388 APPENDIX
men, on the same principle, marry wherever they happen to reside." The quotation from my notes runs as follows: "The women of the place are noted for their attractiveness and loose character. It is said that many men coming to Keriya for a short time become enamored of the women here, and remain permanently, taking new wives and abandoning their former wives and families."
Hwen Tsiang observed that thirty "li," seven or eight miles, west of Pimo, there is "a great desert marsh, upwards of several acres in extent, without any verdure whatever. The surface is reddish black." The natives explained to the pilgrim that it was the blood-stained site of a great battle fought many years before. Eighteen miles northwest of Keriya bazaar, or ten miles from the most westerly village of the oasis, I observed that "some areas which are flooded part of the year are of a deep rich red color, due to a small plant two or three inches high." I saw such vegetation nowhere else, and apparently it was an equally unusual sight to Hwen Tsiang.
In addition to these somewhat conclusive observations, Marco Polo says that jade is found in the river of Pimo, which is true of the Keriya, but not of the Chira, or of the other rivers near Kenan.
NOTE ON LEVEL OF THE GREAT LAKES
The Great Lakes fluctuate in level in response to changes in the amount of precipitation in their drainage basin. They may be regarded as an enormous rain-gauge. The fluctuation in the level of the lakes has been recorded for a longer time than has the rainfall of the basin as a whole. Hence they are used in preparing the diagram on page 377. This is legitimate, since the purpose is to show the relative amount of rain in different years, and not the actual amount in inches.
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