Hello, everyone. Welcome to “Korean Folktales.” In this weekly corner, we introduce you to interesting folk stories. I’m Emilee Jennings.

Once upon a time, a woman lived with her father-in-law and her baby son. The family was not well off, but the woman served the old man faithfully. One day, the father-in-law went to the market. He didn’t come back home until late at night. Feeling extremely worried, the woman went out to look for him, carrying her baby on her back.

When she reached a desolate mountain area, she saw two flashing lights. She approached the lights, which turned out to be the eyes of a huge tiger. The beast was looking down at a person who fell asleep under the rock. The woman was frightened to death, and she thought she should run away. But she couldn’t, as she recognized that the endangered man was none other than her father-in-law. The tiger was about the pounce on its prey, when the woman ran toward the animal. “No!” She screamed and embraced the old man. “Please don’t kill the man. I’ll give this child to you.” The mother put her baby down in front of the tiger and carried her father-in-law on her back instead and she ran away as fast as she could. She was so frantic that she didn’t even know what she was doing. It was not until she returned home that she realized she had lost her baby boy. She burst into tears and sobbed bitterly.

The next morning, the father-in-law woke up and said, “I met an old friend of mine at the market yesterday. I can’t remember how I came home. I think I drank too much. By the way, where is the baby? I can’t see my lovely grandson.” With tears in her eyes, the daughter-in-law told him what had happened the previous night. The old man was shocked. He stormed out of the room and ran toward the hill. The woman followed him, crying. They could not find the tiger or the child. Heartbroken, the baby’s mother and grandfather left the place, with their shoulders drooping.

On their way back home, they heard some villagers saying, “How strange! How did the baby end up there?” The mother was startled and asked the people about the baby. They told her that a baby had been found on a stack of rice bags at Mr. Kim’s house in the village. The woman and her father-in-law ran to the house to see the baby sleeping soundly on the stack of rice bags. Much to their surprise, it was the baby boy that the mother gave to the tiger the night before. When the mother hugged her baby son, Mr. Kim asked her if she was the real mother of the child. She told him about her father-in-law and the tiger. Mr. Kim was deeply impressed. He was sure that even the beast was moved by the woman’s great devotion to her father-in-la
w. He ordered his servants to deliver a hundred bags of rice to the woman’s house.

She continued to care for the old man dutifully and her son grew up to be a great general.

That’s it for today’s “Korean Folktales.” I hope you enjoyed the story. Thank you for listening. I’m Emilee Jennings. Goodbye, everyone.