NOTES ON DÆMONISM CONCLUDED
The second and larger division of the _Shamans_ consists of the
_mu-tang_. Though the _Pak-su Mu_, who are included among the
_mu-tang_, are men, the female idea prevails so largely that these wear
female clothing in performing their functions, and the whole class has
the name of _mu-tang_, and is spoken of as female.
The _mu-tang_ is universally prevalent, and her services are
constantly and everywhere sought. She enters upon an office regarded
as of high importance with very little ceremonial, requiring only a
little instruction from some one who has practised magic, and the
“supernatural call.” This call, of which much is made, consists in the
assurance of dæmoniacal possession, the dæmon being supposed to seize
upon the woman, and to become in fact her _doppelgänger_, so completely
is his personality superimposed on hers. The dæmon is almost invariably
a member of the Korean “_Dæmoneon_.” Mr. Jones mentions a woman who
claims that her indwelling dæmon is known as the spirit _Chil-song
Shin_, supposed to come from the constellation of _Ursa Major_, and he
brought with him a legion of other dæmons, from which the _mu-tang_
derive their honorific title, _Man-shin_, a Legion of Spirits. This
woman in her early married life was ill for three years, and had
frequent visions of the spirit, and heard but resisted the “call.” When
at last she yielded she was immediately cured, and was received into
favor with the spirit!
On obeying a dæmon call the woman snaps every tie of custom or
relationship, deserts parents, husband, or children, and obeys the
“call” alone. Her position from that hour is a peculiar one, for while
she is regarded as indispensable to the community she is socially an
outcast. In the curious relations of the Shamanate, the _Pan-su_ is
obviously the Master of the Dæmons, gaining power by cabalistic formulæ
or ritual to drive them off, or even bury them, while the _mu-tang_
supplicates and propitiates them. It is impossible to live in a place
which has not a _mu-tang Shaman_.
The functions of the _mu-tang_ are more varied than those of the
_Pan-su_, but on a par with his exorcisms may be placed her _Kauts_
or Pacifications and Propitiations of dæmons, which are divided
into the occasional and periodic, the latter being Dæmon Festivals,
one public the other private. The public one is a triennial _festa_
celebrated either by a large village or by an aggregation of hamlets,
and occupies three or four days. Its object is the tutelary dæmon of
the neighborhood, and its methods are sacrifice, petition, worship, and
thanksgiving. The villagers choose two of their number to take entire
charge of the festival, and by them a tax for expenses is levied on
the vicinity. They also choose the festival day, hire the _mu-tang_,
and arrange for the paraphernalia and the offerings to the dæmons. It
is essential that the festival day should be chosen by divination, by
either a _Sön-li_ or a _Pan-su_ acquainted with magic, and that the
sorcerers should bathe frequently and abstain from animal food for
seven previous days.
The village dæmon festival has a resemblance at some points to the
Shinto _matsuri_ of Japan. On the _festa_ day a booth, much decorated
with tags of brilliant color, is erected near the dæmons’ shrine,
and with an accompaniment of _mu-tang_ music, dancing, and lavish
and outlandish gesticulations, the offerings are presented to the
spirits. The popular belief is that the dæmons become incarnate in the
_mu-tang_, who utter oracles called _Kong-su Na-ta_, and the people
bring them bowls of uncooked rice, and plead for a revelation of their
future during the following three years. A common “test” at this
festival is the burning a tube of very thin white paper in a bowl.
Its upper end is lighted by the _mu-tang_, who recites her spells as
it burns. When it reaches the rim of the bowl, if the augury for the
future be unfavorable, the paper burns away in the bowl, if favorable,
the paper lifts itself and is blown away.
The private _festa_, the _Chöl-muri Kaut_, one of thanksgiving to the
household dæmons, is necessary to secure a continuance of their good
offices. The expenditure of the family resources on this occasion is so
lavish as frequently to impoverish the household for a whole year. This
_festa_ may be biennial or triennial. At the time a pig is sacrificed,
offerings are made, _mu-tang_ are hired, and the fetishes of the
dæmons are renewed or cleaned. The Ritual for these occasions, if
unabbreviated, lasts several days, but among the poor only a selection
from it is used. Its stages consist of rituals of invocation, petition,
offering, and purification. While these are being recited a household
spirit becomes incarnate in the _mu-tang_, and through her makes
oracular revelations of the future. At another stage deceased parents
and ancestors appear in the _mu-tang_, and her personation of them is
described by an eyewitness as both “pathetic and ludicrous.” At Seoul
this festival is observed by families at the dæmon shrines outside the
city walls, and not in private houses.
One of the very common occasions which requires the presence of
a _mu-tang_ is the ceremonial known as the Rite of Purification,
defilement being contracted by a birth or death or any action which
brings in an unclean dæmon, whose obnoxious entrance moves the guardian
or friendly dæmons to leave the house. A wand cut from a pine tree to
the _east_ of the house is used to bring about their return. It is
set working by the muttered utterance of special spells or formulæ by
the _mu-tang_, the _mont-gari_, or tutelary spirit is found, and by
means of prayers and offerings is induced to resume his place, and the
unclean dæmon is exorcised and expelled. The beating of a drum and the
frequent sprinkling of pure water are portions of this rite.
The utterance of oracles is another great function of the _mu-tang_.
In spite of the low opinion of women held by the Koreans, so strong
is the belief in the complete dæmoniacal possession of the _mu-tang_,
and their consequent elevation above their sex, that the Koreans refer
fully as much to them as to the _Pan-su_ for information regarding
the outcome of commercial ventures, and of projects of personal
advancement, as well as for the hidden causes of the loss of wealth
or position, or of adversity or illness. The _mu-tang_, by an appeal
to her familiar dæmon, in some cases obtains a direct answer, and in
others a reply by the divining chime, or the rice divination. The
latter consists of throwing down some grains of rice on a table and
noting the combinations which result. The “divining chime” is a hazel
wand with a circle of bells at one end. These are shaken violently by
the _mu-tang_, and in the din thus created she hears the utterance of
the dæmon.
The arranging for the sale of children to dæmons is a farther function
of the _mu-tang_, and is carried on to a very great extent. The Korean
father desires prosperity and long life for his boy (a girl being of
little account), and the sale of the child to a spirit is he believes
the best way of attaining his object. When the so-called sale has been
decided on, the father consults the sorceress as to when and where it
shall be made. The place chosen is usually a boulder near home, and
the child is there “consecrated” to the dæmon by the _mu-tang_ with
fitting rites. Thenceforward, on the 15th day of the 1st moon, and
the 3rd day of the 3rd moon, worship and sacrifice are offered to the
boulder. After this act of sale the name of the dæmon becomes part of
the boy’s name. It is not an unusual thing for the sale to be made to
the _mu-tang_ herself, who as the proxy of her dæmon accepts the child
in case she learns by a magic rite that she may do so. She takes in its
stead one of its rice bowls and a spoon, and these, together with
a piece of cotton cloth on which the facts concerning the sale of the
child are written, are laid up in her own house in the room devoted
to her dæmon. There is a famous _mu-tang_, whose house I have been in
just outside the south gate of Seoul, who has many of these, which
are placed on tables below the painted daubs of dæmons ordinarily,
but which, on great occasions, are used as banners. At the Periodic
Festivals offerings are made on behalf of these children, who, though
they live with their parents, know the sorceress or _mu-tang_ as
_Shin_, and are considered her children.
[Illustration: SOUTH GATE.]
The _mu-tang_ rites are specially linked with the house dæmon and with
_Mama_ the smallpox dæmon. The house dæmon is on the whole a good one,
being supposed to bring health and happiness, and if invited with due
ceremony he is willing to take up his abode under every roof. He cannot
always keep off disease, and in the case of contagious fevers, etc.,
he disappears until the rite of purification has been accomplished
and he has been asked to return. The ceremonies attending his recall
deserve notice. On this great occasion the _mu-tang_ in office ties a
large sheet of paper round a rod of oak, holds it upright, and goes
out to hunt him. She may find him near, as if waiting to be invited
back, or at a considerable distance, but in either case he makes his
presence known by shaking the rod so violently that several men cannot
hold it still, and then returns with the _mu-tang_ to the house, where
he is received with lively demonstrations of joy. The paper which was
round the stick is folded, a few _cash_ are put into it, it is soaked
in wine, and is then thrown up against a beam in the house to which it
sticks, and is followed by some rice which adheres to it. That special
spot is the abiding place of the dæmon. This ceremony involves a family
in very considerable expense.
The universal belief that illness is the work of dæmons renders the
services of a _Pan-su_ or _mu-tang_ necessary wherever it enters a
house, and in the case of smallpox, the universal scourge of Korean
childhood, the dæmon, instead of being exorcised, bottled, or buried,
is treated with the utmost respect. The name by which the disease is
called, “_Mama_,” is the dæmon’s name. It is said that he came from
South China, and has only infested Korea for 1,000 years. On the
disease appearing, the _mu-tang_ is called in to honor the arrival
of the spirit with a feast and fitting ceremonial. Little or no work
is done, and if there are neighbors whose children have not had the
malady, they rest likewise, lest, displeased with their want of
respect, he should deal hardly with them. The parents do obeisance
(worship) to the suffering child, and address it at all times in
honorific terms. Danger is supposed to be over after the 12th day,
when the _mu-tang_ is again summoned, and a farewell banquet is given.
A miniature wooden horse is prepared, and is loaded for the Spirit’s
journey with small bags of food and money, fervent and respectful
adieus are spoken, and he receives hearty good wishes for his
prosperous return to his own place!
In the course of many centuries the office of the _mu-tang_ has
undergone considerable modification. Formerly her power consisted
in the foretelling of events by the movements of a turtle on the
application of hot iron to his back, and by the falling of a leaf of
certain trees. Her present vocation is chiefly mediatorial. It is also
becoming partially hereditary, her daughter or even daughter-in-law
taking up her work. The “call” is considered a grave calamity.
Ordinarily these women are of the lower class. They are frequently
worshippers of Buddha, after the gross and debased cult which exists
in Korea, and place his picture along with those of the dæmons in the
small temples in their houses.
Taking the male and female Shamanate together, the _Shamans_ possess
immense power over the people, from the clever and ambitious Korean
queen, who resorted constantly to the _Pan-su_ on behalf of the future
of the Crown Prince, down to the humblest peasant family. They are
in intimate contact with the people in all times of difficulty and
affliction, their largest claims are conceded, and they are seldom out
of employment.
The dæmons whose professed servants the _Shamans_ are, and whose
yoke lies heavy on Korea, are rarely even mythical beings, who
might possibly have existed in human shape. They are legion. They
dwell in all matter and pervade all space. They are a horde without
organization, destitute of genus, species, and classification, created
out of Korean superstitions, debased Buddhism, and Chinese mythical
legend. There have been no native attempts at their arrangement, and
whatever has been done in this direction is due to the labors of Mr.
G. H. Jones and Dr. Landis, from whose lists a few may be chosen as
specimens.
The _O-bang-chang-kun_ are five, and some of the more important preside
over East Heaven, South, West, North, and Middle. In _Shaman’s_ houses
shrines are frequently erected to them, bearing their collective
name to which worship is paid. They are held in high honor and are
prominent in _Pan-su_ rites. At the entrance of many villages on the
south branch of the Han the villagers represent them by posts with tops
rudely carved into hideous caricatures of humanity, which are ofttimes
decorated with straw tassels, and receive offerings of rice and fruit
as village protectors.
The _Shin-chang_ are dæmon generals said to number 80,000, each one
at the head of a dæmon host. They fill the earth and air, and are
specially associated with the _Pan-su_, who are capable of summoning
them by magic formulæ to aid in divination and exorcism. Shrines to
single members of this militant host occur frequently in Central Korea,
each one containing a highly-colored daub of a gigantic mediæval
warrior, and the words, “I, the Spirit--dwell in this place.”
The Tok-gabi are the most dreaded and detested, as well as the best
known of all the dæmon _horde_. Yet they seem nondescripts, and careful
and patient examination has only succeeded in relegating them to the
class of such myths as the Will o’ the Wisp, and Jack o’ Lantern,
elevated, however, in Korea to the status of genuine devils with
fetishes of their own. They are regarded as having human originals in
the souls of those who have come to sudden or violent ends. They are
bred on execution grounds and battlefields, and wherever men perish in
numbers. They go in overwhelming legions, and not only dwell in empty
houses but in inhabited villages, terrifying the inhabitants. They it
was who, by taking possession of the fine Audience Hall of the Mulberry
Palace in Seoul, rendered the buildings untenable, frightful tales
being told and believed of nocturnal dæmon orgies amidst those doleful
splendors. People leave their houses and build new ones because of
them. Their fetishes may be such things as a _mapu’s_ hat or the cloak
of a _yamen_ clerk, rotten with age and dirt, enshrined under a small
straw booth. Besides the devilry attributed to the _Tok-gabi_ they are
accused of many pranks, such as placing the covers of iron pots inside
them, and pounding doors and windows all night, till it seems as if
they would be smashed, yet leaving no trace of their work.
The actually unclean spirits, the _Sagem_, the criminal class of the
vast “_Dæmoneon_,” infest Korean life like vermin, wandering about
embracing every opportunity of hurting and molesting man. Against these
both _Pan-su_ and _mu-tang_ wage continual war by their enchantments,
the _Pan-su_ by their exorcisms, either driving them off or catching
them and burying them in disgrace, while the _mu-tang_ propitiate them
and send them off in honor.
Another great group of dæmons is the _San-Shin Ryöng_--the spirits of
the mountains. I found their shrines in all the hilly country, along
both branches of the Han, by springs and streams, and specially under
the shade of big trees, and on _ampelopsis_ covered rocks, a flat rock
being a specially appropriate site from its suitability for an altar,
and thus specially “fortunate.” The dæmon who is the tutelary spirit of
_ginseng_, the most valuable export of Korea, is greatly honored. So
also is the patron dæmon of deer hunters, who is invariably represented
in his shrine as a fierce looking elderly man in official dress riding
a tiger. Surrounding him are altars to his harem, and there are also
female dæmons, mountain spirits, who are pictured as women, frequently
Japanese.
The tiger which abounds in Central and Northern Korea is understood
to be the confidential servant of these mountain dæmons, and when he
commits depredations, the people, believing the dæmon of the vicinity
to be angry, hurry with offerings to his nearest shrine. The Koreans
consider it a good omen when they see in their dreams the mountain
dæmon, either as represented in his shrine, or under the form of his
representative, the tiger. These mountain dæmons are specially sought
by recluses, and people ofttimes retire into solitary mountain glens,
where by bathing, fasting, and offerings they strive to gain their
favor. These spirits, believed to be very powerful, are much feared
by farmers, and by villagers living near high mountains. They think
that if when they are out on the hillsides cutting wood they forgot to
cast the first spoonful of rice from the bowl to the dæmon, they will
be punished by a severe fall or cut, or some other accident. These
spirits are capricious and exacting, and for every little neglect take
vengeance on the members of a farmer’s household or on his crops or
cattle.
The _Long-shin_, or Dragon dæmons, are water spirits. They have no
shrines, but the _Shamans_ conduct a somewhat expensive ceremony by the
sea and riversides in which they present them with offerings for the
repose of the souls of drowned persons.
The phase of Dæmonolatry which is the most common and the first to
arrest a traveller’s attention is also the most obscure. The _Söng
Whoang Dan_ (altar of the Holy Prince), the great Korean altar, rudely
built of loose stones under the shade of a tree, from the branches of
which are suspended such worthless _ex votos_ as strips of paper,
rags, small bags of rice, old clouts, and worn-out shoes, look less
like an altar than a decaying cairn of large size.[58] A peculiarity
of the _Söng Whoang Dan_ is that they are generally supposed to be
frequented by various dæmons, though occasionally they are crowned
by a shrine to a single spirit. Korean travellers make their special
plea to a travellers’ dæmon who is supposed to be found there, and
hang up strips of their goods in the overhanging branches, and the
sailor likewise regards the altar as the shrine of his guardian dæmon,
and bestows a bit of old rope upon it. Further than this, when some
special bird or beast has destroyed insects injurious to agriculture,
the people erect a shrine to it on these altars or cairns, on which may
frequently be seen the rude daub of a bird or animal.
Two spirits, the _To-ti-chi Shin_ and the _Chon-Shin_, are regarded
as local dæmons, and occupy spots on the mountain sides. They receive
worship at funerals, and a sacrifice similar to that offered in
ancestral worship is made to them before the body is laid in the earth.
Two _Shamans_ preside over this, and one of them intones a ritual
belonging to the occasion. The shrine of _Chon-Shin_ is a local temple,
a small decayed erection usually found outside villages. In Seoul he
has a mud or plaster shrine in which his picture is enshrined with much
ceremony, but in the country his fetish is usually a straw booth set up
over a pair of old shoes under a tree. For the observances connected
with him all the residents in a neighborhood are taxed. He may be
regarded as the chief dæmon in every district, and it is in his honor
that the _mu-tang_ celebrate the triennial festival formerly described.
The Household Spirits are the last division of the Korean _Dæmoneon_.
Söng Ju, the spirit of the ridge pole who presides over the home,
occupies a sort of imperial position with regard to the other household
spirits.
His fetish consists of some sheets of paper and a paper bag containing
as many spoonfuls of rice as the household is years old on the day when
the _mu-tang_ suspends it to the crossbeam of the house.
The ceremony of his inauguration was conducted as follows in the case
of a householder who was at once a scholar, a noble, a rich man, and
the headman of a large village. A lucky day having been chosen by
divination, the noble, after grading the site for his house, erected
the framework, and with great ceremony attached such a fetish,
duly prepared by the _Pan-su_, to the crossbeam. Prostrations and
invocations marked this stage. When the building of the house was
completed, an auspicious day was again chosen by divination, and a
great ceremony was performed by the _mu-tang_ for the enshrining of
the dæmon in the home. The _mu-tang_ arranged the ceremonial and
prepared the offerings, and then with a special wand only used on
these occasions, called the spirit who is supposed to be under her
control, and returning to the house solemnly enshrined him in the
fetish, to which it is correct to add a fresh sheet of paper every
year. After _Söng Ju_ was supposed to have had time to feed spiritually
on the offerings, they were placed before the guests, and a great
entertainment followed.
_Ti Ju_, or the lord of the site, is the next great dæmon, but
investigations regarding him have been very resultless. Little is
known, except that offerings are presented to him at some spot on the
premises, but not inside the house. These offerings, which are of food,
are made on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 15th of each month. This food is
afterwards eaten by the family, and a continual offering is represented
by a bit of cloth or a scrap of old rope. His fetish is a bundle of
straw, empty inside, placed on three sticks, but in some circumstances
a flower pot with some rice inside is substituted.
_Op Ju_, the kitchen dæmon, is the third of the trio which is
permanently attached to the house. His fetish is a piece of cloth or
paper nailed to the wall above the cooking place.
After these come the dæmons who are attached to the family and not
the house, the first of them being _Cho Wang_, a spirit of the
constellation of the Great Bear, a very popular spirit. His shrine is
outside the wall, and his fetish, to which worship is paid, is a gourd
full of cloth and paper. _Cho Wang_ is often the dæmon familiar of a
_mu-tang_.
_Ti Ju_, No. 2, is the fate or luck of the family, and every household
is ambitions to secure him. His fetish is a straw booth three feet
high, in which is a flower pot containing some rice covered with a
stone and paper.
The greatest of the family dæmons is an ancient and historical dæmon,
_Chöi Sok_, who is regarded as the grandfather of _San Chin-chöi Sök_,
the dæmon of nativity. His fetish, unless it becomes rotten or is
accidentally destroyed, descends from father to son. He has several
fetishes, and when he receives homage at the Triennial Festival, the
_mu-tang_ puts on the dress of an official. He is the dæmon of nativity
and the giver of posterity, and is a triple dæmon. Korean women hearing
of the Christian Trinity have been known to say that _San chin_ enables
them to understand the mystery! He is believed to have the control of
all children up to the age of four. He avenges ceremonial defilement
such as the sight by an expectant mother of a mourner or a dead object,
and outside a house where there has been a recent birth, a notice
warning visitors not to enter is often put up on his behalf. He imposes
on plebeian mothers a period of seclusion for twenty-one days after a
birth, but for noble mothers one hundred days, for which period the
rays of the sun are rigidly excluded from both mother and child.
_Pa-mul_, the dæmon of riches, is the Japanese _Daikoku_ and the
British _Mammon_. He is worshipped in the granary, and thanks are
offered to him as well as petitions. His fetish is a paste jar set up
on two decorated bags of rice. A man in Chemulpo, now a Christian,
had a very famous fetish, which was originally a jar of beans, but
these were changed into clear water, and a mysterious improvement in
the fortunes of the family set in from that date, the jar becoming an
object of grateful worship. One day it was found broken and the water
lost, and from that time his fortunes declined.
Kol-lip is the dæmon who takes charge of the external fortunes of the
family, and is also the mercury of the household dæmons. His fetish is
enshrined over the gate-house, and consists of a mass of rubbish, old
straw shoes for wearing on his travels, _cash_ for spiritual funds,
and a fragment of grass cloth for travelling outfit. There is also the
dæmon of the gate whose fetish hangs over the entrance.
Dr. Landis has classified the Korean dæmons as follows:--
_Spirits high in rank_
1. Spirits of the Heavens.
2. Spirits of the Earth.
3. Spirits of the Mountains and Hills.
4. Spirits of the Dragons.
5. Guardian Spirits of the District.
6. Spirits of the Buddhist Faith (?)
_Spirits of the House_
7. Spirit of the ridge pole. This is the chief of all the spirits
of the House.
8. Spirit of goods and furniture.
9. Spirit dæmon of the Yi family.
10. Spirit of the kitchen.
11. Attendant spirits of No. 9.
12. Spirits which serve one’s ancestors.
13. The Guards and servants of No. 9.
14. The Spirits which aid jugglers.
15. Spirits of goods and chattels, like No. 8, but inferior in rank.
16. Spirits of smallpox.
17. Spirits which take the forms of animals.
18. Spirits which take possession of young girls and change them into
exorcists.
19. Spirits of the seven stars which form the Dipper.
20. Spirits of the house site.
_Various kinds of Spirits_
21. Spirits which make men brave.
22. Spirits which reside in trees. Any gnarled shrub or malformed tree
is supposed to be the residence of one of these spirits. Spirits which
cause persons to meet either a violent death or to die young. Any one
who has died before reaching a cycle (_i.e._ 60 years) is supposed
to have died owing to the influence of one of these spirits. It is
needless to say that they are all evil.
23. Spirits which cause tigers to eat men.
24. Spirits which cause men to die on the road.
25. Spirits which roam about the house causing all sorts of calamities.
26. Spirits which cause a man to die away from home.
27. Spirits which cause men to die as substitutes for others.
28. Spirits which cause men to die by strangulation.
29. Spirits which cause men to die by drowning.
30. Spirits which cause women to die in childbirth.
31. Spirits which cause men to die by suicide.
32. Spirits which cause men to die by fire.
33. Spirits which cause men to die by being beaten.
34. Spirits which cause men to die by falls.
35. Spirits which cause men to die by pestilence.
36. Spirits which cause men to die by cholera.
The belief in the efficacy of the performances of the _mu-tang_ is
enormous. In sickness the very poor half starve themselves and pawn
their clothing to pay for her exorcisms. Her power has been riveted
upon the country for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The order is
said to date back 4,000 years, to have been called in China, where it
was under official regulations, _mu-ham_. Five hundred years ago the
founder of the present dynasty prohibited _mu-tang_ from living within
the walls of Seoul--hence their houses and temples are found outside
the city walls.
Women are not _mu-tang_ by birth, but of late years it has become
customary for the girl children of a sorceress to go out with her and
learn her arts, which is tending to give the profession a hereditary
aspect. It is now recruited partly in this fashion, partly from among
hysterical girls, and partly for a livelihood, but outside of these
sources, a dæmon may take possession of any woman, wife, maid, or
widow, rich or poor, plebeian or patrician, and compel her to serve
him. At the beginning of the possession she becomes either slightly
or seriously ill, and her illness may last four weeks or three years,
during which time she dreams of a dragon, a rainbow, peach trees in
blossom, or of a man in armor who is suddenly metamorphosed into an
animal. Under the influence of these dreams she becomes like an insane
person, and when awake sees many curious things, and before long speaks
as an oracle of the spirits.
She then informs her family that messengers from Heaven, Earth, and
the Lightning have informed her that if she is not allowed to practise
exorcism, they or their domestic animals will die. Should they insist
on secluding her, her illness shortly terminates fatally. If a daughter
of a noble family becomes possessed, they probably make away with her,
in the idea that if madness takes this turn, the disgrace would be
indelible.
But things usually go smoothly, and on being allowed to have her own
way the first thing she does is to go into a vacant room and fill it
with flowers as an offering to the dæmons. Then she must obtain the
clothing and professional paraphernalia of a deceased _mu-tang_. The
clothing may be destroyed after the dæmon has taken full possession of
his new recruit, but the drums and other instruments must be retained.
After the possessions of the deceased _mu-tang_ have been bestowed on
the new one who claims them, she proceeds to exorcise such bad spirits
as may be infesting the donor’s house, so as to enable his family to
live in peace, after which she writes his name on a tablet, and placing
it in a small room invokes blessings on him for three years.
After this ceremonial has been observed the _mu-tang_, fully possessed
by a dæmon, begins to exercise her very important and lucrative
profession. Her equipment consists of a number of dresses, some of them
very costly, a drum shaped like an hour-glass, four feet in length,
copper cymbals, a copper rod, with tinklers suspended from it by copper
chains, strips of silk and paper banners which float round her as she
dances, fans, umbrellas, wands, images of men and animals, brass or
copper gongs, and a pair of telescope-shaped baskets for scratching,
chiefly used in cases of cholera, which disease is supposed to result
from rats climbing about in the human interior. The scratching sound
made by a peculiar use of these baskets, which resembles the noise made
by cats, is expected to scare and drive away these rodents.
The preliminaries of exorcism are that the _mu-tang_ must subject
herself to certain restraints varying from a month to three days,
during which time she must abstain from flesh and fish, and must
partially fast. Before an exorcism ashes are steeped in water and the
sorceress takes of this, and sprinkles it as she walks round the house,
afterwards taking pure water and going through the same ceremony.
The almost fabulous sums squeezed by the _mu-tang_ out of the people
of Seoul are given in a previous chapter. It will be observed that
in Korea sickness is always associated with dæmoniacal possession,
and that the services of the _Pan-su_, or _mu-tang_, are always
requisitioned. European medicine and surgery are the most successful
assailants of this barbarous and degrading system which holds the
whole nation, in many respects highly civilized, in bondage, and the
influence of both as practised in connection with “Medical Missions” is
tending increasingly in the direction of emancipation.
It would be impossible to say how far the _mu-tang_ is self-deceived.
In some of her dances, especially in one in which she exorcises “The
dæmon of the Yi family,” one of the most powerful and malignant of the
dæmon hierarchy, she works herself into such a delirious frenzy that
she falls down foaming at the mouth, and death is occasionally the
result of the frantic excitement.
The “Dæmon of the Yi Family” is invoked in every district once in
three years by the _mu-tang_ in a formula which has been translated
thus--“Oh Master and Mistress of our Kingdom, may you ever exist in
peace. Once in every three years we invoke you with music and dancing.
Oh make this house to be peaceful.” If this malignant spirit arrives
at a house he can only be appeased by the death of a man, an ox, or a
pig. Therefore when the _mu-tang_ becomes aware that he has come to a
house or neighborhood, a pig is at once killed, boiled, and offered
up entire--the exorcist takes two knives and dances a sword dance,
working herself into a “fine frenzy,” after which a box is made and a
Korean official hat and robes are placed within it, as well as a dress
suitable for a palace lady. The box is then placed on the top of the
family clothes chest, and sacrifices are frequently offered there. This
dæmon is regarded as the spirit of a rebellious Crown Prince, the sole
object of whose dæmon existence is to injure all with whom he can come
into contact.
A man sometimes marries a _mu-tang_, but he is invariably “a fellow of
the baser sort,” who desires to live in idleness on the earnings of his
wife. If, as is occasionally the case, the _mu-tang_ belongs to a noble
family, she is only allowed to exorcise spirits in her own house, and
when she dies she is buried in a hole in a mountain-side with the whole
paraphernalia of her profession. Some _mu-tang_ do not go abroad for
purposes of exorcism. These may be regarded as the aristocracy of their
profession, and many of them are of much repute and live in the suburbs
of Seoul. Those who desire their services send the necessary money and
offerings, and the _mu-tang_ exorcise the spirits in their own houses.
The use of straw, ropes, and of pieces of paper resembling the Shinto
_gohei_, during incantations, with a certain similarity between the
Shinto and the _Shaman_ ceremonies, might suggest a common origin, but
our knowledge of the Dæmonism of Korea is so completely in its infancy,
that any speculations as to its kinships can be of little value, and
it is only as a very slight contribution to the sum of knowledge of an
obscure but very interesting subject, that I venture to present these
chapters to my readers.
The Koreans, it must be remarked, have no single word for Dæmonism or
Shamanism. The only phrase in use to express their belief in dæmons who
require to be propitiated is, _Kursin wi han-nan Köt_ (the worship of
Spirits). _Pulto_ is Buddhism, _Yuto_ Confucianism, and _Sönto_ Taoism,
but the termination _To_, “doctrine,” has not yet been affixed to
Dæmonism.
FOOTNOTES:
[58] Mr. G. H. Jones suggests the idea that these uncouth heap of
stones were originally munitions of war over which tutelary dæmons were
supposed to brood, and thinks that the transition to an altar would be
a very natural one.