When Buddhism entered the peninsula, as in China and Japan, so, in Corea, it absorbed the local deities, and hailed them under new names, as previous incarnations of Buddha before his avatar in India, or the true advent of the precious faith through his missionaries. They were thenceforth adopted into the Buddhist pantheon, and numbered among the worshipped Buddhas. The spirit of the Ever-White Mountains, the virgin in ever-white robes, named Manchusri, whose home lay among the unmelting snows, was one of these. Perhaps it was from this deity that the Manchius, the ancestors of the ruling dynasty of China, the wearers of the world-famous hair tails, took their name. According to Manchiu legend, as given by Professor Douglas, it is said that “in remote ages, three heaven-born virgins dwelt beneath the shadow of the Great White Mountains, and that, while they were bathing in a lake which reflected in its bosom the snowy clad peaks which towered above it, a magpie dropped a blood red fruit on the clothes of the youngest. This the maiden instinctively devoured, and forthwith conceived and bore a son, whose name they called Ai-sin Ghioro, which being interpreted is the ‘Golden Family Stem,’ and which is the family name of the emperors of China. When his mother had entered the icy cave of the dead, her son embarked on a little boat, and floated down the river Hurka, until he reached a district occupied by three families who were at war with each other. The personal appearance of the supernatural youth so impressed these warlike chiefs that they forgot their enmities, and hailed him as their ruler. The town of O-to-le [Odoli] was chosen as his capital, and from that day his people waxed fat and kicked against their oppressors, the Chinese.” The home of the Manchius was, as this legend shows, on the north side of the Ever-White Mountains, in the valley of the Hurka. From beyond these mountains was to roll upon China and Corea another avalanche of invasion. Beginning to be restless in the fourteenth century, they had, in the sixteenth, consolidated so many tribes, and were so strong in men and horses, that they openly defied the Chinese. The formidable expeditions of Li-yu-sun, previous to the Japanese invasion of Corea, kept them at bay for a time, but the immense expenditure of life and treasure required to fight the Japanese, drained the resources of the Ming emperors, while their attention being drawn away from the north, the Manchiu hordes massed their forces and grew daily in wealth, numbers, discipline, and courage. The invasion of Chō-sen by the Japanese veterans was one of the causes of the weakness and fall of the Ming dynasty.