National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

my best friends, » I replied; whereupon the prince spoke of his own memories from the beginning of the century, when LE COQ had also visited Hami, and asked me to convey his greetings to him.

His notions as to Sweden's position on the map were, naturally, of the vaguest. »How far is your country from Istanbul? » — »Four days' journey by train. » — »Oh, so you are neighbours of the Turks! » — He himself took three months to reach Peking. He proceeded to question us about our journey through Asia, and was unable to understand why we had taken eight months over it, since the average merchant caravan did it in three. I explained that we had worked, made observations and collections, and asked him why people had been afraid of us and suspected us of evil intentions. He replied:

»When so many well-armed Europeans come to our frontiers it is no matter for surprise that we suspect them of being the advance-guard of a hostile army. China is in a state of war, and we must be careful. But we were not afraid of you, especially as we knew that the son of your king had spoken well of you and recommended you to the government in Peking. Yet we had no means of knowing whether you were the right ones or quite a different party. Now, however, everything is clear. »

We took our farewell of the prince and proceeded to the next visit. This was to General Liu, who invited the whole staff to a dinner at which he himself, the magistrate and SHAH MAQSUD were to act as hosts. The dinner was to be held in YOLBARS KHAN'S residence, the only spacious house in Hami, and moreover, the only one to which the king could go without running the risk of being served food that had been prepared in pork-dripping.

Finally we paid a visit to the burgomaster, General Ax, and to the postmaster CHEN.

On his return visit General Liu presented me with a beautiful panther-skin from Kucha, in acknowledgement of the gift he had himself received. This was our largest telescope with tripod, a present that had delighted him very much.

FALCON HUNT

One day the Mohammedan king had invited us to witness a hunt with falcons. Accordingly, some of our hunters rode out with the hunting party. They were very satisfied with what they saw — the bag for the day consisted of three hares. These hunting falcons are caught in the autumn. Decoyed by doves or fowls under stretched out nets, the falcon is lured into the trap, gets entangled in the meshes and is fast. He is tamed in a fortnight, taught to perch on the leather gauntlet, to wear a hood over his head, and to catch foxes and hares. He is restored to liberty

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