Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/504

 "There cannot be a deep valley without there being a high mountain" means that you cannot get something for nothing. The Koreans better our "Every man's goose is a gander" by saying, "Even the hedgehog says her young are smooth." "Making a mountain of a mole-hill" means to the Korean, "Killing a bullock for a feast when a hen would have sufficed." A frequently observed trait in human nature is touched upon in the saying, "The man who had his face slapped in Tongjagi waits till he gets to Subingo before he makes faces at his insulter"; in other words, he puts some space between before answering. We say that a man must lie upon a bed as he makes it, and in the same way the Korean says that "The man who eats the salt must drink the water." To "build a house beside the main road" is a rather subtle way of saying that "too many cooks spoil the broth," for it means that everyone who passes along will criticise and say, "Why don't you make this part so and that part thus ? " and in this way the builder will at last find that he has made a botch of the whole job. We have an expressive proverb, "Jump from the frying-pan into the fire," but the Korean is abreast of us with his "Cut off a wart and make a tumor." "What looked like blossoms on the dead tree turned out to be only the white mould of decay" conveys the same idea as our reference to a mirage. "You cannot sit in the valley and see the new moon set" means that if we would get the best things we must make an effort. Insincerity is epitomised in the trenchant words, "Honey on the lips, but a sword in the heart." It shows a keen insight into human nature to evolve the proverb, "Never beg from a man who has once been a beggar himself." How often do fashion's votaries in every land illustrate the saying, "He went and caught the dropsy out of envy for the fat man"! The Koreans have gotten rather the better of our proverb, "The pot called the kettle black" by saying, "The aspen blamed the pine for rustling so loudly in the wind," when everyone knows that the least breath of air will set the aspen leaves to quivering. This proverb contains a distinctly poetic touch which is quite