The Mudang
Seoul is a very quiet city and at night it is as dark as it is quiet; only here and there a little flickering lantern lets the belated passer-by know…
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
"The Mootang," from The Korean Repository by H.N. Allen, 1910.
Seoul is a very quiet city and at night it is as dark as it is quiet; only here and there a little flickering lantern lets the belated passer-by know that a wine-shop rests beneath its dismal rays, or the splashing of the way farer's boots in the mud of the unpaved streets may arouse an occasional dog; the sole guardian of the city's quiet. Yet every now and then one may hear a most vigorous double action rap-tap-tapping where a couple of women are ironing or rather mangling the family linen. And when a lull occurs in this rhythmic tapping one knows that the poor things have stopped for a bit of gossip, only to fall to and keep up their musical tinkle during the most of the night.
About the only other noise one may hear along the streets, aside from the brawling of some drunken wretch, is the jolly racket made by the Mootang. As they dance, beat their tom-toms and drums and utter their peculiar calls, a stranger can hardly believe other than that that particular house is giving a family "hop" and that some one is "calling off" in good old style, so naturally, too, as to make one feel like joining in the "swing your partners," &c., that the calls seem to mean. This only illustrates the contrariness of things oriental to the occidental mind however, for there is no merry-making in this house. There is music, dancing and calling out; but instead of being in mirth it is in sadness, or it is done by a paid female exorcist who is trying by her intonations to drive out the small-pox or other evil spirit from the person of some suffering member of the family.
These Mootang represent a very ancient institution and belief in the efficacy of their methods is very general among the lower classes but their patrons are not all of the common people.
The Mootang use as instruments a drum made in the shape of an hour-glass and over four feet in length, copper cymbals, brass or copper rod with little tinklers suspended from it by chains made of the same material, a bronze or copper gong and a pair of baskets, telescope shaped, for scratching. This scratching is very necessary in case of cholera, for this disease being caused by rats climbing up inside the human anatomy, as is supposed, the scratching is expected to alarm and drive them away, since it so nearly resembles the noise made by cats.
Besides the above musical (or noisical) instruments, the Mootang use banners of paper or strips of bright colored silk, which they wave and weave about them in the manner of a modern serpentine dancer; they also use umbrellas and fans in parts of their performance. They also make use of images of men and animals, sometimes expensively made and gorgeously painted, at other times mere effigies of straw. The financial condition of the patient settles the question as to what instruments or figures are used.
Aside from driving away the spirit of disease from an afflicted person, these women are also called in to purify a well in which a person has been drowned, in which case she induces the spirit of the drowned person to leave. Also, after a death she is called in to persuade the soul of the departed to return and look after those left behind. She also deposits the bad luck of an individual in one of the before-mentioned images, together with some coin, which image being thrown into the street is taken and torn to pieces by some poor beggar or drunken person who thus, for the sake of the coin, takes upon himself the ill luck that has been annoying the other person.
H. N. Allen."The Mootang" in The Korean Repository, vol. 3 (Seoul: The Trilingual Press, 1896).
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