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 represented by lanterns massed together. In this monastery there was a pagoda on which one hundred and forty pounds of gold and four hundred and twenty-seven pounds of silver were lavished. This almost rivals the luxury of decadent Rome.

The next century or more passes without event of special note, except the publication of the great historical work, " History of the Three Kingdoms." These were Silla, Pakche and Koguryu. The great scholar Kim Pu-sik collected all the data and reduced it to historical form, and that book has been the basis of every history of ancient Korea from that day to this.

With the opening of the thirteenth century we come to the beginning of the Mongol power, and it was in 1231 that the Golden Horde of Genghis Khan screamed their insulting summons across the Yalu. Some attempt was made to stop this mighty avalanche of men, but Koryu's strength was not what it had been; luxury had bitten too deep. The Mongols swept southward to the capital. The craven King fled to the island of Kang-wha in the mouth of the Han River, and was there able to defy the invaders ; for it is a curious fact, and one well worth noting, that though that island is separated from the mainland only by an estuary half a mile wide, the Mongols never succeeded in crossing to it. They were wholly unacquainted with boats or with sea fighting, and even this narrow tide-way daunted them. This island of Kang-wha has the distinction of being the only spot of land on the mainland of eastern Asia (for it was practically the mainland) that the Mongols never took by force of arms. They swept southward over the rest of the peninsula, ravaging everywhere, and committing the utmost excesses. Neither man, woman nor child was secure. Never before had Korea seen such devastation, and she never has seen such since. It is said, and probably with some truth, that half the entire population fled to the islands of the archipelago, and left the land a wilderness. Invasion followed invasion, and Koryu was swept as by recurring waves until the devastation was complete.