Tradition says it was brought

Stone, on which Timur's throne was set. by him from Brusa (180 cubic feet of it!) but tradition may be wrong (see Vámbéry's Travels, p. 206).

CHAPTER XXXV.

OF THE PROVINCE OF YARCAN.

YARCAN is a province five days' journey in extent. The people follow the Law of Mahommet, but there are also Nestorian and Jacobite Christians. They are subject to the same Prince that I mentioned, the Great Kaan's nephew. They have plenty of everything [particularly of cotton. The inhabitants are also great craftsmen, but a large proportion of them have swoln legs, and great crops at the throat, which arises from some quality in their drinkingwater]. As there is nothing else worth telling we may pass on.'

NOTE 1.-Yarkan or Yarken seems to be the general pronunciation of the name to this day, though we write YARKAND.

Mir 'Izzat Ullah in modern days speaks of the prevalence of goître at Yarkand. And Mr. Shaw informs me that during his recent visit to Yarkand he had numerous applications for iodine as a remedy for that disease. The theory which connects it with the close atmosphere of valleys will not hold at-Yarkand. (J. R. A. S., VII, 303.)

CHAPTER XXXVI.

OF A PROVINCE CALLED COTAN.

COTAN is a province lying between north-east and east, and is eight days' journey in length. The people are subject to the Great Kaan, and are all worshippers of Mahommet.' There are numerous towns and villages in the country, but

Cotan, the capital, is the most noble of all, and gives its name to the kingdom. Everything is to be had there in plenty, including abundance of cotton [with flax, hemp, wheat, wine, and the like]. The people have vineyards and gardens and estates. They live by commerce and manufactures, and are no soldiers."

NOTE 1.-"Aourent Mahommet." Though this is Marco's usual formula to define Mahomedans, we can scarcely suppose that he meant it literally. But in other cases it was very literally interpreted. Thus in Baudouin de Sebourg, the Dame de Pontieu, a passionate lady who renounces her faith before Saladin, says :—

And this notion gave rise to the use of Mawmet for an idol in general; whilst from the Mahommerie or place of Islamite worship the name of mummery came to be applied to idolatrous or unmeaning rituals; both very unjust etymologies. Thus of mosques in Richard Cœur de Lion :—

"Kyrkes they made of Crystene Lawe,

And her Mawmettes lete downe drawe."-Weber, II. 228.

So Correa calls a golden idol, which was taken by Da Gama in a ship of Calicut," an image of Mahomed" (372). Don Quixote too, who ought to have known better, cites with admiration the feat of Rinaldo in carrying off, in spite of forty Moors, a golden image of Mahomed.

NOTE 2.-800 li (160 miles) east of Chokiuka or Yarkand, Hwen Thsang comes to Kiustanna (Kustána) or KHOTAN. "The country chiefly consists of plains covered with stones and sand. The remainder however, is favourable to agriculture and produces everything abundantly. From this country are got woollen carpets, fine felts, well woven taffetas, white and black jade." Chinese authors of the 10th century speak of the abundant grapes and excellent wine of Khotan.

Ilchi, the modern capital, was visited by Mr. Johnson of the Indian Survey in 1865. The country, after the revolt against the Chinese in 1863, came first under the rule of Habib-ullah, an aged chief calling himself Khán Bádshah of Khotan; and since the defeat and death of that chief about 1867, it has formed a part of the kingdom of Ya'ķúb Beg of Kashgar, which now embraces the whole basin of Eastern Turkestan to Karashahr.

Cotton of

Mr. Johnson says: "The chief grains of the country are Indian corn, wheat, barley of two kinds, bajra, jowár (two kinds of holcus), buckwheat and rice, all of which are superior to the Indian grains, and are of a very fine quality. . . . . The country is certainly superior to India, and in every respect equal to Kashmir, over which it has the advantage of being less humid, and consequently better suited to the growth of fruits. Olives (?), pears, apples, peaches, apricots, mulberries, grapes, currants, and melons, all exceedingly large in size and of a delicious flavour, are produced in great variety and abundance. . . . . valuable quality, and raw silk are produced in very large quantities." Mr. Johnson reports the whole country to be rich in soil, and very much under-peopled. Ilchi the capital has a population of about 40,000, and is a great place for manufactures. The chief articles produced are silks, felts, carpets (both silk and woollen), coarse cotton cloths, and paper from the mulberry fibre. The people are strict Mahomedans and speak a Turki dialect. Both sexes are good-looking, with a slightly Tartar cast of countenance. (V. et V. de H. T. 278 ; Rémusat, H. de la V. de Khotan, 73-84; Chin. Repos. IX. 128; J. R.G. S. XXXVII. 6 seqq.)

CHAPTER XXXVII.

OF THE PROVINCE OF PEIN.

PEIN is a province five days in length, lying between east and north-east. The people are worshippers of Mahommet, and subjects of the Great Kaan. There are a good number of towns and villages, but the most noble is PEIN, the capital of the kingdom.' There are rivers in this country, in which quantities of Jasper and Chalcedony are found.2 The people have plenty of all products, including cotton. They live by manufactures and trade. But they have a custom that I must relate. If the husband of any woman go away upon a journey and remain away for more than 20 days, as soon as that term is past the woman may marry another man, and the husband also may then marry whom he pleases.❜

I should tell you that all the provinces that I have been

speaking of, from Cascar forward, and those I am going to mention [as far as the city of Lop] belong to GREAT TURKEY.

NOTE 1.—There have been considerable differences of opinion as to where Pein is to be sought.

"In old times," says the Haft-Iklim, "travellers used to go from Khotan to Cathay in 14 (?) days, and found towns and villages all along the road, so that there was no need to travel in caravans. In later days the fear of the Kalmaks caused this line to be abandoned, and the circuitous one occupied 100 days." This directer route between Khotan and China appears to have been followed by Fahian on his way to India; by Hwen Thsang on his way back; and by Shah Rukh's ambassadors on their return from China in 1421. The main question as to Polo's route is whether he took this, or the circuitous route alluded to in the extract just quoted. The latter appears to have gone north from Khotan, crossed the Tarimgol, and fallen into the road along the base of the Thian Shan, eventually crossing the Desert southward from Kamul. Marsden is here very vague. Neumann would seem to prefer the southern route by his suggested identification of Charchan with Chira east of Khotan, were it not that he had just before identified Pein with Piján, some 700 miles to the N.E. of Chira. Such random zigzag geography is of no aid or value. Murray suggested that Pein was the Bai of our maps, a town and district of Eastern Turkestan lying about 350 miles nearly due north of Ilchi, near the foot of the Thian Shan. He also identified the Charchan of the following chapter with Karáshahr, and thus assigned to Polo what we have spoken of as the northern or circuitous route. This scheme has been followed by Pauthier.

Several circumstances had led me to doubt this view. First (though on this I lay little stress), we go on upon the old bearing of E.N.E. There is no indication of a change to due north such as would be involved in the journey to Bai. Next, we have no ground that I can learn for believing that the rivers flowing south from the Thian Shan afford Jasper, i.e. Jade. This is the product of rivers flowing north from the Kuen Lun and Karakorum. Professor Vámbéry also has favoured me with a note, in which he expresses a strong opinion that Polo's Pein "must have existed on the way from Khotan to Komul along the Khotan Deria (River), a road which is even now much frequented. Marco Polo speaks of cotton growing in Pein. I know for certain that cotton begins to grow only south of Aksu, and Bai has almost the coldest climate of the Six Towns" (i.e. of Eastern Turkestan).

Since reading Johnson's Report of his Journey to Khotan I am able to feel tolerable certainty as to the position of Charchan, and as to the fact that Marco followed a direct route from Khotan to the vicinity of

Lake Lop. Pein, then, I have little doubt, was identical with PIMA,* which was the first city reached by Hwen Thsang on his return to China after quitting Khotan, and which lay 300 li east of the latter city. The Si-yu-ki, followed by St. Martin in his map, puts Pima west of Khotan, but this is quite inconsistent both with the direction of the returning pilgrims' route, and with other notices of Pima quoted in Rémusat's History of Khotan. These place Pima 330 li to the eastward of Khotan, on the banks of a river flowing from the east and entering the Sandy Desert. Johnson found Khotan rife with stories of former cities overwhelmed by the shifting sands of the Desert, and these sands appear to have been advancing for ages; for far to the north-east of Pima, even in the 7th century, were to be found the deserted and ruined cities of the ancient kingdoms of Tuholo and Shemathona. "Where anciently were the seats of flourishing cities and prosperous communities," says a Chinese author, speaking of this region, "is nothing now to be seen but a vast desert; all has been buried in the sands, and the wild camel is hunted on those arid plains."

Pima cannot have been far from Kiria, visited by Johnson, if it were not practically identical therewith. This is a town of 7000 houses lying east of Ilchi, and about 69 miles distant from it. The road for the most part lies through a highly cultivated and irrigated country, flanked by the sandy desert at 3 or 4 miles to the left.

(N. et E. XIV. 477; V. et V. de H. T. 288; H. de la Ville de Khoten, 63-66; Klap. Tabl. Historiques, p. 182.)

NOTE 2. The Jasper and Chalcedony of our author are probably only varieties of the semi-precious mineral called by us popularly Jade, by the Chinese Yu, by the Eastern Turks Kásh, by the Persians Yashm, which last is no doubt the same word with laois and therefore with Jasper. The Greek Jaspis was in reality, according to Mr. King, a green Chalcedony.

The Jade of Turkestan is chiefly derived from water-rolled boulders fished up by divers in the rivers of Khotan, but it is also got from mines in the Karakorum range. "Some of the Jade," says Timkowski, "is as white as snow, some dark green, like the most beautiful emerald (?) others yellow, vermilion, and jet black. The rarest and most esteemed varieties are the white speckled with red, and the green veined with gold" (I. 395). The Jade of Khotan appears to be first mentioned by Chinese authors in the time of the Han Dynasty under Wuti (B.C. 14086). In A.D. 541 an image of Buddha sculptured in Jade was sent as an offering from Khotan; and in 632 the process of fishing for the material in the rivers of Khotan, as practised down to modern times, is mentioned. The importation of Jade or Yu from this quarter probably gave the name of Kia-yu-Kuan or "Jade Gate" to the fortified Pass looking in this direction on the extreme N.W. of China Proper, between

VOL. I.

*Pein may easily have been miscopied for Pem.

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