probably a merchant.  Two features at once strike you:  his hat, the kat-si, and his shoes; and then, his funny white padded clothes.  But let us examine him carefully in detail.  It is a little difficult to decide at which end one should begin to describe him, but I imagine that it is the customary thing to begin with the head, and so, coming close to him, let us note how curiously his hat is made.  It is just like a Welshwoman’s hat in shape, or, in other words, like a flowerpot placed on a flat dish, as seen in the illustration; but the extraordinary thing about the Corean hat is that it is quite transparent, and has none of the virtues that, according to our ideas, a hat ought to possess.  It is a wonderful work of art, for it is made of horse-hair, or, more commonly, of split bamboo so finely cut in threads as to resemble white horse-hair, and then woven into a fine net in the shape described.  A thin bamboo frame keeps it well together, and gives to it a certain solidity, but though varnished over, it protects one’s head from neither sun, wind, nor rain.  It is considered a rude thing in Corea to take one’s hat off, even in the house, and therefore the kat-si, not requiring instant removal or putting on, is provided with two hooks at the sides of the central cone, to each of which a white ribbon is attached, to be tied under the chin when the hat is worn, the latter resting, not on the hair itself, but on the head-band.  This shape of hat is never worn without the head-band.

The hat just described is that most commonly worn in the Land of the Morning Calm, and that which one sees on the generality of people.  But there! look at that man passing along leading a bull—­he has a hat large enough to protect a whole family.  It is like a huge pyramid made of basket-work of split bamboo or plaited reeds or rushes, and it covers him almost half way down to his waist.  Well, that poor man is in private mourning for the death of a relation, and he covers his face thus to show his grief.

[Illustration:  THE HEAD-BAND AND TRANSPARENT HAT]

Here, again, comes another individual with a transparent hat like the first, only worn over a big hood open at the top over the head and falling rounded over the shoulders, thus protecting the ears from the severe cold.  This is lined with fur, with which it is also trimmed, and looks quite furry and warm, if not exactly becoming.  Ah! but here is something even more curious in the shape of head-gear.  It is just beginning to snow, and, one after the other, our transparent kat-sis are undergoing a transformation.  I daresay, as we stand watching the people go by, it will be noticed that nearly each one who has a transparent hat, also wears in his girdle round his waist a triangular object made of yellow oil-paper which resembles a fan.  Well, now, you will see what it is.  An oldish man turns up his nose to scrutinise the intentions of the weather-clerk, and, apparently little satisfied at the aspect of the threatening