The Brave Magistrate

In olden times in one of the counties of North Ham-kyong Province,

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 odour, 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 verandah, 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.

Im Bang.