National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Sec. ii]   ACROSS THE KUN-LUN RANGES   1321

laid bare layers of refuse intermixed with gravel to a depth of w to 12 feet. In a layer near the top I found embedded remains of woollen fabrics (Hasha. 005).

Here and within the main wall the soil is made particularly valuable for manuring by the abundance of bones which are found amidst the deposits of refuse. In consequence the whole of the interior is covered with pits and burrows, much in the same way as ancient village and town mounds in the Peshâwar valley or at Akra, near Bannu, are exploited on the Indian North-West Frontier. Of structural remains no trace survives on the surface apart from the wall already mentioned and a second inner one, built across the plateau tongue where it narrows to about 6o yards, and similar in construction. Débris of coarse but remarkably hard-fired pottery can be picked up all over the interior amidst clay and stones which once served in walls of dwellings, etc.'. Finds of coins or of other antiques were stoutly denied by the Hasha people, and in their absence it is difficult to form any opinion as to the time when the site was occupied. But the depth of the refuse layers points to prolonged occupation and a population denser than that of the narrow cultivated strips of the present Hasha.

The same day's march brought me to Chakar (Map No. 28. D. 2). This relatively large collection of hamlets stretches along the river which, joined by the Ulagh-sai from the east, carries its water to Gulakhma on the high road. Here I found plenty of fertile loess soil left uncultivated, not from any difficulty about water—of this there is plenty, not in the river-bed alone but also in springs to the west of it—but solely through want of labour. Yet here, as elsewhere in this submontane tract known as nigh between the rivers of Chira and Keriya, the increase in the population since the Chinese reconquest was acknowledged on all sides to have been very large indeed.' On August 6, after a long dreary march across bare stony slopes which eastwards were

overlain in part by dunes, I reached the fertile oasis of Nara (Map No. 32. A. 3). Here at an Oasis of elevation of over 7,000 feet there was at last cool air, and in the evening the dust-haze lifted, which Nura. all through my stay at Khotan and since had completely hidden the view of the mountains. To

the south there rose a magnificent line of snowy peaks (Fig. 343), some over 21,000 feet in height,

as if to lighten my farewell to familiar oases and deserts by the prospect of fascinating travel in an

unexplored high mountain region.   4

• Exploitation of refuse deposits.

Village
tract of
Chakar.

' The following are specimens of pottery fragments, etc., brought away from the site :

Hasha. ooi. Fr. of pottery, hand-made, of ill-levigated dark grey-burning clay ; fired on an open hearth. 3" X 2".

Hasha. 002. Fr. of pottery, hand-made, of peculiarly ill-levigated clay, burning deep brick-red ; very hard fired on an open hearth. Considering the quality of the fabric, the excellence of the firing in these specimens is remarkable. 24" X Ii".

Hasha. ooz. Fr. of pottery, hand-made, similar to Hasha. 002 ; blackish-grey clay burning to brick-red. 21a"X2".

Hasha. 004. Fr. of pottery, hand-made, of light red-burning clay, similar to Hasha. 002.

Hasha. 005. Ragged frs. of woollen fabrics, buff, sulphur, sienna, brownish-red, and crimson—with buff woollen cord and small quantity of fine wool. Gr. M. of fabrics, I I".

2 Muhammad Yusuf Beg, who was then in charge of the Tàgh subdivision of Keriya and whose help about supplies, transport, etc., greatly facilitated my start into the high

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mountains south, communicated to me from the local official records the following as to the number of households reckoned for assessment purposes at the resumption of Chinese rule and in 1907 respectively :

Not having seen more than the chief villages of these tracts, which all, as the map shows, stretch in scattered hamlets for considerable distances up the valleys, I cannot vouch for the approximate accuracy of the above figures. But judging from what I saw they appeared to be, if anything, under-estimated.

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