These presumably came by way of Nepal; but musk pods of the
highest class were also imported from Khotan via Yarkand and Leh, and the
lowest price such a pod fetched at Yarkand was 250 tankas, or upwards of
4l. This import has long been extinct, and indeed the trade in the
article, except towards China, has altogether greatly declined, probably
(says Mr. Hodgson) because its repute as a medicine is becoming fast
exploded. In Sicily it is still so used, but apparently only as a sort of
decent medical viaticum, for when it is said "the Doctors have given him
musk," it is as much as to say that they have given up the patient.
["Here Marco Polo speaks of musk; musk and rhubarb (which he mentions
before, Sukchur, ch. xliii.) are the most renowned and valuable of the
products of the province of Kansu, which comparatively produces very
little; the industry in both these articles is at present in the hands of
the Tanguts of that province [Su chow chi]." (Palladius, p. 18.)
Writing under date 15th February, 1892, from Lusar (coming from Sining),
Mr. Rockhill says:
