CHAP. x .] FAME OF KHOTAN JADE 255
search ; so annually for a short period it attracts a large number of the poorer agriculturists of the oasis, who look to it as a kind of lottery. Very few find their labours rewarded, but the hope of turning up a valuable piece of jade among the rubble is as strong now among the poor of Khotan as it has been for many centuries.
The Annals of the old Chinese dynasties, from the Han period downwards, contain many curious data and anecdotes about the jade (` yü') which made the little kingdom of Yü-t'ien or Khotan famous in the Celestial Empire. Abel. Rémusat, the Sinologist, collected and translated many of these notices in his Histoire de la ville de Khotan (Paris : 1820), and it was a satisfaction to me to read this earliest contribution to the European literature on Khotan near the very pits which furnish the precious stone so learnedly discussed in it.
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