- Saving a Mother and Her Baby
- 1 One day, Sahng-jeh-nim walked by a house in which a woman was in labor. The baby was coming out the wrong way; one of its legs stuck out while the rest of its body remained inside.
- 2 Frightened, the family decided to take the woman to a doctor. One of the men carried her on his back. Soaked in sweat, she screamed in pain while the man struggled to carry her.
- 3 “What are you doing?” Sahng-jeh-nim asked.
The man answered, “We are on our way to a doctor.”
- 4 “Really. She might die before you get to a doctor. Quickly, someone bring Me a needle.” A neighbor hurried into a house and brought out a needle.
- 5 Sahng-jeh-nim had the woman laid on the street. He then poked the center of the bottom of the baby’s foot with the needle, and the dangling leg quickly retracted.
- 6 The woman found this humorous and started laughing. As she laughed, the baby came out naturally and with ease.
- 7 Since they were in the middle of the road, there was nothing with which to clean and wrap the baby. Sahng-jeh-nim took off His shirt and tore it apart. He then cleaned and wrapped the child. Giving the child to the mother, He said, “Hurry home and raise the child well.”
- (JSD Dojeon 2,75)
