"In this city of Kamchau there is an idol temple five hundred cubits
square. In the middle is an idol lying at length, which measures fifty
paces. The sole of the foot is nine paces long, and the instep is
twenty-one cubits in girth. Behind this image and overhead are other idols
of a cubit (?) in height, besides figures of Bakshis as large as life.
The action of all is hit off so admirably that you would think they were
alive. Against the wall also are other figures of perfect execution. The
great sleeping idol has one hand under his head, and the other resting on
his thigh. It is gilt all over, and is known as Shakamuni-fu. The people
of the country come in crowds to visit it, and bow to the very ground
before this idol" (Cathay, I., p. 277).
XLV., p. 223.
OF THE CITY OF ETZINA.
I said, I., p. 225, that this town must be looked for on the river
Hei-shui called Etsina by the Mongols, and would be situated on the
river on the border of the Desert, at the top of a triangle, whose bases
would be Suhchau and Kanchau. My theory seems to be fully confirmed by Sir
Aurel Stein, who writes:
"Advantages of geographical position must at all times have invested this
extensive riverine tract, limited as are its resources, with considerable
importance for those, whether armed host or traders, who would make the
long journey from the heart of Mongolia in the north to the Kansu oases.
It had been the same with the ancient Lou-lan delta, without which the
Chinese could not have opened up the earliest and most direct route for
the expansion of their trade and political influence into Central Asia.
The analogy thus presented could not fail to impress me even further when
I proceeded to examine the ruins of Khara-khoto, the 'Black Town' which
Colonel Kozloff, the distinguished Russian explorer, had been the first
European to visit during his expedition of 1908-1909.
