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0736 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.1
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 / 736 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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48o A CYCLE OF FESTIVE FIGURES CH. XLIII

to find on the enclosing wall. By good fortune there

emerged some short inscriptions painted in Kharoshthi

script and Indian language by the side of the two figures

of the upper frieze first laid bare. What better proof

could I have wished in support of the conclusion to

which my previous finds had already led me, that these

temples and frescoes dated back to the time when the sites

of Niya and Lop-nor still flourished ? But even thus I

was little prepared for the sight which the frescoed wall

remnants presented when at the end of two days of hard

digging, in an icy gale and whirling dust clouds, I could

proceed to the clearing and closer examination of the

paintings.

On the west side a segment of the circular wall,

once probably containing a second entrance, had been

levelled right down to the floor by early treasure-seekers ;

and owing to this destruction the frescoes were found

now extending over two detached hemicycles broken at

either end. The wall decoration in the one to the north

had for some reason suffered so badly that of an upper

frieze nothing could be made out but half-effaced groups

of small figures. But in the frescoed dado below, which

reached to a height of about three feet from the floor, it

was easy, in spite of faded colours and plentiful cracks of

the plaster, to recognize a remarkably graceful composition

almost classical in design and details. Its connecting

feature was a broad festoon of wreaths and flowers which

youthful supporters carried on their shoulders with the

ease and abandon of true Putti. Among them wingless

E rotes alternated with young figures wearing the Phrygian

cap and of a type which, in spite of a certain girlish cast

of face, unmistakably recalled the Mithras worshipped

throughout the Roman empire.

But more remarkable still were the portraits which

filled in succession the hollows of the undulating festoon.

In each of them there rose the head and bust of a man or

girl, presented in classical outlines and yet with a freedom

of individual expression which made the effect most

striking. The types of men's heads differed. Some were

quite Roman in look, others with their peculiar cut of hair