Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/378

 have been dug at his command. Koreans affirm that a jar of its waters weighs a pound more than a similar amount of water from any other well in the land. The modern city has no wells at all, because the people have the notion that the city is like a boat, and that to dig a well would scuttle the craft. The illusion is made the more complete by a great stone post set in the bank of the Tadong River above the town, for to this post the boat is supposed to be moored. Near the city is found the grave of Kija with its stone images set about like guardian beasts, and there is a tablet partly defaced which claims to date from that ancient time.

Coming south to the site of the capital of ancient Silla, the modern town of Kyong-ju, we find multiplied relics of the remote past, for even Silla began before the coming of Christ and reached her prime before the days of Constantine the Great. Near this ancient town we find a numerous cluster of huge mounds, each the mausoleum of a King of Silla. They will be found to be several hundred feet in circumference and about seventy-five feet high. If we should dig into one of them, we should probably find the ashes of the dead King flanked on either side by that of a young maiden, who was compelled to drink the bitter cup of death before her time in order to grace the obsequies of a monarch. This we know by inference, for one of the later Kings gave specific orders that at his death no people should be killed. It is recorded that when the Japanese invaded Korea in 1592 they dug open the grave of one of the rulers of Karak, contemporaneous with Silla, and found the bodies of two females lying on either side the King. They appeared to have been embalmed, for we are told that when they were exposed to air they rapidly disintegrated. A few rods outside the modern town is found a pavilion, beneath which hangs one of the largest bells in the world. It was cast over fourteen hundred years ago, before the pride of Silla began to decay. In measurement it equals the great bell in Moscow, but is not so heavy. On the other hand, it still hangs from its great