Eerie Tales from Old Korea

by Brother Anthony of Taizé

A sharer in the joys of the fairies he had actually become, and a year or so passed in such delight as no words can ever describe.

  One day his wife said to him, “Would you like to enter into the inner enclosure and see as the fairies see?”

  He replied, “Gladly would I.”

  She then led him into a special park where there were lovely walks, surrounded by green hills. As they advanced there were charming views, with springs of water and sparkling cascades. The scene grew gradually more entrancing, with jeweled flowers and scintillating spray, lovely birds and animals disporting themselves. Once entering here, a man would never again think of earth as a place to return to.

  After seeing this, he ascended the highest peak of all, which was like a tower of many stories. Before him lay a wide stretch of sea, with islands of the blessed standing out of the water and long stretches of pleasant land in view. His wife showed them all to him, pointing out this and that. They seemed filled with golden palaces and surrounded with a halo of light. They were peopled with happy souls, some riding on cranes, some on the phoenix, some on the unicorn; some were sitting on the clouds, some sailing by on the wind, some walking on the air, some gliding gently up the streams, some descending from above, some ascending, some moving west, some north, some gathering in groups. Flutes and harps sounded sweetly. So many and so startling were the things seen that he could never tell the tale of them. After the day had passed, they returned.

  Thus was their joy unbroken, and when two years had gone by she bore him two sons.

  Time moved on when one day, unexpectedly, as he was seated with his wife, he began to cry and tears soiled his face. She asked in amazement for the cause of it. “I was thinking,” said he, “of how a plain countryman living in poverty had thus become the son-in-law of the king of the genii. But in my home is my poor old mother, whom I have not seen for these years; I would so like to see her that my tears flow.”

  The wife laughed, and said, “Would you really like to see her? Then go, but do not cry.” She told her father that her husband would like to go and see his mother. The master called him and gave his permission. The son thought, of course, that he would call many servants and send him in state, but it was not so. His wife gave him one little bundle and that was all; so he said good-bye to his father-in-law, whose parting word was, “Go now and see your mother, and in a little I shall call for you again.”

  He sent with him one servant, and so he passed out through the main gateway. There he saw a poor thin horse with a worn rag of a saddle on his back. He looked carefully and found that they were the dead horse and the dead servant, whom he had lost, restored to him. He gave a start and asked, “How did you come here?”

  The servant answered, “I was coming with you on the road when someone caught me away and brought me here. I did not know the reason, but I have been here for a long time.”

  The man, in great fear, fastened on his bundle and started on his journey. The genie servant brought up the rear, but after a short distance the world of wonder had become transformed into the old weary world again. Here it was with its fogs, thorn, and precipice. He looked off toward the world of the genii, and it was but a dream. So overcome was he by his feelings that he broke down and cried.

  The genie servant said to him when he saw him weeping, “You have been for several years in the abode of the immortals, but you have not yet attained thereto, for you have not yet forgotten the seven things of earth: anger, sorrow, fear, ambition, hate, and selfishness.** If you get rid of these, there will be no tears for you.” On hearing this he stopped his crying, wiped his cheeks, and asked pardon.

  When he had gone a mile farther, he found himself on the main road. The servant said to him, “You know the way from this point on, so I shall go back,” and thus at last the young man reached his home.

  He found there an exorcising ceremony in progress. Shamans and spirit worshippers had been called and were saying their prayers. The family, seeing the young man come home thus, were all aghast. “It is his ghost,” said they. However, they saw in a little that it was really he himself. The mother asked why he had not come home in all that time. She being a very violent woman in disposition, he did not dare to tell her the truth, so he made up something else. The day of his return was the anniversary of his supposed death, and so they had called the shamans for a prayer ceremony. Here he opened the bundle that his wife had given him and found four suits of clothes, one for each season.

  About a year after his return home, the mother, seeing him alone, made application for the daughter of one of the village literati. The man, being timid by nature and afraid of offending his mother, did not dare to refuse and was therefore married, but there was no joy in it, and the two never looked at each other.

  The young man had a friend whom he had known intimately from childhood. After his return, the friend came to see him frequently, and they used to spend the nights talking together. In their talks the friend inquired why in all these years he had never come home. The young man then told him what had befallen him in the land of the genii, and how he had been there and had been married. The friend looked at him in wonder, for he seemed just as he had remembered him except in the matter of clothing. This, he found on examination, was of very strange material, neither grass cloth, silk, nor cotton, but different from them all, and yet warm and comfortable. When spring came, the spring clothes sufficed, when summer came, those for summer, and for autumn and winter each special suit. They were never washed and yet never became soiled; they never wore out and always looked fresh and new. The friend was greatly astonished.

  Some three years passed when one day there came once more a servant from the master of the genii, bringing his two sons. There were also letters that said, “Next year the place where you dwell will be destroyed and all the people will become ‘fish and meat’ for the enemy, therefore follow this messenger and come, all of you.”

  He told his friend of this and showed him his two sons. The friend, when he saw these children that looked like silk and jade, confessed the matter to the mother also. She, too, gladly agreed, and so they sold out, had a great feast for all the people of the town, and then bade farewell. This was the year 1635. They left and were never heard of again. The year following was the Manchu invasion, when the village where the young man had lived was all destroyed. To this day young and old in Gapyeong tell this story.

  _______________

  * A unit of distance. One li is approximately 0.393 km.

  ** The original translation was also missing one of the seven.

  THE SNAKE’S REVENGE

  There lived in ancient days an archer whose home was near the Water Gate of Seoul. He was a man of great strength and famous for his valor.

  Water Gate has reference to a hole under the city wall by which the waters of the Grand Canal find their exit. In it are iron pickets to prevent people’s entering or departing by that way.

  On a certain afternoon when this military officer was taking a walk, a great snake was seen making its way by means of the Water Gate. The snake’s head had already passed between the bars, but its body, being larger, could not get through, so there it was held fast. The soldier drew an arrow and, fitting it into the string, shot the snake in the head. Its head being fatally injured, the creature died. The archer then drew it out, pounded it into a pulp, and left it.

  A little time later the man’s wife conceived and bore a son. From the first the child was afraid of its father, and when it saw him it used to cry and seem greatly frightened. As it grew, it hated the sight of its father more and more. The man became suspicious of this, and so, instead of loving his son, he grew to dislike him.

  On a certain day, when there were just the two of them in the room, the officer lay down to have a midday siesta, covering his face with his sleeve, but all the while keeping his eye on the boy to see what he would do. The child glared at his father and, thinking him asleep, got a knife and made a thrust at him. The man jumped, grabbed the kn
ife, and then with a club gave the boy a blow that left him dead on the spot. He pounded him into a pulp, left him, and went away. The mother, however, in tears, covered the little form with a quilt and prepared for its burial. In a little the quilt began to move, and she, in alarm, raised it to see what had happened, when lo! beneath it the child was gone and there lay coiled a huge snake instead. The mother jumped back in fear, left the room, and did not again enter.

  When evening came, the husband returned and heard the dreadful story from his wife. He went in and looked, and saw it had metamorphosed into a huge snake. On the head of it was the scar of the arrow that he had shot. He said to the snake, “You and I were originally not enemies, I therefore did wrong in shooting you as I did, but your intention to take revenge through becoming my son was a horrible deed. Such a thing as this is proof that my suspicions of you were right and just. You became my son in order to kill me, your father; why, therefore, should I not in my turn kill you? If you attempt it again, it will certainly end in my taking your life. You have already had your revenge, and have once more transmigrated into your original shape; let us drop the past and be friends from now on. What do you say?”

  He repeated this over and urged his proposals, while the snake, with bowed head, seemed to listen intently. He then opened the door and said, “Now you may go as you please.” The snake then departed, making straight for the Water Gate, and passed out between the bars. It did not again appear.

  THE BRAVE MAGISTRATE

  In olden times in one of the counties of North Hamgyeong-do there was an evil-smelling goblin that caused great destruction to life. Successive magistrates appeared, but in ten days or so after arrival, in each case they died in great agony, so that no man wished to have the billet or anything to do with the place. A hundred or more were asked to take the post, but they all refused. At last, one brave soldier, who was without any influence socially or politically, accepted. He was a courageous man, strong and fearless. He thought, “Even though there is a devil there, all men will not die, surely. I shall make a trial of him.” So he said his farewell and entered on his office. He found himself alone in the yamen, as all others had taken flight. He constantly carried a long knife at his belt and went thus armed, for he noticed from the first day a fishy, stinking odor that grew gradually more and more marked.

  After five or six days he took note, too, that what looked like a mist would frequently make its entry by the outer gate, and from this mist came this stinking smell. Daily it grew more and more annoying, so that he could not stand it longer. In ten days or so, when the time arrived for him to die, the yamen-runners and servants, who had returned, again ran away. The magistrate kept a jar of whisky by his side, from which he drank frequently to fortify his soul. On this day he grew very drunk, and thus waited. At last he saw something coming through the main gateway that seemed wrapped in fog, three or four embraces in waist size and fifteen feet or so high. There was no head to it, nor were body or arms visible. Only on the top were two dreadful eyes rolling wildly. The magistrate jumped up at once, rushed toward it, gave a great shout, and struck it with his sword. When he gave it the blow, there was the sound of thunder, and the whole thing dissipated. Also, the foul smell that accompanied it disappeared at once.

  The magistrate then, in a fit of intoxication, fell prone. The retainers, all thinking him dead, gathered in the courtyard to prepare for his burial. They saw him fallen to the earth, but they remarked that the bodies of others who had died from this evil had all been left on the veranda, but his was in the lower court. They raised him up in order to prepare him for burial when, suddenly, he came to life, looked at them in anger, and asked what they meant. Fear and amazement possessed them. From that time on there was no more smell.

  THE KING OF HELL

  In Yeonan County, Hwanghae-do, there was a certain literary graduate whose name I have forgotten. He fell ill one day and remained in his room, leaning helplessly against his armrest. Suddenly, several spirit soldiers appeared to him, saying, “The Governor of the lower hell has ordered your arrest,” so they bound him with a chain about his neck and led him away. They journeyed for many hundreds of miles and at last reached a place that had a very high wall. The spirits then took him within the walls, and they went on for a long distance.

  There was within this enclosure a great structure whose height reached to heaven. They arrived at the gate, and the spirits who had him in hand led him in, and when they entered the inner courtyard, they laid him down on his face.

  Glancing up, he saw what looked like a king seated on a throne; grouped about him on each side were attendant officers. There were also scores of secretaries and soldiers going and coming on pressing errands. The King’s appearance was most terrible, and his commands such as to fill one with awe. The graduate felt the perspiration break out on his back, and he dared not look up. In a little, a secretary came forward and stood in front of the raised dais to transmit commands from the King, who had asked, “Where do you come from? What is your name? How old are you? What do you do for a living? Tell me the truth now, and no dissembling.”

  The scholar, frightened to death, replied, “My clan name is so-and-so, and my given name is so and-so. I am so old, and I have lived for several generations at Yeonan, Hwanghae-do. I am stupid and ill-equipped by nature so have not done anything special. I have heard all my life that if you say your beads with love and pity in your heart, you will escape hell, and so have given my time to calling on the Buddha and dispensing alms.”

  The secretary, hearing this, went at once and reported it to the King. After some time he came back with a message, saying, “Come up closer to the steps, for you are not the person intended. It happens that you bear the same name and you have thus been wrongly arrested. You may go now.”

  The scholar joined his hands and made a deep bow. Again the secretary transmitted a message from the King, saying, “My house, when on earth, was in such a place in such and such a ward of Seoul. When you go back I want to send a message by you. My coming here is long, and the outer coat I wear is worn to shreds. Ask my people to send me a new outercoat. If you do so, I shall be greatly obliged, so see that you do not forget.”

  The scholar said, “Your Majesty’s message given me thus direct I shall pass on without fail, but the ways of the two worlds, the dark world and the light, are so different that when I give the message the hearers will say I am talking nonsense. True, I’ll give it just as you have commanded, but what about it if they refuse to listen? I ought to have some evidence as proof to help me out.”

  The King made answer, “Your words are true, very true. This will help you: When I was on earth,” said he, “one of my head buttons that I wore had a broken edge, and I hid it in the third volume of the Book of History. I alone know of it, no one else in the world. If you give this as a proof, they will listen.”

  The scholar replied, “That will be satisfactory, but again, how shall I do in case they make the new coat?”

  The reply was, “Prepare a sacrifice, offer the coat by fire, and it will reach me.”

  He then bade good-bye, and the King sent with him two soldier guards. He asked the soldiers, as they came out, who the one seated on the throne was. “He is the King of Hades,” said they. “His surname is Pak and his given name is U.”

  They arrived at the bank of a river, and the two soldiers pushed him into the water. He awoke with a start and found that he had been dead for three days.

  When he recovered from his sickness, he came up to Seoul, searched out the house indicated, and made careful inquiry as to the name, finding that it was no other than Pak U. Pak U had two sons, who at that time had graduated and were holding office. The graduate wanted to see the sons of this King of Hades, but the gatekeeper would not let him in. Therefore he stood before the red gate waiting helplessly till the sun went down. Then came out from the inner quarters of the house an old servant, to whom he earnestly made petition that he might see the master. On being thus reques
ted, the servant returned and reported it to the master, who, a little later, ordered him in. On entering, he saw two gentlemen who seemed to be chiefs. They had him sit down and then questioned him as to who he was and what he had to say.

  He replied, “I am a student living in Yeonan County, Hwanghae-do. On such and such a day I died and went into the other world, where your honorable father gave me such and such a commission.”

  The two listened for a little and then, without waiting to hear all that he had to say, grew very angry and began to scold him, saying, “How dare such a scarecrow as you come into our house and say such things as these? This is stuff and nonsense that you talk. Pitch him out,” they shouted to the servants.

  He, however, called back saying, “I have a proof; listen. If it fails, why then, pitch me out.”

  One of the two said, “What possible proof can you have?” Then the scholar told, with great exactness and care, the story of the head button.

  The two, in astonishment over this, had the book taken down and examined, and sure enough in Vol. III of the Book of History was the button referred to. Not a single particular had failed. It proved to be a button that they had missed after the death of their father, and that they had searched for in vain.

  Accepting the message now as true, they all entered upon a period of mourning. The women of the family also called in the scholar and asked him specially of what he had seen. So they made the outercoat, chose a day, and offered it by fire before the ancestral altar. Three days after the sacrifice the scholar dreamed, and the family of Pak dreamed too, that the King of Hades had come and given to each one of them his thanks for the coat. They long kept the scholar at their home, treating him with great respect, and became his firm friends for ever after.

  HONG’S EXPERIENCES

  IN HADES