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Mr. CHEN also noticed that the family had a small vegetable garden. Their efforts to cultivate wheat here were, however, unsuccessful.

There are large quantities of fish in the lower Tarim of our days, and many of the water-fowl there furnish excellent meat, and their eggs are collected in the season. Of larger game the boar and the antelope should be mentioned.' We have no reason to suppose the animal life to have changed since the time of Lou-lan, or, to express it more correctly, the faunae of Lou-lan's time have now returned to the desert along with the life-giving water.

For further discussion of the autochthon population cf. pp. 143-145.

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The activities of the several Japanese expeditions sent to Sinkiang between 1904 and 1911 by Count OTANI and the Buddhist monastery Nishi Hongwan-ji in Kyoto are known to me only through reviews of their publications2 and the mention which STEIN makes of them. Of the original Japanese publications only one has been obtainable : Mr HANEDA'S Description of some documents discovered by the mission OTANI in Chinese Turkistan (Toyo gakuho I : 2, 191 I ). When the text of this chapter was already in proof the large catalogue of the Korean National Museum in Seul was received (Amamuna & Minamoto : Chosen Kobi-jitsu Taikwan). In the third volume of this work Pl. 82 shows, inter alia, a water bag of skin from Rooran (i. e. Lou-lan). More remarkable are the contents of Pl. 78 (Pl. 79-81 show some of the same objects enlarged). Unfortunately there is no accompanying text, only a statement that the articles originate from the local people in Central Asia ( !) As to who collected the things, when and where, the catalogue gives no information. Now the following objects are easily identified as corning from autochthon graves in the Lop desert : the four small baskets on the left in the upper row of Pl. 78, the two felt head-dresses flanking the lower row, and the raw-hide shoe in the centre of the lower row of the same plate. These things are in fact so similar to my own finds from "ÖRDEK's necropolis" that I feel practically certain that they originate from there too. Are these the results of the earlier plunderings of the site? As stated by ÖRDEK the searches of the site were started on the order of the Chinese Amban in Charkhliq. We know that Mr. TACHIBANA of the Nishi Hongwan-ji expeditions was in Charkhliq in both 1910 and 1911. Did he inspire the Amban to bring forth antiquities with the help of the natives, or did the Amban start the action to suit Mr. TACHIBANA? Any of these possibilities seem likely. It seems less probable that Mr. TACHIBANA himself went to "ÖRDEK's necropolis", as ORDEK mentioned none but local people among the treasure-seekers.

A footnote in Stein 1928, p. 787, may be of importance in this connection: —

1 Among the present population hunting does not play any important rôle in the economic life of the people, and the boar is avoided on religious grounds.

2 PÉRI in BEFEO 1909 p. 626, 1910 p. 652, 1911 p. 465, and MASPERO in 1915 p. 57.

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