A Journal of Writings - SABES

farm, to give him grass, to give to the cow, to give him milk, to give to Om Besisi, so she
would give him back his tail so he could dance at the festival.
Finally, Om Besisi gave back his tail. He tied on his tail and started dancing at the festival.
He danced so much that his tail fell off, and his friends started laughing at him.
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GAE-CHUN-JUL - A KOREAN FOLK TALE BYUNGIL KIM
Byungil Kim
Once upon a time, there were two animals, a bear and a tiger, who wanted to be human.
They prayed together to God for a long time. Finally, God answered them, “Do you really
want to be human?” “Yes, we do,” said the animals. God replied, “OK, if you go to a cave
and eat only garlic and mugwort for 100days, I will allow that.” “Thank you God, we can
do that,” said the animals.
The bear and tiger went into the cave with that food. However, the fact that they could only
eat garlic and mugwort was very difficult, especially for the tiger. Eventually, the tiger
escaped from the cave 50 days later. In spite of the difficulty, however, the bear overcame
it and became human as a beautiful woman.
After that, she got married and gave birth to a healthy boy. The boy grew up as a strong
man and he made a nation, Korea. His name was Dan-goon.
To celebrate that day, Korean people have a national holiday on October 3. We call it Gaechun-jul.
It means “The day of the open sky.”
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