Korean Myths - Tumblr Posts

The Kumiho is a shapeshifting creature of Korean legend. A nine tailed fox who has learnt to take human form, they typically transform into beautiful women to (literally) eat the hearts of unlucky young men.

There are many tales of shapeshifting, multi-tailed foxes (with nine being the desirable number) but what sets the Kumiho apart from the others is the source of their power. Each Kumiho is said to carry a bead, called a yeowoo guseul, which their power comes from. They are able to drain the energy of a human by inserting and retrieving the bead from a human’s month (under the guise of kissing). 

This is a risky method - if a human steals and swallows the bead they can grain incredible knowledge.

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