which all the traffic of the city must pass. Until recent years these gates were all closed and locked every night; but now that the electric car of the Westerner goes whirling in and out through three of these gates, the trolley wire interferes with the closing of the ponderous shutters that for more than five centuries have been closed at night. Over each one of these gates is a massive pagoda-shaped roof, on the top of which there are many curiously shaped images of men and monkeys, which are placed there for the purpose of keeping out evil spirits which might want to enter the city. These gates serve as public bulletin boards, and here the royal edicts of the king as well as other less important documents are posted. Two of these gates are called the "dead man's gates" because no dead body is allowed to be carried through any other. The reason for such a law no one seems to know, nor does any one care; it is a fact, and that is sufficient.
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so are they round about Seoul. Beautiful for situation indeed is the old capital of Chosen. Here on the south is Nam San, or the South Mountain, more than eight hundred feet high, with the great city wall climbing right over the top of its head, inclosing the most beautiful side of the mountain within the city. There to the north is the North Mountain, rising even higher than Nam San, and standing like an unmovable sentinel, keeping watch over the city of the king. The wall finds its way over the top of these peaks, which in themselves furnish an almost impassable barrier to the approach of an army.
