Read Tales of a Korean Grandmother Online

Authors: Frances Carpenter

Tales of a Korean Grandmother (6 page)

THE MAN
WHO LIVED
A
THOUSAND
YEARS

T
HERE
was great excitement in the Kim courts. The New Year, best of all holidays, was approaching. The big teakwood lanterns were getting their new flowered-paper panes. The beeswax candles were being counted. The needles of the women were flying to finish the New Year clothes for the family—white silk padded jackets, trousers, and skirts for the women and men, and bright green, red, and purple winter garments for the young children.

Yong Tu and Ok Cha and their cousins also were busy. The little girls were making bright paper flowers, and the boys were putting the finishing touches on their kites for the New Year contests. And as usual, Halmoni's room was the center of most of the family activity.

One afternoon when everyone sat there, bent over his work, Kim Dong Chin, Halmoni's second son, came seeking his mother.

"Here are the four pieces of the gate charm, Omoni," he said. "Shall I bind them up for you?"

"The thorn branches! The straw ox shoe! The foxtail grass! The salt bag!
Ye,
they are all here." The old woman nodded her head in satisfaction as she examined with critical eyes the curious collection before her.
"Yé,
bind them up!"

Yong Tu laid his kite down with great care and helped his uncle to tie the thorn wood, the ox shoe, and the foxtail grass inside the old salt bag. They made a neat packet about as long as an ironing club. Then the boy followed the man to the Outer Court, where the charm was firmly fastened above the bamboo gate.

"Why do we put such things over our gate, Halmoni?" Yong Tu asked his grandmother when he had returned to his kite making.

"Why else but to keep the bad spirits away, stupid boy? No charm is more powerful than this one. Each year a new gate charm must be made, lest the old one should be worn out by the wind and the weather and have perhaps lost its strength. I do not mean to be caught napping without such a charm, like old Tong Pang Suk. He had already lived for one thousand years; but if he'd held fast to his bundle of thorn wood and ox shoe, salt bag and foxtail, he'd no doubt be living still."

"A man who lived one thousand years, Halmoni?" Ok Cha questioned, her narrow black eyes shining with amazement.

"Some say Tong Pang Suk lived ten thousand years, precious ones, but my father declared that was far too long. One thousand years he lived surely. It probably happened because someone was careless in the Heavenly Emperor's Hall of Recording. There were kept the Books of Life in which all men's names are written down, so that the judges can determine the time for each one to be brought to the Jade Emperor's Heavenly Kingdom.

"Perhaps it happened that the pages for Tong Pang Suk were stuck together, or perhaps the judges turned them too fast before the book was put away behind the panels. But, whatever the reason, that old man's name was overlooked and no messenger was sent to take his spirit away from the earth.

"Even when Tong had lived out the full course of a man's life, no summons came. What could he do? He grew no older, for he was old as a man could be. He simply lived on and on, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred years.

"The friends of his childhood, long since departed to the Distant Shore, missed their old neighbor Tong. 'How is it?' they said to one another, and to the Jade Emperor as well. 'How is it that Tong Pang Suk remains so long on the earth?'

"One hundred, two hundred, three hundred years more it was before his pages in the Book of Life were found, and a messenger was finally sent to bring Tong Pang Suk up to Heaven. That messenger was a spirit, of course, but he took on the form of a man. Like Chung, the blind beggar's daughter, he disguised himself in the garb of a mourner. Hidden under his great hat, he wandered over the earth, looking for Tong.

"By this time Tong had become used to his great age. His days were calm, without wind and without cloud. And he spent most of them on the bank of a stream lost in the pleasures of fishing. The old man had no wish to die. His greatest fear was that the Heavenly Messenger might one day catch up with him. Each sixty years he took on a new name and he sought a new village so that he could not be traced. But always he fished.

"Somehow the Spirit Messenger heard of this old, old man who sat, always fishing, on a river bank. He thought perhaps this might be the one whom he sought, and he set a trap for him. Not far from where Tong fished, the Spirit Messenger threw many bags of charcoal into the river. Its black dust clouded the water so that it looked like ink paste.

"'Why did you do that foolish trick?' Old Tong inquired when he found the source of the blackness that was spoiling his fishing.

"'O, honorable grandfather, I'm just washing my charcoal. Soon it will be as white as the jacket you wear,' the Spirit replied.

"'Ai! Ai'
exclaimed Tong, shaking his head. 'I have dwelt in this land for nine hundred years, but never before have I met a man foolish enough to think he could wash black charcoal white.'

"The Spirit was happy now, for he knew he had found the man he was seeking. He followed Old Tong wherever he went, hoping for a chance to carry him off to the Other World. So close did he keep to the old man's heels that Tong Pang Suk guessed who he might be.

"'You are brave, learned sir,' Tong said to his spirit companion one day. 'The country roads here are dangerous. Are you not afraid to travel so far upon them?'

"'I fear not the country roads, nor any dangers upon them,' replied the Spirit who, in truth, was not nearly so quick-witted as Tong. 'There are but four things on this earth that I greatly fear, and wherever they are, there I am not.'

"'What are the four things the Great Man fears?' Tong asked politely.

"'A branch of a thorn tree, the shoe of an ox, foxtail grass, and a salt bag. Those four put together would bring me to my doom.

"'And you, venerable father,' the Spirit asked in his turn, 'what do you fear the most?'

"Now Tong, for all he was so old, was crafty and wise. 'The things I fear most of all,' he said to the Spirit, 'are roast suckling pig and the beer called
mackalee.'

"Marvels come to man more often than you may think, my children. And a marvel happened that day. Suddenly beside their path Old Tong saw foxtail grass growing beneath a thorn tree. By the side of the road near it he found a castoff straw ox shoe and an old empty salt bag.

"Gathering up the shoe and the bag, the old man quickly left the road and took refuge beneath the thorn tree. He plucked a thorn branch from over his head. He gathered some foxtail grass from under his feet. Thus quickly he completed the charm, and he tied all four parts of it into a bundle, just like the one on our gate.

"From a safe distance the unhappy Spirit begged the old man to come forth from under the thorn tree. He wept and he raged, but he dared not approach because of the charm.

"Then the Spirit remembered Old Tong's words about the things he feared most. He went off to the village and fetched a roast suckling pig and a jug of
mackalee
beer. These he flung at Old Tong, hoping to drive him out of his refuge.

"Instead, to his amazement, the Spirit saw the old man eating the roast pig with great gusto and drinking the
mackalee
beer with delight. He shook his head in bewilderment, and he gave up his idea of whisking Tong up to Heaven that day.

"But the Spirit Messenger was not yet beaten. He did not fly back to Heaven and give up his quest. For a hundred years more he waited and watched, hoping Tong would forget to carry with him the bundle he had made of the thorn wood and the foxtail grass, the ox shoe, and the salt bag.

"At last the Spirit Messenger's patience had its reward. One day the old man did forget his good charm as he set forth to fish, and the Spirit carried him off to the Heavenly Realm.

"Since then, all people who know the secret of Tong and his charm use this way of making sure of protection from evil spirits. It does not keep them from going to the Heavenly Kingdom when their time comes, but it drives many bad spirits away from their courts. Find me a house in all this street of ours without such a gate charm, and I'll show you a family with whom bad luck dwells."

A
FORTUNE
FROM
A FROG

Yong Tu and his cousins were getting ready to take part in the New Year kite flying contest.

B
RING
a gift for our guest, Yong Tu," the Master of the Kim household called to his son, clapping his hands to summon him to his side. For the hundredth time in this first week of the New Year, the boy ran to the heap of guest presents laid out in his father's library. This visitor was an important guest, and at his father's suggestion Yong Tu brought forth a roll of fine silk.

What an exciting season the New Year was! Visitors constantly came and went through the Kims' bamboo gate. Sedan chairs, bringing Halmoni's guests, were escorted into the Inner Court. There, when the bearers had gone away, the women could safely crawl out from behind the chair curtains without fear of being seen by any strange men.

The Kim houses looked very fine with the new paper on their walls, on their floors, and in the panes of their latticed windows. The paper flowers the little girls had made brightened the rooms. The best embroidered screens were set out, and the finest wall poems were hung. Each member of the family had on his shining new silken clothes.

The children felt important because, on the New Year, each had become a whole year older. It was good to have two birthdays, Ok Cha thought, her own birthday in summer, and this New Year birthday which belonged to everyone.

"Bring cakes and honey water for our guests, Ok Cha," Halmoni said again and again during these days. The golden drink with delicate pine nuts floating upon it was a favorite in the Inner Court. The sweet cakes made of rice flour or bean flour were decorated with bits of popped rice, colored bright pink and green. There were little raven cakes, too, so called because of the old story of the raven which warned the King that a robber was hiding inside the Queen's zither case.

Ok Cha and the other children liked best of all the candy made of pine nuts and honey, this was the only sweetening Koreans knew in those long-ago times before sugar was brought from over the sea.

"Eat! Eat!" was the invitation on all sides at the New Year. Koreans always like food and a great deal of food, but especially at the New Year season everyone ate as much as his stomach could possibly hold. That foretold the plenty he would have throughout the year.

"Drink! Drink that your ears may be sharpened in the months to come!" people said. Even the small children then took a cup of the "good-hearing" wine.

There were guest presents in the Inner Court as well as in the reception room of the men. Halmoni looked with satisfied smiles at the huge piles of gifts, ready for the giving. There were hairpins of silver with their designs picked out with sky-blue kingfisher feathers and dotted with coral. There were boxes of shining black and red lacquer, bits of embroidery, and pieces of silk. There were gay ornaments for the headdress of a bride, as well as candies and cakes.

"Our gifts are worthy this year, Ok Cha," the Korean grandmother said to the little girl one afternoon early in the New Year season, while they sat waiting for the next visitor to appear.

"How many there are, Halmoni! Oh, I do think they are beautiful!"

"Yé,
child, they are beautiful, and they are many. They remind me of the presents Lah and his wife received from the frog, but of course those were even richer."

"Is that a story, Halmoni? Tell me about the frog and his rich gifts," the little girl begged, sitting down carefully so as not to harm her new skirt.

"Yé,
it's a story, Jade Child. It's a story fit for the New Year, for it tells of good fortune. The good fortune came to a poor couple named Lah, who lived in a hut on the Diamond Mountains. Both the man and his wife were unhappy because under their grass roof there was no son to pray to their spirits when they should have gone beyond the Earthly Gates. And they were too poor to adopt a boy to bring up as their son, who might perform this service for them.

"Their fields on the mountain sides gave this couple only enough rice to keep them alive. The cabbage, turnips, and peppers they could raise in their rocky garden made only enough
kimchee
for their own eating bowls. They had hens which laid a few eggs, and they found honey in the nests of the wild bees in the rocks. So they did not starve.

"For buying their clothes and their salt they depended on the fish which Lah caught in the nearby mountain lake and which he sold in the village in the valley below. So you can guess he was distressed when, one morning, he saw that his lake had dried up and the fish had all disappeared. On the bank sat a giant frog, as big as a man. It was just finishing drinking up the lake water.

"'Wicked frog,' poor Lah' scolded. 'What demon possessed you to drink up my lake and to devour my fish? Have I not enough trouble without such a disaster?'

"But the frog only bowed politely and replied in a soft voice, 'Honorable sir, I, too, regret the disappearance of the lake, for that was my home. Now I have no shelter. Pray give me refuge under your roof.'

"At first, Lah refused, as he had good reason for doing. But the gentle words of the frog softened his heart. His wife also objected when her husband led the giant frog into their hut. But it was lonely there on the mountain side, and the woman was interested in the good tales the frog told. She brought in leaves to serve as his bed, and she thoughtfully fetched water to make it comfortably damp to suit a frog's taste.

"Early the next morning, Lah and his wife were wakened at dawn by the sound of loud croaking. The din was as great as that of soothsayers trying to drive evil spirits from the stomach of a sick man. Hurrying out on their veranda, they saw the giant frog lifting his croaking voice to the heavens. But their eyes soon turned away from the reddening eastern sky to the shining treasures they saw in their courtyard.

"Our New Year gifts could not compare with those the frog had provided for his good hosts. There were strings upon strings of copper cash, and valuable silver coins, too. There were fat bags of rice, great jars of
kimchee,
packets of seaweed, and good salt fish. Rolls of cotton and silk cloth; hats, padded stockings, and new quilted shoes; fans, pipes, and rich ornaments of silver and gold!
Ai,
who can say what there was not in the fortune that frog brought to Lah and his wife?

"In the fine sedan chair the frog gave her, Lah's wife began to take journeys down into the inner courts of the valley houses. She made friends with the women there, and from them she learned more and more about the people of that neighborhood.

"'Tell me about Yun Ok,' the frog always asked when the woman returned. Yun Ok, or Jade Lotus, was the youngest daughter of the richest
yangban
in all that northern province. She was, so the gossip of the inner courts had it, by far the most beautiful girl in the land. Her skin was like a pale cloud. Her eyes and her hair were as black as a raven's wing. Her form was as graceful as bamboo bent by the spring breeze.

"'It is Yun Ok I must marry, Omoni,' the frog said to Lah's wife, whom he now was permitted to think of as his mother. 'Go, honorable Lah, go now and ask for Yun Ok for my bride.'

"'I shall surely be paddled.' Lah trembled at the thought of asking the great
yangban s
daughter to marry a frog. But the golden words of the frog persuaded him. He went, clad in such fine clothes that the servants of the
yangban
swiftly admitted him to his Hall of Guests.

"Now the two older daughters of this family had married worthless young men, and the proud father of Yun Ok was determined his youngest daughter should have a better husband.

"'Is this suitor rich?' he demanded of Lah.

"'Yes, great sir, he is rich.'

"'What kind of jade button does he wear in his hat?' he inquired, which is the same as to ask what government office he holds.

"'Well,' said Lah, 'that I cannot exactly say.'

"'Is he handsome? What is his name?' All these were the questions the father of a daughter always asks of a go-between who comes to arrange a marriage.

"'You could not call him handsome, I think,' the poor man replied. 'And his name? He is called Frog, for a frog he is. But he is a frog as large as a man, and golden words come from his mouth.'

"'A frog! This is an insult! Bring out the paddles,' the angry
yangban
shouted. Unlucky Lah was seized and laid down on the ground, ready for a severe paddling. The servants raised the dreaded clubs with their hard, flattened ends. They were about to give Lah a terrible beating when dark clouds covered the sun. Lightning flashed. Such terrible thunder was heard that the men dropped their paddles in terror. Only when the
yangban
gave orders to untie Lah did the sun fill the heavens and earth with bright light again.

"'This is surely a sign from the Jade Emperor of Heaven,' the
yangban
said sadly, and he consented to the marriage of his daughter, Yun Ok, to the frog.

"That must have been a curious sight, a giant frog sitting on the white horse of a bridegroom. Of course the bride could not see it, for according to custom her eyes were sealed shut with wax. It was not until the wedding feast had been eaten that Yun Ok found out she had married a giant frog.

"'Do not weep, Yun Ok,' her strange bridegroom tried to comfort her. 'Wait just a little!' And when they were alone in the bridal chamber, he gave her a sharp knife to slit his frog's skin up the back. When he wriggled out of the skin, the frog stood before her, a fine and handsome young man. Clad in a cloak of silk and wearing a button of finest jade in his topknot, he was a
yangban
of the
yangbans.
And he explained the strange happening thus:

"'I am the son of the King of the Stars. My father, being displeased with some of my actions, decided to punish me. He sent me down to the earth in the form of a frog, and he commanded me to perform three unheard-of tasks. First, I was to eat all the fish in a lake and to drink its waters dry. Second, I must persuade a human couple to adopt me, a frog, as their son. Third, I must marry the loveliest lady in all the land. Only then could I return to his starry kingdom. Those three tasks have been done. But the hour of my return is not yet. When I go, Yun Ok, I will take you to dwell with me in the sky.'

"The delighted bride sewed her handsome husband back into his frog's skin, and he went off on the journey a bridegroom always takes after the wedding, lest it should be thought he liked his new wife too well. While he was gone, Yun Ok only smiled when her sisters and their foolish husbands made fun of her frog.

"Her
yangban
father, although he had given consent, was not pleased with the marriage. His sixty-first birthday was near, and as everyone knows, that is the most important occasion in any man's life. All members of his family were invited to a great feast—all, that is, except his frog son-in-law. And to provide the food for the feast, his other two sons-in-law were sent out to hunt game and to bring fish from the rivers and lakes.

"When the frog heard of the feast, he called to him the king of the tiger clan. Take all the wild beasts, both little and big, into your cave. Mountain Uncle!' he said. 'Let there be none for those hunters.' He likewise summoned the king of the fishes and gave him the command to hide all the finny creatures on the bottoms of the rivers and lakes. So there was no game for the hunters, no fish for the fishermen, and no food at all for the birthday feast.

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