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

ISBRANTS IDES.

215

called »osero», and the Caspian Gwalinskoj More. Otherwise there is hardly more than the Siba lake that is taken from Witsen. Another feeder of the Ganges comes from the Lac Giamai, which has to its north Kabul, as capital in Zagataykabul Regnum, a really wonderful invention ! And still there is a second Cabul west of Kachemire.

The Indus, as usual, does not come from far away; some of its feeders hardly

touch the southern foot of the tremendous range which stretches from about the source of the Ganges all the way to Ispahan, but not at all eastwards from the Ganges. Attock, on the Indus, is situated between two considerable lakes, of which the northern one is the Wulur lake, the southern a new revelation. The Satlej is as always rudimentary and not easily recognisable.

Tibet Regnum falls within the catchment area of the Ganges, but Regnum Tangut is east of the upper Ganges, and has Barantola between long rows of nomads' tents and further south the legend: Woonplaats van Dalai Lama of Zeepriester, a notion that now begins to become more familiar to Asiatic students.

The old Chiamay lacus, which is now breathing its last, appears under new

names, and east of it the draughtsman has found it more reasonable to combine Martini's source of the Hwangho with Grueber's Koko-nor and call the result Croce Lac, — a sort of »Saffron Lake», after the model of Martini's Croceus fluvius or Yellow River. Ides calls it Crocum Flumen.

If Lop-nor is a wandering lake on the face of the earth, the poor city of Lop

and the Desertum Lop of Marco Polo are never allowed to get a rest on older maps. Ever since Fra Mauro and down to Ides, it is never missing, but always situated at a new surprising corner of the map, and always wrong. On Ides' map we find the Desertum Lop at the uppermost course of the Irtish, and not far east of the Caspian.' In Zagataykabul is Chiotan, probably Khotan, and west of it Andeghem (Andishan), Occient (Khodjent), and Taskent.2

I By the way, it should be noted that all the old cartographers wrote Lop and not Lob. So did Fra Mauro, so did Gastaldi, Mercator, Hondius, Jansson, and the others, and so did Ides. D'Anville wrote Lop-Nor, Stielers Hand-Atlas of 1826 has Lop See. Only the same atlas for 1875 has Lobnoor, following Klaproth's spelling. Prshevalskiy who was the first European of recent years to visit the lake Kara-koshun called it Lob-nor, and many maps followed his great authority, so for instance Saunder's Atlas of India, 1889, and Stielers Hand-Atlas for 19oi. In 1906, when I travelled in the country I never heard any other pronunciation than Lop, though in the Russian translation of my book 'Through Asia», V Serdse Asiy, St. Peterburg 1899, it was changed to Lob. But in this case Marco Polo, the real discoverer of Desertum Lop is a greater authority than Klaproth and Prshevalskiy. Already in 1904 Stieler's Atlas had returned to the version Lop. All reliable travellers, as Stein and Huntington, write Lop. So did Karl Himly in his Chinese translations which he carried out for me (see my: Die Geogr.-wissensch. Ergebnisse meiner Reisen in Zentralasien 1894-1897, Pet. Mit. Erg. Bd. XXVIII, 1900, p. 1 5 1 et seq., and Scientific Results, Vol. II, p. 278 et seq.). So does also Prof. A. Conrady in his work on my ancient manuscripts from Lou-lan, not yet published. Curiously enough Dr. G. Wegener, who collaborated with Himly, has Lob-nur (Zeitschr. d. Ges. f. Erd. zu Berlin, XXVIII Band 1893, p. 201 et seq.). Dr. Albert Herrmann has, of course, Lop-nor (Die alten Seidenstrassen zwischen China and Syrien, Wittenberg 1910). The spelling Lob ought to disappear for ever from maps and books!

2 Under the Title Naaukeurige Kaart van Tartaryen, Pierre vander Aa, Leyde, the map of Ides was much spread during several years. It accompanies also Bergeron's Voyages faits principalement dans les XII, XIII, XIV, et XV siècles, La Haye 1735, Tome I and is reproduced here as Pl. XXXIX.