Read Online Tales of a Korean Grandmother by Frances Carpenter - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Frances Carpenter
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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 feastâall, 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.
"The yangban was dismayed. But as he wrung his hands over his
"'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 feastâall, 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.
"The yangban was dismayed. But as he wrung his hands over his
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