Food. Koreans are voracious meat-eaters, and the cuisine is on the whole more substantial than that of the Japanese. Omnivorousness is a native characteristic; dog meat is in great request at certain seasons, and dogs are extensively bred for the table. Pork, beef, fish, -- raw, dried, and salted, -- the intestines of animals, all birds and game, no part being rejected, are eaten -- a baked fowl, with its head, claws, and interior intact is considered a special dainty which every one enjoys. Cooking is not always essential. 'In this respect all classes are alike. The great merit of a meal is not so much quality as quantity, and from infancy onward, one object in life is to give the stomach as much capacity and elasticity as is possible, so that four pounds of rice daily may not accomodate it. People in easy circumstances drink wine and eat great quantities of fruit, nuts, and confectionary in the intervals between meals, yet are as ready to tackle the next food as though they had been starving for a week. In well-to-do houses beef and dog are served on large trenchers, and as each guest has his separate table, a host can show generosity to this or that special friend without helping others to more than in necessary. Large as a portion is, it is not unusual to see a Korean eat three and even four, and where people abstain from these excesses it may generally be assumed that they are too poor to indulge in them. It is quite common to see from 20 to 25 peaches or small melons disappear at a single sitting, and without being peeled. There can be no doubt that the enormous consumption of red pepper, which is supplied even to infants, helps this gluttonous style of eating. It is not surprising that dyspepsia and kindred evils are vely common among Koreans. They eat not to satisfy hunger, but to enjoy the sensation of repletion. The training for this enjoyment begins at a very early age. A mother feeds her young child with rice, and when it can eat no more in an upright position, lays it on his back on her lap and feeds it again, tapping its stomach from time to time with a flat spoon to ascertain if further cramming is possible. "The child is father to the man," and the adult Korean shows that he has reached the desirable stage of repletion by eructations, splutterings, slapping his stomach, and groans of satisfaction, looking round with a satisfied air. The very poor only take two meals a day, but those who can afford it take three and four.' Among the dishes dear to the native heart are pounded capsicum, bean curd, various sauces of abominable odors, a species of sour kraut (kimshi), seaweed, salt fish, and salted seaweed fried in batter. 'Hot dog' in the literal sense is the pièce de résistance of the Korean menu.

There are no harder or more constant drinkers than the Koreans, and the vice is common to all classes. The greatest happiness that can fall to the commoner is to be able to drown his cares in the forgetfulness of intoxication; he is then the envy of all his neighbors. The fermented liquors (for which Europeans have to acquire a taste) vary from a smooth white drink resembling buttermilk in appearance, and very mild, to a water-white spirit of strong smell, fiery taste, and great potentiality. Between these comes the ordinary rice wine, slightly yellowish, akin to Japanese sake and Chinese samshu, with a faint, sickly smell and flavor. They all taste more or less strongly of smoke, oil, and alcohol, and the fuel oil remains even in the best. They are manufactured from rice, millet, and barley. The peasants drink hot rice-water (in which the rice has been boiled) with their meals, honey-water as a luxury, and occasionally an infusion of orange peel and ginger. Tea is rarely drunk.