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“Old sayings are generally shadows of skeletons of things that once had a being,” declared a newspaper article from the late 1880s. The article was about a Korean artifact that had been added to the Smithsonian Institution or museum and was on display. The artifact was, of course, a Jaewoong (재웅), a doll made from rice straw with some Korean coins (cash) placed within its stomach.
While travelers may have welcomed Korean country inns as a sanctuary from tigers, wolves and the elements, they were not a sanctuary from other predations. Scattered amongst the articles published in newspapers and magazines from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are accounts of robberies and murders that took place in lonely inns. Fortunately, foreigners were rarely victims of these violent attacks, but they, along with the other patrons of the inn, had to contend with the most notorious offenders: bedbugs.
While travelers may have welcomed Korean country inns as a sanctuary from tigers, wolves and the elements, they were not a sanctuary from other predations. Scattered amongst the articles published in newspapers and magazines from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are accounts of robberies and murders that took place in lonely inns. Fortunately, foreigners were rarely victims of these violent attacks, but they, along with the other patrons of the inn, had to contend with the most notorious offenders: bedbugs.
For Westerners, traveling in the interior of the Korean Peninsula in the late 19th century was very uncomfortable and dangerous - especially as night fell. The Korean roads and desolate paths were the hunting grounds for the numerous highwaymen and brigands who preyed upon small parties of travelers. Tigers stalked invisibly in the underbrush, waiting for the opportunity to gorge upon the flesh of the unwary.