THE UNMANNERLY 
 
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 AND OTHER KOREAN TALES 
 
 WILLIAM ELLlOT GRIFFIS 
 
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Cornell University Library 
 GR 342.G85 
 
 The unmannerly tiger and other Korean t 
 
 3 1924 023 266 970 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023266970 
 
BOOKS BY 
 
 WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS 
 
 THE JAPANESE NATION IN EVOLUTION 
 
 Illustrated. Cloth, umo. Net, $1.3$ 
 
 THE PIRE-FLY'S LOVERS ; and Other Fairy 
 Tales of Old Japaa 
 
 Illustrated in color. Cloth, 8vo. $i.oo 
 
 THE UNMANNERLY TIQER ; aad Other Korean 
 Stories 
 
 Illustrated iti color. Cloth, 8vo. $i.oo 
 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 
 
 New York 
 
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 THE 
 UNMANNERIY 
 ' TIGER 
 
 AND OTHER 
 KOREAN TALES 
 
 WILLIAM 
 ELLIOT 
 GRIFFIS 
 
 NE\X/"YOR.K 
 
 THOMAS Y.CROWELL 
 COMPANY 
 7. 
 
 miDiliitiiiD 
 
Copyright, 191 i. 
 By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY. 
 
To 
 HORACE NEWTON ALLEN 
 
 Pioneer of Science and American 
 Minister Plenipotentiary in Korea 
 
ON THE DOOR-STEP 
 
 1871-1911 1 
 
 IT is forty years since folk-lore and firearms 
 met in the forts on the Han River, in Korea. 
 The brave tiger-hunters, in padded cotton 
 and sheet iron armor, equipped with their jingals 
 and firelocks, faced the eleven-inch shells of the 
 American gunboats, the grape and cannister of 
 the Dahlgren howitzers, and the Bridesburg 
 rifles of our marines and sailors. Waving defi- 
 ance to the invaders under the stars and stripes 
 — the red, white and blue — were the native flags, 
 rich in symbols of cosmic evolution and of the 
 perpetual succession of day and night. The 
 Chinese philosophy, as embodied in the yellow 
 and blue of Heaven and Earth, and in the Eight 
 Diagrams from the back of the Dragon-Horse, 
 antedating Confucius, supplemented a rich 
 picture gallery of folk-beliefs — the product of 
 the native imagination — on the banners of the 
 patriot defenders. 
 
 At that date, as pioneer of science and of the 
 American school system in the far interior of 
 
 V 
 
vi ON THE DOOR-STEP 
 
 Japan, I was myself busy in depopulating, by 
 means of chemistry and physics, the rather 
 overcrowded Japanese world of gods, oni, imps, 
 dragons, etc., and, by training Japanese teacljiers 
 to do the same, was helping to transform multi- 
 tudes of more or less maligant and uncanny 
 creatures of the imagination into harmless 
 fairies. 
 
 Studying the Korean flags captured by our 
 men, I was delighted to find in them an album 
 of Korean folk-lore, racy, original, and with a 
 background wholly its own. Here was a reve- 
 lation of what the natives actually believed, 
 richer by far than anything which aliens could 
 disclose. The mountain spirit riding his pie- 
 bald pony, the statant, winged tiger holding the 
 lightnings in his grasp, the flying serpent, able 
 after a thousand years of evolution to rise from 
 air into air and smite Korea's foes, showed what 
 was the oldest of all faiths in the Land of Morn- 
 ing Splendor. To me, these symbols opened 
 a great gate into the Korean's mind, and since 
 then I have enjoyed many a holiday of mental 
 recreation in company with the Korean fairies. 
 What if they are not as lovely as thosp of 
 Jplreece ,? 
 
ON THE DOOR-STEP vii 
 
 A few years later, the pioneers of science, of 
 the healing art, of the greatest of all hopes, and 
 of good news for the soul, entered Korea. 
 They opened the language and mines of scholar- 
 ship and research. To them and their French 
 predecessors, how great is my debt 1 How can 
 I utter it 1 To Allen, Hulbert, Gale, Jones, 
 Appenzeller, Underwood — all shining names, as 
 well as to anonymous workers, my thanks are 
 heartily given here and always. When will the 
 Repository, the Review, the Asiatic Society of 
 Korea recommence their good work ? 
 
 In these days, what with science, dogma, 
 the awful variety of " doxies," and the crass 
 pragmatism and most harmful prudery of peo- 
 ple who have no imagination, the fairies are 
 having a hard time of it. Among those who 
 would rob the children of the divine gifts and 
 the joys that lie outside the domain of science, 
 let the writer be counted last. What a dark 
 world it would be, if the dogma doctors and 
 fact-mongers should reduce the mind's world to 
 a Sahara of sterile reality I 
 
 W. E. Q. 
 
 JiAaea, March 2, 19U.. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 The Unmannerly Tigeb 1 
 
 TOKGABI AND HIS PEANKS 7 
 
 East Light and the Bridge op Pishes . . 14 
 
 Peince Sandalwood, the Pathbe of Koeea . 21 
 
 The Babbit's Eyes 30 
 
 Topknots and Ceookeey Hats .... 36 
 
 The Sneezing Colossus 45 
 
 A Beidegeoom foe Miss Mole .... 50 
 
 Old "White Whibkees and Me. Bunny . . 56 
 Peach-Blossom, Plum-Blossom, and Cinnamon 
 
 EosE 63 
 
 TOKGABI'S MeNAGEEIE, CATS AND DOGS . . 69 
 
 The Geeat Stone Fiee Eatee .... 78 
 
 Pigling and hee Peoud Sistee .... 87 
 
 SiE One Long Body and Madame Thousand Feet 96 
 
 The Sky Beidgb of Bieds 105 
 
 A Feog foe a Husband 112 
 
 The Voice op the Bell 126 
 
 The King of the Spaeeows .... 135 
 
 The Woodman and the Mountain Faieies . 144 
 
 u 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The tigee cumbed up and out . . Frontispiece 
 
 OPPOSITE PAGB 
 
 Shouted East Light, "Let us flee!" . . 18 
 
 They obacked theik oeockeet .... 42 
 
 With patience Mieyek listened to the peoud 
 
 fathee 54 
 
 A PAETY of OHILDEEN CAUGHT SIGHT OF THE 
 
 ODD PAIE 76 
 
 She KB a ED A WHIE AND EUSH OF WINGS . . 90 
 
 The lovely lady that stands by the Staeey 
 
 ervtee to meet hee loed .... 110 
 
 Alt, the childeen clapped theie hands . . 134 
 
 21 
 
THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 MOUNTAIN UNCLE " was the name 
 given by the villagers to a splendid 
 striped tiger that lived among the 
 highlands of Kang Wen, the long province that 
 from its cliffs overlooks the Sea of Japan. 
 Hunters rarely saw him, and among his fellow- 
 tigers the Mountain Uncle boasted that, though 
 often fired at, he had never been wounded ; 
 while as for traps — he knew all about them and 
 laughed at the devices used by man to catch 
 him and to strip him of his coveted skin. In 
 summer he kept among the high hills and lived 
 on fat deer. In winter, when heavy snow, bit- 
 ing winds, and terrible cold kept human beings 
 within doors, old Mountain Uncle would sally 
 forth to the villages. There he would prowl 
 around the stables, the cattle enclosures, or the 
 pig-pens, in hopes of clawing and dragging out 
 a young donkey, a fat calf, or a suckling pig. 
 Too often he succeeded, so that he was the terror 
 of the country for leagues around. 
 
 1 
 
2 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 One day in autumn, Mountain Uncle was 
 rambling among the lower hills. Though far 
 from any village, he kept a sharp lookout for 
 traps and hunters, but none seemed to be near. 
 He was very hungry and hoped for game. 
 
 But on coming round a great rock, Mountain 
 Uncle suddenly saw in his path some feet ahead, 
 as he thought, a big tiger like himself. 
 
 He stopped, twitched his tail most ferociously 
 as a challenge, showed fight by growling, and 
 got ready to spring. What was his surprise to 
 see the other tiger doing exactly the same things. 
 Mountain Uncle was sure that there would be a 
 terrible struggle, but this was just what he 
 wanted, for he expected of course to win. 
 
 But after a tremendous leap in the air, he 
 landed in a pit and all of a heap, bruised and 
 disappointed. There was no tiger to be seen, 
 but instead a heavy lid of logs had closed over 
 his head with a crash and he lay in darkness. 
 Old Mountain Uncle at last was caught. Yes, 
 the hunter had concealed the pit with sticks and 
 leaves, and on the upright timbers, covered with 
 vines and brushwood, had hung a bit of looking- 
 glass. Mountain Uncle had often beheld his 
 own face and body in the water, when he stooped 
 
THE UNMA^fNERL^ TIGER ^ 
 
 to drink, but this time, not seeing any water, he 
 was deceived into thinking a real tiger wanted 
 to fight him. 
 
 By and by, a Buddhist priest came along, 
 who believed in being kind to all living crea- 
 tures. Hearing an animal moaning, he opened 
 the trap and lifting the lid saw old Mountain 
 Uncle at the bottom licking his bruised paw. 
 
 " Oh, please, Mr. Man, let me get out. I'm 
 hurt badly," said the tiger. 
 
 Thereupon the priest lifted up one of the logs 
 and slid it down, until it rested on the bottom 
 of the pit. Then the tiger climbed up and out. 
 Old Mountain Uncle expressed his thanks vol- 
 ubly, saying to the shaven head : 
 
 " I am deeply grateful to you, sir, for helping 
 me out of my trouble. Nevertheless, as I am 
 very hungry, I must eat you up." 
 
 The priest, very much surprised and indig- 
 nant, protested against such vile ingratitude. 
 To say the least, it was very bad manners 
 and entirely against the law of the mountains, 
 and he appealed to a big tree to decide between 
 them. 
 
 The spirit in the tree spoke through the rus- 
 tling leaves and declared that the man should go 
 
4 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 free and that the tiger was both ungrateful and 
 unmannerly. 
 
 Old Mountain Uncle was not satisfied yet, es- 
 pecially as the priest was unusually fat and 
 would make a very good dinner. However, he 
 allowed the man to appeal once more and this 
 time to a big rock. 
 
 " The man is certainly right, Venerable Moun- 
 tain Uncle, and you are wholly wrong," said the 
 spirit in the rock. " Your master, the Mountain 
 Spirit, who rides on the green bull and the pie- 
 bald horse to punish his enemies, will certainly 
 chastise you if you devour this priest. You 
 will be no fit messenger of the Mountain Lord 
 if you are so ungrateful as to eat the man who 
 saved you from starvation or death in the trap. 
 It is shockingly bad manners even to think of 
 such a thing." 
 
 The tiger felt ashamed, but his eyes still glared 
 with hunger ; so, to be sure of saving his own 
 skin, the priest proposed to make the toad a 
 judge. The tiger agreed. 
 
 But the toad, with his gold-rimmed eyes, 
 looked very wise, and instead of answering 
 quickly, as the tree and rock did, deliberated a 
 long time. The priest's heart sank, while the 
 
THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 5 
 
 tiger moved his jaws as if anticipating his feast. 
 He felt sure that Old Speckled Back would de- 
 cide in his favor. 
 
 " I must go and see the trap before I can make 
 up my mind," said the toad, who looked as sol- 
 emn as a magistrate. So all three leaped, 
 hopped, or walked to the trap. The tiger, mov- 
 ing fast, was there first, which was just what the 
 toad, who was a friend of the priest,wanted. Be- 
 sides, Old Speckled Back was diligently looking 
 for a crack in the rocks near by. 
 
 So, while the toad and the tiger were studying 
 the matter, the priest ran off and saved himself 
 within the monastery gates. When at last Old 
 Speckled Back decided against Mountain Uncle 
 and in favor of the man, he had no sooner fin- 
 ished his judgment than he hopped into the 
 rock crevice, and, crawling far inside, defied the 
 tiger, calling him an unmannerly brute and an 
 ungrateful beast, and daring him to do his worst. 
 
 Old Mountain Uncle was so mad with rage 
 and hunger that his craftiness seemed turned 
 into stupidity. He clawed at the rock to pull 
 it open to get at the toad to tear him to pieces. 
 But Speckled Back, safe within, only laughed. 
 Unable to do any harm, the tiger flew into a 
 
6 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 passion of rage. The hotter his temper grew, 
 the more he lost his wit. Poking his nose in- 
 side the crack, he rubbed it so hard on the 
 rough rock that he soon bled to death. 
 
 When the hunter came along, he marveled at 
 what he saw, but he was glad to get rich by sell- 
 ing the tiger's fur, bones, and claws ; for in Korea 
 nothing sells so well as a tiger. As for the toad, 
 he told to several generations of his descendants 
 the story of how he outwitted the old Mountain 
 Uncle. 
 
TOKGABI AND HIS PRANKS 
 
 TOKGABI is the most mischievous sprite 
 in all Korean fairy-land. He does not 
 like the sunshine, or outdoors, and no 
 one ever saw him on the streets. 
 
 He lives in the sooty flues that run under the 
 floors along the whole length of the house, from 
 the kitchen at one end of it to the chimney 
 hole in the ground at the other end. He de- 
 lights in the smoke and smut, and does not 
 mind fire or flame, for he likes to be where it is 
 warm. He has no lungs, and his skin and eyes 
 are both fire-proof He is as black as night and 
 loves nothing that has white in it. He is al- 
 ways afraid of a bit of silver, even if it be only a 
 hairpin. 
 
 Tokgabi likes most to play at night in the 
 little loft over the fireplace. To run along the 
 rafters and knock down the dust and cobwebs is 
 his delight. His favorite game is to make the 
 iron rice-pot lid dance up and down, so that it 
 tumbles inside the rice kettle and cannot easily 
 be got out again. Oh, how many times the cook 
 
 7 
 
8 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 burns, scalds, or steams her fingers in attempt- 
 ing to fish out that pot lid when Tokgabi has 
 pushed it in I How she does bless the sooty 
 imp 1 
 
 But Tokgabi is not always mischievous, and 
 most of his capers hurt nobody. He is such a 
 merry fellow that he keeps continually busy, 
 whether people cry or laugh. He does not mean 
 to give any one trouble, but he must have fun 
 every minute, especially at night. 
 
 When the fire is out, how he does chase the 
 mice up and down the flues under the floor, and 
 up in the garret over the rafters ! When the 
 mousies lie dead on their backs, with their toes 
 turned upward, the street boys take them out- 
 doors and throw them up in the air. Before the 
 mice fall to the ground, the hawks swoop down 
 and eat them up. Many a bird of prey gets his 
 breakfast in this way. 
 
 Although Tokgabi plays so many pranks, he 
 is kind to the kitchen maids. When, after a 
 hard day's work, one is so tired out that she 
 falls asleep, he helps her to do her hard tasks. 
 
 Tokgabi washes their dishes and cleans their 
 tables for good servants. So when they wake 
 up, the girls find their work done for them. 
 
TOKGABI AND HIS PRANKS 9 
 
 Many a fairy tale is told about this jolly sprite's 
 doings — how he gives good things to the really 
 nice people and makes the bad ones mad by 
 spitefully using them. They do say that the 
 king of all the Tokgabis has a museum of curios- 
 ities and a storehouse full of gold and gems and 
 fine clothes, and everything sweet to eat for good 
 boys and girls and for old people that are kind 
 to the birds and dumb animals. For bad folks, 
 he has all sorts of things that are ugly and 
 troublesome. He punishes stingy people by 
 making them poor and miserable. 
 
 The Tokgabi king has also a menagerie of 
 animals. These he sends to do his errands 
 rewarding the good and punishing naughty 
 folks. Every year the little almanac with red 
 and green covers tells in what quarter of the 
 skies the Tokgabi king lives for that year, so 
 that the farmers and country people will keep 
 out of his way and not provoke him. In his 
 menagerie the kind creatures that help human 
 beings are the dragon, bear, tortoise, frog, dog 
 and rabbit. These are all man's friends. The 
 cruel and treacherous creatures in Tokgabi's 
 menagerie are the tiger, wild boar, leopard, ser- 
 pent, toad and cat. These are the messengers of 
 
10 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 the Tokgabi king to do his bidding, when he 
 punishes naughty folks. 
 
 The common, every-day Tokgabi plays fewer 
 tricks on the men and boys and enjoys himself 
 more in bothering the girls and women. This, 
 I suppose, is because they spend more time in 
 the house than their fathers or brothers. In 
 the Land of Rat-tat-tat, where the sound of 
 beating the washed clothes never ceases, Tokgabi 
 loves to get hold of the women's laundry sticks 
 which are used for pounding and polishing the 
 starched clothes. He hides them so that they 
 cannot be found. Then Daddy makes a fuss, 
 because his long white coat has to go without 
 its usual gloss, but it is all Tokgabi's fault. 
 
 Tokgabi does not like starch, because it is 
 white. He loves to dance on Daddy's big black 
 hat case that hangs on the wall. Sometimes he 
 wiggles the fetich, or household idol, that is 
 suspended from the rafters. But, most of all, 
 he enjoys dancing a jig among the dishes in the 
 closet over the fireplace, making them rattle and 
 often tumble down with a crash. 
 
 Tokgabi likes to bother men sometimes too. 
 If Daddy should get his topknot caught in a 
 rat hole, or his head should slip off his wooden 
 
TOKGABI AND HIS PRANKS 11 
 
 pillow at night and he bump his nose, it is all 
 Tokgabi's fault. When anything happens to a 
 boy's long braid of hair, that hangs down his 
 back and makes him look so much like a girl, 
 Tokgabi is blamed for it. It is even said that 
 naughty men make compacts with Tokgabi to 
 do bad things, but the imp only helps the man 
 for the fun of it. Tokgabi cares nothing about 
 what mortal men call right or wrong. He is 
 only after fun and is up to mischief all the time, 
 so one must watch out for him. 
 
 The kitchen maids and the men think they 
 know how to circumvent Tokgabi and spoil his 
 tricks. Knowing that the imp does not like 
 red, a young man when betrothed wears clothes 
 of this bright color. Tokgabi is afraid of shin- 
 ing silver, too, so the men fasten their topknots 
 together, and the girls keep their chignons in 
 shape, with silver hairpins. The magistrates 
 and government officers have little storks made 
 of solid silver in their hats, or else these birds 
 are embroidered with silver thread on their 
 dresses. Every one who can uses white metal 
 dishes and dresses in snowy garments. Tokgabi 
 likes nothing white and that is the reason why 
 every Korean who can puts on clothes that are 
 
12 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 as dazzling as hoar frost. Tons and mountains 
 of starch are consumed in blanching and stiffen- 
 ing coats and skirts, sleeves and stockings. On 
 festival days the people look as if they were 
 dipped in starch and their garments encrusted 
 in rock candy. 
 
 Before we tell of Tokgabi's Museum and Curi- 
 osity Shop and of his Aviary of birds liked and 
 disliked, and his menagerie of popular and 
 despised animals, we must let you know how 
 and why Tokgabi used to be most busy between 
 the hours of nine o'clock at night and midnight. 
 
 In old days, the Great Bell, in the centre of 
 the city of Seoul, was struck at nine o'clock at 
 night. Then, every man and boy must be in 
 the house and off" the streets, while every woman 
 and grown girl, carrying a little paper lantern, 
 was free to walk out in the darkness or moon- 
 light. Woe be to any one of the masculine 
 gender caught outdoors ! If grabbed by the 
 magistrate, he was severely spanked. Great 
 wooden paddles were kept in the police office to 
 be used on boys and men seen abroad. The 
 women folk, dressed in white, in their turned-up 
 shoes, and with their funny little green jackets 
 over their heads, wended their way to call on 
 
TOKGABI AND HIS PRANKS 13 
 
 their female friends for chat and gossip. Yet 
 they must every one of them be home by mid- 
 night, and then — if Tokgabi had not hidden 
 their beaters away — they began again on the 
 pile of starched clothes. Laying each garment 
 over a little round log, they kept up a steady 
 " rat-tat-tat," until near morning, making the 
 real Korean chorus, which Tokgabi loves to' 
 hear. 
 
EAST LIGHT AND THE BRIDGE OF 
 FISHES 
 
 LONG, long ago, in the region beyond the 
 Everlasting White Mountains of Northern 
 Korea, there lived a king who was waited 
 on by a handsome young woman servant. 
 Every day she gladdened her eyes by looking 
 southward, where the lofty mountain peak, 
 which holds the Dragon's Pool in its bosom, 
 lifts its white head to the sky. When tired out 
 with daily toil, she thought of the river that 
 flows from the Dragon's Pool, down out of the 
 mountain. She hoped that some time she would 
 have a son that would rule over the country 
 which the river watered so richly. 
 
 One day, while watching the mountain top, 
 she saw coming from the east a tiny bit of 
 shining vapor. Floating like a white cloud in 
 the blue sky, it seemed no bigger than an egg. 
 It came nearer and nearer, until it seemed to go 
 into the bosom of her dress. Very soon she 
 became the mother of a boy. It was indeed a 
 most beautiful child. 
 
 14 
 
EAST Light i^ 
 
 But the jealous king was angry. He did not 
 like the little stranger. So he took the baby 
 and threw it down among the pigs in the pen, 
 thinking that this would be the last of the boy. 
 But no 1 the sows breathed into the baby's 
 nostrils and their warm breath made it live. 
 
 When the king's servants heard the little 
 fellow crowing, they went out to see what made 
 the noise, and there they beheld a happy baby 
 not seeming to mind its odd cradle at all. They 
 wanted to give him food at once but the angry 
 king again ordered the child to be thrown away, 
 and this time into the stable. So the servants 
 took the boy by the legs and laid him among 
 the horses, expecting that the animals would 
 tread on him and he would be thus put out of 
 the way. 
 
 But no, the mares were gentle, and, with their 
 warm breath, they not only kept the little fellow 
 from getting cold, but they nourished him with 
 their milk so that he grew fat and hearty. 
 
 When the king heard of this wonderful 
 behavior of pigs and horses, he bowed his head 
 toward Heaven. It seemed the will of the 
 Great One in the Sky that the boy baby should 
 live and grow up to be a man. So he listened 
 
i6 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 to its mother's prayers and allowed her to bring 
 her child into the palace. There he grew up 
 and was trained like one of the king's sons. As 
 a sturdy youth, he practiced shooting with bow 
 and arrows and became skilful in riding horses. 
 He was always kind to animals. In the king's 
 dominions any man who was cruel to a horse 
 was punished. Whoever struck a mare, so 
 that the animal died, was himself put to death. 
 The young man was always merciful to his 
 beasts. 
 
 So the king named the youthful archer and 
 horseman East Light, or Radiance of the Morn- 
 ing and made him Master of the Royal Stables. 
 East Light, as the people liked to say his name, 
 became very popular. They also called him 
 Child of the Sun and Grandson of the Yellow 
 River. 
 
 One day while out on the mountains hunting 
 deer, bears, and tigers, the king called upon the 
 young archer to show his prowess in shooting 
 arrows. East Light drew his bow and showed 
 skill such as no one else could equal. He sent 
 shaft after shaft whistling into the target and 
 brought down both running deer and flying 
 birds. Then all applauded the handsome youth. 
 
EAST LIGHT 17 
 
 But instead of the king's commending East 
 Light, the king became very jealous of him, 
 fearing that he might want to be on the throne. 
 Nothing that the young man could do seemed 
 now to please his royal master. 
 
 So, fearing he might lose his life if he re- 
 mained near the king, East Light with three 
 trusty followers fled southward until he came to 
 a great, deep river, wide and impassable. 
 
 How to get across he knew not, for no boat 
 was at hand and the time was too short to make 
 a raft, for behind him were his enemies swiftly 
 pursuing him. 
 
 In a great strait, he cried out : 
 
 " Alas, shall I, the child of the Sun and the 
 Grandson of the Yellow River, be stopped here 
 powerless by this stream ? " 
 
 Then, as if his father, the Sun, had whispered 
 to him what to do, he drew his bow and shot 
 many arrows here and there into the water, 
 nearly emptying his quiver. 
 
 For a few moments nothing happened. To 
 his companions it seemed a waste of good 
 weapons. What would their leader have to 
 fight his pursuers when they appeared, if hia 
 quiver were empty ? 
 
i8 THE UNMANNERLY TIGEft 
 
 But in a moment more, the waters appeared 
 to be strangely agitated. Soon they were flecked 
 and foaming. From up and down the stream, 
 and in front of them, the fish were swimming 
 toward East Light, poking their noses out of the 
 water as if they would say : 
 
 " Get on our backs and we'll save you." 
 They crowded together in so dense a mass that 
 on their spines a bridge was soon formed, on 
 which men could stand, 
 
 " Quick ! " shouted East Light to his compan- 
 ions, " let us fly. Behold the king's horsemen 
 coming down the hill after us." 
 
 So over the bridge of fish backs, scaly and full 
 of spiny fins, the four young men fled over the 
 waters. As soon as they gained the opposite 
 shore, the bridge of fishes dissolved. Yet scarcely 
 had they swum away, when those who were 
 in pursuit had gained the water's edge, on the 
 furthest side. In vain the king's soldiers shot 
 their war arrows to kill East Light and his three 
 companions. The shafts fell short and the river 
 ■was too deep and wide to swim their horses over. 
 So the four young men escaped safely. 
 
 Marching on further a few miles, East Light 
 met three strange persons, who seemed to be 
 
Shouted East Light, "Let us tlee! 
 
EAST LIGHT 19 
 
 awaiting his coming. They welcomed him 
 warmly and invited him to be their king and 
 rule over their city. The first was dressed in 
 seaweed, the second in hempen garments and 
 the third in embroidered robes. These men 
 represented the three classes of society ; first 
 fishermen and hunters; second farmers and 
 artisans ; and lastly rulers of the tribes. 
 
 So in this land named Fuyu, rich in the five 
 grains, wheat, rice and millet, bean and sugar- 
 cane, the new king was joyfully welcomed by 
 his new subjects. The men were tall, brave, and 
 courteous. Besides being good archers, they 
 rode horses skilfully. They ate out of bowls 
 with chop-sticks and used round dishes at their 
 feasts. They wore ornaments of large pearls 
 and jewels of red jade cut and polished. 
 
 The Fuyu people gave the fairest virgin in 
 their realm to be the bride of King East Light 
 and she became a gracious queen, greatly beloved 
 of her subjects and many children were born to 
 them. 
 
 East Light ruled long and happily. Under 
 his reign the people of Fuyu became civilized 
 and highly prosperous. He taught the proper 
 relations of ruler and ruled and the laws of mar- 
 
20 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 riage, besides better methods of cooking and 
 house-building. He also showed them how to 
 dress their hair. He introduced the wearing of 
 the topknot. For thousands of years topknots 
 had been the fashion in Fuyu and in Korea. 
 
 Hundreds of years after East Light died, and 
 all the tribes and states in the peninsula south 
 of the Everlasting White Mountains wanted to 
 become one nation and one kingdom ; they called 
 their country after East Light, but in a more 
 poetical form, — Cho-sen, which means Morning 
 Radiance, or the Land of the Morning Calm. 
 
PRINCE SANDALWOOD, THE FATHER 
 OF KOREA 
 
 FOUR little folks lived in the home of Mr. 
 Kim, two girls and two boys. Their 
 names were Peach Blossom and Pearl, 
 Eight-fold Strength and Dragon. Dragon was 
 the oldest, a boy. Grandma Kim was very fond 
 of telling them stories about the heroes and fairies 
 of their beautiful country. 
 
 One evening when Papa Kim came home from 
 his office in the Government buildings, he 
 carried two little books in his hand, which he 
 handed over to Grandma. One was a little 
 almanac, looking in its bright cover of red, green 
 and blue, as gay as the piles of cakes and con- 
 fectionery made when people get married ; for 
 every one knows how rich in colors are pastry 
 and sweets for the bride's friends at a Korean 
 wedding party. 
 
 The second little book contained the direction 
 sent out by the Royal Minister of Ceremonies 
 for the celebration of the festival in honor of 
 the Ancestor-Prince, Old Sandalwood, the Father 
 
 21 
 
22 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 of Korea, Twice a year in Ping Yang City they 
 made offerings of meat and other food in his 
 honor, but always uncooked. 
 
 " Who was old Sandalwood ? " asked Peach 
 Blossom, the older of the little girls. 
 
 " What did he do ? " asked Yongi ( Drago»), 
 the older boy. 
 
 "Let me tell you," said Grandma, as they 
 cuddled together round her on the oiled-paper 
 carpet, over the main flue, at the end of the 
 room, where it was warmest ; for it was early in 
 December, and the wind was roaring outside. 
 
 " Now I shall tell you, also, why the bear is 
 good and the tiger bad," said Grandma. " Well, 
 to begin 
 
 " Long, long ago, before there were any refined 
 people in the Land of the Dawn, and no men 
 but rude savages, a bear and a tiger met together. 
 It was on the southern slope of Old Whitehead 
 Mountain in the forests. These wild animals 
 were not satisfied with the kind of human 
 beings already on the earth, and they wanted 
 better ones. They thought that if they could 
 become human, they would be able to improve 
 upon the quality. So these patriotic beasts, the 
 bear and the tiger, agreed to go before Hananim, 
 
PRINCE SANDALWOOD 23 
 
 the Great One of Heaven and Earth, and ask 
 him to change at once their form and nature ; 
 or, at least, tell them how it could be done. 
 
 " But where to find Him — that was the ques- 
 tion. So they put their heads down in token of 
 politeness, stretched out their paws and waited a 
 long while, hoping to get light on the subject. 
 
 " Then a Voice spoke out saying, ' Eat a bu,nch 
 of garlic and stay in a cave for twenty-one days. 
 If you do, you will become human.' 
 
 " So into the dark cave they crawled, chewed 
 their garlic and went to sleep. 
 
 " It was cold and gloomy in the cave and with 
 nothing to hunt or eat, the tiger got tired. Day 
 after day he moped, snarled, growled and be- 
 haved rudely to his companion. But the bear 
 bore the tiger's insults. 
 
 " Finally on the eleventh day, the tiger, seeing 
 no signs of losing his stripes, or of shedding 
 his hair, claws or tail, with no prospect of fin- 
 gers or toes in view, concluded to give up trying 
 to become a man. He bounded out of the cave 
 and at once went hunting in the woods, going 
 back to his old life. 
 
 "But the bear, patiently sucking his paw, 
 waited till the twenty-one days had passed. 
 
24 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 Then his hairy hide and claws dropped off, 
 like an overcoat. His nose and ears suddenly 
 shortened and he stood upright — a perfect 
 woman. 
 
 " Walking out of the cave, the new creature 
 sat beside a brook, and in the pure water beheld 
 how lovely she was. There she waited to see 
 what would take place next. 
 
 "About this time, while these things were 
 going on down in the world, matters of inter- 
 est were happening in the skies. Whanung, 
 the Son of the Great One in the Heavens, asked 
 his father to give him an earthly kingdom to 
 rule over. Pleased with his request, the Lord 
 of Heaven decided to present his son with the 
 Land of the Dragon's Back, which men called 
 Korea. 
 
 " Now as everybody knows, this country of 
 ours, the Everlasting Great Land of the Day- 
 spring, rose up on the first morning of creation 
 out of the sea, in the form of a dragon. His 
 spine, loins and tail form the great range of 
 mountains, with its little hills, that makes the 
 backbone of our beautiful country, while his 
 head rises skyward in the eternal White Moun- 
 tain in the North. On its summit, amid the 
 
PRINCE SANDALWOOD 25 
 
 snow and ice, lies the blue lake of pure water, 
 from which flow out our boundary rivers." 
 
 "What is the name of this lake?" asked 
 Yongi the boy. 
 
 " The Dragon's Pool," said Grandma Kim, 
 " and during one whole night, ever so long ago, 
 the dragon breathed hard and long, until its 
 breath filled the heavens with clouds. This was 
 the way that the Great One in the Skies pre- 
 pared the way for his son's coming to earth. 
 
 " People thought there was an earthquake, but 
 when they woke up in the morning and looked 
 up to the grand mountain, so gloriously white, 
 they saw the cloud rising far up in the sky. As 
 the bright sun shone upon it, the cloud turned 
 into pink, red, yellow and the whole eastern sky 
 looked so lovely that our country then received 
 its name — the Land of Morning Radiance. 
 
 " Down out of his cloud of many colors, and 
 borne on the wind, Whanung, the Heavenly 
 Prince, descended first to the mountain top, 
 and then to the lower earth. When he entered 
 the great forest, he found a beautiful woman 
 sitting by the brookside. It was the bear that 
 had been transformed into lovely human shape 
 and nature. 
 
26 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 "The Heavenly Prince was delighted. He 
 breathed on her and, by and by, a little baby 
 boy waa born. 
 
 " The mother made for her son a cradle of 
 soft moss and reared her child m the forest. 
 
 "Now the people who dwelt at the foot of 
 the mountain were in those days very rude 
 and simple. They wore no hats, had no white 
 clothes, lived in huts, and did not know how 
 to warm their houses with flues running under 
 the floors, nor had they any books or writings. 
 Their sacred place was under a sandalwood 
 tree, on a small mountain named Tabak, in 
 Ping Tang province. 
 
 "They had seen the cloud rising from the 
 Dragon's Pool so rich in colors, and as they 
 looked they saw it move southward and nearer 
 to them, until it stood over the sacred sandal- 
 wood tree; when out stepped a white-robed 
 being, and descending through the air alighted 
 in the forest and on the tree. 
 
 " Oh, how beautiful this spirit looked against 
 the blue sky 1 Yet the tree was far away and 
 long was the journey to it. 
 
 " ' Let us all go to the sacred tree,' said the 
 leader of the people. So together they hied over 
 
PRINCE SANDALWOOD 27 
 
 hill and valley until they reached the holy 
 ground and ranged themselves in circles about 
 it. 
 
 " A lovely eight greeted their eyes. There sat 
 under the tree a youth of grand appearance, 
 arrayed in princely dress. Though young look- 
 ing and rosy in face, his countenance was august 
 and majestic. Despite his youth, he was wise 
 and venerable. 
 
 " ' I have come from my ancestors in Heaven 
 to rule over you, my children,' he said, looking 
 at them most kindly. 
 
 " At once the people fell on their knees and all 
 bent reverently, shouting : 
 
 " ' Thou art our king, we acknowledge thee, 
 and will loyally obey only thee.' 
 
 " Seeing that they wanted to know what he 
 could tell them, he began to instruct them, even 
 before he gave them laws and rules and taught 
 them how to improve their houses. He told 
 them stories. The first one explained to them 
 why it was that the bear is good and the tiger 
 bad. 
 
 " The people wondered at his wisdom and 
 henceforth the tiger was hated, while people 
 began to like the bear more and more. 
 
28 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 " ' What name shall we give to our King, so 
 that we may properly address him ? ' asked the 
 people of their elders. ' It is right that we 
 should call him after the place in which we 
 saw him, under our holy tree. Let his title, 
 therefore, be the August and Venerable Sandal- 
 wood.' So they saluted him thus and he ac- 
 cepted the honor. 
 
 " Seeing that the people were rough and un- 
 kempt. Prince Sandalwood showed them how to 
 tie up and dress their hair. He ordained that 
 men should wear their long locks in the form of 
 a topknot. Boys must braid their hair and let 
 it hang down over their backs. No boy could 
 be called a man, until he married a wife. Then 
 he could twist his hair into a knot, put on a hat, 
 have a head-dress like an adult and wear a long 
 white coat. 
 
 " As for the women, they must plait their 
 tresses and wear them plainly at their neck, 
 except at marriage, or on great occasions of cere- 
 mony. Then they might pile up their hair like 
 a pagoda and use long hairpins, jewels, silk and 
 flowers. 
 
 " Thus our Korean civilization was begun, 
 and to this day the law of the hat and hair dis- 
 
PRINCE SANDALWOOD 29 
 
 tinguishes us above all people," said Grandma. 
 " We still honor the August and Venerable 
 Prince Sandalwood. To-morrow, you shall see 
 the offerings. Now, good-night, my darlings." 
 
 Just then great bell. In Jung (Men decide 
 to go to sleep ),^ boomed, and almost before its 
 last long lingering moan of Ah-Meh-la (Mother's 
 fault) ^ had died into quietness the little folks 
 were on their bed-quilts and the lights were out. 
 
 * See the story— The Voice of the Bell. 
 
THE RABBIT'S EYES 
 
 THERE was trouble down in the fish 
 world under the waves. Indeed, every 
 creature with fins and a tail was in dis- 
 tress, for the king of the fishes was sufiering with 
 a dreadful pain in his mouth. It had come 
 about in this way. 
 
 One day while swimming around in the waters 
 outside his palace, the king of the fishes saw 
 something hanging in the water that looked as 
 if it were good to eat. So at once His Majesty 
 gulped it down, when, oh horrors ! he found 
 he had barely escaped swallowing a fish hook, 
 which stuck fast in his gills. It had been baited 
 by some fishermen up in a boat on the sea top. 
 When the king of the fishes found the dreadful 
 thing in his mouth, he jerked himself away. 
 The line broke but the hook remained, giving 
 the king a fever and much pain. 
 
 How to get the iron out and heal His Majesty 
 was now the question. All the wise creatures 
 in the ocean, from the turtle to the gudgeon and 
 from the tittleback to the whale, were summoned 
 
 30 
 
THE RABBIT'S EYES 31 
 
 to the palace to see what could be done. Many 
 a sage noddle was bent, and eye blinked and 
 fin wagged, as the marine doctors talked the 
 matter over in the council. The turtle was 
 considered the most learned and erpert of them 
 all. Many were his feelings of the king's pulse 
 and his lookings down into his throat, before 
 Dr. Turtle would pronounce what was the real 
 trouble or write a prescription for his patient. 
 Finally, after consultation with the other doctors 
 that had fins and tails, or were in scales and 
 shell, it was decided that nothing less than a 
 poultice made of rabbits' eyes would loosen the 
 hook and end His Majesty's troubles. 
 
 So Dr. Turtle was ordered to go to the sea- 
 shore and invite a rabbit to come down into the 
 world under the sea, that they might make a 
 poultice of his eyes and apply the warm mess to 
 the king's throat. 
 
 Arriving on the sea beach, at the foot of a 
 high hill. Dr. Turtle, looking far up, found Mr. 
 Rabbit out of his burrow and taking a promen- 
 ade along the edge of the forest. Forthwith 
 Dr. Turtle waddled across the beach and part 
 way up the hill, climbing hard, until he began 
 to puff and blow. He had enough breath left, 
 
32 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 however, to salute Brother Bunny with a good- 
 morning. Very politely the rabbit returned the 
 greeting. 
 
 " It's a hot day," said Dr. Turtle, as he pulled 
 out his handkerchief, wiped his horny forehead, 
 and cleaned the sand out of his claws. 
 
 " Yes, but the scenery is so fine. Dr. Turtle, 
 that you must be glad you're out of the water 
 to see such lovely mountains. Don't you think 
 Korea is a fine country ? There is no land in 
 the world so beautiful as ours. The mountains, 
 the rivers, the seashore, the forests, the flow- 
 ers " 
 
 If Dr. Turtle had let the rabbit run on, 
 praising his own country, he would have for- 
 gotten his errand ; but, thinking of His Majesty, 
 the suffering fish king, with the cruel hook in 
 his mouth. Dr. Turtle interrupted Bunny, say- 
 ing : 
 
 " Oh, yes. Brother Bunny, this view of the 
 landscape and country is all very beautiful, 
 but it can't compare to the gems and jewels, 
 trees and flowers, sweet odors and everything 
 lovely down in the world under the sea." 
 
 At this, the rabbit pricked up his ears. It 
 was all new to him. He had never heard that 
 
THE RABBIT'S EYES 33 
 
 there was anything under the water but com- 
 mon fishes and seaweed and when these were 
 decayed and washed up along the seashore — 
 well, he had his ideas about them. They did 
 not smell sweet at all. Now, he heard a differ- 
 ent story. His curiosity was roused. "What 
 you tell me, my friend, is interesting. Go on." 
 
 Thereupon Dr. Turtle proceeded to tell of 
 most wonderful mountains and valleys down on 
 the floor of the deep sea, with every kind of 
 rare water plants, red, orange-color, green, blue, 
 white, with trees of gold and silver, besides 
 flowers of every color and delightful perfume, 
 
 " You surprise me," said Brother Bunny, 
 getting more interested. 
 
 " Yes, and all sorts of good things to eat and 
 drink, with music and dancing, handsome 
 serving maids and everything nice. Come 
 along and be our guest. Our king has sent me 
 to invite you." 
 
 " May I go ? " asked Brother Bunny, de- 
 lighted. 
 
 "Yes, at once. Get on my back and I'll 
 carry you." 
 
 So the rabbit ran and the turtle waddled to 
 the water's edge. 
 
34 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 " Now hold fast to my front shell," said Dr. 
 Turtle ; " we're going under the water." 
 
 Down, down below the blue waves they sank 
 until they arrived at the king's palace. There 
 the rabbit found everything was true, as told by 
 the turtle. The colors, the rich gems were as 
 he had said. 
 
 Dr. Turtle introduced Brother Bunny to some 
 of the princes and princesses of the kingdom and 
 these showed their guest the sights and treasures 
 of the palace, while Dr. Turtle attended the coun- 
 cil of doctors to announce the success of his er- 
 rand. 
 
 But while Mr. Rabbit was enjoying himself, 
 thinking this was the most wonderful place in 
 the world, he overheard them talking. Then 
 he found out why they had brought him there 
 and shown him such honors. Horrified at the 
 idea of losing his eyes, he determined to save 
 his sight and play the tortoise a smart trick. 
 However, of this he told no one. 
 
 So when he was politely informed by the 
 royal executioners that he must give up his 
 eyes to make the king well. Brother Bunny 
 broke out with equally polite regrets : 
 
 " Really I am so sorry that His Majesty is ill, 
 
The RABBIT'S EYES 3J 
 
 and you must excuse me that I cannot help 
 him immediately, for the eyes I have in my 
 head now are not real eyes, but only crystal. 
 I was afraid that sea water would hurt my sight, 
 so I took out my ordinary eyes, buried them in 
 the sand and put on these crystal ones, which I 
 usually wear in very dusty or wet weather." 
 
 At this the faces of the royal officers fell. 
 How could they break the news to His Majesty 
 and disappoint him ? 
 
 Brother Bunny seemed to be really sorry for 
 them and spoke up. 
 
 " Oh I don't feel bad about it. If you will 
 allow me to return to the beach, I'll dig them 
 up and return in time for the poultice-making," 
 said the rabbit. 
 
 So, getting on Dr. Turtle's back, Brother 
 Bunny was soon out of the water and on land. 
 
 In a jiffy he jumped off, scampered away, 
 and reached the woods, showing only his cotton 
 tail. Soon he was out of sight. 
 
 Dr. Turtle shed tears and returned to tell how 
 a rabbit had outwitted him. 
 
TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 
 
 LONG, long ago in China, even centuries 
 before the great Confucius was born, 
 there lived a wise and learned man 
 named Kija. He was the chief counselor at 
 court, and all honored him for his justice and 
 goodness. He was always kind to boys and 
 girls. 
 
 But when a great war broke out and a new 
 line of rulers came into power, Kija declined to 
 serve the king of the country and resolved to 
 emigrate to the far East. There he would teach 
 the savage people manners and refinement. 
 
 The new king was sorry to have Kija go, for 
 he respected his character and wisdom. How- 
 ever he allowed five thousand of the best people, 
 most of them Kija's followers, to accompany 
 their master among the Eastern savages. Many 
 of the common folks wept when they saw the 
 emigrants leave China the flowery country to go 
 into the Eastern wilderness and journey to an 
 unknown region, full of dark swamps and thick 
 
 36 
 
TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 37 
 
 forests. Kija was going where there were no 
 roads, farms, or houses, and the woods were full 
 of wild beasts, especially big bears and terrible 
 tigers that liked to feed on human beings. It 
 was even said that there were flying serpents 
 that had wings and leopards that stood up hold- 
 ing lightning in their paws. 
 
 Over the great plains of Manchuria, Kija and 
 his army of people, little folks and big ones, 
 marched ever toward the rising sun, until they 
 crossed the Duck Green River, which we call 
 the Yalu. After a few days more, they came to 
 the Great Eastern River (Ta Tong). There the 
 land was very beautiful and Kija resolved to 
 settle and build a city. From the tinted clouds 
 at sunrise, rosy, golden, flushed with every shade 
 of red, and lovely with changing colors the 
 new country had been named Cho-sen, or Land 
 of Morning Radiance. As the sun rose and 
 raced toward the west, where his homeland lay, 
 Kija welcomed the good omen as a double bless- 
 ing. He saw in the calm of his flrst day in his 
 adopted country a threefold pledge of contin- 
 ued good-will between the new kingdom and 
 the old empire, Heaven's favoring sign of his 
 loyalty to the Chinese Emperor, and the surety 
 
38 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 of good-will from the spirit of the Ever White 
 Mountain. 
 
 Having laid out for his colony a city which 
 was to be the capital of his kingdom, Kija began 
 to build a wall. He named the city Ping Yang, 
 which means Northern Castle. 
 
 " But now that we have safely arrived as 
 after a voyage, the city shall be shaped like a 
 boat," said Kija. " Within its walls no wells 
 shall be dug, lest this, like boring holes, should 
 make the boat sink. Then also, on the outside, 
 to the west, shall stand the rock pillar to which 
 the boat city shall be forever moored." 
 
 Kija was ably assisted by his wise men, who 
 were skilled in literature, poetry, music, medi- 
 cine and philosophy. Together they published 
 eight great laws for the kingdom : 
 
 1. Agriculture for the men. ' 
 
 2. Weaving for the women. 
 
 3. Punishment of thieves. 
 
 4. Murderers to be beheaded. 
 
 5. All land to be divided into nine squares, 
 the central one to be tilled in common for the 
 benefit of the State. 
 
 6. Simple life for all. 
 
 7. The law of marriage. 
 
TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 39 
 
 8. Wicked people to be made slaves. 
 
 Kija laid out roads, established measures and 
 distances and ordained the rules of politeness. 
 He taught the savage people how to build good 
 houses, each with roofs of thatch or tile and a 
 Icang, or warming place, by means of flues 
 running under the floors. There was a fire at 
 one end and a chimney at the other, so that the 
 smoke came out of the ground half-way up the 
 house wall. Twice a day, at morning and sun- 
 set, the people fed with fuel the furnaces or 
 cooking place in the kitchen. Then the flames, 
 heat and smoke passed through the flues, warm- 
 ing the rooms. Thus the houses were made 
 cozy and comfortable. Every day one can see 
 the morning and the evening cloud of the Icang 
 smoke hanging over the city. It is in these 
 flues and around the cooking pots that Tokgabi, 
 the merry scamp, plays his most mischievous 
 tricks. He is a sooty fellow and loves nothing 
 better than to amuse or plague mortal men. 
 
 The people of the land were very rough and 
 savage in these early times and being constantly 
 given to hard fighting, murder was common. 
 So Kija found that he must devise some way to 
 make them peaceable. At first he tried gentle 
 
40 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 methods. He saw that the rude fellows wore 
 their hair long, letting their locks stream out 
 over their backs and that they were often un- 
 kempt and slovenly to the last degree. Besides 
 they hated combs and did not like to get washed. 
 
 So Kija republished the law of Dan Kun, the 
 spirit of the mountain, who had two topknots. 
 He ordered that every married man should bind 
 up his hair into a knot, or chignon, on top of 
 his head. Thus the Korean topknot was estab- 
 lished by law. As for the younger fellows they 
 must plait their hair and wear it in a braid 
 down their backs. Until a man got a wife, he 
 was only a boy, and must hold his tongue in 
 presence of his elders. If caught wearing a top- 
 knot before he had a wife, he was paddled 
 severely. Kija had introduced this spanking 
 instrument and many boys and men felt it when 
 they broke the law. 
 
 Nevertheless the rough people mistook the 
 good purposes of Kija. They used the topknot 
 as a handle to catch hold of when fighting in 
 the streets. The big, burly fellows pulled the 
 smaller men around most cruelly. Further- 
 more, they were accustomed to crack each other's 
 skulls with clubs, so that many dead men were 
 
TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 41 
 
 found in the streets. To stop these quarrels and 
 murders, Kija invented a hat that would keep 
 brawlers at least a yard apart. 
 
 " I'll settle their quarrels for them, once and 
 forever," said Kija. " I'll make their fun cost 
 each man a pretty rope of cash. Every time two 
 bullies fight, they shall have a lot of crockery to 
 pay for." 
 
 So Kija caused big heavy hats to be moulded 
 of clay. These measured four feet across and 
 were two feet high, weighing many pounds. 
 These he had baked in ovens until they were 
 hard as stone. 
 
 Then every fellow that had a bad temper, or 
 was known to quarrel, or liked fighting, was 
 compelled to cover his noddle with this heavy 
 earthenware. Whenever a crowd of men-folks 
 got together, they looked like a field of moving 
 mushrooms. 
 
 When men fought and tried to grab one 
 another's topknots or to punch one another's 
 heads, they cracked their crockery. In this way 
 Kija easily found out who broke the law and 
 then he punished them. After being severely 
 paddled, they had to go to the potter's and buy 
 new hats of crockery ware. This made it quite 
 
42 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 an expensive affair, for a good half year's wages 
 was required to pay for a hat. 
 
 Kija's wisdom was justified. The earthenware 
 hats proved to be a good protection to the sacred 
 topknots and the men liked them. Quarrel- 
 some fellows stopped pulling each other's hair 
 and smashing one another's heads. It got to be 
 the custom, instead of punching a man's face or 
 cracking his skull, to let oif one's bad temper 
 in scolding and calling names, glaring fright- 
 fully, or rolling one's eyes, — all of which of 
 course made no blood flow. The bumpkin who 
 could make the most frightful faces, grind his 
 teeth most savagely, and look more like a devil 
 than the other, was reckoned the bravest and 
 the victor. 
 
 Before many months, a street quarrel got to 
 be a perfectly silent battle of ugly faces and 
 terrible gestures. What at first promised to be 
 a bloody murder usually became a noiseless duel, 
 or was like a tussle between deaf and dumb 
 folks separated from each other. A quarrel 
 furnished violent exercise for eyes and teeth 
 only, but it passed ofif like steam out of a kettle. 
 In time, a gentleness, like a great calm, settled 
 over the land. 
 
They cracked their crockery. 
 
TOPKNOTS AND CROCKERY HATS 43 
 
 The crockery hats became all the ^fashion. 
 They were very popular. Even the women 
 wanted to wear them, because they were so use- 
 ful. When turned upside down, they served as 
 wash-bowls and many a good housewife bor- 
 1 rowed her husband's second-best hat to do the 
 family washing in. They were useful also for 
 feed troughs and drinking basins for the horses 
 and cattle and for donkeys to eat their beans 
 out of. 
 
 The women, though not permitted to wear 
 crockery bonnets, were pleased with the way 
 Kija treated them. He took the clubs of the 
 rough men, which they no longer needed, and 
 handed them over to the wives and daughters 
 to use in pounding the clothes on wash days 
 and for ironing. In this way, the Korean 
 women ^learned the wonderful art of putting a 
 fine gloss on the starched clothes of the male 
 members of the family, especially on the long 
 white coat of the house father. Thus, by chang- 
 ing sticks that had been used as skull-crackers 
 into starch polishers, Kija changed also ruffians 
 into gentlemen. Ever since, Koreans have been 
 famous for their politeness. 
 
 Happily, also, the men grew more refined in 
 
44 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 their manners and were kind to their wives and 
 daughters, when they saw such shining clothes 
 that glistened under the gentle rat-tat-tat of the 
 ladies and female servants. When hot weather 
 came and the gentlemen complained of the heat, 
 and fearing that perspiration might spoil their 
 fine clothes, Kija allowed them to make inside 
 suits of hamboo sticks, as fine as thread or wire. 
 Thus the Korean gentleman wore his outer 
 clothes on a frame hung from his shoulders like 
 a hooped skirt. It seemed like taking off one's 
 fiesh and sitting in his bones thus to wear bam- 
 boo underclothes. 
 
 By and by, as manners improved, finding 
 garments thus made from the cane-brake so 
 comfortable, the men gave up also their heavy 
 crockery hats. In place of these, they wore 
 " bird cages " made of horsehair over their top- 
 knots, and out-of-doors put on " roofs " of straw, 
 reed, basket ware, or shining black lacquered 
 paper, according to their rank in society. Thus 
 it came to pass that Korea is the land of hats. 
 
THE SNEEZING COLOSSUS 
 
 MR. KIM, who lived at the foot of the 
 mountains, was a lazy lout. He had 
 a family to support, but he did not like 
 steady work. He preferred to smoke his pipe — 
 as long as a yardstick — and to wait for some- 
 thing to turn up. 
 
 One day, his wife, tired of trying to feed 
 hungry children from empty dishes, gave her 
 husband a good scolding and bade him begone 
 and get something for the household. This 
 consisted of father, mother, and four little folks, 
 whose faces were not often washed, besides a 
 little dog. This puppy, when danger was near, 
 always ran into the house through a little square 
 hole cut in the door, and when safely within 
 barked lustily. 
 
 So Mr. Kim went out to the mountains to find 
 something — a root of ginseng, a nugget of gold, 
 or some precious stone, perhaps, if he were 
 lucky. If not, some berries, wild grapes or pears 
 might do. Meanwhile at home, his wife pounded 
 
 45 
 
46 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 the grain that was left in the larder for the 
 children's dinner. 
 
 Mr. Kim rambled over the rocks a long time 
 without seeing anything worth carrying away. 
 When it was about noon, he came to one of the 
 mighty mir-yeks, or colossal stone Buddhas, cut 
 out of the solid mountain. It rose in the air 
 many yards high. Ages ago in the days of 
 Buddhism, when monasteries covered the land 
 and Buddhist friars and nuns chanted Sanscrit 
 hymns to the praise of Lord Buddha, devout 
 men, laboring many months, chiseled this tow- 
 ering colossus into human form. Its nose stood 
 out three feet, its mouth was four feet wide and 
 each of its nostrils was large enough to let a fat 
 man's body inside. On its flat head was a cap, 
 made of a slab of granite and shaped like a 
 student's mortar-board, on which ten men could 
 stand without crowding one another. 
 
 Long ago gone away and forgotten were the 
 monks and the monastery had fallen to ruins. 
 The forest had grown up around the great stone 
 image, until it was nearly hidden by the tall 
 trees surrounding it. In front, from the ground 
 up, the wild grape-vines had gripped the stone 
 with their tendrils and spread their matted 
 
THE SNEEZING COLOSSUS 47 
 
 branches and greenery until they nearly covered 
 the image up to its neck. 
 
 But out of a crevice in the head of the figure 
 grew a pear tree, sprung from a seed dropped 
 long ago by the great-grandfather of one of 
 the birds singing and chirping near by. And, 
 oh joy I at the end of the outer branch was 
 growing a ripe, luscious pear nearly as big as a 
 man's head. What a prize ! It would, when 
 cut up, make a dessert for the whole family. 
 Happy Kim 1 He blessed his lucky star. 
 
 Seizing hold of the bushes and wild grape- 
 vines, by dint of great effort Mr. Kim climbed 
 upward and got as far as the chin of the great 
 stone face. Above him protruded the big nose, 
 the nostrils of which gaped like caverns. Yet 
 although he was standing with his foot on the 
 stone lips and holding on to the nose, he could 
 nevertheless, despite all his exertions, get no 
 further up the granite face. He was at his wit's 
 end. Far above hung the delicious looking 
 pear as if to tantalize him. A gentle breeze was 
 swaying the fruit to and fro, and it seemed to 
 say " take me if you can." 
 
 But the nose, being polished, was slippery 
 and the ears were too smooth to climb. What 
 
48 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 could he take hold of? Surely to shin up any 
 further was impossible. Must he give up the 
 pear? 
 
 A bright thought entered his head. He would 
 crawl up into the right nostril and hope for an 
 exit to the top. So, thinking he might find his 
 way he began like an insect to enter the hole and 
 soon the man Kim disappeared from sight, as 
 with hands and feet he climbed into the dark- 
 ness. 
 
 Wasn't it dangerous to tickle the nostrils of 
 the great stone man in this way ? 
 
 But whatever Kim may have thought he kept 
 on, determined to get that pear, come what 
 might. 
 
 Suddenly a blast, loud enough to rend the 
 mountain, was heard. Hash-ho ! Had an 
 earthquake or tempest taken place ? Was this 
 rolling thunder ? 
 
 No, the colossus had sneezed. Thus the stone 
 man got rid of the intruder. The first thing Mr. 
 Kim knew, he was flying through the air, and 
 he tumbled upon the bushes. His wits were 
 gone. He knew nothing. This was about one 
 o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 Mr. Kim lay asleep or unconscious till near 
 
THE SNEEZING COLOSSUS 49 
 
 sundown. Then he woke up and realized what 
 had happened. There was the stone nose 
 beetling over him far up toward the sky. 
 
 But in sneezing so hard, the colossus had 
 shaken its head also and the big pear had 
 dropped off. Kim found it lying by his side, 
 and picking it up, went on his way rejoicing. 
 
 At home, the little dog, looking through the 
 square hole, saw him, barked welcome, and a 
 right merry supper they had over the big pear 
 cut into slices, as Mr. Kim told the story of his 
 adventures. 
 
A BRIDEGROOM FOR MISS MOLE 
 
 BY the river Kingin stands the great stone 
 image, or Miryek, that was cut out of the 
 solid rock ages ago. Its base lies far 
 beneath the ground and around its granite cap, 
 many feet square, the storm-clouds gather and 
 play as they roll down the mountain. 
 
 Down under the earth, near this mighty 
 colossus, lived a soft-furred mole and his wife. 
 One day a daughter was born to them. It was 
 the most wonderful mole baby that ever was 
 known. The father was so proud of his lovely 
 offspring that he determined to marry her only 
 to the grandest thing in the whole universe. 
 Nothing else would satisfy his pride in the 
 beautiful creature he called his own. 
 
 Father Mole sought long and hard to find 
 out where and what, in all nature, was con- 
 sidered the most wonderful. He called in his 
 neighbors and talked over the matter with them. 
 Then he visited the king of the moles and asked 
 the wise ones in his court to decide for him. 
 
 60 
 
A BRIDEGROOM FOR MISS MOLE 51 
 
 One and all agreed that the Great Blue Sky waa 
 above everything else in glory and greatness. 
 
 So up to the Sky the Mole Father went and 
 offered his daughter to be the bride of the Great 
 Blue, telling how, with his vast azure robe, the 
 Sky had the reputation, both on the earth and 
 under it, of being the greatest thing in the 
 universe. 
 
 But, much to the Mole Father's surprise, the 
 Sky declined. 
 
 " No, I am not the greatest. I must refer you 
 to the Sun. He controls me, for he can make it 
 day or night as he pleases. Only when he 
 rises, can I wear my bright colors. When he 
 goes down, darkness covers the world and men 
 do not see me at all, but the stars instead. 
 Better take your charming daughter to him." 
 
 So to the Sun went Mr. Mole and though 
 afraid to look directly into his face, he made his 
 plea. He would have the Sun marry his attrac- 
 tive daughter. 
 
 But the mighty luminary, that usually 
 seemed so fierce, dazzling men's eyesight and 
 able to burn up the very grass of the field, 
 seemed suddenly very modest. Instead of ac- 
 cepting at once the offer, the Sun said to the father : 
 
52 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 " Alas I I am not master. The Cloud ia 
 greater than I, for he is able to cover me up and 
 make me invisible for days and weeks. I am 
 not as powerful as you think me to be. Let me 
 advise you to offer your daughter to the Cloud." 
 
 Surprised at this, the Mole Father looked quite 
 disappointed. Now he was in doubt as to what 
 time he had best propose to the Cloud, — when 
 it was silvery white and glistening in a summer 
 afternoon, or when it was black and threaten- 
 ing a tempest. However, his ambition to get 
 for his daughter the mightiest possible bride- 
 groom prompted him to wait until the light- 
 nings flashed and the thunder rolled. Then, 
 appearing before the terrible dark Cloud that 
 shot out fire, he told of the charms of his won- 
 derful daughter and offered her as bride. 
 
 " And why do you come to me ? " asked the 
 Cloud, its face inky black with the wrath of a 
 storm and its eyes red with the fires of lightning. 
 
 " Because you are not only the greatest thing 
 in the universe, but you have proved it by your 
 terrible power," replied the Father Mole. 
 
 At this the Cloud ceased its rolling, stopped 
 its fire and thunder and almost laughed. 
 
 " So far from being the greatest thing in the 
 
A BRIDEGROOM FOR MISS MOLE 53 
 
 world, I am not even my own master. See 
 already how the Wind is driving me. Soon I 
 shall be invisible, dissolved in air. Let me 
 commend you to the Wind. The Master of 
 the Cloud will make a grand son-in-law." 
 
 Thereupon Papa Mole waited until the Wind 
 calmed down, after blowing away the clouds. 
 Then telling of his daughter's accomplishments 
 and loveliness, he made proffer of his only child 
 as bride to the Wind. 
 
 But the Wind was not half so proud as the 
 Mole Father had expected to find him. Very 
 modest, almost bashful seemed the Wind, as he 
 confessed that before Miryek, the colossal stone 
 image, his power was naught. 
 
 " Why, I smite that Great Stone Face and its 
 eyes do not even blink. I roar in his ears, but 
 he minds it not. I try to make him sneeze, 
 but he will not. Smite him as I may, he still 
 stands unmoved and smiling. Alas, no. I am 
 not the grandest thing in the universe, while 
 Miryek stands. Go to him. He alone is 
 worthy to marry your daughter." 
 
 By this time the Mole Father was not only 
 footsore and weary, but much discouraged also. 
 Evidently all appreciated his shining daughter ; 
 
54 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 but would he be able, after all, to get her a 
 worthy husband ? 
 
 He rested himself a while and then proceeded 
 to Miryek, the colossus of granite as large as a 
 lighthouse, its head far up in the air, but with 
 ears ready to hear. 
 
 The Mole Father squeaked out compliments 
 to the image as being by common confession 
 the greatest thing on earth. He presented his 
 request for a son-in-law and then in detail men- 
 tioned the accomplishments of his daughter, 
 sounding her praises at great length. Indeed, 
 he almost ruined his case by talking so long. 
 
 With stony patience, Miryek listened to the 
 proud father with a twinkle in his white granite 
 eyes. When his lips moved, he was heard to say : 
 
 "Fond Parent, what you say is true. lam 
 great. I care not for the sky day or night, for 
 I remain the same in daylight and darkness. 
 I fear not the sun, that cannot melt me, nor 
 the frost that is not able to make me crumble. 
 Cold or hot, in summer or in winter time, I 
 remain unchanged. The clouds come and go, 
 but they cannot move me. Their fire and noise, 
 lightning and thunder, I fear not. Yes, I am 
 great." Then the stone lips closed again. 
 
With patience Miryek listened to the proud father. 
 
A BRIDEGROOM FOR MISS MOLE 55 
 
 " You will make, then, a good bridegroom for 
 my daughter ? You will marry her, I under- 
 stand?" asked the proud father as his hopes 
 began to rise, though he was still doubtful. 
 
 " I would gladly do so, if I were greatest. 
 But I am not," said Miryek. " Down under 
 my feet is the Mole. He digs with his shovel- 
 like hands and makes burrows day and night. 
 His might I cannot resist. Soon he shall un- 
 dermine my base and I shall topple down and 
 lie like common stone along the earth. Yes 1 
 by universal confession, the Mole is the greatest 
 thing in the universe and to him I yield. Bet- 
 ter marry your daughter to him." 
 
 So after all his journeying, the lovely daugh- 
 ter's father sought no further. Advised on all 
 sides, and opinion being unanimous, he found 
 out that the ^Mole was the greatest thing in the 
 universe. His daughter's bridegroom was found 
 at home and of the same family of creatures. 
 He married her to a young and handsome Mole, 
 and great was the joy and rejoicing at the wed- 
 ding. The pair were well-mated and lived 
 happily^ evej: afterwar4. 
 
OLD WHITE WHISKERS AND 
 MR. BUNNY 
 
 WHITE WHISKERS was the name of a 
 huge, tawny tiger that lived in the 
 mountains of Kang Wen. He was the 
 proudest tiger in the whole peninsula of Korea. 
 He had the most fiery eyes, the longest tail, the 
 sharpest claws, and the widest stripes of any 
 animal in the mountains. He could pull down 
 a cow, fight all the dogs in any village, eat up a 
 man, and was not afraid of a hunter, unless the 
 man carried a gun. As for calves and pigs, he 
 considered them mere tidbits. He could claw 
 off the roof or break the bars of stables where 
 cattle were kept, devour one pig on the spot, 
 and then, slinging another on his back, could 
 trot off to his lair miles away, to give his cubs 
 their dinner of fresh pork. 
 
 White Whiskers was especially proud, because 
 he was the retainer of the great genii of the 
 mountains, that men feared and worshiped and 
 in whose honor they built shrines. One of 
 these Mountain Spirits, when he wanted to, 
 
 56 
 
OLD WHITE WHISKERS 57 
 
 could call together all the tigers in his domain, 
 and then, sitting astride the back of the biggest, 
 he would ride off on the clouds or to victory over 
 Korea's enemies. Both tigers and leopards were 
 his messengers to do his bidding. Only the big 
 and swift and striped tigers were chosen to carry 
 out the Mountain Spirit's orders. 
 
 One particular matter of business confided to 
 White Whiskers, the great striped tiger, was to 
 visit daily the shrines in the hill passes to see if 
 offerings were continually made. The people 
 who were in terror of both the Mountain Spirit 
 and his servants the tigers, daily offered sacrifice 
 out of fear. They piled up stone, rags, bits of 
 metal, or laid food on dishes for the Mountain 
 Spirit who was very exacting and tyrannical. 
 The poor folks thought that if they did not 
 thus heap up their offerings, the spirit would be 
 angry and send the tigers at night to prowl 
 around the village, scratch at their doors, and 
 eat up donkeys, cows, calves, pigs, and even 
 men, women and children. Then the hunters 
 would go out with matchlocks to slay the man 
 eaters, but by this time, in daylight, the tigers 
 were far up into their lairs in the mountain. 
 
 Indeed, it was so hard to get a shot at a tiger 
 
58 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 that the Chinese, who like to make fun of their 
 neighbors in white coats, declared that during 
 one half of the year the Koreans hunt the tigers 
 and that the tigers hunt the Koreans during the 
 other six months. That is, the men go out 
 with their guns in summer, but in winter, when 
 during snow and cold weather men and animals 
 keep within doors, the hungry wild beasts 
 descend from the mountains for their prey. 
 
 Now Old White Whiskers was both proud and 
 crafty. For many years he had eaten up pigs, 
 calves, dogs, donkeys and chickens and had 
 twice feasted on men, besides avoiding all their 
 traps and dodging every one of their bullets. 
 So he began to think he could laugh at all his 
 enemies. Yet, proud as he was, he was destined 
 to be outwitted by a creature without strength 
 or sting, claws or hoofs, as we shall see. 
 
 Mr. Rabbit, who burrowed in a hill near the 
 village, had often heard the squealing of unfor- 
 tunate pigs and the kicking of braying donkeys, 
 as they made dinners for Old White Whiskers. 
 Thus far, however, by being very cautious, he 
 had kept out of the striped tyrant's way and 
 maw. But one cold winter's day, coming home, 
 tired, weak and hungry, from having no food 
 
OLD WHITE WHISKERS 59 
 
 since yesterday, just as he was crossing a river 
 on the ice, he met Old White Whiskers face to 
 face. From behind a rock by the shore, near 
 Mr. Bunny's burrow, the big tiger leaped out 
 and tried to freeze the rabbit with terror, by 
 staring at him with his great green eyes. Mr. 
 Bunny knew only too well that tigers love to 
 maul and play with their prey before eating it 
 up, and he thought his last hour had come. 
 
 Nevertheless Mr. Bunny was perfectly cool. 
 He did not shiver a bit. He had long expected 
 such a meeting and was ready for Old White 
 Whiskers, intending to throw him off his guard. 
 
 Fully expecting, in a minute or two, to tear 
 off his fur and grind his bones for a dinner, the 
 tiger said to the rabbit : 
 
 " I'm hungry. I shall eat you up at once." 
 
 " Oh, why should you bother with me ? " said 
 Mr. Bunny. " I'm so little and skinny as hardly 
 to make a mouthful for Your Majesty. Just lis- 
 ten to me and I'll get you a royal dinner. I'll 
 go up the mountain and drive the game to your 
 very paws. Only you must do exactly what I 
 tell you." 
 
 At this prospect of a full dinner, the tiger 
 p,ctually grinned with delight. The way he 
 
6o THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 yawned, showing his red, cavernous mouth, 
 huge white teeth, each as big as a spike, and 
 the manner of his rolling out his long curved 
 tongue, full of rough points like thorns, nearly 
 scared Mr. Bunny out of his wits. The rabbit 
 had never looked down a tiger's mouth before, 
 but he did not let on that he was afraid. It 
 was only the tiger's way of showing how happy 
 he was, when his mouth watered, and he licked 
 his chops in anticipation of a mighty feast. 
 
 " I'll do just as you say," said Old White 
 Whiskers to Mr. Bunny, seeing how grateful 
 the rabbit was to have his own life spared, 
 
 " Well, now, it is just my ambition to serve 
 the lord of the mountains," said Mr. Bunny. 
 " So, lie down on the ice here, shut your eyes 
 and do not stir. Now mind you keep your 
 peepers closed, or the charm will fail. I'll 
 make a circle of dry grass and then go round 
 and round you, driving the game to you. If you 
 hear a noise and even some crackling, don't 
 open your eyes till I give you the word. 'Twill 
 take some time." 
 
 Old White Whiskers, tired of tramping in the 
 forest and prowling around pig-pens all day but 
 getting nothing, was both hungry and tired. So 
 
OLD WHITE WHISKERS 61 
 
 he resolved, while waiting, to take a good nap. 
 As quickly as one can blow out a candle, he was 
 
 Thereupon Mr. Bunny made himself busy in 
 pulling up all the dry grass he could find and 
 piling it around and close up to Old White 
 Whiskers. Delighted to hear the big brute 
 snoring, he kept on until he had a thick ring of 
 combustibles. Then he set it on fire, waiting 
 till it blazed up high. Then he scampered off 
 to see the fun. 
 
 Old White Whiskers, awakened by the crack- 
 ling, yawned and rubbed his eyes with his paws, 
 wondering what the noise could be. 
 
 " Hold on," screamed Mr. Bunny, " keep your 
 promise," and farther he ran away up the hill. 
 
 " Rascal," growled the tiger as the red tongues 
 of flame leaped up all around him. He had to 
 jump high to escape from the flames with his 
 life. Even as it was, one paw was scorched so 
 that he limped and his fur was singed so badly 
 that all his long hair and fine looks were gone. 
 When he got back home, the other tigers laughed 
 at him. 
 
 Bunny and brains won the day. The tiger, 
 falling into the trap of his own conceit, had 
 
62 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 henceforth to take second place, for the great 
 Mountain Spirit no longer trusted such a stupid 
 servant. Outwitted by a rabbit, his reputation 
 as a raider of pig-pens, as donkey-seizer and 
 man-eater was gone forever. He ended his life 
 in a hunter's trap and his skin now adorns the 
 chair of a war general when he goes riding on 
 his monocycle. When the great man is at home, 
 it serves as a rug for children to play on. 
 
PEACH-BLOSSOM, PLUM-BLOSSOM, 
 AND CINNAMON ROSE 
 
 KOREA is the land of beautiful scenery 
 and lovely flowers. Snow white and 
 ruby red are their chief colors. In the 
 spring time, when the ice has melted and the 
 rivers have poured their floods into the sea, the 
 whole country blushes with the pink bloom of 
 azaleas. The glens are white with lilies of the 
 valley. The breezes, as they sweep the land, 
 come laden with perfume. 
 
 The girls mark the season of the year and the 
 time of the month by the blossoms, even more 
 than by the almanac, for they keep in mind the 
 calendar of the flowers. Daughters that are es- 
 pecially beloved of their parents are named from 
 the blossoms, and the Korean house-father, when 
 affectionate, speaks of his wife as the plum tree. 
 An old song says : The homesick husband, long 
 away from his own dear ones, inquires of a fellow 
 townsman newly arrived : 
 
 63 
 
64 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 " ' Have you seen my native land I 
 Come tell me all you know ; 
 Did just before the old home door 
 The plum tree blossoms show ? ' " 
 
 And the stranger answers promptly : 
 
 " ' They were in bloom, though pale, 'tis true, 
 And sad, from waiting long for you.' " 
 
 This is like the Scotsman who calls his wife his 
 " bonnie briar bush," for in the Land of Morning 
 Glow, they have a language of flowers. Each 
 plant and blossom has a meaning and either de- 
 lightful or disagreeable associations. It is a com- 
 pliment to speak of a girl as a pear blossom, for 
 the pear is one of the most glorious of trees and its 
 blooms are lovely to behold. It would hardly 
 do, however, to call her a cinnamon rose, for this 
 flower has evil associations. The gee-sang, as 
 the Koreans pronounce the name of the gei-sha, 
 as the Japanese call the dancing girls, are as- 
 sociated with the cinnamon rose, for did not 
 the sages tell this story ? 
 
 Twelve centuries ago lived the renowned 
 scholar Sul Chong, the greatest of all the learned 
 men of Korea. His head was as full of knowl- 
 edge as a persimmon is of pulp and his ideas 
 were as numerous as the seeds in a pomegranate. 
 
PEACH-BLOSSOM 65 
 
 He taught his countrymen all that was in the 
 books of China, and in the temple of Confucius 
 his portrait hangs to this day. He lived in 
 the kingdom of Silla, in the days of its glory, 
 when ships from Japan and China sailed into 
 its seaports and the Arabs from Bagdad brought 
 their pretty wares to exchange for gold, ginseng, 
 camphor, porcelain, cinnamon, ginger and tiger 
 skins, to take to their renowned Caliph and his 
 turbaned nobles at court, of whom we read in 
 the " Arabian Nights." 
 
 When the king of Silla, His Majesty Sin Mun, 
 was living in luxury and filling his palace with 
 too many pretty dancing girls, who distracted 
 his mind from attending properly to the aflFairs 
 of state, Sul Chung warned his master against 
 the increasing influence of these women by tell- 
 ing him the following story : 
 
 Once upon a time, in spring, the Peony, king 
 of the flowers, blossomed so gorgeously that it 
 became the admiration of all the lovers of beauty 
 in the whole country. Hundreds of people 
 made long journeys to the capital of Silla to 
 see the bright blossoms. In the king's gardens, 
 on very tall stalks, the many branches were 
 heavily laden with large red flowers. These 
 
66 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 were indeed lovely to behold, but the king of 
 the whole garden was a single peony, grown on 
 one stem, so that all the strength and nourish- 
 ment of the plant were concentrated in that 
 unique royal bloom. All saluted this flower 
 as king. 
 
 When all the other flowers heard of their 
 king's glory, they came to pay their respects at 
 the floral court, of which the peony was sover- 
 eign. All the trees sent their choicest blooms 
 as envoys. In one glorious procession of per- 
 fume and color the Peach, Plum, Pear, Apple, 
 and Persimmon trooped in, each making its 
 obeisance to the Monarch of all flowers. All 
 these tree blossoms prided themselves on their 
 being so useful to man as harbingers of the 
 delicious fruits to come. 
 
 Then, among the bright throng appeared 
 sprightly young virgin flowers, the Tea-Rose, 
 in pearl-tinted frock ; the Azalea, in pink ; the 
 Lily, in white ; the Strawberry Blossom ; and a 
 score of other pretty creatures of the garden. 
 Last of all appeared the Cinnamon Rose. She 
 tripped nimbly along in a green skirt and red 
 jacket, with haughty air and breath of spice. 
 
 One after the other they were presented to 
 
I'fiACH-BLOSSOM 67 
 
 His Majesty, King Peony, and gracefully made 
 their salute. But of them all, the king seemed 
 most to favor Miss Cinnamon Flower. He let 
 the others pass out from the Court, but lingered 
 long with the spicy visitor, spending much time 
 in her society, as if smitten with her charms. 
 Neglecting his duties of state, he seemed to 
 enjoy no other perfume but that which exhaled 
 from her own body. By and by he invited 
 Miss Cinnamon Rose to come and live in the 
 palace, and leaving his ministers to carry on 
 the government, he spent all his time in her 
 society. She was installed in a place near His 
 Majesty and seemed always to have his ear and 
 attention, even when the king's prime minister 
 had to wait long for an audience, or even a 
 word. Miss Cinnamon Rose seemed to be the 
 real ruler instead of the king himself 
 
 But one day there came to the palace the 
 flower called Old Man. He looked exactly like 
 an aged beggar dressed in sackcloth and leaning 
 on a staff. Respectfully bowing, he asked if he 
 might share the hospitality of the king's palace. 
 He was welcomed and fed, partaking of the royal 
 bounty. When at last he was given audience of 
 King Peony, and was invited to speak, he said : 
 
68 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 " Out along the road, Your Majesty, I heard 
 of your rich feast and good things to eat. Now 
 I hear that you need medicine. Although you 
 dress in Chinese silk and none are equal to you 
 in the magnificence of your robes and the splen- 
 dor of your Court, yet you are much like me 
 in your wants, and you need a common knife 
 string, as well as I. Is it not so ? " 
 
 " You are quite right, Old Man," replied the 
 king. "Yet I like this Cinnamon Rose and 
 want her with me. I cannot do without her." 
 
 " Yes, Your Majesty. Yes, is it not true that 
 if you keep company with the wise and prudent, 
 your reign will be long, powerful and glorious? 
 But if you consort with the foolish your house 
 will fall ? Did not three dynasties of the em- 
 perors of Great China fall because of the beauti- 
 ful woman who tempted their Majesties to forget 
 their duties ? If it were so with the ancients, 
 how much more so is it now ? " 
 
 The king blushed, even to a deep crimson. 
 He confessed his faults and reformed his life. 
 
 It is said the lesson was not lost on the real 
 human king. He dismissed his harem, sent 
 away the dancing girls and ruled wisely till 
 the day of his death. 
 
T 
 
 TOKGABI'S MENAGERIE 
 
 (Cats and Dogs) 
 
 ^HERE are many dogs, but few cats, in 
 Korea. Nobody loves poor pussy there. 
 They are not made pets and are rarely 
 seen in the houses of the people. Even bull 
 calves are more caressed by the children than 
 are cats and the puppy dog takes the place of 
 Tabby or Grimalkin. 
 
 Korean cats are not bob-tailed, like their 
 cousins in Japan ; nor is pussy in the Land of 
 Topknots ever used, as the Chinese kitten is, to 
 tell the time of day by the width of the slits in 
 its green eyes. 
 
 Alas I the cats in Korea are too wild to enjoy 
 the society of human beings, or human beings 
 theirs I The presence of dogs is especially hate- 
 ful to them. Mother cats tell their kittens 
 wonderful stories of the cruelty of dogs and why 
 cats and dogs do not agree. 
 
 The native roof-scramblers can howl and 
 caterwaul, arch their backs, blow up their tails, 
 spit and scratch, or purr pleasantly, lick their 
 
 69 
 
70 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 fur, and wash their faces with their paws like 
 cats in other countries. They are highly ac- 
 complished as mouse catchers and bird-eaters. 
 Yet they have a hard time of it, for there are 
 too many dogs to make a kitty's life either easy 
 or agreeable. The Korean cat hates to get its 
 feet wet, yet it is often obliged to wade in the 
 water to get rid of the dogs that chase it. As 
 for the furry, purry kittens, one wonders how 
 they ever escape the fierce dogs and grow up at 
 all. 
 
 Yet it all came about because a certain cat- 
 ancestor laughed when it shouldn't have done 
 so. Although it was a lot of school-children 
 that made Kitty laugh, the dog never forgave 
 the cat for its frivolity. And this is how it 
 happened. 
 
 Long, long ago, one of the mountain fairies 
 had come down into the land from the high 
 peaks, and being kindly treated by an old man 
 named Tip Pul, who kept a wine shop, called 
 Tokgabi to himself and bade him reward the old 
 fellow with a precious stone. 
 
 So, one night, Tokgabi dropped the gem into 
 Tip Pul's long-necked wine bottle. Strangely 
 enough, after this, the wine never ceased. The 
 
TOKGABI'S MENAGERIE 71 
 
 bottle was always full. Every day Tip Pul sold 
 plenty to his neighbors and it was good and 
 cheap, so that the shopkeeper was very popular. 
 Yet, without any refilling, the flask was always 
 ready to overflow. So Tip Pul had no fear of 
 poverty in extreme old age. Having neither 
 wife nor children, his only companions were a 
 dog named Su Nap, or Snap, for short, and a cat 
 named Mee Yow. All three lived happily 
 together in these times of long ago. 
 
 But one day the bottle was found to be empty, 
 and when Tip Pul shook it, nothing rattled 
 inside. Somehow the magic stone had disap- 
 peared. Poverty now seemed certain. The old 
 man was nearly paralyzed with grief and his 
 neighbors all came in to sympathize with him. 
 They knew well that they could buy no wine any- 
 where else so good and so cheap as they had 
 long enjoyed at Tip Pul's shop by the river. 
 
 Yet this loss of the wonderful stone was the 
 very making of Tip Pul's pets. As for the cat, 
 she became the most industrious kitty ever 
 known. She at once began to ransack every 
 rat's quarters known, not only in her master's 
 home^ but in every house in the village. The 
 racket which that cat kept up at night, among 
 
72 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 the rafters and beams under the roof, nearly 
 drove some people crazy. They declared that 
 Tokgabi had got drunk by tasting Tip Pul's 
 drams. Yet it was Mee Yow all the time. The 
 cat knocked over tobacco boxes, scratched among 
 hat covers hung on the wall, tipped up the 
 hanging shelves and upset the crockery in the 
 closet over the kitchen stove. In a word, this 
 four-footed creature played every kind of mis- 
 chief that people usually ascribe to Tokgabi, the 
 sooty imp. 
 
 Yet, when any one climbed up to the attic, 
 looked among the rafters, and peered into the 
 darkness, all he could see was a pair of green 
 eyes that shone like the moon. Poking the 
 uncanny thing with fishing poles, or throwing 
 shoes or sticks at it, only caused spitting or 
 snarling. So they knew it was a cat, and not 
 Tokgabi, and betook themselves to bed again. 
 Laying their topknots on their wooden pillows 
 and their bodies on their oiled-paper carpet, 
 they soon fell asleep again. The Koreans do 
 not swear, but the way some good folks hurled 
 bad words and heaped curses and vile names on 
 all the female ancestors of that cat, clear back to 
 the time of Kija, was dreadful to think of. It 
 
TOKGABI'S MENAGERIE 73 
 
 exceeded even the language of the street quarrels 
 of to-day. Indeed, some of their remarks are 
 still preserved in tradition and proverbs. Never- 
 theless, with all his pains taken, Mee Yow could 
 not find the magic wine-stone. As for Tip Pul, 
 he got poorer and poorer. 
 
 The dog, being without the cat's sharp claws, 
 could not climb like Puss among the rafters 
 and the roofs, but being able to run fast and 
 having a nose that could smell a tiger a mile 
 off, he made excursions all over the country, 
 even crossing the ice of the frozen river. 
 Although he fought many another dog, chased 
 many a rat into its hole, and worried about a 
 hundred cats, even jumping into wood-sheds 
 and running in and out among the cows and 
 horses, he found nothing. Once, while in a 
 stall where the pony, tied up with a belly-band 
 by ropes to the ceiling, was enjoying its supper 
 of bean soup, the poor doggy was nearly kicked 
 to death. The vicious brute, thinking that 
 Snap was trying to steal some beans from its 
 feed box, gave the dog a blow with its hoofs 
 that made Snap go on three legs for a week 
 afterward. 
 
 The long winter passed away and the ice 
 
74 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 melted, but the river water was still cold. One 
 day Pussy, while chasing a rat among the raft- 
 era of a house of a Yang-ban or gentleman, 
 brushed its whiskers against a greenish soap- 
 stone box, such as the king often sends as a 
 present to those whom he likes. Recognizing 
 the smell of something inside as that of his 
 master's long-lost gem, he tried hard by tooth 
 and claw to open it. 
 
 All Pussy's scratching, biting and clawing, 
 however, were in vain. Nor could the dog help 
 in the least. 
 
 So a bargain was struck with the rats to gnaw 
 . open the box and get the magic stone. Dog 
 and cat together immediately went to the prin- 
 cipal rat hole of the village. There they kept 
 up such barking, howling and caterwauling, 
 that the King of the Rats, from a safe distance 
 within, called out to know what was wanted. 
 
 Then and there the trouble was fully ex- 
 plained. Both the big creatures, Su Nap and 
 Mee Yow, promised to let all rats and mice en- 
 tirely alone for six months, if one of them 
 would agree to gnaw open the box and produce 
 the stone. The dog lifted his paw, barked and 
 wagged his tail, and the cat washed her face 
 
TOKGABI'S MENAGERIE 75 
 
 over and over again with her paw, patted gently 
 a stone that looked like a rat as a sign of peace, 
 and blinked in token of truth-telling. Not 
 even a rat's baby or a mouse's grandmother was 
 to be touched until after rice harvest in the 
 autumn, six months distant from the date of 
 the contract. 
 
 Delighted at the prospect of peace and quiet 
 for half a year, and especially while the grain 
 should be ripening, both rats and mice worked 
 together, until out of a hole gnawed in the box, 
 polished and hard on their teeth as it was, they 
 got the magic stone. Carrying it in their paws, 
 they dropped it where their former enemies, 
 now so peaceful, could get it. At once the dog 
 took the gem in his mouth and ran to the 
 river, Mee Yow following after. 
 
 " Now, Kit," said Snap, " get on my back and 
 hold tight to my neck-hair with your claws, 
 while I swim across. As I must breathe hard, 
 put the gem in your mouth. Mind that you 
 don't open your jaws, or yawn, or laugh, till 
 we get across. Do you hear ? " 
 
 Mee Yow wagged her tail and took the wine- 
 stone firmly in her mouth in token of fierce 
 determination to deliver that precious gem 
 
76 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 safely to her master. All the time Mee Yow 
 intended to jump ashore and run to her mas- 
 ter, while the dog would be shaking off the 
 water from his hair, and thus get the credit 
 for first finding where the stone had been. 
 
 It was a long, hard swim and the dog's 
 strength was nearly used up when only two- 
 thirds across the river, but the cat was happy, 
 for she had only to hold on and keep her feet 
 dry. All went well until when near the shore. 
 
 Now it happened just then that a party of 
 children, out of school and ready for fun, caught 
 sight of the odd pair. They had never seen 
 anything so funny in all their lives, and at once 
 they laughed uproariously. Snap was too serious 
 to pay any attention to their glee, but Mee Yow, 
 already tickled with vanity, became positively 
 frivolous. She too joined with the children 
 and laughed so hard that Snap's body was badly 
 shaken, so that he nearly got his nose under 
 water and drowned them both. This made the 
 light-headed and conceited cat laugh all the 
 more. Finally bursting in a guflfaw, Mee Yow 
 dropped the gem out of her mouth, so that it 
 was hopelessly lost in the river and fell to the 
 bottom, f 
 
A party of children caught sight of the odd pair. 
 
TOKGABI'S MENAGERIE 77 
 
 That was too much for the dog, to have his 
 labor thus wasted. Thinking only of his mas- 
 ter the faithful and serious Snap dived to the 
 bottom of the river, tumbling Mee Yow off, 
 though much scratching and clawing took place 
 before Puss let go and swam ashore. 
 
 Alas I the dog could not find the precious 
 gem, and when once on land he first shook him- 
 self to dry his hair and then rushed at the cat 
 to give her a good shaking. But Mee Yow 
 climbed up a tree, and though nearly frozen 
 to death after her icy bath, kept up growling 
 as long as the dog barked. 
 
 After that, in Korea, the cats and dogs ceased 
 to be friends. Indeed, they never spoke to each 
 other. Wild, unloved and unpetted, the cat be- 
 longs to the bad animals in Tokgabi's museum, 
 while the puppy dog, with a good reputation, 
 is the pet of the family and his big father and 
 uncles are the faithful friends of man. 
 
THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 
 
 AGES ago, there lived a great Fire Spirit 
 inside of a mountain to the southwest of 
 Seoul, the capital of Korea. He was 
 always hungry and his food was anything that 
 would burn. He devoured trees, forests, dry 
 grass, wood, and whatever he could get hold of. 
 When those were not within his reach, he ate 
 stones and rocks. He enjoyed the flames, but 
 threw the hard stuff out of his mouth in the 
 form of lava. 
 
 This Fire Monster spent most of his time in a 
 huge volcano some distance away, but in sight 
 of the capital. The city people used to watch 
 the smoke coming out of the crater by day and 
 issuing in red fire, between sunset and sunrise, 
 until all the heavens seemed in flames. Then, 
 they said, the Fire Spirit was lighting up his 
 palace. On cloudy nights the inside of the 
 volcano glowed like a furnace. The molten 
 mass inside the crater was reflected on the 
 clouds, so that one could almost see into the 
 monster's belly. 
 
 78 
 
THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 79 
 
 But nothing tasted so good to the Fire Eater 
 as things which men built, such as houses, 
 stables, fences, and general property. An espe- 
 cial titbit, that he longed to swallow, was the 
 royal palace. 
 
 Looking out of its crater one day, he saw the 
 king's palace all silver bright and brand new, 
 rising in the city of Seoul. Thereupon he 
 chuckled, and said to himself, for he was very 
 happy : 
 
 " There's a feast for me I I'll just walk out of 
 my mountain home and eat up that dainty 
 morsel. I wonder how the king will like it." 
 
 But the Fire Spirit was in no hurry. He felt 
 sure of his meal. So he waited until his friend, 
 the South Wind, was prepared to join him. 
 
 " Let me know when you're ready," said the 
 Fire Spirit to the South Wind, " and we'll have 
 a splendid blaze. We'll go up at night and 
 enjoy a lively dance before they can get a drop 
 of water on us. Don't let the rain-clouds know 
 anything about our picnic." 
 
 The South Wind promised easily, for she was 
 always glad to have a frolic. 
 
 So when the sun went down and it was dark, 
 the Fire Spirit climbed out of his rocky home 
 
8o THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 in the volcano and strode toward Seoul. The 
 South Wind pranced and capered with him 
 until the streets of the capital were so gusty 
 that no one with a wide-brimmed hat dared go 
 outdoors, lest, in a lively puff, he might lose his 
 head-gear. As for the men in mourning, who 
 wear straw hats a yardstick wide and as big and 
 deep as wash-tubs, they locked themselves up at 
 home and played checkers. By the time all the 
 palace guards were asleep the Fire Spirit was 
 ready. He said to the South Wind : 
 
 " Blow, blow your biggest blast, as I begin to 
 touch the roofs of the smaller houses. This will 
 whet my appetite for the palace, and then to- 
 gether we'll eat them all up." 
 
 Not till they heard a mighty roar and crack- 
 ling did the people in Seoul push back their 
 paper windows to find out what was the matter. 
 Oh, what a blaze ! It seemed to mount to 
 heaven with red tongues that licked the stars. 
 Those who could see in the direction of the 
 palace supposed the sun had risen, but soon the 
 crash of falling roofs and mighty columns of 
 smoke and flame, with clouds of sparks, told the 
 terrible story. By the time the sun did rise, 
 there was nothing but a level waste of ashes, 
 
THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 81 
 
 where the large buildings had been. Even the 
 smoke had been driven away by the wind. 
 
 When the king and his people in the palace 
 enclosure, who had saved their lives by running 
 fast, thought over their loss, they began to plan 
 how to stop the Fire Monster, when he should 
 take it into his head to saunter forth on another 
 walk and gobble up the king's dwelling. 
 
 A council of wise men was called to decide 
 upon the question. Many long heads were 
 bowed in hard thought over the matter. All 
 the firemen, stone-cutters, fortune-tellers, dragon 
 tamers, geomancers and people skilled in pre- 
 venting conflagrations were invited to give their 
 advice about the best way to fight the hungry 
 Fire Demon. 
 
 After weeks spent in pondering the problem 
 they all agreed that a dragon from China should 
 be brought over to Korea. If kept in a swamp 
 and fed well, he would surely prevent the Fire 
 Imp from rambling too near Seoul. Besides, the 
 dragon knew how to amuse and persuade the 
 South Wind not to join in the mischief. 
 
 So, at tremendous cost and trouble, one of 
 China's biggest dragons, capable of making rain 
 and of spouting tons of water on its enemies, was 
 
82 THE UNMANNJERLY tIGJEIl 
 
 shipped over and kept in a swamp. It was 
 honored with a royal decoration, allowed to 
 wear a string of amber beads over its ear, given 
 a horsehair hat, a nobleman's girdle and fed all 
 the turnips it desired to eat. In every way it 
 was treated as the king's favorite. 
 
 But it was all in vain. Money and favor 
 were alike wasted. The petted dragon made it 
 rain too often, so that the land was soaked. 
 Then when told not to do this, it grew sulky 
 and neglected its duty. Finally it became fat 
 and lazy and one night fell asleep when it ought 
 to have been on guard, for the winds were out 
 on a dance. 
 
 Seeing his jailer thus caught napping, the 
 Fire Imp leaped out of its volcano prison, rode 
 quickly on the South Wind to Seoul and in a 
 few hours had again swallowed the royal palace 
 which quickly disappeared in flames. There 
 was nothing seen next day except ashes, which 
 the Fire Monster cared no more for than we for 
 nutshells when the kernels are eaten up. 
 
 With big tears in their eyes, the king and 
 his wise men met together again to decide on a 
 new scheme to keep off the Fire Imp. They 
 were ready to drown him, or to see him get eaten 
 
THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 83 
 
 up, because he had twice swallowed up the 
 palace. They sent the Chinese dragon home 
 and this time, besides the fortune-tellers and 
 the stone-cutters, the well-diggers were invited 
 also. For many days the wise men studied 
 maps, talked of geography, looked at mountains, 
 valleys, and the volcano, and studied air cur- 
 rents. Finally one man, famous for his deep 
 learning about wood and water, forests and 
 rivers, spoke thus : 
 
 " It is evident that the fire has always come 
 from the southwest and up this valley," point- 
 ing to a map. 
 
 " True, true," shouted all the wise men. 
 
 " Well, right in his path let us dig a big pond, 
 a regular artificial lake and very deep, into 
 which the Fire Monster will tumble. This will 
 put him out and he can get no further." 
 
 " Agreed, agreed," shouted the wise men in 
 chorus. " Why did we not think of this be- 
 fore ? " 
 
 All the skilful diggers of wells and ditches 
 were summoned to the capital. With shovel 
 and spade they worked for weeks. Then they 
 let in water from the river until the pond was 
 full. 
 
84 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 So everybody in Seoul went to bed thinking 
 that the king's palace was now safe surely. 
 
 But the Fire Imp, seeing the dragon gone and 
 his opportunity come, climbed out of his vol- 
 cano and moved out for another meal. This 
 time, the South Wind was busy elsewhere and 
 could not go with him. So he went alone, but 
 coming to the pond, tumbled and wet himself 
 so badly that he was chilled and nearly put out 
 when he got to the palace, which was only half 
 burned. So he went home growling and hun- 
 gry. 
 
 Again the wise men were called and the first 
 thing they did was to thank the boss well-dig- 
 ger, who had made the pond. The king sum- 
 moned him into his presence to confer rank 
 upon him and his children. He was pre- 
 sented with four rolls of silk, forty pounds of 
 white ginseng, a tiger-skin robe, sixty dried 
 chestnuts and forty-four strings of copper cash. 
 Loaded with such Korean wealth and honors, 
 the man fell on his hands and knees and 
 thanked His Majesty profusely. 
 
 Then they called the master stone-cutter or 
 chief of the guild and asked him if he could 
 chisel out the figure of a beast that could eat 
 
THE GREAT STONE FIRE EATER 85 
 
 flames and be ugly enough to scare away the 
 Fire Imp. 
 
 The master had long hoped that he would be 
 invited to rear this bit of sculpture, but hitherto 
 the king and Court had feared it might cost too 
 much. 
 
 So the order was given, and out of the heart of 
 the mountains, a mighty block of white granite 
 was loosed and brought to Seoul on rollers, 
 pushed, pulled, and hoisted by thousands of labor- 
 ers. Then, hidden behind canvas, to keep the 
 matter secret, lest the Fire Imp should find it 
 out, the workmen toiled. Hammers and chisels 
 clinked, until on a certain day the Great Stone 
 Flame Eater was ready to take his permanent 
 seat in front of the palace gate, as guardian of 
 the royal buildings and treasures. 
 
 The Fire Imp laughed when the South Wind 
 told him of what the Koreans in the capital 
 were doing, even though she warned him of the 
 danger of his being eaten up. 
 
 " I shall walk out and see for myself anyhow," 
 said the Fire Imp. 
 
 One night he crept out quietly and moved 
 toward the city. He was nearly drowned in the 
 pond, but plucking up courage, he went on until 
 
86 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 he was near the king's dwelling. Hearing the 
 Fire Imp coming, the Great Flame Eater turned 
 his head and licked his chops in anticipation of 
 swallowing the Fire Imp whole, as a toad does 
 a fly. 
 
 But one sight of the hideous stony monster 
 was enough for the Fire Imp. There, before 
 him, on a high pedestal was something never 
 before seen in heaven or on earth. It had enor- 
 mous fire-proof scales like a salamander, with 
 curly hair like asbestos and its mouth was full 
 of big fangs. It was altogether hideous enough 
 to give even a Volcano Spirit a phill. 
 
 "Just think of those jaws snapping on me," 
 said the Fire Imp to himself, as he looked at 
 them and the fangs. " I do believe that crea- 
 ture is half alligator and half water-tortoise. I 
 had better go home. No dinner this time ! " 
 
 So by his freezing glance alone, the Great 
 Flame Eater frightened away the Fire Imp, so 
 ihat he never came again and the royal palace 
 was not once burned. To-day the ugly brute 
 «till keeps watch. You have only to look at 
 him to enjoy this story. 
 
PIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER 
 
 PEAR BLOSSOM had been the name of a 
 little Korean maid who was suddenly left 
 motherless. When her father, Kang Wa, 
 who was a magistrate high in office, married 
 again, he took for his wife a proud widow whose 
 daughter, born to Kang Wa, was named Violet. 
 Mother and daughter hated housework and 
 made Pear Blossom clean the rice, cook the food 
 and attend to the fire in the kitchen. They 
 were hateful in their treatment of Pear Blossom, 
 and, besides never speaking a kind word, called 
 her Pigling, or Little Pig, which made the girl 
 weep often. 
 
 It did no good to complain to her father, for 
 he was always busy. He smoked his yard-long 
 pipe and played checkers hour by hour, appar- 
 ently caring more about having his great white 
 coat properly starched and lustred than for his 
 daughter to be happy. His linen had to be 
 beaten with a laundry club until it glistened 
 like hoar frost, and, except his wide-brimmed 
 
 87 
 
88 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 black horsehair hat, he looked immaculately 
 white when he went out of the house to the 
 Government ofl&ce. 
 
 Poor Pigling had to perform this task of wash- 
 ing, starching and glossing, in addition to the 
 kitchen work and the rat-tat-tat of her laundry 
 stick was often heard in the outer room till 
 after midnight, when her heartless stepsister 
 and mother had long been asleep. 
 
 There was to be a great festival in the city 
 and for many days preparations were made in 
 the house to get the father ready in his best 
 robe and hat, and the women in their finery, to 
 go out and see the king and the royal proces- 
 sion. 
 
 Poor Pigling wanted very much to have a 
 look at the pageant, but the cruel stepmother, 
 setting before her a huge straw bag of unhuUed 
 rice and a big cracked water jar, told her she 
 must husk all the rice, and, drawing water from 
 the well, fill the crock to the brim before she 
 dared to go out on the street. 
 
 What a task to hull with her fingers three 
 bushels of rice and fill up a leaky vessel I Pig- 
 ling wept bitterly. How could it ever be done ? 
 
 While she was brooding thus and opening 
 
PIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER 89 
 
 the straw bag to begin spreading the rice out on 
 mats, she heard a whir and a rush of wings and 
 down came a flock of pigeons. They first 
 h'ghted on her head and shoulders, and then 
 hopping to the floor began diligently, with beak 
 and claw, and in a few minutes the rice lay in a 
 heap, clean, white, and glistening, while with 
 their pink toes they pulled away the hulls and 
 put these in a separate pile. 
 
 Then, after a great chattering and cooing, the 
 flock was off and away. 
 
 Pigling was so amazed at this wonderful work 
 of the birds that she scarcely knew how to be 
 thankful enough. But, alas, there was still the 
 cracked crock to be filled. Just as she took hold 
 of the bucket to begin there crawled out of the 
 fire hole a sooty black imp, named Tokgabi. 
 
 " Don't cry," he squeaked out. " I'll mend 
 the broken part and fill the big jar for you." 
 Forthwith, he stopped up the crack with clay, 
 and pouring a dozen buckets of water from the 
 well into the crock, it was filled to brimming and 
 the water spilled over on all sides. Then 
 Tokgabi the imp bowed and crawled into the 
 flues again, before the astonished girl could 
 thank her helper. 
 
90 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 So Pigling had time to dress in her plain but 
 clean clothes that were snow-white. She went 
 off and saw the royal banners and the king's 
 grand procession of thousands of loyal men. 
 
 The next time, the stepmother and her favor- 
 ite daughter planned a picnic on the mountain. 
 So the refreshments were prepared and Pigling 
 had to work hard in starching the dresses to be 
 worn — jackets, long skirts, belts, sashes, and 
 what not, until she nearly dropped with fatigue. 
 Yet instead of thanking and cheering her, the 
 cruel stepmother told Pigling she must not go 
 out until she had hoed all the weeds in the 
 garden and pulled up all the grass between the 
 stones of the walk. 
 
 Again the poor girl's face was wet with tears. 
 She was left at home alone, while the others 
 went off in fine clothes, with plenty to eat and 
 drink, for a day of merrymaking. 
 
 While weeping thus, a huge black cow came 
 along and out of its great liquid eyes seemed to 
 beam compassion upon the kitchen slave. Then, 
 in ten mouthfuls, the animal ate up the weeds, 
 and, between its hoof and lips, soon made an end 
 of the grass in the stone pathway. 
 
 With her tears dried Pigling followed this 
 
She heard a whir and a rush of winss. 
 
PIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER 91 
 
 wonderful brute out over the meadows into the 
 woods, where she found the most delicious fruit 
 her eyes ever rested upon. She tasted and en- 
 joyed, feasting to the full and then returned 
 home. 
 
 When the jealous stepsister heard of the as- 
 tonishing doings of the black cow, she deter- 
 mined to enjoy a feast in the forest also. So on 
 the next gala-day she stayed home and let the 
 kitchen drudge go to see the royal parade. Pig- 
 ling could not understand why she was excused, 
 even for a few hours, from the pots and kettles, 
 but she was still more surprised by the gift 
 from her stepmother of a rope of cash to spend 
 for dainties. Gratefully thanking the woman, 
 she put on her best clothes and was soon on the 
 main street of the city enjoying the gay sights 
 and looking at the happy people. There were 
 tight rope dancing, music with drum and flute 
 by bands of strolling players, tricks by conjur- 
 ers and mountebanks, with mimicking and cas- 
 tanets, posturing by the singing girls and fun of 
 all sorts. Boys peddling honey candy, barley 
 sugar and sweetmeats were out by the dozen. 
 At the eating-house. Pigling had a good dinner 
 of fried fish, boiled rice with red peppers, tur- 
 
92 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 nips, dried persimmons, roasted chestnuts and 
 candied orange, and felt as happy as a queen. 
 
 The selfish stepsister had stayed home, not 
 to relieve Pigling of work, but to see the won- 
 derful cow. So, when the black animal ap- 
 peared and found its friend gone and with 
 nothing to do, it went off into the forest. 
 
 The stepsister at once followed in the tracks 
 of the cow that took it into its head to go very 
 fast, and into unpleasant places. Soon the girl 
 found herself in a swamp, wet, miry and full of 
 brambles. Still hoping for wonderful fruit, she 
 kept on until she was tired out and the cow was 
 no longer to be seen. Then, muddy and bedrag- 
 gled, she tried to go back, but the thorny bushes 
 tore her clothes, spoiled her hands and so 
 scratched her face that when at last, nearly 
 dead, she got home, she was in rags and her 
 beauty was gone. 
 
 But Pigling, rosy and round, looked so lovely 
 that a young man from the south, of good family 
 and at that time visiting the capital, was struck 
 with her beauty. And as he wanted a wife, he 
 immediately sought to find out where she lived. 
 Then he secured a go-between who visited both 
 
PIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER 93 
 
 families and made all the arrangements for the 
 betrothal and marriage. 
 
 Grand was the wedding. The groom, Su-wen, 
 was dressed in white and black silk robes, with 
 a rich horsehair cap and head-dress denoting 
 his rank as a Yang-ban, or gentleman. On his 
 breast, crossed by a silver-studded girdle, was a 
 golden square embroidered with flying cranes 
 rising above waves — the symbols of civil ofiice. 
 He was tall, handsome, richly cultured, and 
 quite famous as a writer of verses, besides being 
 well read in the classics. 
 
 Charming, indeed, looked Pear Blossom, in 
 her robe of brocade, and long undersleeves 
 which extended from her inner dress of snow- 
 white silk. Dainty were her red kid shoes 
 curved upward at the toes. With a baldric of 
 open-worked silver, a high-waisted long skirt, 
 with several linings of her inner silk robes 
 showing prettily at the neck, and the silver 
 bridal ring on her finger, she looked as lovely 
 as a princess. She wore a lofty head-dress of 
 silk velvet decorated with tinsel and flowers, 
 which were inwoven with her own long black 
 tresses, while on her forehead was the crimson 
 disk or spot denoting the bride. Long silver 
 
94 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 hairpins, tipped with jade, completed her head- 
 gear. 
 
 The chief ornament of the bridal festival and 
 symbol of undying love was that of a real, 
 live goose. The wild geese, that soar in the 
 sky, pluck pine branches from the north and 
 carry them as tokens of return again to the 
 far south. Graceful in flight, unwearied of 
 wing, soaring high in the air above all danger 
 of hunter, snare, trap, or arrow, the wild goose 
 is the emblem of constancy, since it never seeks 
 but one mate, and, losing that, takes none 
 again. The snow-white wild goose is the pat- 
 tern of marital virtue and the symbol of con- 
 stancy in love. 
 
 So with her original name now restored, and 
 henceforward called Ewa, or Pear Blossom, the 
 daughter of Kang Wa was to be Mrs. Su-wen. 
 It was astonishing what new interest the 
 hitherto neglectful father took in his daughter 
 as soon as she was sought for in marriage. 
 
 Leaving her home in a palanquin borne by 
 four lusty bearers, Pear Blossom went forth to 
 live amid the rich rice fields of a southern prov- 
 ince. Her home was with a father and mother- 
 in-law, who, having no other children but their 
 
PIGLING AND HER PROUD SISTER 95 
 
 one son, became very fond of their new daughter. 
 Summer after summer the pear trees bloomed 
 and Ewa, the Pear Blossom, lived ever happily. 
 As a good wife, she fulfilled in her life the sig- 
 nificance of the symbol of marital bliss the 
 figure of the wild goose, which flies far in the 
 heavens, graceful and untiring, the mirror of 
 loyalty and faithfulness and, from of old, re- 
 puted to have but one mate. 
 
 Besides her bridal dower, her father asked 
 Pear Blossom what she preferred as a special 
 present. When she told him, he laughed 
 heartily, even until his eyes, like two old roof- 
 spouts, leaked with tears. Nevertheless he ful- 
 filled her wishes and to this day, in the boudoir 
 of Pear Blossom, now Mrs. Su-wen, there stands 
 ever, before the good wife and happy mother of 
 sons, an earthen figure of a black cow moulded 
 and baked from the clay of her home province, 
 while under a pear tree that bursts into bloom 
 every spring time and sheds on the ground a 
 snowy shower that falls not from the skies, 
 happy children play. 
 
SIR ONE LONG BODY AND MADAME 
 THOUSAND FEET 
 
 IN the land of Morning Radiance, where the 
 family names have only one syllable, such 
 as Kim, Yi, Pil, Wun, Hap, etc., they wear 
 shoes, but these are not made of black leather. 
 The people neither stand up on wooden clogs as 
 in Japan, nor case their feet in straight soled 
 gaiters, without heels, as in China. The gentle- 
 men put on white socks with tough hide soles, 
 and the ladies don dainty slippers with the 
 pointed toes turned up. Common folks' sandals 
 are made chiefly of straw and twine and it takes 
 a good deal of cordage to complete a pair. 
 
 Now there once lived under an old stone 
 below a persimmon tree a fair young creature 
 named Miss Thousand Feet. She wore lead- 
 colored clothes and had so many toes to take 
 care of that any one who tried to count them 
 soon got tired ; so he stopped and called the 
 whole amount a thousand, which was a number 
 as round as herself She was as proud of each 
 one of her many little feet as a Chinese lady, 
 who has only two of them, admires her own, 
 
 96 
 
SIR ONE LONG BODY 97 
 
 when they fit a velvet shoe no bigger than a 
 pepper pod. Miss Thousand Feet was very 
 modest, however, and if any one stepped on her 
 toes, or touched her, she curled up, first into a 
 ring and then into a ball, so that men, by a pun 
 on her family name, called her " a pill milli- 
 pede," for she belonged to the Pil family, one 
 of the most famous in all Korea. 
 
 Miss Thousand Feet was very happy living 
 under a damp stone in the cool earth and she 
 played a good deal. But by and by, when she 
 grew up, her parents told her it was time for her 
 to get married. So they looked around, to see 
 if any gentleman in the whole creation was 
 worthy of her, not only to make a suitable 
 husband, but also a good match that her friends 
 would be proud of. 
 
 Now, in another village lived a rich, fat, 
 young and promising male creature, named Mr. 
 Long Body, of the Wum family. His business 
 was to eat his way through the ground, and pile 
 up little curled heaps of mud on the surface, and 
 at this work he was kept very busy. He had 
 to look out for the birds, for they liked to eat 
 him up, he was so soft and sweet. Constant 
 exercise in moving through the ground kept his 
 
98 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 body shining, so that altogether, as earthworms 
 go, he was quite handsome and| considered a 
 good catch for Miss Thousand E%et. Further- 
 more, as he had no feet and she had so many, 
 while his body was long and hers quite short, it 
 was supposed that one would make up where 
 the other lacked and that both would be happy 
 together as husband and wife. 
 
 Mr. Long Body, when he heard of the charms 
 of Miss Thousand Feet, was of the same opinion. 
 All his friends were pairing off, the males 
 bringing home their brides to their fathers' 
 houses and setting up housekeeping. As he had 
 come of age, he also determined to marry. 
 
 So he sent letters and opened the business, 
 according to Korean etiquette, through a " go- 
 between," as the lady who arranges marriages is 
 called. This person goes to see each of the two 
 families, praising to one the beauty and graces 
 of the promised bride and to the other the 
 strength and wealth of the future husband. 
 Indeed, she gives both of them a very good 
 character. Finally the "six proprieties," or 
 " half dozen rules," had been completed and the 
 engagement of Mr. Wum and Miss Pil was an- 
 nounced. 
 
siti one: long body 9^ 
 
 What a clatter of gossip was at once heard in 
 both villages ! No one ever thought that such 
 a handsome fellow as Mr. Long Body Wum 
 would ever marry into the Pil family. Some 
 jealous folks hinted that Mr. Long Body, if he 
 took a wife with a thousand feet, would never be 
 able to pay his shoemaker. On the other hand, 
 so long as his bride would be content with plain 
 twine shoes, all might go well ; but, for extra 
 occasions, or if his wife were extravagant, and 
 wanted lady's turned up house foot-gear, made 
 of red morocco, such as only the Yang-ban, or 
 rich folks, wear, — well, there would be trouble 
 in the household. How could he keep her in 
 shoes ? Other persons, however, who knew that 
 the Pils were famous people, wondered how Mr. 
 Wum ever managed to get such a prize as Miss 
 Pil. 
 
 In the other village, the tongues of the gossips 
 ran on in much the same way. What did she 
 see to admire in that fellow without legs? 
 Then, when the honeymoon would be over and 
 it came to making gentleman's clothes for her 
 husband, had she any skill with the needle? 
 Could she make a long coat and one trouser leg 
 big enough to fit,him ? And think of the many 
 
loo THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 days of work necessary to cut and sew the gar- 
 ment, to say nothing of weary hours to be spent 
 in washing, starching and giving a gloss to such 
 clothes. The idea I Why, she would have to 
 be nothing but a slave. 
 
 As her husband's semptress, tailor, and laun- 
 dress she would get no rest. Think of washing, 
 starching, and beating to a fine gloss the one- 
 legged trousers, which Mr. Wum would often 
 have to change ; for he lived in the dirt ! 
 
 Now, Mr. Long Body Wum was so busy with 
 his work of excavating the ground that he had 
 no time to hear, or pay attention to the vil- 
 lage chatterboxes. Miss Pil, however, couldn't 
 help hearing what the women and others said 
 about her, and especially the talk concerning 
 the terribly hard duties that awaited her if she 
 took a husband. While Mr. Wum kept digging 
 at the tunnel three yards long, which he was 
 excavating underground, so as to save up and 
 be ready for his wedding, Miss Pil brooded over 
 what the gossips talked about and over those 
 awfully long coats and one-legged trousers she 
 would be obliged to sit up at nights to make, 
 wash, starch and gloss. Already she imagined 
 her arms tired in anticipation of starching and 
 
SIR ONE LONG BODY lol 
 
 beating on the Korean lustre, without which no 
 gentleman in the Land of Morning Calm ever 
 goes outdoors. If his coat didn't have that 
 fashionable shine which long beating gives, the 
 women would notice it immediately and pretty 
 soon the men also. 
 
 Miss Pil's broodings night and day over the 
 matter did not help affairs, and finally wore 
 upon her nerves. She refused to prepare her 
 own trousseau, and, finally, despite all her 
 friends told her in praise of Mr. Long Body 
 Wum, she decided to write a letter to him, tell- 
 ing him that on account of his long trunk with- 
 out limbs, and the great labor necessary to make 
 him proper clothing and of starching and gloss- 
 ing it, to say nothing of keeping it in order, 
 she felt unable to hold to the marriage engage- 
 ment and must break it off. 
 
 But before she had dropped the water on the 
 ink stone and begun to rub up the ink, or taken 
 brush-pen and paper in hand, Mr. Long Body 
 had got wind of her complaining and it worried 
 him. Why should he marry one who didn't 
 want him ? 
 
 Then, as he thought it over, being a very 
 thrifty and economical bachelor, he began to 
 
102 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 doubt whether he could buy shoes enough to fit 
 all the feet of his betrothed. He had not looked 
 on her face or figure yet. Indeed it was hardly 
 Korean etiquette that he should — openly at 
 least. So far, he had not seen her tiny feet to 
 count them up, but he suspected that, since she 
 belonged to the Pil family, she must have a thou- 
 sand feet according to her reputation. When he 
 came to calculate what it iVould cost him, even 
 in cheap twine sandals, he was startled. When 
 he figured out what ladies' turned up kids 
 would come to he was so alarmed that he nearly 
 fainted. At the sight of two thousand pairs of 
 shoes, however tiny, his breath almost failed 
 him and he saw himself ruined. What should 
 he do? 
 
 And when she took off her foot-gear at night, 
 where should he stow it away ? Then, what a 
 noise she would make, if she put on rough-soled 
 shoes, while at her work around the house and 
 yard. It was horrible for a quiet bachelor even 
 to think of the clatter she would make. Al- 
 ready he felt deafness coming on. Should he 
 break off the engagement ? Yet how could any 
 one of the Wum family honorably do such a 
 thing ? What would the neighbors say ? Could 
 
SIR ONE LONG BODY 103 
 
 he, if prone to breaking his word, get another 
 bride of a family so respectable as that of the 
 Pil? 
 
 However he would sleep over it, as there were 
 some days before the wedding. But next morn- 
 ing the matter cleared up, and he was able to 
 crawl into his hole and out of sight with comfort. 
 He sent a letter to Miss Pil, setting forth the 
 facts, and asking for a release from the engage- 
 ment to marry. The substance of what he 
 wrote was this : that owing to his small fortune 
 he would be unable to buy her all the shoes, 
 and of the kind which a lady of her quality 
 and tastes required. He therefore could not 
 think of asking her to share his poverty, but 
 begged her to secure another husband who could 
 buy several sets of a thousand slippers, gaiters, 
 high cut and low cut shoes and boots such as a 
 lady needed for both fine and bad weather, etc., 
 etc. 
 
 Now it happened that the letters crossed on 
 the road. Both messengers were boys, who 
 acted as postmen. As they passed, each one, 
 knowing that the other was from the opposite vil- 
 lage, suspected what the other was carrying, for 
 both knew how the gossips had talked. 
 
104 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 So there was no wedding, nor any frolic 
 among the young folks, or feasting of relatives, 
 and to this day Miss Pil remains single and 
 Mr. Wum has no wife. They were very severe 
 on the girl. All the gossips say that it served 
 the thousand-footed hussy right. Folks had 
 better look on the good points in a person's 
 character and not dwell upon his faults and 
 defects. On the other hand, in Mr. Wum's 
 village, all declare with one voice that bachelors 
 should count up all the expense in getting mar- 
 ried. Miss Pil still goes shoeless hiding from 
 her light under a stone, and Mr. Wum keeps out 
 of sight underground, for he has nothing to 
 wear. 
 
THE SKY BRIDGE OF BIRDS 
 
 NO bird is more common in Korea than 
 the magpie. They are numbered by 
 millions. Every day in the year, ex- 
 cept the seventh day of the seventh month, the 
 air is full of them. On that date, however, they 
 have a standing engagement every year. They 
 are all expected to be away from streets and 
 houses, for every well-bred magpie is then far 
 up in the sky building a bridge across the River 
 of Stars, called the Milky Way. With their 
 wings for the cables, and their heads to form 
 the floor of the bridge, they make a pathway for 
 lovers on either side of the Silver Stream, 
 
 Boys and girls are usually very kind to the 
 magpies, but if a single one be found about the 
 houses, on the roofs, or in the streets on the 
 seventh of August, woe betide it I Every dirty- 
 faced brat throws sticks or stones at the poor 
 creature, for not being about its business of 
 bridge-building across the Starry River. By 
 evening time the magpies return to their usual 
 
 105 
 
io6 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 places, for they are then supposed to have at- 
 tended to their task and built the bridge. 
 
 To prove beyond a doubt that the bridge was 
 made and walked over you have only to look at 
 the bare heads of the magpies at this time. 
 Their feathers have been entirely worn off by 
 the tramping of the crowd of retainers who fol- 
 low the Prince of Star Land across the bridge to 
 meet his bride. 
 
 If it be wet weather on the morning of this 
 day of the Weaver Maiden and the Cattle Prince, 
 the rain-drops are the tears of joy shed by the 
 lovers at their first meeting. If showers fall in 
 the afternoon, they are the tears of sadness at 
 saying farewell, when the prince and princess 
 leave each other. If any thunder is heard, 
 every boy and girl knows that this comes from 
 the rumble of the wagons which carry the bag- 
 gage of the prince and princess, as they move 
 away, each from the other, homeward. 
 
 Now this is the story which the Korean 
 mothers tell to their children of the Bridge of 
 Birds. 
 
 Long, long ago, in the Kingdom of the Stars, 
 a king reigned who had a lovely daughter. Be- 
 sides being the most beautiful to behold, she 
 
THE SKY BRIDGE OF BIRDS 107 
 
 was a skilful weaver. There was no good thing 
 to be done in the palace, but she could do it. 
 She was not only highly accomplished, but of 
 sweet temper and very willing. Being a model 
 of all diligence, she was very greatly beloved of 
 her parents and her influence over her father 
 was very great. He would do almost anything 
 to please his darling daughter. 
 
 In due time a young and very handsome 
 prince, who lived in Star Land, came to her 
 father's court and made love to the pretty prin- 
 cess. Her parents consenting, the wedding was 
 celebrated with great splendor. 
 
 Now that she was a wife and had a home of 
 her own to care for, she became all the more a 
 model of lovely womanhood and an example to 
 all the maidens of Korea forever. Besides 
 showing diligence in the care of clothes and food 
 and in setting her servants a good example of 
 thrift, she thought much of their happiness. 
 Her service to her husband was unremitting. 
 Her chief ambition was to make his life one of 
 constant joy. 
 
 But the prince, instead of following his bride's 
 good example, and of appreciating what his 
 beautiful and unselfish bride was doing for his 
 
io8 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 happiness, gave himself up to waste and extrav- 
 agance. He became lazy and dissipated. Neg- 
 lecting his duties, he wasted his own fortune 
 and his wife's dowry. He sold all his oxen and 
 calves to get money only to lose it in gambling. 
 He borrowed many and long ropes of coin from 
 any one who would lend him the brass and iron 
 money. Finally he was so scandalously poor, 
 being on his last string of cash, that he was in 
 danger of being degraded from his rank as 
 prince, and of having his name spoken of with 
 contempt. 
 
 The King of the Stars, having seen his son- 
 in-law on the downward way, had more than 
 once threatened to disinherit, or banish him, 
 especially after the prince had parted with his 
 cattle. Yet when his daughter, the young wife, 
 interceded and begged pardon for her husband, 
 the king relented, paid his son-in-law's debts 
 and gave him another chance to do better. 
 When, however, the worthless fellow fell back 
 into his old ways, and grew worse and worse, 
 the king resolved to separate the pair, one from 
 the other. He banished the prince, far, far 
 away, six months' distance from the north side of 
 the River of Heaven, and exiled the princess a 
 
THE SKY BRIDGE OF BIRDS 109 
 
 half year's measure of space from the south side 
 of the Starry Stream. 
 
 Although the king in his wrath had hardened 
 his heart, even against his own beloved child, 
 and had driven her from court and palace, 
 because of her worthless husband, yet, as a 
 signal proof of his compassion, he ordained 
 that on one night of the year, on the seventh 
 night of the seventh moon, they might meet for 
 a few hours. 
 
 The young people parted and took their sad 
 journey to the edge of the starry heavens, but 
 they loved each other so dearly that, as soon as 
 they arrived at their place of banishment, they 
 turned round to meet each other on August 7th. 
 
 So when the day came, after six months' 
 weary journeying, they had reached the edge 
 of the Starry River, and there they stood, catch- 
 ing glimpses and waving their hands, but una- 
 ble to get closer to each other. There one may 
 see them on summer nights shining on opposite 
 sides of the broad Stream of Stars, loving each 
 other but unable to cross. 
 
 Feeling that the great gulf of space could not 
 be spanned, the loving couple burst into tears. 
 The flood from their eyes, making the river 
 
no THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 overflow, deluged the earth below, threatening 
 to float everything, houses, people, animals away. 
 What could be done? 
 
 The four-footed creatures, fish and fowls, held 
 a convention, but it was agreed that only those 
 birds with strong wings and able to fly high 
 could do anything. So the magpies, with many 
 flattering speeches, were commended to the en- 
 terprise. 
 
 When these noisy and chattering creatures, 
 that are nevertheless so kind and friendly to 
 the sparrows, heard of the lovers' troubles aloft, 
 they resolved to help the sorrowing pair over 
 the River of Stars. Out of their big, ugly 
 nests, they flew gladly to the convention that 
 voted to build the bridge. Sending out word 
 all over the world, millions of magpies assem- 
 bled in the air. Under the direction of their 
 wisest chiefs, they began their work of making, 
 with a mass of wings, a flying bridge that would 
 reach from shore to shore of the Starry Stream. 
 First, they put their heads together to furnish 
 a floor, and, so closely, that the bridge looked 
 as if it were paved with white granite. Then, 
 with their pinions, they held up the great arch 
 and highway, over which the prince crossed 
 
The lovely lady that stands by the stormy river to 
 meet her lord. 
 
THE SKY BRIDGE OF BIRDS iii 
 
 to his bride with all his baggage and train of 
 followers. The tables were soon spread and the 
 two royal lovers enjoyed a feast, with many 
 tender words and caresses. 
 
 Every year, for ages past, on the seventh day 
 of the seventh month, the magpies have done 
 this. Indeed, although the star lovers meet 
 only once a year, yet, as they live on forever, the 
 wife has her husband and the husband his wife 
 much longer than mortal couples who live on 
 earth. It is law in the magpie kingdom that 
 no bird can shirk this work. 
 
 Any magpie that tries to get out of the task 
 and that is too bad or lazy to do its part in 
 bridge building, is chased away by the Korean 
 children, who want no such truant around. 
 For does not every girl hope to be as diligent 
 and accomplished as the Star Princess, so that 
 when she grows up, she may make as good a 
 wife as the lovely lady that every year stands 
 by the Starry River to meet her lord ? As for 
 the boys, it is hoped that they will become as 
 faithful husbands as the penitent bridegroom, 
 who every year, on the night of August 7th, 
 awaits his bride onthe shining shore of the 
 River of Stars. 
 
A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 
 
 OFF in a valley, among very stony moun- 
 tains, lived an old farmer named Pak 
 We and his wife. His land was poor 
 and he had to toil from sunrise to sunset and 
 often in the night, when the moon was shining, 
 to get food. No child had ever come to his 
 home and he was in too great straits of poverty 
 to adopt a son. So he took his amusement in 
 fishing in the pond higher up on the hills, that 
 fed the stream which watered his millet and 
 rice fields. Being very skilful, he often caught 
 a good string of fish and these he sold in the 
 village near by to get for himself and his wife 
 the few comforts they needed. Thus the old 
 couple kept themselves happy, despite their 
 cheerless life, though they often wondered what 
 would become of them when they got too old 
 to work. 
 
 But one summer Pak noticed that there were 
 fewer fish in the pond and that every day they 
 seemed to be less in number. Where he used to 
 catch a stringful in an hour, he could hardly 
 get half that many during a whole day. 
 
 112 
 
A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 113 
 
 What was the matter? Was he getting less 
 skilful ? Was the bait poor ? 
 
 Not at all I His worms were as fat, his hooks 
 and lines in as good order, and his eyesight was 
 as keen as ever. 
 
 When Pak noticed also that the water was 
 getting shallower, he was startled. Could it be 
 that the pond was drying up ? 
 
 Things grew worse day by day until at last 
 there were no fish. 
 
 Where once sparkled the wavelets of a pond 
 was now an arid waste of earth and stones, over 
 which trickled hardly more than a narrow rill, 
 which he could jump over. No fish and no 
 pond meant no wiater for his rice fields. In 
 horror at the idea of starving, or having to 
 move away from his old home and become a 
 pauper, Pak looked down from what had been 
 the banks of the pond to find the cause of all 
 this trouble. There in the mud among the 
 pebbles he saw a bullfrog, nearly as big as an 
 elephant, blinking at him with its huge round 
 eyes. 
 
 In a rage the farmer Pak burst out, charging 
 the frog with cruelty in eating up all the fish 
 and drinking up all the water, threatening star- 
 
ii4 tHE UNMANNERLY TIGEll 
 
 vation to man and wife. Then Pak proceeded 
 to curse the whole line of the frog's ancestors 
 and relatives, especially in the female line, for 
 eight generations back, as Koreans usually do. 
 
 But instead of being sorry, or showing any 
 anger at such a scolding, the bullfrog only 
 blinked and bowed, saying : 
 
 " Don't worry. Farmer Pak. You'll be glad 
 of it, by and by. Besides, I want to go home 
 with you and live in your house." 
 
 " What I Occupy my home, you clammy rep- 
 tile 1 No you won't," said Pak. 
 
 " Oh 1 but I have news to tell you and you 
 won't be sorry, for you see what I can do. 
 Better take me in." 
 
 Old Pak thought it over. How should he 
 face his wife with such a guest? But then, the 
 frog had news to tell and that might please the 
 old lady, who was fond of gossip. Since her 
 husband was not very talkative, she might be 
 willing to harbor so strange a guest. 
 
 So they started down the valley. Pak shuffled 
 along as fast as his old shins could move, but 
 the bullfrog covered the distance in a few leaps, 
 for his hind legs were three feet long. 
 
 Arrived at his door, Mrs. Pak was horrified 
 
A FROG FOR A HUSBAND li^ 
 
 at the prospect of boarding such a guest. But 
 when the husband told her that Froggie knew 
 all about everybody and could chat interest- 
 ingly by the hour, she changed her manner and 
 bade him welcome. Indeed, she so warmed in 
 friendliness that she gave him one of her best 
 rooms. All the leaves, grass and brushwood 
 that had been gathered in the wood-shed to sup- 
 ply the kitchen fire and house flues, was carried 
 into the room. There it was doused with tubs 
 of water to make a nice soft place such as bull- 
 frogs like. After this he was fed all the worms 
 he wanted. 
 
 Then after his dinner and a nap, Mrs. Pak 
 and Mr. Pak donned their best clothes and went 
 in to make a formal call on their guest. Mr. 
 Pak put on his horsehair hat and long white 
 coat, as white as snow, which had been starched 
 and beaten by his loving wife, until it glistened 
 all over like hoar frost. 
 
 Mr. Bullfrog was so affable and charming 
 in conversation, besides telling so many good 
 stories and serving up so many dainty bits of 
 gossip, that Mrs. Pak was delighted beyond 
 expression. Indeed, she felt almost like adopt- 
 ing Froggie as her son. 
 
ii6 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 The night passed quietly away, but when the 
 first rays of light appeared, Froggie was out on 
 the porch singing a most melodious tune to the 
 rising sun. When Mr. and Mrs. Pak rose up to 
 greet their guest and to hear his song, they were 
 amazed to find that the music was bringing 
 them blessings. Everything they had wished 
 for, during their whole lives, seemed now at 
 hand, with more undreamed of coming in 
 troops. In the yard stood oxen, donkeys and 
 horses loaded with every kind of box, bale and 
 bundle waiting to be unloaded and more were 
 coming ; stout men porters appeared and began 
 to unpack, while troops of lovely girls in shin- 
 ing white took from the men's hands beautiful 
 things made of jade, gold and silver. There 
 were fine clothes and hats for Mr. Pak, jade- 
 tipped hairpins, tortoise-shell and ivory combs, 
 silk gowns, embroidered and jeweled girdles and 
 every sort of frocks and woman's garments for 
 Mrs. Pak, besides inlaid cabinets, clothes-racks 
 and wardrobes. Above all, was a polished metal 
 mirror that looked like the full autumn moon, 
 over which Mrs. Pak was now tempted to spend 
 every minute of her time. 
 
 Four or five of the prettiest maidens they had 
 
A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 117 
 
 ever seen in all their lives danced, sang and 
 played sweetest music. The unpacking of boxes, 
 bales and bundles continued. Tables of jade 
 and finest sandalwood were spread with the 
 richest foods and wines. Soon, under the skilful 
 hands of carpenters and decorators, instead of 
 oiled paper on the floors, covering old bricks and 
 broken flat stones set over the flues, and smoky 
 rafters and mud walls poorly papered, there rose 
 a new house. It had elegant wide halls, and 
 large rooms with partitions made of choicest 
 joiner work. It was furnished with growing 
 flowers, game boards for chess and had every- 
 thing in it like a palace. As for the riches of 
 the larder and the good things to eat daily laid 
 on the table, no pen but a Korean's can tell of 
 them all. In the new storehouse were piles of 
 dried fish, edible seaweed, bags of rice, bins of 
 millet, tubs of kim-chee made of various sorts 
 of the pepper-hash and Korean hot pickle in 
 which the natives delight, to say nothing of 
 peaches, pears, persimmons, chestnuts, honey, 
 barley, sugar, candy, cake and pastry, all ar- 
 ranged in high piles and gay colors. 
 
 The old couple seemed able to eat and enjoy 
 twice as big dinners as formerly, for all the while 
 
ii8 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 the adopted Bullfrog was very entertaining. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Pak laughed continually, declaring 
 they had never heard such good stories as he told. 
 The good wife was, however, quite equal to her 
 guest in retailing gossip. One of her favorite 
 subjects, of which she never tired, was the 
 beauty and charm of Miss Peach. She was the 
 accomplished daughter of the big Yang-ban, or 
 nobleman, Mr. Poom, who lived in a great 
 house, with a host of servants and retainers in 
 the next village, and Mrs. Pak insisted there 
 was no young woman in the world like her. It 
 was noticed that Mr. Bullfrog was particularly 
 interested when Miss Peach Poom was the sub- 
 ject of the old lady's praises. 
 
 After a week of such luxury, during which 
 Mr, and Mrs. Pak seemed to dwell in the 
 Nirvana, or Paradise, which the good priests 
 often talked about, Mr. Pak's full cup of joy was 
 dashed to earth when the Bullfrog informed 
 him that he intended to marry, and that Mr. 
 Pak must get him a wife. Still worse than that, 
 Pak was informed by the Frog that he would 
 have no one but Miss Peach, the daughter of 
 Poom, so renowned for her beauty and graces. 
 
 At this, old Pak nearly went wild. He 
 
A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 119 
 
 begged to be excused from the task, but the 
 Bullfrog was inexorable. So, after imprecating 
 his wife's tongue, for her ever putting it into the 
 frog's head to marry Miss Peach, he donned his 
 fine clothes and set out to see Mr. Poom. He 
 expected to be beaten to death for his brazen 
 effrontery in asking a noble lady to marry a frog. 
 
 Now this Mr. Poom had long been the magis- 
 trate of a district, who had squeezed much money 
 wrongly from the poor people over whom he 
 ruled, and having won great wealth, had retired 
 and come back to his native place to live. Yet to 
 keep up his old habits, he still kept a cross-bench 
 on which common people who offended him 
 were thrown and beaten with paddles, until 
 often they went away bleeding cripples. This 
 man had two daughters married, but the third, 
 the youngest and most beautiful. Miss Peach, 
 now eighteen years old, was the only one Mr. 
 Bullfrog would have for his bride. 
 
 Arriving at the Pooms' grand mansion, Mr. 
 Pak told of the suitor's wealth, power and fame, 
 high position and promise, and how he had 
 made the old couple happy. 
 
 Old Poom had pricked up his ears from the 
 flrst mention of riches and power, and became 
 
120 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 highly interested as Pak went on sounding the 
 praises of his prospective son-in-law. 
 
 "And what is his name?" asked Mr. Poem. 
 
 Here Pak was in a quandary. He knew that 
 the frog family was the oldest and most numer- 
 ous in the world and was famous for fine voices. 
 He fell into a brown study for a few minutes. 
 Then, looking up he declared that he had so 
 long thought of the suitor's graces and accom- 
 plishments, that he had forgotten his name and 
 could not then recall it. 
 
 So Mr. Poom, in order to help Pak out, ran 
 over the list of famous families in Korea, recit- 
 ing the names of the Kims, Sims, Mins, the Hos, 
 Chos, Kos, Quongs and Hongs, etc., etc., for Mr. 
 Poom was an authority on the Korean peerage. 
 
 " It is none of these," said Pak. " I deeply 
 regret that I cannot recall the name." 
 
 " Strange," said Mr. Poom. " I have named 
 all the families of any standing in the kingdom. 
 What is his office or rank and where do his 
 relations live?" 
 
 Pak was pressed so hard by Mr. Poom's search- 
 ing questions that at last he had to confess that 
 the suitor for the beautiful maiden was not a 
 man but a frog. > 
 
A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 121 
 
 " What I do you want me to marry my daugh- 
 ter to a pond-croaker ? You shall suffer for thus 
 insulting me in my own house. Slaves, bring 
 the cross-bench and give this wretch twenty 
 blows." 
 
 Forthwith, while four men brought out the 
 whipping bench, three others seized poor Pak, 
 stripped off his coat, and bound him with feet 
 and arms stretched out to the bench. Then a 
 tall, stalwart fellow raised the huge paddle of 
 wood to let fall with all his might on the bare 
 flesh of the old man. 
 
 But all this while the sky was darkening, and, 
 before the first blow was given, the lightning 
 flashed, the thunder rolled, and floods of rain 
 fell that threatened to overwhelm house, garden, 
 and all in a deluge. The hail, which began to 
 pelt the cattle, was first the size of an egg and 
 then of stones, like cannon-balls. 
 
 " Hold," cried the frightened Mr. Poom. " I'll 
 wait and ask further." 
 
 Thereupon the lightning and thunder ceased, 
 the sun burst out in splendor. 
 
 Mightily impressed by this, Mr. Poom at last 
 agreed to let his daughter become the bride of 
 the frog, not telling her who her husband was 
 
122 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 to be. Within an hour, while she was getting 
 ready, a string of fine horses and donkeys with 
 palanquins loaded with presents for the bride 
 and her family appeared. Besides boxes of silk 
 dresses and perfumes, head-gear and articles for 
 a lady's boudoir, there were troops of maidens to 
 wait on the bride. Arraying Miss Peach in the 
 loveliest of robes, they also dressed her hair, un- 
 til, what with satin puffs and frame, jade- tipped 
 silver hairpins, rosettes and flowers, her head-gear 
 stood over a foot high above her forehead, on 
 which was the bride's red round spot. Then 
 when the happy maiden had suflBciently admired 
 herself in the metal mirror and heard the praises 
 of her attendant virgins, she entered the bridal 
 palanquin — a gorgeous mass of splendor. Ac- 
 cording to custom, her eyes were sealed shut and 
 covered with wax, for a Korean bride sees noth- 
 ing of her husband until the end of the feast, 
 when she meets him in the bridal chamber. 
 
 So to his house she was carried in great pomp 
 and with gay attendance of brilliantly arrayed 
 maidens. The marriage ceremony and the grand 
 supper were happy affairs for all the guests, even 
 though the bride, according to Korean etiquette, 
 was as if blind, quietly and patiently waiting 
 
A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 123 
 
 sightless throughout the whole joyful occasion. 
 The actual ceremony was witnessed only by the 
 foster-parents and the bridegroom. 
 
 When in the bridal chamber, the bride having 
 unsealed her eyes, and her vision being clear, 
 she looked up at the one she had married and 
 found not a man, but a frog, she was furiously 
 angry. She burst out into a protest against hav- 
 ing such a bridegroom. 
 
 Gently and in tenderest tones the bridegroom 
 attempted first to comfort her. Then, handing 
 her a pair of scissors, he begged her to rip open 
 the skin along his back from shoulder to thigh, 
 for it was very tight and he was suffering pain 
 from it. 
 
 In her bitter disappointment at being married 
 to a frog, she seized the scissors and almost vi- 
 ciously began to cut from nape to waist. Her 
 surprise was great to find what seemed to be silk 
 underneath the speckled skin. When she had 
 slit down two yards or so, her husband the frog 
 stood upon his hind legs. He twisted himself 
 about as if in a convulsion, pulled his whole 
 speckled hide hard with his front paws, and 
 then jumping out of his skin, stood before his 
 bride a prince. Fair, tall, of superb figure, and 
 
124 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 gorgeously arrayed, he was the ideal of her 
 dreams. A jeweled baldric bound his waist, em- 
 broidery of golden dragons on his shoulders and 
 breast told of his rank, while on his head was 
 the cap of royalty with a sparkling diamond in 
 the centre. Yet no clothes, handsome as they 
 were, could compare in beauty with his glorious 
 manhood. Never had she seen so fair a mortal. 
 Happy was the bride whose feelings were thus 
 changed in a moment from repulsion and hor- 
 ror to warmest afiection and strongest venera- 
 tion. The next morning when, to the amaze- 
 ment of his foster-father and mother, Mr, and 
 Mrs. Pak, the prince presented himself and 
 his bride at breakfast, he told the story of 
 his life. As son of the King of the Stars 
 he had committed some oflFense, in punish- 
 ment for which his father condemned him to 
 live upon the earth in the form of a frog. Fur- 
 thermore he had laid upon his son the duty of 
 performing three tasks. These must be done be- 
 fore he should be allowed to come back and live 
 in Star Land. These were, to drink up all the 
 water in the lake, to eat all the fish, and to win 
 a human bride, the handsomest woman in the 
 world. 
 
A FROG FOR A HUSBAND 125 
 
 All the precious things which he had pre- 
 sented to Pak and his wife to make their old 
 days comfortable, and the gifts sent to the 
 bride's house before her wedding-day, had come 
 by power from the skies. Now, leaving his 
 foster-parents on earth to enjoy their gifts, he 
 must return home to his father, taking his 
 bride with him. Scarcely had he spoken these 
 words than a chariot and horses, silver bright, 
 appeared at the door of the house. Bowing low 
 to his foster-parents, and stepping in with his 
 bride, the pair disappeared beyond the clouds. 
 
 From this time forth a new double star was 
 seen in the sky. 
 
THE VOICE OF THE BELL 
 
 WHEN Tai Jo, the great general and first 
 King of Korea, founded a new dy- 
 nasty, he moved the capital near the 
 great river Han and resolved to build a mighty 
 city called Han Yang, or the Castle on the Han. 
 It was to have a high wall around it and lofty 
 gates on each side. However, the people com- 
 monly called the city Seoul, or Capital. Ail 
 the roads in the kingdom lead to it. 
 
 Happy was he when the workmen, in digging 
 for the foundations of the East Gate, came upon 
 a bell. It was a lucky omen and they carried 
 it at once to the king. He had it suspended 
 over the entrance to his palace and there it still 
 hangs. 
 
 But such a bell could only tinkle, while King 
 Tai Jo wanted one that would boom loud and 
 long. He was especially anxious about this, for 
 in Silla, once a rival state, there had hung for 
 centuries one of the biggest bells in the world 
 and Tai Jo wanted one that excelled even that 
 famed striker of the hours. He would have 
 
 126 
 
THE VOICE OF THE BELL 127 
 
 even a larger bell to hang in the central square 
 in the heart of Seoul, that could be heard by 
 every man, woman and child in the city. After 
 that, it must be able to flood miles of hill and 
 valley with its melody. By this sound the 
 people would know when to get up, cook their 
 breakfast, sit down to supper, or go to bed. On 
 special occasions his subjects would know when 
 a king's procession was passing, or a royal prince 
 or princess was being married. It would sound 
 out a dirge when, His Majesty being dead, all 
 the land must mourn and the people wear white 
 clothes for three years and Korea become the 
 land of mourners. The guardian spirit of the 
 city would have its home in the bell. 
 
 Word was sent out by messengers who rode 
 on big horses, little ponies, donkeys and bulls 
 to all the provinces, publishing the king's com- 
 mand to all governors, magistrates and village- 
 heads to collect the copper and tin to make 
 the bronze metal. The bell was to stand ten 
 feet above the ground and be eight feet across ; 
 that is, as high and wide as a Korean bedroom. 
 On the top, forming the framework, by which 
 the bell was to be hung, were to be two terrible 
 looking dragons. Weighing so many tons that 
 
128 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 it would balance five hundred fat men on a 
 seesaw, only heavy beams made of whole tree- 
 trunks could hold it in the belfry, which must 
 be strong enough to stand the shaking when 
 the monster was rung. It had no clapper in- 
 side, but without, swung by heavy ropes from 
 pulleys above, was a long log. This men pulled 
 back and then let fly, striking the boss on the 
 bell's surface. This awoke the music of the 
 bell, making it toll, boom, rumble, growl, hum, 
 croak, or roll sweet melody, according as the 
 old bellman desired. 
 
 So the procession of bullock carts on the 
 roads to Seoul creaked with the ingots of cop- 
 per. Many a donkey had swallowed gallons of 
 bean soup at the inn stables before he dropped 
 his load of metal in the city, while hundreds of 
 bulls bellowed under their weight of the brush- 
 wood and timber piled on their backs to feed 
 the furnaces, which were to melt the alloy for 
 the casting of the mighty bell. 
 
 Deep was the pit dug to hold the core and 
 mould, and hundreds of fire-clay pots and ladles 
 were made ready for use when the red-hot stream 
 should be ready to fiow. All the boys in Seoul 
 were waiting to watch the fire kindle, the smoke 
 
THE VOICE OF THE BELL 129 
 
 rise, the bellows roar, the metal liquify and the 
 foreman give the signal to tap. 
 
 When the fire-imp in the volcano heard of 
 what was going on, he was awfully jealous, not 
 thinking ever that common men could handle 
 so much metal, direct properly such roaring 
 flames, and cast so big a bell. He snorted at 
 the idea that King Tai Jo's men could beat the 
 bells that hung in China's mighty temples or 
 in Silla's pagodas. 
 
 But when there was not yet enough and the 
 copper collectors were still at their work, one of 
 them came to a certain village and called at a 
 house where lived an old woman carrying a baby 
 boy strapped to her back. She had no coin, cash, 
 metal, or fuel to give, but was quite ready to 
 offer either herself or the baby. In a tone that 
 showed her willingness, she said : 
 
 " May I give you this boy ? " 
 
 The collector paid no attention to her, but 
 passed on, taking nothing from the old woman. 
 When in Seoul, however, he told the story. 
 Thus it came to pass that many heard of the 
 matter and remembered it later. 
 
 So when all was ready, the fire-clay crucibles 
 were set on the white-hot coals. The blast 
 
130 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 roared until the bronze metal turned to liquid. 
 Then, at the word of the master, the hissing, 
 molten stream ran out and filled the mould. 
 Patiently waiting till the metal cooled, alas I 
 they found the bell cracked. 
 
 The casting was raised by means of heavy 
 tackle, erected at great expense on the spot, and 
 the bell was broken up into bits by stalwart 
 blacksmiths, wielding heavy hammers. Then a 
 second casting was made, but again, when cool, 
 it was found to be cracked. 
 
 Three separate times this happened, until the 
 price of a palace had been paid for work, fuel, 
 and wages, and yet there was no bell. King 
 Tai Jo was in despair. Yet, instead of crying or 
 pulling . his topknot, or berating the artisans, 
 who had done the best they could, he oflfered a 
 large reward to any one who could point out 
 where the trouble lay, or show what was lack- 
 ing, and thus secure a perfect casting. There- 
 upon out stepped a workman from the company, 
 who told the story of the old woman and said 
 that the bell would crack after every cooling un- 
 less her proposal was accepted. Anyway, he 
 said, the hag was a sorceress, and if the child were 
 not a real human being no harm could be done. 
 
THfi VOICii O^ THE BELL 13! 
 
 So the baby boy was sent for and, when the 
 liquid metal had half filled the pit, was thrown 
 into the mass. There was some feeling about 
 " feeding a child to the fire demon," but when 
 they hoisted the cooled bell up from the mould, 
 lo, the casting was a perfect success and every 
 one apparently forgot about the human life that 
 had entered the bell. Soon with file and chisel, 
 the great work was finished. The hanging 
 ceremonies were very impressive when the bell 
 was put in place on the city's central square, 
 where the broad streets from the South Gate 
 and those looking to sunrise and sunset met 
 together. Suspended by heavy iron links from 
 the staple on a stout timber frame, the bell's 
 mouth was exactly a foot above ground. Then, 
 around and over it, was built the belfry. The 
 names of the chief artisans who cast the bell 
 and of the royal officers who superintended the 
 hanging ceremonies were engraved on the metal. 
 It was decided, however, not to strike the bell 
 until it was fully housed and the sounder or 
 suspended log of wood, as thick as the mast of a 
 ship, was made ready to send forth the initial 
 boom. 
 
 Meanwhile tens of thousands of people waited 
 
132 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 to hear the first music of the bell. Every one 
 believed it to be good luck and that they would 
 live the longer for it. The boys and girls could 
 hardly go to bed for listening, and some were 
 afraid they might be asleep when it boomed. 
 The little folks, whose eyes were usually fast 
 shut at sunset, begged hard to stay up that night 
 until they could hear the bell, but some fell 
 asleep, because they could not help it, and their 
 eyes closed before they knew it. 
 
 " What shall the name of the bell be, your 
 Majesty ? " asked a wise counselor. 
 
 '• Call it In Jung," said King Tai Jo. " That 
 means ' Man Decides,' for every night, at nine 
 o'clock, let every man or boy decide to go to 
 bed. Except magistrates, let not one male 
 person be found in the street on pain of being 
 paddled. From that hour until midnight the 
 women shall have the streets to themselves to 
 walk in." The royal law was proclaimed by 
 trumpeters and it was ordained also that every 
 morning and evening, at sunrise and sunset, 
 the band of music should play at the opening 
 and shutting of the city gates. 
 
 So In Jung, or " Masculine Decision," is the 
 bell's name to this day. 
 
THE VOICE OF THE BELL 133 
 
 But as yet the bell was silent. It had not 
 spoken. When it did sound, the Seoul people 
 discovered that it was the most wonderful bell 
 ever cast. It had a memory and a voice. It 
 could wail, as well as sing. In fact, some to 
 this day declare it can cry ; for, whether in 
 childhood, youth, middle or old age, in joy or 
 gladness, the bell expresses their own feelings by 
 its change of note, lively or gay, in warning or 
 congratulation. 
 
 At nine o'clock in the first night of the 
 seventh moon — the month of the Star Maiden 
 of the Loom and the Ox-boy with his train of 
 attendants, who stand on opposite sides of the 
 River of Heaven and cross over on the bridge 
 of birds, the great bell of Seoul was to be 
 sounded. All the men were in their rooms 
 ready to undress and go to bed at once, while 
 all the women, fully clothed in their best, were 
 on the door-steps ready, each with her lantern 
 in hand, for their promenade outdoors. 
 
 Four strong men seized the rope, pulled back 
 the striking log a whole yard's distance and 
 then let fly. Back bounded the timber and out 
 gushed a flood of melody that rolled across the 
 city in every direction, and over the hills, fill- 
 
134 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 ing leagues of space with melody. All the 
 children clapped their hands and danced with 
 joy. They knew they would live long, for they 
 had heard the sweet bell's first music. The old 
 people smiled with joy. 
 
 But what was the surprise of the adult folks 
 to hear that the bell could talk. Yes, its sounds 
 actually made a sentence. 
 
 " Mu-u-u-ma-ma-ma-la-la-la-la-la-la " un- 
 til it ended like a baby's cry. Yes ! There 
 was no mistake about it. This is what it said : 
 
 " My mother's fault. My mother's fault." 
 
 And to this day the mothers in Seoul, as they 
 clasp their darlings to their bosoms, resolve that 
 it shall be no fault of theirs if these lack love or 
 care. They delight in their little ones more, 
 and lavish on them a tenderer affection because 
 they hear the great bell talk, warning parents 
 to guard what Heaven has committed to their 
 care. 
 
All the children clapped their hands. 
 
THE KING OF THE SPARROWS 
 
 THE Korean children are awakened every 
 morning by the twittering of the spar- 
 rows. These little birds build their 
 nests among the vines on the roof and along the 
 eaves. The people plant melon, gourd, and 
 mock orange seeds along the sunny sides of 
 their houses in spring time. All through the 
 summer, and until late in autumn, the walls 
 and roofs are covered with the thick green 
 leaves. Here, in these sheltered places, the 
 sparrow mother lays her eggs and the father spar- 
 row finds worms and feeds her, until the hungry 
 birdies open their little mouths for something 
 to eat. After this, both parents are kept busy 
 in raising their brood and teaching them to fly. 
 The greatest dangers to the birdlings come 
 from cruel snakes that live on the roof and eat 
 up the young sparrows. Sometimes, to help 
 them against their enemy, the parent sparrows 
 call in the aid of larger birds that are not afraid 
 of the reptiles. These peck at the snake until 
 
 135 
 
136 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 they drive him away. There ia always a lively 
 chattering over the victory. 
 
 One day, a young sparrow that had hardly 
 learned to fly was almost seized, and might have 
 been devoured by the roof-snake, but was saved 
 by a big, brave bird that flew at the reptile. 
 Although escaped from the snake's jaws, the 
 sparrow in falling caught its legs in the curtain 
 made of split bamboo, which hung before the 
 verandah of the house, and its limb was put out 
 of joint. There it lay helpless between the 
 splints. 
 
 The owner of the house was a kind man, who 
 loved the birds. Taking pity on the poor spar- 
 row, he carefully lifted it up, smoothed its 
 feathers, and quieted the little creature, while 
 its heart kept beating so fast. Then setting its 
 leg in place, he put some moist clay around the 
 broken part, until it should be all right again. 
 Meanwhile, he kept it warm, feeding the birdie 
 until it was strong again. One day he took it 
 in his hand and out-of-doors letting it fly away. 
 Soon it came back and perched on the edge of 
 the roof, twittering thanks to its kind friend. 
 Then it spread its wings to fly to the King of 
 the Sparrows, who lived in the city of Sparrow 
 
THE KING OF THE SPARROWS 137 
 
 Capital, where it at once informed His Majesty 
 about the good man who healed and befriended 
 birds when they were in trouble and who had 
 saved the young sparrow's life. 
 
 The King of Sparrow Land and all his wise 
 counselors heard the story with great interest. 
 Then they held a meeting and voted to regard 
 richly so good a friend of all sparrows. So they 
 went into the storehouse where were kept beau- 
 tiful treasures which human beings love. From 
 the collection they chose what they thought 
 would please most their good friend, such as 
 gold, jade, brocade, cups and saucers, rice, horses 
 to ride on, oxen to bear heavy loads and pretty 
 maids to wait on him, besides silk and cotton 
 clothes of all sorts, with delicious things to eat 
 and drink. By some magic process, they packed 
 these into a seed and then gave it to the sparrow 
 in its bill to carry to the good man. They 
 charged the bird on no account to lose it and be 
 sure to give it to no one but the right person. 
 
 So the sparrow flew out of Sparrow Land and 
 down to the house of its kind friend. Carefully 
 laying down the seed, it kept near the paper 
 window-frame and made a great twittering, until 
 the man came out to see what was the matter. 
 
138 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 Recognizing his old acquaintance, he put out 
 his open hand and the sparrow laid the seed in 
 his palm, meanwhile chattering in a lively way 
 and looking in his face as if to tell him how 
 precious the treasure was. 
 
 But the good fellow only took it in to his 
 wife and told her how he got it, laughed over 
 the matter and was going to throw it away, 
 thinking it only sparrow fun. 
 
 The wife, who was a wise woman, begged her 
 husband to keep it and on a warm day in spring 
 she planted it. It grew to be a luxuriant vine 
 that clothed all one side of the house with its 
 leaves. When one unusually fine large hand- 
 some gourd was nearly ripe, the man thought 
 of plucking it for food ; but, taking his wife's 
 advice, he waited until full autumn had come. 
 By this time the gourd, having absorbed the 
 sunshine all summer, was fully ripe. 
 
 Then they took a saw to open it properly, 
 and lo ! a store of riches came out of that gourd, 
 such as neither the man nor his wife had ever 
 dreamed of. 
 
 First issued something which spread itself out 
 before them. It was a table of costly jade, such 
 as an Emperor ever eats from. Next rolled forth 
 
THE KING OF THE SPARROWS 139 
 
 a silver bottle of delicious wine and then the 
 daintiest cups, that set themselves on the jade 
 table. Soon a gold tea-caddy appeared filled 
 with the fragrant leaf. Then rolls of silk, fine 
 muslin, satin brocade, and a store of rich clothes, 
 hats, shoes, girdles, and socks enough to last a 
 lifetime appeared before their eyes. After these 
 were rice and cooked food of all sorts ready for 
 a feast. Looking out into the yard, they saw 
 strong horses and fat oxen waiting to do their 
 master's bidding. Last of all, some lovely 
 young girls, as fair as the moon, stepped out 
 of the gourd and proceeded to serve the good 
 things of the feast as if they had been used to 
 waiting on ladies and gentlemen all their lives. 
 Following the feast, they danced, made music 
 and gave no end of entertainment and service 
 to the man and his wife, who were now as happy 
 as king and queen. 
 
 In their once humble home, now made over 
 new, with all the store of good things and plenty 
 of loyal servants and strong animals to serve 
 them, the old couple lived without care and 
 traveled where they pleased. 
 
 But when a wicked man, that hated all spar- 
 rows and had often driven them away from his 
 
140 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 house, because he thought them too trouble- 
 some, heard of his neighbor's good fortune, he 
 was envious, and wanted to get riches in the 
 same way. So he watched his opportunity and, 
 when a sparrow came near, he threw a stick at 
 the bird and broke its leg. Then he bound up 
 the limb with clay and a bit of rag. He kept 
 the poor sparrow until its leg was well, but 
 dreadfully crooked, and then let it fly away. 
 
 In the capital of Sparrow Land, the poor bird 
 told about the bad man's doings. The Sparrow 
 King at once handed out a seed to be given to 
 the enemy of the sparrows. When the naughty 
 man saw the little bird with the crooked legs, 
 he ran out, got the seed and planted it at once. 
 He could hardly wait for the gourd to ripen. 
 Wonderful to relate, however, the vine was most 
 luxurious, covering the whole side of the house 
 and all the thatched roofs of the three dwellings 
 in one, which made up his home. Altogether 
 there was a dozen of the gourds. Finally in the 
 autumn he plucked the fruit. Then, sitting 
 down before the pile, with knife and saw, he 
 began to open them. 
 
 But instead of good things, and lovely people, 
 and the treasures that make men rich and happy, 
 
THE KING OF THE SPARROWS 141 
 
 such as his kind neighbor had received, there 
 came out, one after another, the twelve curses 
 of Korea. 
 
 First leaped forth a party of rope dancers, 
 who put out their hands and demanded money. 
 They threatened to live with him and eat at his 
 table unless they got their pay. 
 
 There was no help for it. So the cruel man 
 had to give each dancer a long string of cash 
 before he could get rid of the party. 
 
 No sooner had he opened the second gourd 
 than out stepped a line of Buddhist priests, who 
 at once began begging for the temples. He was 
 only too glad to buy oflf these shaven pates. 
 
 The saw had no sooner let the light into an- 
 other gourd, than forth came a band of hired 
 mourners carrying a corpse. They began weep- 
 ing, wailing and crying out loud enough to 
 waken the dead. It required another rope of 
 cash to get rid of these pests. By this time the 
 cruel man was beginning to feel very poor. 
 
 Almost afraid to touch the other gourds, but 
 still greedily hoping for riches, he sawed them 
 open ; but one after the other yielded only what 
 took his money and threatened to make him a 
 beggar. From the fourth gourd issued a bevy 
 
142 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 of dancing girls, who refused to leave the house 
 until he had paid them five thousand cash. 
 From another gourd a pair of acrobats leaped 
 out and began a performance. But knowing 
 that they would charge the more for their tricks, 
 if they were allowed to finish their programme, 
 the man bought them ofi" as he had done the 
 others. 
 
 Getting poorer and poorer, with no sign of 
 wealth coming from the gourds, he yet felt he 
 must open more, but the result was the same. 
 The strangest people, men and women, such as 
 loafers from the government offices, fortune-tell- 
 ers, jugglers, and blind folks appeared. These 
 last had sticks in their hands to find their way, 
 and bells at their belts to collect alms. Finally, 
 of all living things, a giant stood forth, that 
 threatened to eat up both the man and his 
 wife. 
 
 By this time there was not a coin or a cash 
 left, and, besides being as poor as a rat, the man 
 was hungry. When the twelfth gourd was 
 opened it seemed to have in it all the smells of 
 Korea. Holding their noses, the man and his 
 wife ran out of their house. Happily for them 
 that they did so, for just then a gale of wind 
 
THE KING OF THE SPARROWS 143 
 
 blew down the house, and the thatch and timbers 
 burst into flames from the fire that had heated 
 the flues. 
 
 Thus stripped of all their possessions, because 
 of the man's cruelty to the birds, the wicked fel- 
 low and his wife would have starved, except for 
 the kindness of the good man who treated the 
 sparrows kindly. For the rest of his days the 
 cruel neighbor lived on his neighbor's charity. 
 
THE WOODMAN AND THE MOUNTAIN 
 FAIRIES 
 
 OVER a half a thousand years ago there 
 lived in a northern village, near Ping 
 Yang, a wood-cutter named Keel Wee. 
 He owned a sturdy bull that carried on its 
 back the fuel which he daily cut on the moun- 
 tains and sold on the main streets of his village, 
 at the fair, which is held every fifth day. The 
 docile brute could carry a load of faggots and 
 brushwood piled many feet high over his head 
 and tied down with ropes, so that at a distance 
 nothing but his legs were visible. This beast, 
 although so huge, was the gentlest creature im- 
 aginable. The children were all very fond of 
 the big fellow and were accustomed to play with 
 him as if he were one of them, or at least like a 
 pet dog. The reason of this was that when but 
 a week old the bull-calf had been taken from his 
 cow-mother and brought up in the family with 
 the girls and boys. Only the pup, that also oc- 
 cupied the house with the young folks, was a 
 greater favorite. 
 
 144 
 
THE WOODMAN 145 
 
 On a fine summer morning, Keel Wee, leav- 
 ing his beast behind, went up on the mountain 
 and cut enough wood to load up and bring down 
 on another day. 
 
 His wife, as she shouted good-bye, told him to 
 be sure and be home in time for supper, for their 
 eldest son had gone a-fishing and a good string 
 of perch was expected. 
 
 Shouldering his axe, he started up the moun- 
 tain path. He had to go pretty far, for near 
 towns or cities in Korea all the timber had long 
 since been cut away. Every year the woodmen 
 have to search further afield to find fuel. 
 
 Arriving in the woods where there was a 
 clearing, Keel Wee prepared to wield his trusty 
 axe. He was about to take off his big hat and 
 outer coat and lay about him, when he spied, at 
 some distance off", two fairy-like beings. They 
 had long hair, looked very wise and were dressed 
 in costume of the Chow dynasty of two thousand 
 years ago. They sat on stones and played the 
 game of go-ban. 
 
 Coming near, the woodman took a respectful 
 attitude, and, looking on, soon became interested 
 in the moves of the players. So far from being 
 at all disconcerted at the presence of a stranger, 
 
146 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 the two fairies seemed by eye-winks to invite 
 him to looli: on. Feeling quite proud to be thus 
 honored, Keel Wee, leaning his chin upon the 
 handle of his axe, became absorbed in the game 
 and by and by grew quite excited. Forgetting 
 himself and his manners, he stretched forth his 
 right hand to move one of the pieces. At once 
 the fairy nearest to him gave him a crack on the 
 fingers for his impudence, and jerked Keel Wee's 
 arm away. Then without saying a word, he 
 took out from his wallet something that looked 
 like a persimmon seed and put in the woodman's 
 mouth. After this all three were perfectly 
 quiet. 
 
 Hour after hour the game proceeded and the 
 players grew more intensely interested. As for 
 Keel Wee, his eyes never winked, so hard did 
 he look at the yellow board covered with the 
 black and white pieces. Several times, when 
 he thought he saw how the fairy on his right 
 could beat in the game, or the one on his left 
 make a better move, he felt like telling one or 
 the other so. When, however, he tried to move 
 his tongue, he found he could not speak, or 
 utter a cry. Somehow he felt as if he were in 
 a dream. 
 
The woodman 14^ 
 
 Yet all the time he became more and more 
 wrapped up in the game, so that he determined 
 to see the end of it and know which player 
 had beaten. He forgot that with mountain 
 spirits there is no night or morning, or passing 
 of the hours, nor do they care anything about 
 clocks or bells, because in fairy-land there is no 
 time. 
 
 All the while Keel Wee was leaning with his 
 chin on the stout axe-handle, holding it with 
 both hands under his neck. He took no note of 
 the sun or stars, daylight or darkness and he 
 felt no hunger. 
 
 Suddenly the timber of his axe seemed to 
 turn to dust and his chin fell. The next thing 
 he knew he had lost his support. Down went 
 his head, and forward fell his body as he tum- 
 bled over, upsetting the checker-board, breaking 
 up the game and scattering the round pieces 
 hither and yon over the ground. 
 
 Awaking as out of a sleep, and thoroughly 
 ashamed of himself for his impoliteness, he tried 
 to pick himself up and humbly apologize for 
 the accident which he had caused by his own 
 rudeness. He expected and was ready for a 
 good scolding. But when he looked up, the 
 
148 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 fairies were gone. Nothing whatever was seen 
 of them or of the play-board and checkers, not 
 any signs of their having been there, except 
 that when he put his hand on the fiat stones, 
 which they had used as seats, he found them 
 warm to his touch. 
 
 But where was his axe-handle and what had 
 happened? When he had left home, he had 
 come straight from the barber shop, with his 
 face smooth and clean shaven. Now he put his 
 hand to his breast and found that he had grown 
 a long white beard. As for the iron axe-head, 
 it was there, but rusty and half buried in the 
 ground. He had worn one of the big farmer's 
 hats, which, when turned upside down, might 
 hold a bushel or two of turnips, and when fast- 
 ened to his head spread over his shoulders like 
 a roof. Where could it be ? He looked about 
 him to find it, but saw only the bits of the slats 
 inside the frame and a few scraps of what re- 
 mained, for the rest had long ago rotted away. 
 Meanwhile he had discovered that his joints 
 were stiflf, and he felt like an old man. His 
 clothes were a mass of rags, his hemp sandals 
 were no more, and, on both fingers and toes, had 
 grown long nails like bird's claws. His hair 
 
THE WOODMAN 149 
 
 had burst its topknot string and hung down his 
 back like a woman's, only it was grayish-white. 
 
 Wondering what it all meant, Keel Wee hob- 
 bled down the mountain and found the road 
 that ran into the main street of his village. 
 Rocks and hills, rivers and rills were there, but 
 what a change I Instead of the two grinning 
 idol posts, of male and female face, carved out 
 of trunks and trees, with sawed-out teeth painted 
 white, and artificial ear flaps of wood nailed on, 
 such as had stood before every Korean hamlet 
 since the days of Kija, there was a line of high 
 thick poles, with iron wire stretching from one 
 to the other and for miles in the distance. These, 
 he found out afterward, were called " lightning- 
 thread-trees " (telegraph poles). In place of the 
 rambling and sprawling three-sided thatched 
 houses and yards, divided off with mats hung 
 from sticks, there was a well-built but odd- 
 looking office of painted wood, with openings 
 through which he saw Korean young men sit- 
 ting. They were dressed in strange clothes and 
 were fingering outlandish-looking clicking in- 
 struments. 
 
 His curiosity prompted him to go up and 
 look more closely, when something bumped 
 
ISO THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 against his nose and nearly knocked him over. 
 When he tried again to get closer, his face was 
 flattened, his nose nearly broken, and his lips 
 knocked against his teeth so that they swelled. 
 Feeling with his hands to solve the mystery, he 
 touched something hard, which he could yet see 
 through. Just then he heard a young man in- 
 side shout to him in Korean : 
 
 "Here, you mountain daddy, let that glass 
 alone." 
 
 "Glass? Glass? "thought Keel Wee. "What 
 is that ? " Yet he could not speak. 
 
 He had hardly drawn a long breath when^ 
 looking down along two lines of shining iron in 
 the street, he saw a house on wheels coming 
 right at him. There was no horse, no donkey, 
 no bull, no man pulling or pushing it, but over- 
 head was a long pole, at the end of which, where 
 it touched a string, as he thought, though it 
 was an iron wire, was something that looked 
 like a squirrel. It was going round and round 
 as if turning somersaults and seemed to be push- 
 ing the moving house along. Inside, near the 
 same stuflf which he had already heard was glass, 
 sat a dozen or so Koreans. The whole thing, 
 wheels and all, nearly ran over him as it thun- 
 
THE WOODMAN 151 
 
 dered by, and his mouth opened in wonder, 
 while a man on the end shouted rudely : 
 
 " Hello, old goblin, where did you get your 
 pumpkin mouth ? Look out or you'll swallow 
 the moon. Get out of the way of the trolley." 
 
 Thus did the man they called conductor, or 
 guard, make fun of the poor old fellow, for 
 indeed he did look like one of the mummers, 
 who on New Year's Eve amuse or scare the chil- 
 dren by putting on their shoulders the huge 
 round devil heads and false faces that represent 
 the aborigines of Korea and the goblins that 
 once lived in the mountains. These masks are 
 usually shaped like a melon and are cut with 
 eyes, nose and mouth, like those which Ameri- 
 can boys have fun with on All Hallow Eve. 
 
 This was just the trouble. The woodman in 
 tatters, with no topknot, long hair down his 
 back and a white beard floating over his breast, 
 leaning on a long stick as he hobbled down the 
 street, looked just like one of the ancient aborig- 
 ines that had long ago been driven into the 
 mountains. Nurses and old women frightened 
 naughty children by simply mentioning their 
 names. When one of these mountain men, 
 odd creatures that were half savage in dress and 
 
152 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER 
 
 ways, came into the town, all the children 
 laughed and the big dogs barked, while the 
 little ones ran away, for the sight was so un- 
 usual. Even the bulls bellowed, the donkeys 
 balked, and the pigs squeaked, as Keel Weei 
 came near. No wonder he was taken for a 
 mountain granddaddy, or a bumpkin dressed- 
 up like one, for few of the city or village folks 
 had really ever seen one of the mountain 
 aborigines, any more than they had seen tigers, 
 that are plentiful farther away, but which only 
 the hunters ever caught sight of. 
 
 More and more bewildered. Keel Wee wended 
 his way further into the town. He saw that 
 the men no longer wore topknots, or chignons, 
 nor did the lads have on the long braid down 
 their back, which showed that they were youths, 
 but not married yet. Just then some rough 
 boys, supposing that maybe some rustic gawk 
 had mistaken the time of year, jeered at him 
 and cried : 
 
 " Hello, hermit, do you think it's New Year's 
 Eve?" 
 
 Keel Wee thought he had better ask some 
 questions. So catching sight of a dignified 
 looking gentleman, in black broad-brimmed hat 
 
THE WOODMAN 153 
 
 and flowing white clothes, who was coming 
 down the street and toward him, Keel Wee 
 bowed his head low, almost to the ground. As 
 he did so, the stone put in his mouth by the 
 fairies dropped out, and his tongue was loosed. 
 He inquired as follows : 
 
 " Exalted sir, can you tell me where may be 
 the wretched hut of my miserable wife and 
 children ? She was the daughter of Gee Kim, 
 and your contemptible slave is Keel Wee." 
 
 The gentleman, whose dress showed that he 
 was a scholar and person of rank, looked long 
 and hard at the questioner, to satisfy himself 
 that he was not being mocked, or imposed upon 
 by a jester, rope-dancer, sorcerer, or some such 
 disreputable person, and then cried : 
 
 " Heavens I man, are you a beggar-spirit of 
 the mountains ? Your speech sounds like the 
 dialect spoken in these parts five hundred years 
 ago. In that time such a family lived here, 
 but the head of it, a wood-cutter and fuel-seller, 
 is reported to have gone up into the mountains 
 and was eaten up by a tiger. Yonder in the 
 graveyard are buried ten or more generations of 
 his descendants." 
 
 " Tell me, kind sir, what has happened here 
 
154 THE UNMANNERLY TIGER' 
 
 since King Wang died. It was under his reign 
 that I was born and lived in this village." 
 
 Still eying the questioner, as if expecting to 
 see him jump out of his rags and declare him- 
 self a mummer and the whole affair a joke, the 
 kindly gentleman proceeded to give in outline 
 the history of Korea during the previous five 
 hundred years. There had been many kings. 
 The Tartars first, and then the Japanese had 
 invaded the land. A great war between the 
 Mikado's men and the Chinese had taken place. 
 It was just over and now people rode in cars, 
 talked hundreds of miles over wires, and trav- 
 eled over iron rails as fast as a dragon could 
 fly, drawn by a steel horse that drank water and 
 fed on wood and black stones that burned. In 
 a word, Korea was in an " era of civilization." 
 
 This was too much for Keel Wee. He now 
 realized that he had lived ten times longer than 
 the average man. So, hobbling over to the 
 graveyard, he stumbled among the mounds 
 until he found that one of his clan where the 
 bones of his wife and children lay. Next 
 morning, all that was seen of Keel Wee was a 
 mass of dust, rags, some bones, and much long 
 white hair. Yet, when they buried him, there 
 
Th£ Woodman 15^ 
 
 sprang up around and on his grave strange 
 flowers that no one had ever seen in city or 
 village, but which bloomed only on the high 
 mountains.