Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 176 ページ（カラー画像）

0176	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

Halt in
Khotan
town.

I was obliged to make a short halt at Khotan town for various purposes, among others to
provide winter equipment for my large party and to raise a sufficient quantity of silver to meet
all financial needs until my arrival next spring in distant Kan-su. Moreover, a rest was needed
by all, both men and animals, who had shared the hardships of our desert expedition. I employed
the six days' stay to gather such antiques as my ever-willing old friend Badruddīn Khān, the
Ak-sakāl of Indian and Afghān traders, and the 'treasure-seekers' dispatched by him, had collected
from Yōtkan and from desert sites in the vicinity of the Khotan oasis. The sites named as the
provenance of these antiques had almost all been visited by me on my former journeys, and the
various classes of objects ascribed to them correspond in their character to the collections previously
obtained. Since the latter have been fully described and illustrated in Ancient Khotan and Serindia,
a very brief synopsis of the new acquisitions will suffice here.

Provenance
of antiques
collected.

As regards their provenance a word of caution may well be repeated.¹ Obviously objects
brought for sale to Khotan town or obtained from 'Taklamakānchis' cannot be assigned to parti-
cular sites with complete assurance. But their comparison with the proceeds of my own former
search at the sites named supports the belief that the local distribution of the several series of objects
shown in the List below may be accepted as correct on the whole.

Terra-cotta
figurines,
&c., from
Yōtkan.

This applies particularly to the large and interesting series of antiques, mainly terra-cottas,
purporting to come from Yōtkan, the site of the ancient Khotan capital,² and marked with Yo.
The terra-cotta figurines and decorated pottery remains show the closest agreement with those
obtained by me on previous occasions at the site itself. An endeavour has been made to arrange
them in definite groups for description in the List below, and this will facilitate comparison with the
corresponding objects in my previous collections, as well as with those which Dr. Hoernle has
described in detail. Among vessels, complete or fragmentary, special attention may be called to the
fine and excellently preserved terra-cotta bottle (Yo. 01, Pl. I) having the shape of a pilgrim bottle
and resembling Samian ware ; the large pottery jug 'treated' by a recent hand (Yo. 0158, Pl. I) ;
the fragment (Yo. 08, Pl. I) showing a Bacchic figure appliqué, of unmistakable Gandhāra type,
with wine-skin and rhyton ; the handles with fine palmette ornaments (Yo. 011–15, Pl. I, III) ; the
spout with an appliqué human head (Yo. 017, Pl. I). Among appliqué fragments may be noticed
the well-furnished Gorgoneion face (Yo. 018, Pl. I) ; the pieces (Yo. 20 a–d, Pl. III), illustrating
an interesting development of leaf ornament ; the grotesque masks (Yo. 042, 055–7, Pl. I) ; the
head of rat type (Yo. 040, Pl. I). The series of terra-cotta heads (Yo. 048–54, Pl. II, III), male
and female, comprise several specimens interesting for their type of coiffure. Among animal
figures camels and horses (Yo. 065–78, Pl. II, III) are well represented, some retaining their riders
or loads ; Yo. 065 (Pl. III), with its mounted monkey, is very cleverly modelled. Figures of winged
horses and other grotesque animals, mostly from terra-cotta handles (Yo. 079–99), show several
curious types (see Pl. I–III). As in the former collections, representations of monkeys, often in

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