The Story Bag

by Kim So-Un

  27 The Magic Hood

  THERE once lived a man who held his ancestors in great honor. The custom of the country was to have the names of the family's ancestors inscribed on votive tablets which were reverently set up in the family shrine. Then, whenever an anniversary of the death of one of the ancestors came about, the family would offer good food to the spirits of the dead and hold a ceremony in their memory.

  Now, this man had one great weakness. He could not rest content unless his memorial ceremonies were more lavish than those of his neighbors. His weakness was to have so many different dishes of meat, fowl, and fish that they could not all be placed on the table set before the votive tablets in front of the family shrine in the main room of the house.

  The little goblins, who knew this man's weakness, decided one day to come and eat up the feasts the man would prepare for his ancestors. Each of the goblins had a magic hood which, when worn, made him invisible to men's eyes. The next memorial day, the goblins came in their magic hoods and ate up all the delicacies the man had prepared. From that day on, whenever the man prepared a feast in honor of his ancestors, the goblins were sure to be there.

  Of course, the man did not know what the goblins were doing. He was simply happy that his deceased ancestors were apparently enjoying their feasts so much. As this continued, the man began to increase the quantity of food and the number of dishes. But no matter how much food he prepared, it always disappeared overnight.

  Finally, the man realized that even dead ancestors could hardly eat all that much. "There is something funny about this," he thought. The next time a memorial event came along, the man as usual set out many dishes on a table and placed it before the votive tablets. Then he got a long stick and hid behind a screen.

  The hours passed slowly. It was the dead of night. Suddenly, the food started to disappear from the heaped platters set on the table. He listened carefully. From somewhere came the sound of eating and drinking. The man jumped out from behind the screen and started slashing the air above the table with his long stick.

  The goblins were taken completely by surprise. They ran helter-skelter from the room. One of the goblins, however, could not dodge the stick fast enough. The end of the long stick caught a corner of his magic hood and lifted it from its head.

  The man was surprised to see a red hood come falling from nowhere to the floor. He picked it up and placed it on his head and cried: "Robbers! Help! Help!"

  His wife, who had been sleeping all this while, came running in great haste into the room. But nowhere was her husband to be seen.

  When the man saw the puzzled expression on his wife's face, he said: "The little goblins dropped this funny red hood."

  But still the wife could not see her husband and looked around the room in bewilderment. The man went right up to his wife and then took off the hood.

  To her surprise, her husband suddenly appeared out of thin air and stood right in front of her.

  The wife looked at the funny red hood which her husband showed her. Out of curiosity, she put it on her head. She too disappeared from sight. For the first time, the two realized the magic virtues of the red hood.

  "This is a wonderful thing we have gotten hold of," the man said. And, from that day, he often put the hood on and went out to rob people in their homes. He took anything and everything that pleased him. He stole many, many things from many, many homes.

  One whole year passed in this manner. One day the man put on his red hood and went into a merchant's home. The merchant was in his inner room counting out silver and gold pieces.

  Suddenly, the gold and silver pieces began disappearing one by one before the merchant's very eyes. "This is impossible!" the merchant cried. "It cannot be!"

  Then he looked around the room. There, right in front of his eyes, he saw a small, thin strand of red thread dangling from nowhere, swaying back and forth. The man had used the cap so often that it had become ragged and had started to unravel.

  The merchant quickly caught the thread and tugged at it. Off came the hood from the man's head, and there he was, completely visible to the surprised merchant. The merchant pounced on the man and dealt him many blows. Then, after taking the magic hood away from him, he chased the man from his house.

  The merchant then sewed up the ragged edges of the magic hood and, just as the other man had done, started wearing it to go out and steal.

  One day he slipped into the house of a wealthy farmer. It was harvest time. The threshers were busy in the yard threshing the new wheat. The merchant picked his way carefully through the threshers. But, by chance, the end of one of the flails, lifted in mid-air, caught the corner of his hood. Off it came, and the merchant was exposed to the full view of the threshers. The merchant was thrown into a panic and made a dash for freedom across the threshing floor. But the threshers, completely occupied with their work, kept flailing away, not even noticing the merchant. The merchant in his mad dash was hit on the head time and time again, until he fell unconscious to the floor.

  The magic hood, which had dropped to the ground, was stepped on by this man and that. It was kicked about and crushed by so many feet that it soon became nothing but a dirty red rag, torn to shreds. And finally it disappeared altogether.

  That was the end of the magic hood of the little goblin.

  28 The Father's Legacy

  ONCE there lived an old man who had three sons. In time he grew very, very old and lay on his deathbed. Just before he drew his last breath, he called his sons to his bedside.

  "You have cared for me a long time," he told them. "I have only a few more minutes left to live. I want to give each of you a legacy, but, unlike in the old days, we now live in such poverty that I have nothing of value to leave to you. However, I want to leave at least something for you. When I die, you must must leave this unfortunate house and try to find your own fortunes by yourselves." So saying, the old man bequeathed the eldest brother a stone-mill, To his second son he left a long bamboo cane and a wine jug made from a gourd. And to the youngest son he left a hand-drum.

  Soon, the old man passed away. The three sons wept sorely at their father's death, but they did not forget to give him a decent burial. Then, when the funeral was finished, they left home, each taking with him the legacy left him by his father.

  After a while they came to a place where the road split into three. The three brothers promised each other that they would meet once again at this point on a certain day and then parted. The oldest brother took the road leading to the right, the second brother took the middle road, and the youngest proceeded along the road leading to the left.

  The oldest brother, carrying the heavy stone-mill on his back, walked on and on. As the road started climbing into the mountains, night fell. It was a lonely section of the country, where almost nobody ever came. The brother was hungry. On top of that, a cold wind had started blowing. He did not have the strength nor the courage to continue on.

  "I wonder if there's some place where I can sleep," the brother thought. Just then he spied an old tree standing just ahead. He decided he would spend the night under the tree and carried his heavy stone-mill there. However, he suddenly felt afraid.

  "This is such a lonely place. What if some wild animal comes out at night?" he thought. He then again shouldered the stone-mill, which he had placed on the ground, and climbed with it up into the branches of the tree. There he hung the mill on a stout branch and settled himself to go to sleep.

  It became completely dark. The night hours gradually passed. Tired from his long journey, the man was sound asleep. Suddenly he woke with a start. He could hear the sound of men talking

  nearby. Startled, the brother sat up in the tree and thought:

  "What in the world could he happening in this lonely place, so for from any houses?" He peered down into the darkness and listened closely.

  There, underneath the tree, he could just make out a band of robbers arguing over the sharing of the goods they had stolen that day.


  "Your share is too large!" said one.

  "No, my share is not enough!" said another.

  Then they started to count their money. The older brother was amazed to hear the men counting in large sums: "One thousand ryang. Two thousand ryang."

  The brother suddenly nodded his head as though he had hit upon a good idea. He drew his stone-mill to him and started to grind away. The stones began making a noise like thunder.

  The robbers under the tree were startled out of their wits. "This is terrible! There's not a single cloud in the sky, but it's thundering. The heavens are angry with us. We shall be punished. Let's go! Let's go!"

  So saying, the robbers scattered helter-skelter, leaving behind them the gold and the silver and the treasures that they had stolen. The oldest brother climbed down from his perch in the tree and gathered up the spoils the robbers had left.

  In this way, thanks to the stone-mill, the oldest brother became a rich man overnight and wasted no time in setting himself up in a splendid mansion.

  The second brother walked on and on for days and days. One evening he passed by a lonely cemetery. Night had fallen and it was pitch-black. There wasn't a single star to be seen shining in the sky. The brother sat down beside a gravestone to rest his weary body, and waited for dawn to break.

  It was just midnight when the brother heard me sound of footsteps from the other side of the dark graveyard. The footsteps sounded louder and louder as if the person were coming closer. It was so dark he couldn't make out who it was. He was so scared that he hardly dared to breathe and crouched against the gravestone, making himself as small as he could. The footsteps came right up the place where he leaned close to the stone.

  "Hurry, hurry, Mr. Skeleton!" a voice said. "Get up! We have to do one job before dawn breaks. Tonight we're going to the home of a millionaire and steal his daughter's soul. Don't be such a lie-abed. Hurry and get up!" It was an evil spirit who had come.

  When the brother heard the spirit's voice, he made up his mind in a flash and answered: "I've been awake for some time. Let's go then."

  The evil spirit, hearing a strange voice, said in a puzzled voice: "Say, you sound like a human being. Are you really a skeleton?" "If you don't believe me," the brother said, "then feel me."

  The evil spirit stretched out his hands and groped in the dark. "All right then," the spirit said, "let me feel your face."

  The young man thrust forward the gourd wine jug that his father had given him. The spirit felt the jug and said: "You're right! Your head hasn't a single hair on it. You must be a skeleton. But to make sure let me feel your arm too."

  The second son then put forth the long bamboo cane his father had left him. The spirit felt the bamboo cane and said: "What thin bones you have! How dry they are! A long, long time must have passed since you died." Then the spirit added: "Hurry! Let's go! It will soon be dawn."

  The spirit and the brother walked quickly out of the graveyard and set off straight for the millionaire's mansion. When they got there, the house was in complete darkness. Not a person was awake. The spirit left the younger brother at the gate, saying: "Listen, Mr. Skeleton! You wait here. I'll go in by myself and steal the daughter's soul."

  So saying, the spirit slipped into the darkened mansion. A little while later, the spirit returned.

  "Say, did you get the daughter's soul?" asked the brother.

  "Of course," the spirit replied, "I plucked it right out of her. Here, I have it tightly held in my hand. This is the girl's soul."

  "Why keep it in your hand? Put it in here," the second son said, hurriedly taking his draw-string purse from his belt.

  The spirit put the soul into the purse and said: "Be careful now! Keep the purse tightly closed or the soul will escape."

  The two then left the mansion and headed for the graveyard. Suddenly, away in the distance, they heard the first crowing of a cock.

  The spirit started with surprise when he heard the crowing. "This is bad," he said and ran swiftly away, back to the place where spirits stay in the daytime, when they must not expose themselves.

  When day broke and the red sun showed itself in the east, the brother returned to the gate of the millionaire's mansion. He could hear the sound of people crying. The whole house was in an uproar.

  "Did something happen?" the brother asked innocently.

  One of the servants replied: "The daughter of the house suddenly passed away in her sleep last night. She had never been sick in her life and so, when she died suddenly, everybody was shocked beyond belief."

  "Perhaps I can bring the girl back to life," the brother said in a most innocent manner.

  The servant, on hearing this, ran into the mansion. Soon the rich father came out to the gate and asked the young man in. "If you can really bring my daughter back to life, I will give you anything you desire. Please come have a look at my dead daughter," the father pleaded.

  The old man then lead the second son to an inner room, where the body of the daughter lay. The second son waved everybody away and commanded that no one enter the room. Then he shut the doors and the sliding windows tightly so that none could look in. Then he went and sat beside the girl's body.

  He took his purse out and, placing it close to the girl's nose, unloosened the purse strings.

  The girl, who had not been breathing till then, suddenly turned over in her sleep. "My, I've over-slept," she said and opened her big, beautiful eyes.

  The millionaire's mansion, which up till then had been filled with wailing voices, suddenly resounded with rejoicing. The father thanked the brother with tears of gratitude in his eyes. He bowed to the floor and kissed the young man's feet and said: "You are the savior of my daughter's life. No matter what I give you, I cannot repay you for what you have done. I believe you and my daughter must have been foreordained for each other from a previous life. I hope you will not take offense, but please take my daughter to be your wife."

  The second son from that day on lived in the millionaire's mansion, as requested by the rich father. On an auspicious day picked by the soothsayers, the young man and the beautiful daughter were married. No man could be more fortunate than the second son, for not only did he win a beauteous and virtuous wife but he also received half the millionaire's wealth.

  Thanks to his father's legacy, the second son was thus elevated in one day from poverty to wealth.

  Meanwhile, what had happened to the youngest son?

  Carrying the hand-drum left to him by his father, this brother walked on down the road leading to the left. By nature he was a carefree, happy-go-lucky man. He did not feel at all lonely, separated from his brothers. He travelled on and on for many, many days, until finally he saw in the distance a village set beside a beautiful forest.

  His travels had not been in the least easy, but when he saw the beautiful scenery, he felt a strange feeling of elation. The brother started humming a song all to himself as he passed along a lonely path leading through the fields toward the village. He took down his hand-drum and began beating it in time to the tune he was humming. Then, caught in the rhythm of the drum he himself was beating, the young man started singing a song at the top of his voice as he walked on.

  Suddenly, there appeared from the woods a large yellow animal which seemed to jog along in time to the song the youngest brother was singing. The young man looked closely, and, to his surprise, he saw that it was a huge tiger. Of course the young man was scared, but he kept right on singing and beating his drum. Soon, his fear disappeared as he watched the amusing way the tiger danced. The young man beat even more loudly on his drum. The tiger seemed overjoyed. It lifted its front paws off the ground and came dancing upright after the brother. The young man kept right on singing and beating away. The tiger kept following him, dancing to the beat of the drum. On and on the two danced, drawing closer and closer to the mountain village.

  When the villagers saw the huge tiger dancing behind the young man, they all said: "This is a wonderful spectacle, the like of which
we have never seen." And, one and all, they threw money at the young man.

  The young man saw what was happening, and he added a new verse to his song:

  Come everbody, come one and all,

  Listen and heed to this my call.

  Come see a tiger dance and prance-

  This is for you a lifetime's chancel

  After that, everywhere the young man went with his tiger great crowds gathered to see the marvellous sight of the dancing beast, and money poured into the young man's pockets.

  Eventually the story of the young man reached the ears of the king himself. The king said: "I must see, at least once, a tiger dancing to music. Go and bring the young man here."

  The young man was led into the presence of the king, still playing his drum and still singing, with the tiger, of course, following him. When the king actually saw the dancing tiger, which he had only heard about till then, he could not help wanting the animal for himself.

  "I shall pay you any amount you name," the king said to the young man. "Sell me that animal and drum."

  "No," the youngest brother replied, "this is a treasure that has been handed down to me by my ancestors. No matter how much money you pay me, I cannot part with this my drum. And without it the tiger won't dance."

  In this way the young man declined the king's

  growing offers many, many times. But, after all, a king is a king, and in the end the young man could not keep on refusing. So he finally agreed to sell the tiger and the hand-drum for the princely sum of ten thousand ryang.

  Thus the youngest son also came into great wealth, thanks to his father's dying gift.

  On the day the three brothers had promised to meet, they gathered once again at the fork of the three roads. They told each other of their hardships and of the wealth they had achieved. When each had told his story, the three brothers praised their father for the precious legacies he had left them. Each was now so wealthy that he had no reason to envy his brothers, and they lived on in happy fraternity for many, many years.