water level. A standing tamarisk pole attracted the attention of Dr. HEDIN'S men, and when they started to dig they found a rectangular pit in the very hard mesa clay. 0.7 m. from the surface they came upon the lid of a coffin lying NE—SW, with the head pointing NE. The whole coffin was raised to the ground where it was opened.
It consisted of half a hollowed-out trunk with the ends closed with semicircular boards; the lid was made of two boards. The length was 1.82 m. the width 0.520.45 m. The inner length was 1.71 m., the width 0.42 m., and the height 0.29 m. It is visible on Pl. XIII c. Dr. HEDIN is of the opinion that the coffin is a cut-off canoe.
When the lid was taken off a layer of felt was hiding the corpse, that of a young woman 1.6 m. in height, Pl. XIII b. On the head she wore a kerchief of silk-wadding wound like a turban. The dress consisted of outer and inner garments of silk and hemp. Only samples were taken of the different kinds of fabrics, and though Dr. HEDIN gives a description of how they were found it is not easy to get an impression of what the dress was like. Let us hope that Miss SYLWAN will be able to throw some light on this interesting question.
The patterned yellow silk damask Pl. 25 : I formed the most attractive element of the dress. Its geometrical design with coupled lozenges is typically Chinese and is identical with Stein 1928, Pl. XLIII, L. C. vi. 01, and belongs to the same class of splendid Chinese silks as the following fabrics from Noyan-ola and Lo-lang: Trever Pl. 21 : 2 and Harada Pl. CXXIV. It was cut in a triangular piece, one edge bordered with blue silk, and was probably from the lower part of a long garment. The blue silk had also been used for other parts of the dress.
On her feet she wore a pair of shoes with intricate designs, and of fine workmanship. When found, the shoe was coated with clay and looked much damaged. Thanks to the untiring efforts of Miss SYLWAN and her assistants at the Röxss Museum, Gothenburg, it has been successfully cleaned and mounted, and is now one of the most charming textile objects in our collection, Pl. 24. It is nearly complete, except for the sole, which was made of hemp( ?), otherwise the material is silk. The toe part is best preserved, and to this part of the shoe the decoration is limited. The elaborate design comes out satisfactorily on the somewhat enlarged reproduction Pl. 24: 2. There is an upper crimson border with a row of dragons marching right and with the elegant, swift movement in every line so typical of the Han art. They are executed as quite naturalistic quadrupeds with a very long tail and a long crest from the neck.
Immediately below there are some small green indistinct figures, and then follows a pair of extremely stylized eyes extended backwards into red lines. Below these lines there is on each side a row of purple-coloured birds( ?). The central horizontal band, crimson with green spots, is crowned by a row of swimming ( ?) birds, all moving left. Below the central band the pattern is in green colour, unfortunately damaged. There seems to be another row of birds swimming left, and below this
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