UNDER THE MONGOLS. 275
a seventh in the vicinity of Karakhoja, a city of the Uigurs,1 which lies between the two states and maintains neutrality. This frontier ends at the mountains of Tibet. The great Desert cannot be crossed in summer, because of the want of water ; in winter they have only snow-water to drink.
1 There are at least two Lakes in Mongolia called by the name of Chagan-Nur ; one the Cyagannor or Cianganor of Polo where Kublai had a palace, not far from Shangtu (supra, p. 134); the other lying north-east of Kamil, about lat. 45° 45' and east long. 96°, which appears to be that here intended, as the first is far from Tangut. Karakhoja is still a town of Eastern or Chinese Turkestan, the position of which is indicated by Timkowski as south of Turfan, and one of the districts of that province (i, 386; see also Ritter, vii, 432, 435). It seems to have continued to be the frontier of the Chinese rule a century later under the Ming ; for Shah Rukh's ambassadors, on their arrival at Karakhoja, or a short distance east of it, met the first Chinese officials, who took down a list of the party (Not. et Extr., xiv, pt. z, 389). In another passage of Rashid, quoted by Quatremère, he says : When you descend below the Chagan Nair, you are near the city of Karakhoja in the Uigur country, where they have good wine (Ib., p. 235).
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