Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/381

 beam and rings out its summons as deep and clear as the day on which it was cast. In a sense this is the most interesting and remarkable relic in Korea, for it makes us take so many other things for granted. The ability to mine the ore, smelt it, make the mould, cast the bell without a flaw and hang it in its place - this ability, I say, argues a high degree of civilisation. I doubt whether such a work could be accomplished by the Koreans to-day with success.

Another relic of that civilisation is an ancient stone tower some twenty feet high, shaped like a monster bottle. This was the astronomical observatory of ancient Silla, and its shape may perhaps be explained on the theory that it was like a well from whose depths one could look up and see the stars even during the day. Of the great Golden Pagoda, the splendid product of Buddhism in its lusty youth, nothing now remains but the two lower stories. An examination of this wreck, however, will show us many evidences of artistic skill. One of these is seen in the battered bas-reliefs which flank the door. One of these has a halo like one of the old-time Christian saints. The date of this, as of the observatory, must be about 500 A. D.

On the eastern coast of Korea there is a stone slab inscribed with Chinese characters, which was set up by a certain prefect in order to prevent the sea from flooding a wide alluvial plain. It was supposed to have some influence upon the spirit of the sea. A later prefect scoffed at it and threw it down. The very next season a disastrous tidal wave swept over the plain, destroying many lives and ruining an incalculable amount of property. The sacrilegious prefect was driven out, and the stone set up again, since which time there has been no more trouble.

In the far north one can still find remnants of a mighty wall that was built clear across the peninsula, from the Yellow Sea to the Japan Sea, to keep out the wild barbarians which made sudden and sanguinary raids upon the peaceful citizens of Koryu. That was seven or eight centuries ago. All through the country there are scores of walled enclosures on the tops of