Sketch of History of Turkestan 263
Many students indeed would suppose, not merely Aryan (Graeco-Bactrian or Græco-Indian) influence, such as might be exerted by the incoming of a few enlightened teachers or great merchants ; but would trace the very origin of the Tarim race itself to some western or south-western source. A reference to Darius's dreams of conquest and colonisation in the farthest East is thought to point the way toward a theory of Iranian ancestry. The frequent occurrence of monkey images in clay among the antiquities taken from Boresan, about three miles from Khotan, suggests a popular familiarity with Maccacus Semnopitliicus, an animal commonly found to the south of the Himalayas. This toy, together with the similarity of head-dress shown in small terracotta images to that known in Northern India several centuries before Christ are seized upon to give Hindu-Aryan grandfathers to the Tarim people. The idealised lion-faces (see p. 140) are also numerous at Boresan ; those from which the illustrations are made were picked up by the natives from some new-cut face of the loess, formed by the wandering current of the river. These lion-faces do duty as proofs of Mesopotamian influence, or, to the adherents of Hebraic ideas, of Mesopotamian origin. The lion is not known in Turkestan. Its image is everywhere—even in snowy Tibet it is a common architectural ornament.
An inspection of toy-shops or bric-à-brac counters in London or New York might, by reasoning similar to that just recorded, result in bringing us all from Africa—home of the menageries which, in pasteboard and in flesh, have furnished our childish or
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