国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

THE RIVERS BAUTISUS AND OECHARDES.

39

Most of the later successors of Ptolemy have not been able to identify the Bautisus with the Tsangpo, for this river remained unknown till comparatively lately. MARTELLUS GERMANUS, for instance, gives the Bautisis Flu. three sources, from Chasii Montes, Serice Montes and Octocoras Mons; they join and flow without the slightest hesitation straight to the Glacial Ocean. On Petrus Aj5ianus, 153o, the river also turns north. On the Ptolenzcus Editio B. Sylvani, Venice, 1511, the Bautisus amnis goes east and empties itself into a lake not so very far from the eastern coast of Asia. I On the Ptol. Argentina. 1513, and on G. Mercator 1538 the river again goes north to the Polar Sea. 2 The uncertainty about the ultimate fate of the river should not cause surprise, for it existed in Europe and India even in the time of some geographers still living; though, of course, not to such an extent as 400 years ago.

But how could it ever be explained that the Sera metropolis should have been supposed to be situated exactly at the point where the river begins to pierce the mountains? If I am right in believing the Emodii Montes etc. to represent the whole Tibetan highland between Himalaya and Kwen-lun, and if, as Lassen believes, the Casii montes are those of Kashgar, and the north-western branch of the Bautisus comes from them, I should take this branch to be the Yarkand- or Kashgardarya, and the south-western branch, on which the place Orosana reminds us of Borasana near Khotan, the Khotan-darya. Thus the Bautisus should be the Tarim, and the lake in which it comes to an end, the Lop-nor.

But here we meet a difficulty. For just north of the Bautisus is another river, Oechardes Flu., which is exactly like the Bautisus, beginning with two source branches from mountains in the north and the south of it, and, after their junction, flowing eastwards to disappear in a lake. This river, Oechardes, has been identified with the Tarim,3 though other opinions have also been expressed. RENNELL recognises in the Oecharda »the Oigurs or Yugures of the present times».4 FORBIGER believes that the branch of the Oechardes which comes from the Auxacii M. — Altai, is identical with the Selenga, while the other branches should be some steppe-rivers; MANNERT identifies the western branch with Etziné ; REICHARD identifies the Oechardes with the Tarim falling out in the Lop-nor. 5 As to the Bautisus, Forbiger believes it is meant to be the Hwang-ho. Saint-Martin finds it not improbable that the 0echarda represent the territory of Skardo in Baltistan and if this be right the 0echardes fluvius should be the part of the Sindh which traverses the great territory

I Facsimile-Atlas till kartografiens äldsta historia innehållande afbildningar of de viktigaste kartor tryckta före år 1600. Af A. E. Nordenskiöld Stockholm 1889, Pl. XXXIII.

2 Ibidem, Pl. XXXV and XLIII.

3 RICHTHOFEN: China, I, Tafel 8; ALBERT HERRMANN: Die alten Seidenstrassen zwischen China und Syrien, map; and PETERMANN'S Mitteilungen, 1911.

4 RENNELL'S Herodotus, p. 209.

5 FORBIGER, op. Cit. p. 59.