Songdo,iKorea,
July 8, 1935-
Dear father
We have had fairly cool weather'".for summer until the last
da3r or two, but today is very hot, with scarcely any breeze. Of course
it  goes without saying that thehf humidity is very hi'#i; it is always
high in a Korean summer. But as long as one stayalquiet in the shade
it is not bad.  The past week I ihinic hbt:a single day passed without
rain some time during the day.  It usuallyfrained for a few hours only
and then the sun came out.  The sky was a pageant of great billowy
white clouds-that kept sailing past, and now and then a dark one would
come along in their midst.  These^sottretimes went by without rain, and
others poured down, with thunderings, while blue! patches of s&y could
be seen in other places. '• O'ft entire have had pretty sunsets or sunrises,
and an evening or two ago we saw a strange sight.  In the west as the
sun was going down, a single big cloud rose in front of the sun right
in the gapfin the mountains.  It was dark in the center, but round^the
irregular edges it was a brilliant gold, a very striding thing. |
Last Monday the biology professor invited me to his house
for supper." He is the greatest authority in Korea on butterflies,? and
has*built up the high school museum-to first place in the country. He
prepares his own mounted specimens, and sells many to other schools, and
even to the Smithsonian"Institute^and to Museums infAmerica.! The Smithsonian Institute is helping on expenses for a beetle-collecting expedition this summer to Mt. Chiri infsouthern Korea. But his hobby is the
Spanish guitar.  It wasHhrough the miitar that I got the invitation,
"Km** Km** V*...—.» >«—j.'
I think. A few years|ago, when he was in Japan, he bought a very expensive instrument (Y 100) and practiced five hours a day. He got
acquainted|with a high, official in Japan who helped him. He passed
beyond the'/amateur stage, and got into difficult music  Then he bought
a phonographJand records of the moat famous guitarist in the world,
Segovia. |But when he heard Segovia's performance, it was so far beyond
what he could ever accomplish, that he decided he would rather listen
to the phonograph when he wanted good music; and so he quit playing,
except very|occasionally.  In myfhonor, he got out his instrument. He
is still very fine, although out/ of practice.  I never heard the
Spanish guitar played'better. fBut he played his records for me also,
and,I was amazed to know the guitar was capable of so much virtuosity..
But Segovia1s^instrument is strung with gut strings, which account
partly for the qualityjof the result. But gut strings are impracticable
in< this humid climate.  / \f      • d fthht ■■ >|t a.     ;   ,m
Among the pieces which the professor has*. I saw Sebastopol
in an edition published' in Japan.% I immediately thought of what mother
had said of liking that piece so much.  I told the teacher I would Ipe
to get the nog.es from his copy and arrange it for the Hawaiian guitar.
He said the notes could not be copied just as they appeared, because o.
the special tuning of the guitar; they would have to be transposed to.
correspond to the true pitch, and he said he would do that for me. I
saw him a day or two ago, and he said he had finished it for me, and I -•
shall go over to his house, perhaps this evening for it-  I wish I nad
learned It before,-, so;* I could have played She Seige of Sebastopol tor
jpu.  I liked it verjrfmuch when^I heard him play it. :.
tThis teacherlis still quite young. His wife looks very
young, and they have one baby, that was 105 days old last Monday, they
told me. mBut he says he. has gotten so much interested in entomology