Nose Ring for Cattle

This is a tool used for piercing and threading an ox’s nose to better control it. The ox’s nose was pierced with this tool around one year after its birth. In general, an ox was brought on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar to the outskirt of the village or a nearby hill, and tied to a tree to pierce its nose. A nose ring is made by bending a wooden cylinder into a circular form. The strong and tough Korean stewartia wood was used as the material, then bent in an appropriate form, dried on a rooftop, and trimmed into a nose ring. The exact location of the septum was found and pierced, then a nose ring was inserted and diagonally looped to prevent it from falling out, and fixed onto the nose. If the hole is pierced at the front part of the septum, it would be difficult to handle the ox, and if the hole is located deep inside the nose, the ox would feel uncomfortable and it would not gain enough weight. The awl used to pierce a hole on the septum is made of jujube wood, and was kept under the eaves and taken out to be used when necessary.