Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/494

 first palace at Seoul, and affirmed that if it was built there a great calamity would overtake the country in just two hundred years. His words were unheeded, and just two hundred years later the armies of Hideyoshi landed on the coast of southern Korea. To prove that these prophecies were not all made after the event, the Korean points to those prophecies which have existed for centuries and are as yet unfulfilled. The most striking of these is that the present dynasty will be followed by one that will have its capital at Kye-ryong Mountain in the south. Another affirmed that this dynasty would have great difficulty in passing its five-hundredth anniversary. As that year came just after the China-Japan war, many Koreans watched with the utmost solicitude to see whether the dangerous point would be passed in safety. The latest one to come to light is that, " When white pines grow in Korea, the northern half of the peninsula will go to the Tartar and the southern half to the shrimp." The Koreans interpret the " white pines " to be the telegraph poles, and Tartar to be Russia, and the shrimp to be Japan; for the islands of Japan are noted as being in the shape of a shrimp.

When the monk Tosan in 918 ascended Songak and chose the site for the capital of the Koryu dynasty, he made a mistake, for when he went to take another look in the morning he saw far away to the south the peaks of Samgak Mountains peeping above the nearer range, thus forming the dreaded kyubong, or "spying peak"; and for this reason he said that within five hundred years the dynasty would fall before another whose capital should be at the foot of Samgak. Four hundred and seventy-six years later his word came true.

Another style of legend deals with the supernatural aid that was given in important crises in history. When Chumong fled from home before his brothers and came to an impassable river, the fish came to the surface and formed a solid bridge upon which he crossed to safety. When the capital of Silla was attacked by wild men, strange warriors appeared with ears like