Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/493

 taken place; a white fox has crossed the road in front of the King, insects have fallen in showers, thunder has been heard in winter, fruit trees have blossomed late in the fall, a white bow has pierced the sun, red snow has fallen, wailing sounds have proceeded from the royal tombs, a city or temple gate has been blown down, clouds or frogs have fought with each other. All these and many more are met with in Korean legend, and every one of them has meant death or destruction or some other dire calamity. It is interesting to note how closely some of these correspond to the signs which were dreaded by the ancient Romans. Among the signs which predict good fortune, the most prominent are the meeting with a white deer, the finding of a white pheasant or a white crow, or the discovery of a stem of barley with two stalks. But many happy events have been foretold by dreams. The founder of the present dynasty is said to have dreamed that he saw a sheep running over the hills, and as it ran its horns and tail dropped off. This meant that the two upper strokes and the lower stroke of the Chinese character for sheep had been taken away, leaving the character for king. Yi Sun-sin, who saved Korea in 1592, had a dream in which he saw himself defending a tree which vandals were attempting to cut down. A maiden dreamed that she saw a dragon enter her father's ink-water bottle. When she awoke she took the bottle and hid it until in after years her own son was ready to go up to Seoul and take the examinations. She gave it to him, and promised that the dragon would help him take his degree. It did, and he became Prime Minister.

Prophecy plays an important part in Korean legendary lore. Of course, it is almost all ex post facto prophecy, but the Koreans still cling to it. Most of the leading events in Korean history since the tenth century are said to have been foretold at some earlier time. There does not seem to have been any prophetic office, but now and again a monk or a scholar has been moved to tell his vision of the future. The monk Muhak objected to the site upon which it was proposed to build the