http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/market-korea-vendors/

“It’s a long legend,” she cautioned her new partner. The younger woman had just moved to the coast. This was only her third day at the market.

“We have time, I think,” the partner said. She motioned to the many piles of shellfish. “Though I don’t get how we check them without cracking them open.

The older woman grabbed a crab and sat it on the scale. The screen had three readouts. The top two showed weight, one in grams and one in pounds. The bottom readout was unmarked and remained staunchly at zero.

“Ok?” the younger woman said, clearly still missing the point.

“The scale doesn’t just measure weight. This last one reads magnetism,” her experienced partner said, tapping the green zero. “If there’s something metal in its stomach, this will go up a bit.”

“Got it.”

“So you clean and weigh each, but always check the bottom readout before dropping it in the bucket.”

The younger woman nodded. She grabbed a box of crabs and began her task. “So what’s the legend?”

The older woman took up position next to her partner. She grabbed a second hose and began to wash alongside her new coworker. It was important that everyone look busy, at least to the market manager.

“It all started with King Sadim’s conquest. When he sailed up and down this coast, he took one small kingdom after another. The traders here had amassed gold in bits and pieces for a century, mostly from the fat-bellied ships that crossed the southern ocean. After five years of war, Sadim controlled the entire coast. And with it, all of the gold he found therein.

“Once installed as the only power in this part of the world, he almost immediately traded in his war helmet for a judge’s scale. He became exceedingly fair, and the commoners loved him for the measures he put in place to ensure everyone had a home and a job and a meal at the end of the day. And as much as this endeared him to the people of the coast, that was nothing compared to the impression it made upon the Mist Lady.

“Having ruled this land for eons before Sadim, the watery goddess had seen every manner of good and bad ruler carve his way to the top. But when Sadim changed from conqueror to arbiter, from feared to respected, she found herself smitten. She wanted to reward him for his transformation, and so she appeared to him one morning when the cool early morning air had formed a particularly luxurious fog above the warmth of the bay.

“She offered him a loving tribute and asked him to name what he wanted, anything at all short of immortal life, and she would grant it.

“It’s said she had expected an answer right away. Sadim took three years to answer. And when he finally did, it wasn’t at all what she had expected. ‘Protect my wealth,’ he asked the goddess, “For all time. I want my children, and their children, and the children of the people of the coast to always have access to these riches. It should be kept safe from my enemies and theirs, so that they may use it in their time of need.’

“The Mist Lady had hoped, or so the legend goes, that Sadim would request something more along the lines of a godly consort, but she was then, as she remains today, good to her word. She granted the king’s wish, and the treasure never fell into enemy hands.”

The younger woman nodded and cleaned and weighed and dropped and then repeated. She turned over the old story in her mind, wondering if she’d missed something.

“I wonder if I’ve missed something,” she said after some time.

“How that story relates to us weighing crabs for swallowed gold?”

“Yeah.”

“There’s more story.”

“Oh good,” the younger woman chuckled. “I was worried you were gearing up to have a joke at my expense.”

“In Sadim’s 42^nd year of ruling, he sent his riches south. Foreign armies marched down from the north, and the king hoped to keep as much from their hands as possible. Little did he know he was betrayed from within, and one of his own dukes planned to intercept the ships, right in our bay, and steal the fabulous treasure for himself.

“The Mist Lady thwarted the duke’s plans. But it had been a long time since she’d fallen for Sadim, and her feelings had eroded from love into something more like grudgingly admiration. Being a goddess, wealth meant nothing to her. So she kept the gold from Sadim’s enemies as she promised she would-“

The younger woman laughed. “She sunk the ships!”

“Every last one. And hid the treasure in so doing – scattered across the seafloor just outside of our modest bay. All these things-“ the storyteller waved a crab at her partner, “walk over it every day. Sometimes, they swallow some morsel. And it’s said that the protection of the Mist Lady clings to the gold still. Anyone lucky enough to come across a piece would be guarded by that same power.”

Dead crabs clinked onto the scale then thumped into the display boxes. One after another, after another, after another as the storyteller completed her legend recitation. The younger woman reached into the box to clean yet another crustacean, but grabbed a batch of cool air.

They were done. All the day’s catch had been cleaned and weighed and displayed.

“Alas, no gold today,” the older woman said.

“No, but I heard a new story, and that’s worth something. I’m due back an hour after dawn?” the younger woman asked.

“Yep.”

“Great. Can’t wait to hear how the Mist Lady will get us through tomorrow.” The market’s newest employee winked at her partner and slipped out from under the market tent. She knew that wasn’t the point of the older woman’s story, but she thought a good story was very valuable.

She thought of the stories her mother had told her in the nearby mountains when she was young. They were both similar and different to the Mist Lady legend, but they all shared a similar theme – Not all treasure is made out of gold.