A Post Office had been established in Song-do under Korean management, and I not only received but sent a letter, which reached its destination safely! Buddhism still prevails to some extent in this city, and large sums are expended upon the services of sorcerers. In Song-do I saw, what very rarely may be seen in Seoul and elsewhere, a “Red Door.” These are a very high honor reserved for rare instances of faithfulness in widows, loyalty in subjects, and piety in sons. When a widow (almost invariably of the upper class) weeps ceaselessly for her husband, maintains the deepest seclusion, attends loyally to her father- and mother-in-law, and spends her time in pious deeds, the people of the neighborhood, proud of her virtues, represent them to the Governor of the province, who conveys their recommendation to the King, with whom it rests to confer the “Red Door.” The distinction is also given to the family of an eminently loyal subject, who has given his life for the King’s life. The case of a son whose father has reached a great age is somewhat different, and the honor is more emphatic still. His filial virtue is shown by such methods as these. He goes every morning to his father’s apartments, asks him how his health is, how he has slept, what he has eaten for breakfast, and how he enjoyed the meal--if he has any fancies for dinner, and if he shall go to the market and buy him some _tai_ (the best fish in Korea), and if he shall come back and assist him to take a walk? The reader will observe how extremely material the pious son’s inquiries are. Such assiduity continued during a course of years, on being represented to the King, may receive the coveted red portal. In former days, these matters used to be referred to the Suzerain, the Emperor of China. In Song-do, as in the villages, a straw fringe is frequently to be seen stretched across a door, either plain or with bits of charcoal knotted into it. The former denotes the birth of a girl, the latter that of a boy. A girl is not specially welcome, nor is the occasion one of festivity, but neither is it, as in some countries, regarded as a calamity, although, if it be a firstborn, the friends of the father are apt to write letters of condolence to him, with the consoling suggestion that “the next will be a boy.” [Illustration: CHIL-SUNG MON, SEVEN STAR GATE.] CHAPTER XXVI THE PHYÖNG-YANG BATTLEFIELD