The Chinese traveller, translated by M. Gueluy (Desc. de la Chine
occidentale, p. 45), says that all the inhabitants of Khotan are seeking
for precious stones, and that melons and fruits are more plentiful than at
Yarkand. - H. C.]
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; Remusat, H. de la V. de Khotan,
37, 73-84; Chin. Repos. IX. 128; J. R. G. S. XXXVII. 6 seqq.)
[In 1891, Dutreuil de Rhins and Grenard at the small village of Yotkan,
about 8 miles to the west of the present Khotan, came across what they
considered the most important and probably the most ancient city of
southern Chinese Turkestan. The natives say that Yotkan is the site of the
old Capital. (Cf. Grenard, III. p. 127 et seq. for a description and
drawings of coins and objects found at this place.)
The remains of the ancient capital of Khotan were accidentally discovered,
some thirty-five years ago, at Yotkan, a village of the Borazan Tract.
