ies of this gate is that on the outside
it has a semi-circular wall protection, and in this wall a second gate
which renders it, therefore, doubly strong in time of war. The outer wall
is very thick, and a wide space is provided which can be manned with
soldiers, when the town happens to be besieged. If my memory serves me
rightly, yet another gate in Seoul is provided with a similar
contraffort, but of this I am not quite certain, for the part of my diary
in which the wall of Seoul is described has been, I regret to say,
unfortunately mislaid. Near the gate above mentioned, is a large open
space, on the centre of which stands a somewhat dilapidated pavilion
_pour facon de parler_, and, on inquiry, I was told that this place was
the drilling-ground of the king's troops, the pavilion being for the use
of the king and high officials, when on very grand occasions they went to
review the soldiery. Of late years, I believe, a new drilling-ground has
been selected by the foreign military instructors, which explains why the
pavilion has been allowed to rot and tumble down. (See Illustration p.
90.)

As already remarked, all the gates of Seoul, as well as those of every
other city in Corea, are closed at sunset; but, like all rules, this
one, too, has its exception. Thus, there is a small gate, called the
"Gate of the Dead," which is opened till a late hour at night. Its name
explains its object fairly well, but for the benefit of those who are
unaccustomed to Corean customs I may as well put the matter a little
clearer. Funerals, in Corea, nearly always take place at night, and the
bodies are invariably carried out of the town to be buried. In lifetime
it is permitted to enter or leave the town through any gate you please,
but this freedom of choice is not accorded to the dead, when their final
exit is to be made, for this is only by way of the smaller gate just
mentioned.

A funeral is in all countries, to me, a curious sight, but in Seoul, a
performance of this description is probably more curious than elsewhere,
and that, because, to a European eye, it appears to be anything but a
funeral. The procession is headed by two individuals, each of whom
carries an enormous yellow umbrella, on the stick of which, about half
way up, there is a very large tri-coloured ball. After these, under a
sort of baldachin held up by four long poles, is the coffin, carried by
two, four, or more men, according to the social position of the dece