National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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is produced here. A strip of arid sandy desert separates this district from Khutan and Yûrungkash on one side and Karyi on the other. The river of Chira flows through the settlement in several streams which get lost on the desert. The mulberry and eleagnus grow here to perfection, and their fruits are esteemed better than those in any other part of the country. The people are rich in cattle, sheep and camels, and manufacture excellent felts which they sell at Khutan. There are gold mines in the hills to the south.

Karyi, 4,000 houses. This district resembles the last, and is a market town on the river bearing its name. Its settlement extends for several miles up and down the stream till it is lost on the Takla Mukin desert to the north. Its productions are the same as those of Chira. At a'day's journey to the south is the Soghrak settlement of 200 houses in a long glen. There are gold mines here similar to those at Chamand on the other side of the hills in the Kuranghotigh district. Further on in the mountains, at Kalakûm, where there is no habitation, there are other gold mines, and mines of native sulphur. There is a road, two days' journey through narrow defiles, from Kalaknm to Chamand which is a settlement of 200 houses.

Naya, 500 houses. This is a small district on the edge of the desert, and ends towards the east at Mazir Bibi Injila, or as it is commonly called Imam Ja'far Sadik. This is the boundary, too, of the Khutan State in that direction, and is considered to be the limit of the Amir's territory, although he claims possession of Chichan, and has a Governor there. The settlements of Niya are dispersed along the foot_of the hills upon the streams issuing from them, and are all of small extent, few containing 50 houses. There are gold mines in this district, and more productive than elsewhere. Across a desert waste to the east is Chichan. This is a flourishing settlement of 500 houses on the banks of two rivers which unite on the plain, and flow in a single stream towards Lob. The town is situated at the foot of a mountain to the south, and a river flows on its west and its east. On these are planted the farmsteads of the settlement. By the Chinese this place was used as a penal colony for Khutan. It now belongs to the Amir, who has sent Daulat Beg of Khutan as his Governor there. The people are very prosperous and industrious, and are fond of good living and merriment. They are Musalmans, but very lax in their observance of the Shara or " Law."

A white stone called mânoh is quarried in the hills here and sent in large quantities to China. Formerly Chichan was a very important place on the caravan route from Khutan to China. The ruins of the ancient city still exist on a ridge of hill overlooking the present town. They cover a great extent of surface, and are mostly buried under drift sand, but here and there their walls stand out, and are substantially built of brick and stone. Nobody knows anything of their history except that the city anciently belonged to infidels and was destroyed by the Musalmans. At the present day people dig in the ruins for the sake of the bricks and stones, and sometimes find great treasure in gold and precious stones. There is a road north from this to Lob, three or four days' journey across the desert by shepherd camps.

Inclusive of Chichan the population of Khutan, according to the Chinese revenue returns, is reckoned at 18,500 houses. This at seven persons per house will give the total population of the State as 129,500 souls. But this, from all accounts, is much above the actual number now to be found within its limits. Khutan communicates with Tibet and Kashmir by the Sinjû road, with Yirkund by the Giimi road, and with Lob by the Marjin Uldi road along the course of the Khutan River. Its frontiers are Sinjû on the west, Mnnjf near Gûmi on the north-west, Marjin Uldi on Takla Makin to the north, and Imam Ja'far Sad& on the east.

Ydrkand.—This is the most populous and most extensive of. all the States of Kashghar, and its city, which was in ancient times the capital of the country, is still the largest and most wealthy in the whole valley. It is enclosed within fortified walls which are supported at intervals by buttress bastions topped with loopholed turrets. The length of the city is from north to south, but the walls describe an irregular figure, and have no surrounding ditch. Their circuit is about four miles, and they are pierced by five gates or dâbza = darwaza, viz., Alhin or " Gold (gate)" on the south, Ccrwughat or " Melon" on the west, Tera-bdgh or " Hide garden" on the north, Masa or " Jester" on the east, and Khdncdk or " Monastery" on the south-east.

The city stands on the open plain, and is surrounded by wide spreading and populous suburbs, which consist of farmsteads scattered about in small clusters amongst the fields and