far as I know, expressed himself on that point, it has seemed to me that the facial types shown in certain statues found by him, and the mental type disclosed by some of the recovered writings, point to a race not Mongol as having constituted the superior and clerical element of the Khotanese inhabitants as early as the beginning of our era. Yet, on the other hand, little has been found to cause the temple ornamentation or religious literature to be accepted as proper expressions of the general genius of the people.
Religious antiquities, coming from an era just following the acceptance of a new faith by a converted people, must not be lightly adopted as evidence in the establishment of racial affinities. The mere susceptibility to Aryan influences, as shown by the various "finds " in the buried cities, hints of a certain docility and suppleness which may mark any people dwelling in the dense and enervating conditions of oasis life ; while the absence of original work in any developed art suggests affinity with the Mongol who has ever been extremely indifferent to all that may be known to us as classic influence. The few facts available to us for reconstructing this period in Turkestan seem entirely consistent with the theory that the invaders of Tartar-Mongol blood were gradually absorbed by their more numerous and more civilised victims, while the resulting composite race became, for a time, at least, of tougher fibre, but not insensible to the artistic and religious impulses reaching it from the south-west or west, and which, even before the coming of the Yue-che, had already influenced the Tarim civilisation.
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