Folklore
In Korean folklore, the persimmon has a reputation of being "scarier than a tiger". A long time ago, a mother was trying her best to keep her child from crying. In order to quiet him down, she said to him, "Be quiet, or a tiger will come and get you!" The boy cried harder because he feared that the tiger would come and get him. Then, the mother, out of desperation took out a dried persimmon (Gotgam, Korean: 곶감) and said "Hey look! It's a gotgam!" and the child stopped crying. Meanwhile, a tiger overheard the conversation between the boy and his mother. He thought, "My! What is this gotgam? It must be really scary looking to have stopped the child's crying. It must be scarier than me!" Later in the night, a thief was sneaking around in the night and tripped and landed on the sleeping tiger. "It's the gotgam! It's the gotgam! Run for your life!" screamed the tiger. The tiger shook the thief off and ran away. He never came back again.
Read more about this topic: Diospyros Kaki
Famous quotes containing the word folklore:
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