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The Tiger’s Whisker
[A Korean Tale]

A young woman by the name of Yun Ok came one day to the house of a mountain hermit to seek his help. The hermit was a sage of great renown and a maker of charms and magic potions.

When Yun Ok entered his house, the hermit said, without raising his eyes from the fireplace into which he was looking: “Why are you here, Yun Ok?”

Yun Ok said, “Oh famous sage, I am in distress! Make me a potion!”

“Yes, yes, make a potion! Everyone needs potions! Can we cure a sick world with potions?”

“ Master,” Yun Ok replied, “ if you do not help me, I am truly lost!”

“Well, what is your story?” the hermit said, resigned at last to listen.

“It is my husband,” Yun Ok said. “He is very dear to me. For the past three years he has been away fighting in the wars. Now that he has returned, he hardly speaks to me, or to 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 should be working in the rice field, I see him sitting idly on top of the hill, looking towards the sea.”

“Yes, so it is sometimes when young men come back from the wars,” the hermit said. “Go on.”

“There is no more to tell, Learned One. I want a potion to give my husband so that he will be loving and gentle, as he used to be.”

“Ha, so simple is it?” he hermit said. “A potion! Very well. Come back in three days and I will tell you what we shall need for such a potion.”

Three days later, Yun Ok returned to the home of the mountain sage. “I have looked into it,” he told her. “Your potion can be made. But the most essential ingredient is the whisker of a living tiger. Bring me this whisker and I will give you what you need.”

“The whisker of a living tiger” Yun Ok said. “How could I possibly get it?”

“If the potion is important enough to you, you will succeed,” the hermit said. He turned his head away, not wishing to talk any more.

Yun Ok went home. She thought a great deal about how she would get the tiger’s whisker. Then, one 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 far off from the tiger’s cave, she held out the bowl of food, calling the tiger to come and eat. The tiger did not come.

The next night, Yun Ok went again, this time a little bit closer. Again she offered the bowl of food. Every night Yun Ok went to the mountain, each time a few steps nearer the tiger’s cave than the night before. Little by little the tiger became accustomed to seeing her there.

One night, Yun Ok approached to within a stone’s throw of the tiger’s cave. This time, the tiger came a few steps towards her and stopped. The two of the them stood looking at one another in the moonlight. It happened again the following night, and this time they were so close that Yun Ok could talk to the tiger in a soft, soothing voice. The next night, after looking carefully into Yun Ok’s 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. When the tiger had eaten, Yun Ok could gently rub his head with her hand. Nearly six months had passed since the night of her first visit. At last, one night, after caressing the animal’s head, Yun Ok said:

“Oh, Tiger, generous animal, I must have one of your whiskers. Do not be angry with me!”

And she snipped off one of its whiskers.

The tiger did not become angry, as she had feared he might. Yun Ok went down the trail, not walking but running, with the whisker clutched tightly in her hand.

The next morning, she was at the mountain hermit’s house just as the sun was rising from the sea. “Oh, Famous One!” she cried. “I have it! I have the tiger’s whisker! Now you can make me the potion you promised so that my husband will be loving and gentle again!”

The hermit took the whisker and examined it. Satisfied that it had really come from a tiger, he leaned forward and dropped it into the fire that burned in his fireplace.

“Oh sir!” the young woman wailed in anguish. “What have you done with it?”

“Tell me how you obtained it,” the hermit said.

“Why I went to the mountain each night with a little bowl of food. At first, I stood afar, and I came a little closer each time, gaining the tiger’s confidence. I spoke gently and soothingly to him, to make him understand I wished him only good. I was patient. Each night I brought him food, knowing he would not eat. But I did not give up. I came again and again. I never spoke harshly. I never reproached him. And at last one night he took a few steps towards me. A time came when he would meet me on the trail and eat out of the bowl that I held in my hands. I rubbed his head and he made happy sounds in his throat. Only after that did I take the whisker.”

“Yes, yes,” the hermit said. “You tamed the tiger and won his confidence and love.”

“But you have thrown the whisker in the fire!” Yun Ok cried. “It is all for nothing!”

“No, I do not think it is all for nothing,” the hermit said. “The whisker is no longer needed. Yun Ok, let me ask you – 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?”

Hearing this, Yun Ok stood speechless for a moment. Then she went down the trail, turning over in her mind the truth she had learned in the house of the mountain hermit.