Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/180

 much in the way of folk-lore that is worthy of attention, especially when the legends are of such a nature as to attract the traveller, and induce him to visit the scenes of the alleged marvels himself. Briefly, the Seven Wonders of Corea are as follow. The first is a certain hot mineral spring near a place called Kin-shan-tao, the healing properties of which are believed to be miraculous. There is no necessity to wait until an angel troubles the water. Its virtues are in constant vigour, and so great are they that they have never failed in efficacy within the memory of man. No matter what disease may afflict the patient, a dip in these healing waters will prove as sure a cure as the bath in Jordan did to leprous Naaman. Therefore, the spring is believed to be divine, and is spoken of accordingly. The second wonder is also connected with water. There are two springs, situated at a considerable distance from each other—in fact, there is almost the breadth of the entire peninsula between them. These have two peculiarities. They are arranged, apparently, on the principle of the "little-man-and-his-wife" of those cottage barometers which are still seen in primitive parts of England. When one is in, the other goes out; or, in plainer words, when one is full, the other is empty; and the Coreans seem to believe that, somewhere deep in the bowels of the earth, there is a mysterious tide, which ebbs and flows with marvellous rapidity at stated intervals of time, filling one spring while it empties the other. But the strangest part of the phenomenon is, that the water is so strongly sweet that whatever is cooked in it, no matter how bad it may be of itself, immediately acquires a most delicious taste. The third is called Cold-wind Cavern. This is a cave