me, a worthy finish to this tragic-comic scene.

I do not wish you to think, however, that all women are like that in
Corea; for, indeed, they are not. In fact, the majority of them may be
said to be good-mannered and even soft in nature, besides being painfully
laborious. You should see the poor things on the coldest days and nights
of winter, smashing the thick ice in the rivers and canals, and spending
hour after hour with their fingers in the freezing water, washing the
clothes of their lords and masters, who are probably peacefully and
soundly asleep at home. You should see them with their short, wooden
mallets, like small clubs, beating the dirt out of the wet cotton
garments, soap being as yet an unknown luxury in the Corean household.
The poorer women, who have no washing accommodation at home, have to
repair to the streams, and, as the clothes have to be worn in the day,
the work must be done at night. Sometimes, too, three or more join
together and form washing parties, this, to a certain extent, relieving
the monotony of the kneeling down on the cold stone, pounding the clothes
until quite clean, and constantly having to break the ice that is
continually reforming round their very wrists. The women who are somewhat
better off do this at home, and if you were to take a walk through the
streets of Seoul by night you soon get familiar with the quick tick,
tick, tick, the time as regularly marked as that of a clock, heard from
many houses, especially previous to some festivity or public procession,