Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/375

Rh first king of Silla, the southern kingdom that arose about 200 B. C.

The chiefs of five of the scattered tribes of southern Korea met and decided to form a central government which should cement the tribes into a closer union. But the greatest obstacle was the fact that they could decide upon no one to put upon the throne. They were all too modest. As this question was being anxiously discussed, the attention of the company was drawn toward a neighboring mountain, on whose wooded slope was seen a gleaming object like a star. With one accord they drew near to the mountain, and beheld a white horse seated upon a round, gleaming object. As they approached, the horse with a loud cry, rose into the air and disappeared. There lay the gleaming egg, for egg it was. They reverently picked it up and carried it to the town. As it did not open of itself, they tried to break it with sledges, but it withstood their blows. They desisted, when suddenly of its own accord, the egg split open, disclosing a handsome child. A regency was proclaimed until he should come of age, when he ascended the throne as the first king of Silla.

The third form of hero origin is not so common, but it is one of the most cherished traditions of the people.

In the island of Chay Ju (the modern Quelpaert), when as yet it was only a tangled forest, the ground split open, revealing a fathomless abyss piercing to the very centre of the earth. From this abyss there arose, in slow succession, three sages of venerable appearance. Without a word they struck off through the forest, until they reached the slopes of the lofty Hal La San. Entering a grotto there, they beheld three stone chests. Each man approached his chest and lifted the heavy cover, and to the eyes of each were revealed, a colt, a calf, a kid, a dog, and a woman, besides sundry kinds of seed grain. Each sage took his colt, his calf, his kid, his dog, and his woman, and went forth and made a home for himself.

This tale not only gives the origin of the people of Quelpaert, but it is a commentary on the status of woman in early Korean times.

.—The following stories, read by Mr. Hulbert as illustrations of the other types of tales, have since been