Korea is called the Land of the Plum Blossom, but in winter the rivers
freeze over. Then the men cut through the ice which is often several
feet thick, to catch with their fishing lines and hooks the fish that
swim in the water beneath. Yet they are very glad to welcome any sign
of the coming spring, and they watch eagerly for the pussy willows to
show themselves.
Now there was a farmer who lived in Nai-po, which is the grain garden
of the Korean peninsula, who wanted a little daughter, though other
parents cared more for sons.
One day farmer Pak, for that was his name, discovered a pussy willow
which seemed to him, after the long winter, like a light shining in a
dark place. He plucked it and carried proudly home this branch full of
fuzzy little buds. This was a sign of his happiness at the return of
spring. He was tired of ice and snow and now he knew that soon the
gloomy hills would burst into a glory of bright colors from the
blooming flowers, and look like an army with flags.
That same day his prayers were answered and a little girl was born into
his home. Giving the pussy willow to his wife, he said: “We shall name
our baby Cat-kin, that is Little Puss.”
Cat-kin never saw a cradle, for the Korean mothers carry their babies
on their backs. She was soon out of infancy, and then it was not long
before she was standing up and toddling about and playing with her
doggie and pet bull. These little pets on four legs usually take the
place of kittens in a country home in Korea, for the cats are wild and
do not allow children to fondle them.
Long before she was a dozen years old, Cat-kin became very fond of
fairy stories, of which Korea has a great many, besides thousands of
tales of wonderful people and animals and what happened to them. She
often looked up towards the high hills and distant mountains, where she
thought the fairies, dragons, ogres and tigers lived. Here also dwelt
the sen-nin or mountain spirits, wise and good, of whom the old people
talked and the soldiers painted on their banners when they went to war.
When about eight years old, Cat-kin wanted very much to walk up towards
the north star, which her father showed her shining in the heavens. He
had once traveled up into one of the Northern provinces, where during
the daytime he could see afar off the great snow-white mass of the Ever
White Mountain rising up to meet the azure sky. There, at the top he
had heard, lay the Dragon Prince’s Pool, out of which flowed the two
rivers that made Korea an island. One was named the Tumen and the other
the Yalu, after the beautiful green and blue sheen on the feathers of a
drake’s back, so richly colored were its shining waters. When her
father told of his travels, Cat-kin also longed to go north to get to
the very top and touch the sky.
But this she knew she could not do, even if she had had long legs and
were as strong as a man, for the tigers were very numerous and always
roaming about. These yellow and black striped brutes were man-eaters.
They loved nothing better for a good dinner than a young girl.
So as she did not know any way of getting to the top of the Ever White
Mountain and of seeing the deep blue waters of the Pool, except by
riding on the back of a dragon, which she sometimes dreamed of, she
kept waiting and waiting for one of these flying creatures to come, yet
it never came.
Cat-kin was bound to have the fairies visit her, if possible. So one
day, sitting under a persimmon tree and reading a story, she held the
book in one hand, while she struck the ground several times, saying
earnestly:
“Earth-spirit, earth-spirit, come to me; come up and see me.”
All of a sudden the air seemed heavy with sweet perfume, and a silver
mist like a cloud spread over her house and garden. Then a bright
dazzling light flooded everything and there stood before her a
glistening chariot, made of blue jade with golden wheels. It was drawn
by milk-white horses and on a seat of shining silver sat the Western
Heavenly Queen Mother herself.
Attendant upon the Mother Queen were thousands of the most beautiful
maidens, who were all dressed in resplendent robes. They wore amber
ornaments, and silver girdles, and necklaces of precious stones and
silken robes with many tassels. Their feet were shod with gold
embroidered velvet slippers, and on their heads were caps of gold
studded with glittering gems. Cat-kin could hardly count the rich
ornaments, necklaces, breast chains and the jade wands, like sceptres,
which they held in their hands. These were shaped like lotus flowers.
The faces of all these maidens were rosy, their eyes sparkled, and all
had small hands and feet.
In a voice of great sweetness that sounded like music the Heavenly
Queen Mother looked at Cat-kin and spoke to her, saying:
“Come forward, little maid, fear not. I shall take you with me to my
palace, in the Island of Gems and give you all you want, besides
showering blessings on your people, if you will come.”
Cat-kin did not feel at all timid or frightened, but came boldly
forward and knelt at the base of the chariot.
The Mother Queen first touched her with her milk-white jade wand, that
was carved like a lotus bud, and made the little girl rise.
In a moment more, a silver chariot, with wheels made of turquoise and
drawn by two young milk-white dragons, wheeled up close to her, and the
attendant lady in golden robes bade her step in.
The dragons were fierce, powerful, fire-breathing creatures, with wide
spreading wings, and their bodies and tails together were of the length
of whales, while their eyes darted fire. Yet Cat-kin was not at all
afraid, and thought it was great fun. Then up through and far above the
clouds the host of bright beings flew. They followed the Queen Mother’s
chariot until, far away, they poised in mid-sky. Cat-kin was then told
to look over the side of the chariot to the earth and ocean, miles and
miles below. She was asked if she could recognize her father’s cottage,
but she could not. The whole village looked only like a grey mass of
thatched roofs, and she could pick out only the temple.
There, spread out, was the great sea, as blue as a sapphire, and in
places deep green, like an emerald, but she could see no ships nor any
coast or shores, nor any ranges of mountains, nor signs of the land of
Korea. Nothing but ripples and waves were visible. Yet in the center of
the azure sea was an island. The trees were emeralds and the roofs of
the houses were of gold, and the windows diamonds. These were so full
of light that no lamps were necessary.
Beautiful beings, all maidens, as lovely in garb and face as those who
filled the train of the Queen Mother, walked or played, or sang in the
gardens. Or swam and sported in the sapphire waves, or rowed and sailed
about in boats that seemed as if made of marble, they were so white.
At a signal from the Queen the singing ceased. Then there rose up wave
upon wave of sweetest melody from the players on instruments who were
in the gardens below.
Cat-kin thought she heard at intervals the chorus, sounding out the
words, rising upward like pulses, through the air, “Welcome lovely
mortal! Our Queen invites and we greet thee! Manifold be her gifts to
thee and thine! Come, thou honored among all Korean maidens! Come to us
and join our band and we shall love thee as one of ourselves.”
In the wink of a falcon’s eye—so short a time it seemed—the Mother
Queen and her host descended.
As the chariots touched the island, a bevy of radiant maidens came
forward, some to attend the Queen Mother and some to lead Cat-kin into
her own room in the palace. There the most gorgeous robes were put on
her, beside a cap begemmed with glittering, precious stones of various
colors, and a pair of gold-embroidered velvet slippers.
Cat-kin was surprised when one of the shining maidens set a royal tiara
adorned with five gems upon her brow.
“For me?” she asked in surprise.
“Yes for you, whom the Heavenly Mother Queen would honor.”
“And what do these five gems, jade, crystal, malachite, amber and agate
signify?” asked Cat-kin.
“Ah, that is not for us to tell you, but the Queen Mother ordered
these. Tomorrow she will explain to you the secret of each gem.”
Cat-kin walked about freely, enjoying the lovely sights and sounds. She
also ate with keen appetite and to her full of the delicacies set on
the table before her. Yet never once did she feel sleepy, nor see any
beds, nor hear anyone talk of retiring. She wondered what they meant
when they said “tomorrow”; for she could see no sun or moon or
twilight. However, she did not think long about such things, and by and
by forgot all about them.
When the entire court and all the hosts of the Queen Mother’s
attendants had assembled, Her Majesty’s chamberlain read the
proclamation, which declared that the Queen looked with great favor
upon the Korean people, and had decided to bestow great gifts upon
them. For this purpose, she had selected and brought to her palace the
Korean maid named Cat-kin, to endow them through this, their daughter,
with five precious traits of disposition and character. In token of
gracious thought and tender love, Her Majesty would now present and
explain the meaning of the five precious gems. These were jade,
crystal, malachite, amber, and agate.
Cat-kin kneeled down before the Queen, who placed in Cat-kin’s hands
the shining gems, while an attendant fairy took them from her opened
palm and placed each one of them on vermilion velvet, edged with gold.
Then five maidens stood by, each with a gem laid on a cushion.
After the ceremony of presentation was over, the Queen made a speech,
which told the Korean maiden’s fortune and her future.
Cat-kin would be sent back over the clouds and ocean to the King’s
palace in the capital of her home land, and there be made a princess.
Many nobles and king’s sons from other countries, hearing of her beauty
and her wonderful visit to the Island of Gems would come to pay her
court as suitors. Many would ask for her hand, to be wedded to her; but
she was to marry none but the king’s son, a prince of her own people.
“Take these gems, fair maiden, and bestow their virtues and what they
mean upon your people,” said the Queen. “A thousand years from now—as
men count time—we together will visit Korea again.”
Then both the Queen and Cat-kin, stepping into the silver chariot,
drawn by the fire-breathing dragons, plunged on and mounted up into
space. First they sailed above the clouds and then dipped downwards,
steering to Korea and over the mountains, bearing their precious charge
to the capital. They reached the ground in a cloud and the wheels of
the chariot stood still before the palace gate.
Yet before any mortal eyes could see their full forms, the Queen Mother
and the dragons had disappeared, and Cat-kin stood alone, a resplendent
maiden of dazzling appearance and in the robes given by the Heavenly
Queen Mother, which all recognized at once as coming from the Island of
Gems.
A throng of court ladies and palace attendants and a long line of
nobles and princes were already waiting for the maiden, who they knew
came gift-laden from the Queen Mother, of whom all had heard from
childhood. The five gems were laid, each in a covered casket of
perfumed wood, encrusted with gold on top and inlaid with
mother-of-pearl.
Escorted into the throne room by a bevy of princesses, the Heavenly
Mother’s gifts in the five caskets were reverently placed on silken
fans, spread out on a table having on its top the five cushions of
crimson velvet.
Then, by lot and word of the diviners, the choice of a first drawing
was awarded to a prince of fair face and mien. The other four nobles,
one by one and in turn, approached and each was allowed to choose one
of the caskets, all of which looked alike, and none was to be opened
until the possessor was in his own home.
Now these were the gifts for body and mind, of which the polished gems
were the tokens. According as each prince chose and received, so with
the trait, which each gem signified, would his children and posterity
be endowed. In the course of centuries, these would become the national
features, of twenty millions of Koreans.
One by one the caskets were opened by each prince, and therein he
discovered what was a trait in the character of the Korean people.
These were:
Procrastination—Putting off until tomorrow, or some other time, what
ought to be done today, and keeping back not only one person but the
whole nation.
Hospitality—Always glad to see friends, to entertain people, even
strangers, and to take care of relations, even to the making of one’s
self poor—a habit carried too far as the years and centuries rolled on.
Inexactness—The habit of not usually thinking clearly, counting
correctly, or stating facts precisely, and when telling a story of
“blowing a conch;” that is, of exaggerating.
Love of family—How the mothers and fathers in Korea do love their
children, their kinsfolk and their relatives!
Sense of humor—A Korean can always see the funny side of things. He
loves to joke and he bears his troubles well, because he likes to
smile. As for the girls, they laugh as easily as the rain falls, or the
flowers bloom.
And what the Queen Mother predicted came true. Just as five fingers
make up the hand, so the average people among the Koreans are known by
the five traits, for better or for worse.