It may be justly said that during the last few years numerous traces of
Hindu civilisation have been found in Central Asia, extending from Khotan,
through the Takla-Makan, as far as Turfan, and perhaps further up.
Dr. Sven Hedin, in the year 1896, during his second journey through
Takla-Makan from Khotan to Shah Yar, visited the ruins between the Khotan
Daria and the Kiria Daria, where he found the remains of the city of
Takla-Makan now buried in the sands. He discovered figures of Buddha, a
piece of papyrus with unknown characters, vestiges of habitations. This
Asiatic Pompei, says the traveller, at least ten centuries old, is anterior
to the Mahomedan invasion led by Kuteibe Ibn-Muslim, which happened at the
beginning of the 8th century. Its inhabitants were Buddhist, and of Aryan
race, probably originating from Hindustan. - Dutreuil de Rhins and Grenard
discovered in the Kumari grottoes, in a small hill on the right bank of the
Karakash Daria, a manuscript written on birch bark in Kharoshthi
characters; these grottoes of Kumari are mentioned in Hiuen Tsang. (II. p.
229.)
Dr. Sven Hedin followed the route Kashgar, Yangi-Hissar, Yarkand to
Khotan, in 1895. He made a stay of nine days at Ilchi, the population of
which he estimated at 5500 inhabitants (5000 Musulmans, 500 Chinese).
(See also Sven Hedin, Die Geog. wissenschaft. Ergebnisse meiner Reisen in
Zentralasien, 1894-1897. Petermann's Mitt., Ergaenz. XXVIII. (Hft. 131),
Gotha, 1900. - H. C.]
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.[NOTE 1] There are rivers in this country, in
which quantities of Jasper and Chalcedony are found.[NOTE 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.[NOTE 3]
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. - "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 [excepting, it may be presumed, on the terrible Gobi], 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 must have
been followed by Fa-hian on his way to India; by Hiuen Tsang on his way
back; and by Shah Rukh's ambassadors on their return from China in 1421.
The circuitous route alluded to 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 Komul.
