The Tiger's Whisker

An Old Korean Tale 

The story is of Yun Ok who came to the house of a wise sage for council.

 “’It is my husband, wise one.  He is very dear to me.  For the past three years he has been fighting in the wars.  Now that he has returned he hardly speaks to me, or not anyone else.  If I speak, he doesn’t seem to hear.  When he talks at all, it is roughly.  If I serve him food not to his liking, he pushes it aside, and angrily leaves the room.  Sometimes when he is working in the rice field, I see him sitting idly on the top of the hill, looking towards the sea!  I want a potion, so he will be loving and gentle as he used to be.’

 

“The wise sage instructed the young woman to get for him the whisker of a living tiger, from which he would make the magic potion.

“At night, when her husband was asleep, she crept from her house with a bowl of rice and meat sauce in her hand.  She went to the place on the mountainside where the tiger was known to live.  Standing afar from the tiger’s cave, she held out the bowl of food, calling the tiger to come and eat, but the Tiger did not come.

“Each night she returned, doing the same thing and each time a few steps closer.  Although the tiger did not come out and eat, he did become accustomed to seeing her there.

“One night she approached within a stone’s throw of the cave.  This time the tiger came a few steps toward her and stopped.  The two of them stood looking at one another in the moonlight.  It happened again the following night and this time they were so close that she could talk to him in a soft, soothing voice.

“The next night, after looking carefully into her eyes, the tiger ate the food that she held out for him.  After that when Yun Ok came in the night she found the tiger waiting for her on the trail.  Nearly six months had passed since the night of her first visit.  At first, one night after caressing the animal’s head, she said, ‘O generous animal, I must have one of your whiskers.  Do not be angry with me.’  And she snipped off one of the whiskers.

“The tiger did not become angry as she had feared that he might.  She went down the trail, running with the whisker tightly clutched in her hand.  When she brought it to the wise sage, he examined it to see if it was real, then tossed it into the fire, causing the poor girl to become stunned.  Then the sage said, ‘Yun Ok, is a man more vicious than a tiger?  Is he less responsive to kindness and understanding?  If you can win the love and confidence of a wild and bloodthirsty animal by gentleness and patience, surely you can do the same with your husband.’”