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

closed that some of the pieces could be associated together as parts of a single

picture; others remain, at present, unattached fragments, often with interesting

details, but otherwise incoherent. Damp and fire have contributed to defacement,

and details are often difficult to recognize, or are completely lost.

Toy. VI. 02, &c.

In this reassemblage of several fragments, parts of two standing figures appear,

turned three-quarters to the left front. Of the figure to the left, the shoulder, part

of the side, and the loose drapery of the left sleeve can be made out. The other has

lost most of its head; but part of the left cheek, the chin, covered with a scanty

straight beard, and the neck remain. A buff chin-strap, obviously from his missing

headgear, defines the line of the cheek. In front of his breast he holds a yellow

(golden) tazza supported on his left hand and steadied by his right, above. The tazza

has a cylindrical body, with short sloping shoulder rising to a narrow neck and a

small trumpet mouth. Below, it draws in to a thin stem and then broadens out to a

spreading base. The rich red robe worn by the man fits at the neck, with a simple

collar-band, and lies smoothly on the shoulders. The loose-fitting skirt is encircled

at the waist by a blue belt, from which hang a pouch and other useful articles,

usually so carried by Uigur men, or perhaps mainly by those of clerkly order. His

robe is made of elaborately figured material, with a bold repeating pattern of a

pair of confronting, rampant, leonine creatures who seem to be jointly supporting

or sporting with, a large green spherical jewel. The animals, greenish-yellow,

have large, darker-coloured, wing-like tails and manes, fully displayed. The

genesis and evolution of this motive and its symbolic implication are matters far

too complicated to discuss here. In this present state of development it has a Sino-

Sasanian character. Somewhat analogous renderings appear on textiles found by

Stein in the Astána tombs, not very far from Toyuk, some of which are definitely

Sasanian.i But many centuries earlier are the grotesque beasts of the Chinese

figured silks from the Lou-lan burials.' Then the Scythian influence must be taken

into account; and we might even point to the Lion Gate of Mycenae. With so

complicated a genealogical progress presenting itself in relation to pattern, and

without taking into account its variable symbolic or mystical significance, it must

suffice to rest on our designation of Sino-Sasanian and resist any inclination to

delve deeper.

i Cf. Innermost Asia, vol. III, plates LXIX, LXXX.   2 Ibid., plates XXXVIII to XLII.

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