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"there came one winter a great tiger, far bigger than any those people ever had seen. Strong was this beast, strong enough to carry off a grown man. And carry off a man it did, a man who was foolish enough to go out on the village street after night had fallen. Cows were not safe from that tiger, and pigs disappeared unless they were shut up tight inside the strong walls of the village courtyards.
    "'We must set traps for Mountain Uncle,' said the head official of the village. And they dug a pit at each end of the village street. Over these deep yawning holes they laid small logs and branches. They covered them lightly with earth and leaves, to deceive the great beast. When he walked across them, he would surely fall in.
    "But the tiger seemed to know about the hidden traps. He did not walk across them. Even when they were baited with live pigs, he did not go near them. Yet the village people could tell that he still came. The head official himself was frightened almost out of his wits by the sound of that tiger clawing away at the grass thatch on his roof. Only by good luck and by shouting, and by beating on brass pots, did he succeed in driving the great beast away.
    "'We must call out the hunters from all the countryside,' the village people said next. The tiger hunters came, in their blue uniforms and their red-tasseled hats. Their matchlock guns were slung over their shoulders. Their deer-horn cases were filled with bullets, and their oilpaper packets of gunpowder were safe and dry inside their sleeves. They did not forget to wind around their arms the long cords which could be fired to set the guns off. Walking swiftly and softly on their straw sandals, they started out for the hills.
    "The village official saw the hunters depart with relief," the Korean grandmother continued. "Surely such a band of strong brave men would find the tiger. They would beat about in the bushes until he came forth. They would wound him with their guns and finish him off with their spears. Then his precious soft skin would be the prize of the village official himself. The hunters could have the tiger meat to eat. He might also let them have the bones, teeth, and claws to sell to the medicine makers."
    In Korea, in those times, powders made of tiger bones, tiger teeth, and tiger claws were highly prized. The ancient warriors swallowed these medicines to give them strength and courage such as only a tiger possesses. Halmoni herself always took a tiger-bone tonic in the spring when she felt weak and tired.
    "Did the hunters catch the tiger, Halmoni?" Ok Cha said, almost holding her breath in excitement.
    "No, baby dear, they came back empty-handed. Perhaps it was because the beaters were afraid to go into the deepest parts of the forest. Or perhaps Old Mountain Uncle was once more too smart for them.
    "'Let us put a new picture of Honorable White Whiskers in the spirit shrine outside the village,' the people said. 'Let us call on the spirit of Tu-ee, that great enemy of the tiger. He will help us drive him away.'
    "That night, at the slightest sound, the villagers would run out into their courtyards, crying, Tu-ee is coming! Tu-ee! Tu-ee!' But the bloody feathers of some chickens that had strayed out of their courtyard showed that the King of the Mountains had been there once again, in spite of their calling upon his spirit foe.
    "So frightened of the dreaded tiger were the people of the village that they all hid inside their houses at night. They shut up their animals, and when the yellow and black beast stalked down the road, not a living creature was to be seen. Not one, that is, until on a certain night a foolish puppy left the side of its mother inside the stable and crept out to the gate.
    "It was winter, and the great tiger was hungry. When he saw the head of the little dog thrust through the gate hole, the beast licked its chops. With a bound he made for the hole, but it was, of course, far too small for him to force his huge body