Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/490

 sometimes that of a flying man or child. At other times they appear in the shape of fire or lightning, or a crash as of thunder.

Many stories are told of how these tormented spirits have leagued themselves with men, promising that the unholy compact will bring riches and power. This corresponds to the witchcraft of the West. By the aid of these familiar spirits many a deed of darkness is done; but the promises always fail, and the man becomes pinched and pale, and he gradually wastes away. It is only by breaking the compact that he can save himself from disaster. The things the tokgabi dreads the most are silver, a red colour and a tree that has been struck by lightning. Men may break the spelf by hanging about the house cloths dipped in a red dye. This barrier the spirit cannot pass, and after four days of waiting he departs never to come again. His dread of silver reminds us of the superstition in the West, that in order to shoot a ghost one must load the gun with a silver piece as well as the regular charge. If a tokgabi seizes a man, it always lays hold of his top-knot ; for this reason it is that so many Koreans wear a little silver pin in the end of that ornamental member. If a tree is struck by lightning, the boys of the neighbourhood will hasten to secure splinters of the wood to carry in their pouches as a charm against the fiends.

This meddlesome sprite is a sort of Korean Puck, and any casualty whose cause is not patent is laid at his door. One of his favourite pastimes is to bewitch the rice-kettle and make the cover fall in. The cover is a trifle larger than the kettle's mouth, and the trick would seem to be impossible; but if the cover were cold and the kettle made very hot, the expansion of the metal might make even this possible. This may have occurred once or twice in all the centuries, and it is still cited as evidence of the existence of these imps. The tokgabi seldom plays the leading part in a Korean story, but he flits in and out and adds spice to the narrative.

Prominent among the folk-tales are those of the Uncle Remus