The
Name And Approximate Position Suggest, As Just Noticed, Identity With
Alashan, The Modern Capital Of Which, Called By Prjevalsky Dyn-Yuan-Yin,
Stands Some Distance West Of The Hwang-Ho, In About Lat.
39 deg..
Polo gives
no data for the interval between this and his next stage.
[The Dyn-yuan-yin of Prjevalsky is the camp of Ting-yuan-yng or Fu-ma-
fu of M. Bonin, the residence of the Si-wang (western prince), of Alashan,
an abbreviation of Alade-shan (shan, mountain in Chinese), Alade =
Eleuth or Oeloet; the sister of this prince married a son of Prince Tuan,
the chief of the Boxers. (La Geographie, 1901. I. 118.) Palladius
(l.c. 19) says: "Under the name of Calachan, Polo probably means the
summer residence of the Tangut kings, which was 60 li from Ning-hia, at
the foot of the Alashan Mountains. It was built by the famous Tangut king
Yuen-hao, on a large scale, in the shape of a castle, in which were high
terraces and magnificent buildings. Traces of these buildings are visible
to this day. There are often found coloured tiles and iron nails 1 foot,
and even 2 feet long. The last Tangut kings made this place their
permanent residence, and led there an indolent and sensual life. The
Chinese name of this residence was Ho-lan shan Li-Kung. There is
sufficient reason to suppose that this very residence is named (under the
year 1226) in the Mongol text Alashai nuntuh; and in the chronicles of
the Tangut Kingdom, Halahachar, otherwise Halachar apparently in the
Tangut language. Thus M. Polo's Calachan can be identified with the
Halachar of the Si hia shu shi, and can be taken to designate the
Alashan residence of the Tangut kings." - H. C.]
NOTE 3. - Among the Buraets and Chinese at Kiakhta snow-white camels,
without albino character, are often seen, and probably in other parts of
Mongolia. (See Erdmann, II. 261.) Philostratus tells us that the King of
Taxila furnished white camels to Apollonius. I doubt if the present King
of Taxila, whom Anglo-Indians call the Commissioner of Rawal Pindi, could
do the like.
Cammellotti appear to have been fine woollen textures, by no means what
are now called camlets, nor were they necessarily of camel's wool, for
those of Angora goat's wool were much valued. M. Douet d'Arcq calls it "a
fine stuff of wool approaching to our Cashmere, and sometimes of silk."
Indeed, as Mr. Marsh points out, the word is Arabic, and has nothing to do
with Camel in its origin; though it evidently came to be associated
therewith. Khamlat is defined in F. Johnson's Dict.: "Camelot, silk and
camel's hair; also all silk or velvet, especially pily and plushy," and
Khaml is "pile or plush." Camelin was a different and inferior
material. There was till recently a considerable import of different kinds
of woollen goods from this part of China into Ladakh, Kashmir, and the
northern Panjab. [Leaving Ning-hsia, Mr. Rockhill writes (Diary, 1892,
44): "We passed on the road a cart with Jardine and Matheson's flag,
coming probably from Chung-Wei Hsien, where camel's wool is sold in
considerable quantities to foreigners.
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