国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

Stock statements, etc., kept of arms.

Lists of clothing issued to soldiers.

Hammers used for tent-pitching.

760   HISTORY AND RECORDS OF THE TUN-HUANG LIMES [Chap. XX

We owe the information above detailed mainly to the care which the administration obviously bestowed upon keeping exact record, by means of stock statements, inspection reports, and the like, of all arms whether furnished for particular watch-posts and detachments or issued to individual soldiers.81 It is, no doubt, for the same reason that we also find among the inventories lists showing arms which had become damaged and useless.82 These had evidently to be inspected, inventoried, and ` returned into store ', as modern military routine of peace time would demand it, before they could in due course be replaced by fresh issues from some military magazine at headquarters. The procedure here assumed on the basis of documents is very strikingly illustrated by a curious relic, broken arrow-shafts, one complete with its bronze head, T. xv. a. vi. oor (Plate LIII), which I found neatly tied up into a little packet for delivery into store ', and which has been already described.63

That the administration of the Limes also provided clothing for its soldiers is proved by a number of documents which mention tunics, vests, etc.64 Linen is the prevailing material indicated, and this is abundantly represented among the rags recovered from the refuse-heaps of the Limes posts. Torn strips of silk, too, were plentifully found there, and the mention of an undress of white silk in the kit list of a soldier shows that they could not all have come from officers' cast-off clothes.85 Shoes of leather and hemp are also mentioned in lists, and cast-off specimens of both were found in numbers at the ruined towers and stations.66 My first inscribed ' find ' on the Limes, T. III. i. I, No. 674, was a wôoden label for the clothes-bag belonging to a certain soldier, and the red canvas label, No. 434, bearing the name, etc., of a garrison soldier, was probably intended for the same purpose.

Among the few remaining miscellaneous articles-of equipment of which mention can be traced in the records, the hammers referred to in No. 130, T. vi. b. i. 168, may be illustrated by the wooden implement, T. xIv. a. ii. oo1, shown in Plate LII, and by the other from T. vI. c, described in my Personal Narrative.87 The latter was undoubtedly, as its shape showed, meant for driving

in tent-pegs.   It thus furnishes interesting evidence of the fact that tents were also in use
along the Limes. We should have had to assume this in any case, as the accommodation provided in the quarters traceable at the watch-towers would have been quite inadequate to

81 In Doc. Nos. 257, 274 we thus have lists of arms belonging to Government entrusted to the soldiers on guard duty ' at specific watch-stations (T. vi. b, xxII. b) ; see also Nos. 587, 591, 693. Issues to particular soldiers are recorded ' on loan' in Nos. 75, 77 ; see also Nos. 39-41, 71, 134,

253.

62 No. 184 is a list of such arms in stock ' at the official residence of the [commandant of the] garrison soldiers'. No. 307, of A. D. 14, presents itself as ' a list of damaged objects among the military armament of Ta-chien-tu at Vttmên', i.e., as I understand it, of objects which had been ` returned into store ' as useless from that outlying post ; cf. above, p. 689. See also No. 65.

n Cf. above, p. 704 ; below, p. 783.

64 Doc. Nos. 42, 43 each record the issue in 6o B.C. of a linen tunic to a soldier by the captain of the Ling-hu company; with its price. No. 79 notes in possession of one man an under and an upper tunic, value 287 and 450 ' cash pieces' respectively. No. 72, the kit list of a ' garrison soldier' from Shan-hsi, shows amongst other entries not clearly legible ' a black linen tunic, an undress costume of

white silk, an unlined dress of black linen '. All these records are from T. vi. b. No. 351 is a list mentioning a spare vest and tunic of linen. No. 383 records the issue to a soldier of ' an unlined dress ', and twenty of such are entered in No. 421, a fragment from the magazine T. XVIII.

66 See note 64 ; for miscellaneous fabrics found in quarters and refuse-heaps, see below, pp. 768, 770, 773, 779, 785.

66 See Nos. 351, 569 ; for specimens of shoes, see below, pp. 767, 769 sqq., 776, 780, 784, 786, and Pl. LIV.

87 See Desert Cathay, ii. p. 152. This fine specimen of a hammer for tent-pitching was taken into use by my men, and rendered excellent service until the end of my journey I regret that, in mÿ then crippled state, I was unable to prevent its being left behind at Leh and thus failing to reach the collection.

I am unable to find the reference to a tent quoted ibid. in the translated document No. 72, as now printed in M. Chavannes' work. The reference was taken from its

manuscript, where the word   /`r; may have been tentatively
rendered in that way.