Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/388

 but not all. It was doubtless in the Koryu dynasty, the palmy days of Buddhism, that money was forthcoming to carry out these costly works. The great statue in the town of Eunjin stands seventy feet high or more, and the great slab of stone on its head measures some twelve feet in length. Between Seoul and Songdo two great rock figures look down upon the traveller from the heights. One is a male figure and the other a female, and whether they are distinctly Buddhistic or not has never been settled. Korean fancy weaves the most curious stories about these images. The ones last referred to are said to have been carved by a wealthy gentleman of the neighbourhood who was so troubled by beggars, whose solicitations he had not the heart to repulse, that he begged someone to tell him how he could secure peace. An aged stranger passing by told him if he would carve the two rocks, that stood up like needles near his house, into the shape of a man and a woman, he would never be troubled by beggars again. He hastened to comply, but before he had finished he found that his own wealth was exhausted, and he discovered too late that this was the reason why beggars would trouble him no more. A still more romantic tale is told of a great miry ok in the south. A needy but ambitious gentleman was tramping up to Seoul to take the national examination. He found this great image in the heart of a forest, and from a fissure in its head he perceived a pear-tree to be growing. On the tree hung a pear as large as a man's head. If he could secure it and take it as a gift to the King, his fortune would be made. He climbed up the lofty image by means of the bushes and vines that grew about it until he reached the lips, but there was no way to get over the huge nose that hung out over him. He determined to crawl up one of the nostrils, hoping to find a way through to the top; so he wormed his way up with knees and elbows till he reached the point where the nostril contracts. At this instant he was terrified by a great shaking of the image, and an instant later a howling blast came down the passage and swept him out, as he confidently expected, to his doom. The