Page:A modern pioneer in Korea-Henry G. Appenzeller-by William Elliot Griffis.djvu/26

 ANY are the names of the rocky ridge, which is set between the Ever White Mountains and the Yellow Sea. Long under the intellectual shadow of China, the Central Empire, Korea called herself The Little Outpost State. In early ages there were the three Han, or states. The fading flower of The Korean "Empire," proclaimed in 1897, was called Tai-Han or the Great Han, and after a troubled life of thirteen years, it withered away, even before it took root. Of many fantastic legends, attempting to account for the origin of the people, one makes the White Cock Forest a favourite term from medieval times. The Buddhists have given names appropriate to the land of the former glories of their church and there are various others bestowed by travellers, which suggest geography, the face of the country, the social life of the people, or describe the last, but now extinct dynasty.

We have thus the Land of Gentle Manners, the Country of the Eight Circuits, or Provinces, the Realm of the Twelve Thousand Serrated Peaks, the Land of the Plum Blossom, and the Country of Kija, the legendary founder of Korean