allowed traffic to circulate under the tower in two directions. The town is inhabited by Manchurians, who have the sole right of living there. You meet interesting types in the town, Kalmuks, Kirghiz in picturesque costumes with their long-haired, pointed fur caps, Sibos and Solons, who are all directly subordinated to the Dzian Dziun. The town of Suitin, a dirty Chinese town of the usual type, lies 2 —2 I /2 miles from the residence of the Dzian Dziun. Beyond a fairly fine temple, said to have been built in honour of the Dzian Dziun, and another, in which the images are supposed to possess healing properties, there is not much to see. In the town there are a Djentai and a Shenguan, who speaks fairly correct Russian, though with some difficulty. He was formerly a teacher of the Chinese language in the school at the Russian consulate. There is a Roman Catholic missionary at work in Suitin and the neighbourhood. A few men of the consul's guard are stationed here for the purpose of escorting the mails.
A big village, named Turpan, lies Io—I I miles NE of Qulja on a small mountain river, Dshirgalan, not far from its outflow from the mountains. I /3 of a mile beyond the village the unevenness of the ground on either side of the river confirms the opinion of the local population that human dwellings stood there in former days. Traces are visible almost everywhere of excavations made by treasure-hunters. Here, as in every part of this country, in which dwellings are supposed to have stood, there are rumours of treasure having been found. The secretary of the Russian consulate made some minor excavations here and discovered some silver and copper coins, a small vase of rough pottery, a tobacco box and other small objects. He believes a couple of the coins to be of Uigurian origin, the rest Mohammedan. One day I made about 3o workmen cut up the ground in 3 or 4. places. In one of these holes two large clay jars, standing side by side, were unearthed; they had a kind of ornamentation along the upper edge of a different form from that used by the
220(
IIIF Color HighRes
