Tales of a Korean Grandmother. Frances Carpenter

Books, paintings, and musical instruments were brought with them, also the precious worms that spin silk. Ki Ja gave his new subjects the Five Laws that taught them their duties to themselves and their fellows.

      "Those were golden days," Halmoni declared, shaking her head so that the silver-and-coral pin in the coil of black hair on her neck gleamed in the lamplight. "Travelers were safe from robbers on the roads. Gates could safely be kept open after nightfall. Everyone was polite and kind to his neighbor. He, it must have been good to live in those times.

      "Ki Ja's tomb could still be pointed out, not far from the Peony Mountain near Pyeng Yang, the capital city that was built by Tan Kun. The pillar of rock to which people declared his first boat was moored and Ki Ja's well still stood, but they, too, were outside the city gates. Pyeng Yang was built in the shape of a boat, so it was said. Now everyone knows a boat will sink if a hole is bored in its bottom. That is why it was forbidden in those early times to dig wells inside this boat city. That is why the people there had to carry all their water such a long way."

      "But what about Chu Mong, the Skillful Archer, Halmoni?" Ok Cha asked. The little girl liked his story best. And as her grandmother told it, Chu Mong's family name also had been Kim.

      "Yé, Chu Mong, like Ki Ja, crossed the Duck Green River beneath the Ever-White Mountains. He, too, brought good ways to our land. From him came its ancient name, so my grandfather always declared. It all happened like this.

      "In very early times, when Korea still was divided into many small kingdoms, there was a certain king to the north who wept because he had no son. One day during a hunt he knelt by a stream in the deep woods and prayed the Jade Emperor of Heaven to send him a son. When he rose to his feet and turned toward his horse, he was startled to see great tears rolling out of the animal's eyes. The horse was pawing and pawing at a huge gray rock at the side of the path. Suddenly the rock moved, and the horse rolled it aside.

      "Beneath that rock, to the King's surprise and delight, there lay a small boy whose skin gleamed like gold. Because of this, and because of the fact that he had been lying under a stone, the King called the child 'Kim Nee Wa,' or 'Golden Toad.' And he cherished this son whom Heaven had sent him in such a strange way.

      "Now it was this same Kim Nee Wa who succeeded his father on the throne of that northern kingdom. And it was in his courts one day that a marvelous happening occurred. One of his wives, sitting by a little stream in the garden, saw a tiny white cloud moving toward her. Gently it floated inside her dress, where it turned into an egg.

      "When the cloud egg was hatched and a fine baby boy was presented to the King, he grew very angry. 'This child is surely the son of a demon!' he cried. 'Throw it among the pigs.'

      "But the fierce boars did not harm the child. They grew gentle as cooing doves, and they blew their warm breath on the baby so that the night air should not harm him.

      "'Throw the demon child to the hunting dogs,' the angry King cried. But again snarling beasts became quiet. The dogs licked the face and hands of the tiny boy and warmed him with their breath.

      "'Put him amid the wild horses,' ordered the King, for he feared this strange child. The wild horses also breathed softly upon the boy, and the mares fed him with their warm milk.

      "'At, it is the will of the Jade Emperor of Heaven that this boy shall live,' the King finally gave in. 'His mother shall bring the child up as our son.'

      "All marveled at the beauty and cleverness of the boy. From his shining face people called him 'Child of the Sun' or 'Brightness of the Morning,' which are just ways of saying 'Light of the East.' Always kind to animals, he had a special gift for handling the horses in the King's stables, and he was made master there.

      "But, above all, people wondered at the boy's skill with the bow and arrow. At your age, Yong Tu, he could bring down a flying swallow. At fifteen he could slay a swift-running deer or pierce the eye of a wild goose flying high in the clouds. His like was not known on all the eight coasts. More often he was called 'Chu Along,' or 'Skillful Archer.'

      "Splendid and handsome, kind and skillful, he was. All in that kingdom preferred Chu Mong above any of the other sons of the King. Only his jealous brothers disliked him.

      "One day Chu Mong learned from his mother of a plot they were making to put him to death.

      "'You must flee, Skillful Archer. You must flee this night, my dear son,' she warned.

      "With loyal friends at his side Chu Mong slipped secretly out of the palace. Under the light of the amber moon they galloped away south. When the morning sun gilded the peaks of the Ever-White Mountains, they were stopped by the deep duck-green waters of the River Apnok. They halted in dismay, for they could hear the sounds of the galloping horses of the pursuers.

      "'Hark, my friends!' said the Archer. Listen well! Do you hear? My brothers are coming. They are very near. I will call on the river dragon to help me.' And drawing his bow he shot three of his arrows into the stream.

      "Straightway, my children, the river waters became black instead of duck-green. It was black with the backs of ten thousand fish. Squeezed tightly together, the fish made a firm bridge, over which Chu Mong and his companions easily crossed to the opposite bank. When the King's sons galloped up, the bridge of fish had once more floated apart, and Skillful Archer was safe.

      "Traveling on to the south, Chu Mong met friendly people. Three attached themselves to him to act as his guides. One wore the garments of the fishermen of this new land. A second was dressed like its farmers, or workers with tools. A third was clad in the embroidered robes of the officials. All welcomed Chu Mong and made him their king.

      "Many fleet horsemen and many skillful archers were trained in the kingdom of this Chu Mong. Some say it was he who invented the topknot, and who taught our people to eat politely with bowls, spoons, and chopsticks.

      "In his kingdom all lived in kindness and peace, and its ruler's fame spread abroad. Many years later to honor Chu Mong, so the tale says, men gave his name, 'Light of the East,' to the whole country. They called it 'Chosun,' which is to say, 'Land of Morning Brightness.'"

      KI JA'S

       POTTERY

       HATS

      ONE afternoon, not long after the Ancestors' Feast, Halmoni and Ok Cha and the others in the Inner Court were startled by a great noise beyond the Middle Gate. The cries and shouts there brought the women out upon the little verandas and sent the small boys running into the Outer Court to see what was the matter.

      "It was a fight, Halmoni," Yong Tu reported, coming back, breathless. "A fight between So, the stableboy, and that peddler robber who carried away one of the saddles the last time he came inside our gates. You should have seen them, Ok Cha. Each grabbed the other one by the topknot, and they would not let go. Oh, they were rolling about on the ground in the dust. But the peddler was getting the worst of the fight. It was Uncle Chong Yang who stopped them at last."

      "There are far too many fights," Halmoni said, shaking her old head in disgust. "Our Emperor will have to bring back again pottery hats, like those of Ki Ja."

      "Pottery hats, Halmoni?" Yong Tu asked, dropping down on the veranda step by his grandmother. He was still out of breath. Besides, he thought these curious words might mean a story.

      "Wouldn't pottery hats break?" Ok Cha put in.

      "Yé, blessed girl, that is why it was decreed that all in the kingdom should wear them. I think it was when Ki Ja was emperor. Or it may have been during the rule of one of his forty descendants. At any rate, it was long ago when men were even rougher than they are today. In those days they were constantly fighting, pulling one another hither and yon by their topknots. Neighbor fought with neighbor. Band fought against band. Men swung their clubs if only to battle with a mosquito. It was not safe to walk abroad on city street or country road.

      "So Ki Ja sent forth the order that every man must wear a broad pottery hat, made of baked clay. Two feet across