Whether in architecture, or in education, or in dress, or in
other affairs of life, custom rules in Korea. Custom explains
everything.
“What about this absurdity?” “Oh, it’s custom.” “Yes, but see
here, why are the dead propt up on sticks and not buried?” “Oh,
it’s custom.” “Do you sometimes marry off children as early as
nine years of age?” “Yes, that’s custom.”
The reader must learn this word if he would understand old
Korea, and if he would read into much of the life of the East
still The forefather may have been an imbecile, or may have
walked in his sleep, but what he did has come down, down to the
present, and custom maintains that it is the sane and right
thing to do.
“Why do you feed all these idle tramps, who come calling at your
door, and you a poor man?” I once asked of my host.
He replied, “It’s custom, and for my life I can’t get out of
it.” “What about these dolmens set up all through these valleys
here like tables of the gods; what do they mean?” “They were set
up by the Chinese invader, thousands of years ago, to crush out
the ground influence that brought forth Korean warriors.”
“You mean that they have stifled out the life of the nation
for all these centuries?” “Yes.” “Then why don’t you roll them
off and get back your lost vigor?” “Oh, that’s no use now,
never do.” “As it was, is now, and ever shall be,” is the only
reply.--JAMES S. GALE, “Korea in Transition.”
(652)
=Custom, Disregarded=--See PILOT, NEED OF.