440 SEARCH FOR HIUEN-TSI ANG'S PI-MO [CHAP. xxIx.
of mud-built houses were too much decayed to permit of excavation or to offer clear indications as to their date. Yet stich chronological evidence was needed before the identification of this site with Hiuen-Tsiang's Pi-mo, suggested as it was by every topographical consideration, could be definitely accepted. Pi-mo was undoubtedly, as already recognised by Sir Henry Yule, the same place as ` Pein,' which Marco Polo visited on his journey east of Kliotan, and must thus have remained inhabited up to the close of the thirteenth century. The appearance of the bits of pottery, glass, china, small objects of brass and stone, &c., which turned up among the plentiful débris of Uzun-tati, entirely favoured this assumption. But it was only when myself picking up a Chinese copper piece of the Southern Sung dynasty (A.D. 1127-1278), that. I secured conclusive proof that the site had been occupied up to the Middle Ages.
Our guides had previously spoken of a second ` Kone-shahs' which, from some supposed tombs of saints, they called UlughZiarat (" ` the shrine of the holy ones ") . Though these remains were known to them as adjoining Uzun-tati, and in the end proved to be only about three miles distant in a direct line to the south-east. it took us nearly two days and very tiring marches and countermarches in the sand, over an aggregate distance of some twenty-five miles, before this second site was discovered. Less extensive than Uzun-tati, it displayed débris manifestly of the same period. In addition I found not far from it the comparatively well-preserved remains of a small fort, built in the form of an oval of about 480 by 348 feet. The wall of stamped clay was some 11 feet thick at the base and, including the parapet, rose originally to a height of about 14i feet. No remains of any kind were found in the interior of this circumvallation, or around it, and consequently I was unable to form any definite opinion as to its date.
These days in the desert had convincingly demonstrated the serious difficulties which must always attend a search for scanty ruins hidden away among deceptive sand dunes if made without adequate guidance. The rapidly increasing heat and glare—on the
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