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 jewelled flowers and scintillating
spray, lovely birds and animals disporting themselves. A man once
entering here 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 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 some
one 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, and 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
once 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. Witches 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
witches 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.
In 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, saying, "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 and 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 Ka-pyong tell this story.
Im Bang.