Prince Sandalwood, the Father of Korea

Four little folks lived in the home of Mr. Kim, two girls and two boys.

Their names were Peach Blossom and Pearl, Eight-fold Strength and

Dragon. Dragon was the oldest, a boy. Grandma Kim was very fond of

telling them stories about the heroes and fairies of their beautiful

country.

One evening when Papa Kim came home from his office in the Government

buildings, he carried two little books in his hand, which he handed

over to Grandma. One was a little almanac looking in its bright cover

of red, green and blue as gay as the piles of cakes and confectionery

made when people get married; for every one knows how rich in colors

are pastry and sweets for the bride’s friends at a Korean wedding

party.

The second little book contained the direction sent out by the Royal

Minister of Ceremonies for the celebration of the festival in honor of

the Ancestor-Prince, Old Sandalwood, the Father of Korea. Twice a year

in Ping Yang City they made offerings of meat and other food in his

honor, but always uncooked.

“Who was old Sandalwood?” asked Peach Blossom, the older of the little

girls.

“What did he do?” asked Yongi (Dragon), the older boy.

“Let me tell you,” said Grandma, as they cuddled together round her on

the oiled-paper carpet over the main flue at the end of the room where

it was warmest; for it was early in December and the wind was roaring

outside.

“Now I shall tell you, also, why the bear is good and the tiger bad,”

said Grandma. “Well, to begin——

“Long, long ago, before there were any refined people in the Land of

Dawn, and no men but rude savages, a bear and a tiger met together. It

was on the southern slope of Old Whitehead Mountain in the forest.

These wild animals were not satisfied with the kind of human beings

already on the earth, and they wanted better ones. They thought that if

they could become human they would be able to improve upon the quality.

So these patriotic beasts, the bear and the tiger, agreed to go before

Hananim, the Great One of Heaven and Earth, and ask him to change at

once their form and nature; or, at least, tell them how it could be

done.

“But where to find Him—that was the question. So they put their heads

down in token of politeness, stretched out their paws and waited a long

while, hoping to get light on the subject.

“Then a Voice spoke out saying, ‘Eat a bunch of garlic and stay in a

cave for twenty-one days. If you do, you will become human.’

“So into the dark cave they crawled, chewed their garlic and went to

sleep.

“It was cold and gloomy in the cave and with nothing to hunt or eat,

the tiger got tired. Day after day he moped, snarled, growled and

behaved rudely to his companion. But the bear bore the tiger’s insults.

“Finally on the eleventh day, the tiger, seeing no signs of losing his

stripes or of shedding his hair, claws or tail, and with no prospect of

fingers or toes in view, concluded to give up trying to become a man.

He bounded out of the cave and at once went hunting in the woods, going

back to his old life.

“But the bear, patiently sucking her paw, waited till the twenty-one

days had passed. Then her hairy hide and claws dropped off, like an

overcoat. Her nose and ears suddenly shortened and she stood upright—a

perfect woman.

“Walking out of the cave the new creature sat beside a brook, and in

the pure water beheld how lovely she was. There she waited to see what

would take place next.

“About this time while these things were going on down in the world

matters of interest were happening in the skies. Whanung, the Son of

the Great One in the Heavens, asked his father to give him an earthly

kingdom to rule over. Pleased with his request, the Lord of Heaven

decided to present his son with the Land of the Dragon’s Back, which

men called Korea.

“Now as everybody knows, this country of ours, the Everlasting Great

Land of the Dayspring, rose up on the first morning of creation out of

the sea, in the form of a dragon. His spine, loins and tail form the

great range of mountains that makes the backbone of our beautiful

country, while his head rises skyward in the eternal White Mountain in

the North. On its summit amid the snow and ice lies the blue lake of

pure water, from which flow out our boundary rivers.”

“What is the name of this lake?” asked Yongi the boy.

“The Dragon’s Pool,” said Grandma Kim, “and during one whole night,

ever so long ago, the dragon breathed hard and long until its breath

filled the heavens with clouds. This was the way that the Great One in

the Skies prepared the way for his son’s coming to earth.

“People thought there was an earthquake, but when they woke up in the

morning and looked up to the grand mountain, so gloriously white, they

saw the cloud rising far up in the sky. As the bright sun shone upon

it, the cloud turned into pink, red, yellow and the whole eastern sky

looked so lovely that our country then received its name—the Land of

Morning Radiance.

“Down out of his cloud of many colors, and borne on the wind, Whanung,

the Heavenly Prince, descended first to the mountain top, and then to

the lower earth. When he entered the great forest he found a beautiful

woman sitting by the brookside. It was the bear that had been

transformed into lovely human shape and nature.

“The Heavenly Prince was delighted. He chose her as his bride and, by

and by, a little baby boy was born.

“The mother made for her son a cradle of soft moss and reared her child

in the forest.

“Now the people who dwelt at the foot of the mountain were in those

days very rude and simple. They wore no hats, had no white clothes,

lived in huts, and did not know how to warm their houses with flues

running under the floors, nor had they any books or writings. Their

sacred place was under a sandalwood tree, on a small mountain named

Tabak, in Ping Yang province.

“They had seen the cloud rising from the Dragon’s Pool so rich in

colors, and as they looked they saw it move southward and nearer to

them, until it stood over the sacred sandalwood tree; when out stepped

a white-robed being, and descending through the air alighted in the

forest and on the tree.

“Oh, how beautiful this spirit looked against the blue sky! Yet the

tree was far away and long was the journey to it.

“‘Let us all go to the sacred tree,’ said the leader of the people. So

together they hied over hill and valley until they reached the holy

ground and ranged themselves in circles about it.

“A lovely sight greeted their eyes. There sat under the tree a youth of

grand appearance, arrayed in princely dress. Though young looking and

rosy in face, his countenance was august and majestic. Despite his

youth, he was wise and venerable.

“‘I have come from my ancestors in Heaven to rule over you, my

children,’ he said, looking at them most kindly.

“At once the people fell on their knees and all bent reverently,

shouting:

“‘Thou art our king, we acknowledge thee, and will loyally obey only

thee.’

“Seeing that they wanted to know what he could tell them, he began to

instruct them, even before he gave them laws and rules and taught them

how to improve their houses. He told them stories. The first one

explained to them why it was that the bear is good and the tiger bad.

“The people wondered at his wisdom, and henceforth the tiger was hated,

while people began to like the bear more and more.

“‘What name shall we give our King, so that we may properly address

him?’ asked the people of their elders. ‘It is right that we should

call him after the place in which we saw him, under our holy tree. Let

his title, therefore, be the August and Venerable Sandalwood.’ So they

saluted him thus and he accepted the honor.

“Seeing that the people were rough and unkempt, Prince Sandalwood

showed them how to tie up and dress their hair. He ordained that men

should wear their long locks in the form of a topknot. Boys must braid

their hair and let it hang down over their backs. No boy could be

called a man, until he married a wife. Then he could twist his hair

into a knot, put on a hat, have a head-dress like an adult and wear a

long white coat.

“As for the women, they must plait their tresses and wear them plainly

at their neck, except at marriage, or on great occasions of ceremony.

Then they might pile up their hair like a pagoda and use long hairpins,

jewels, silk and flowers.

“Thus our Korean civilization was begun, and to this day the law of the

hat and hair distinguishes us above all people,” said Grandma. “We

still honor the August and Venerable Prince Sandalwood. Now,

good-night, my darlings.”