All The Before-Mentioned Provinces, Cashgar, Yarkand, Koten, Peim,
Sartem, And Lop, Are In The Bounds Of Turkestan.
It requires a months journey to cross this desert from south to north, but
to go through it lengthways would take up a whole year.
Those who intend to
cross the desert remain for some time in Lop, on purpose to prepare all
necessaries for the journey, as no provisions are to be met with for a
whole month. These, with their merchandize, are loaded on asses and camels,
and if provisions fall short in the desert, the unfortunate travellers are
reduced to the necessity of killing their beasts of burden for sustenance,
preferring the asses for this purpose, as the camels can carry much heavier
burdens, and are satisfied with less food. This journey is entirely through
sands and barren mountains, in which water is found every day; yet at some
of the resting places it is so scanty as hardly to suffice for a caravan of
fifty of an hundred persons and their cattle. In three or four places the
water is salt and bitter, but in all the rest of the journey it is very
good. In the whole of this journey there are no beasts or birds to be seen.
It is reported, that many evil spirits reside in the wilderness, which
occasion wonderful illusions to travellers who happen unfortunately to lag
behind their companions calling them even by their names, and causing them
to stray farther from the right course, so that they lose their way and
perish in the sands. In the night time also they hear noises as of their
friends, and sometimes the sound of music is heard in the air, and people
imagine that they hear the din of drums, as if armies were marching past.
To avoid the danger of separation, the travellers in the desert keep close
together, and hang bells about the necks of their beasts; and if any one
stays behind, they set up marks in the route, that they may know how to
follow.
Having crossed the desert of Lop, we come to the city of Sachion[6] or
Sachiou, which is subject to the great khan, and is situated in the great
country of Tangut. The inhabitants of this city are mostly idolaters, who
have a peculiar language, mixed with a good many Mahometans, and some
Nestorian Christians; this people are little addicted to merchandize or
manufacture, and live on the products of their soil. In this city there are
many temples, consecrated to various idols, with monasteries of priests
devoted to the service of these false deities, to which numerous sacrifices
are offered with great reverence. When a son is born to any person, he is
immediately consecrated to the protection of some particular idol, and the
father nourishes a sheep in his house for a year with great care; and on
the anniversary day of that idol, he presents his son and the sheep as a
sacrifice, with great reverence and many ceremonies, before the shrine of
this tutelary deity.
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