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

L.F. 3. 01. Wooden pin, as L.F. ii. 04, &c., with elongated barrel-head; orn. like L.F. 05. a with four annular rows of triangular incisions and three annular lines. Fine-grained hard wood. Well preserved. Length over all 3⅛″, diam. of stem 3⁄16″. Head, length 1⅛″, diam. 3⁄16″. Pl. XXIV.

L.F. 3. 02. Wooden pin, like the preceding but without thickening at head. Instead, bark is left on for space of 1″. Very smooth, gently tapering. Hard fine wood; well preserved. Length 3⅛″, gr. diam. 3⁄16″.

L.F. 3. 03. Bone pin, with lenticular head. Finely made and very smooth; cf. wooden pins L.F. 05. a, 013-14; 3. 01-2. Perfectly preserved. Length of whole 2⅛⅛″, gr. diam. of stem 3⁄32″; head, length ⅛″, gr. width ⅛″, gr. thickness 1⁄16″. Pl. XXIV.

L.F. 3. 04. Jade (?) bead, greenish, translucent, glass-like; tubular. Length 9⁄16″, diam. ⅜″. Pl. XXIV.

OBJECTS EXCAVATED WITHIN WALLED ENCLOSURE L.F.

L.F. i. 01. Two frs. of lacquered cane; one bent into incomplete circle, the other rectang. Traces of red with black lines on outside. Broken. First, diam. 1″, depth ⅛″, thickness 1⁄16″; second, 1″×⅜″×⅛″.

L.F. i. 02. Gold finger-ring, with circular bezel holding ruby or carnelian in cell setting surrounded by grains. Hoop thin, reeded, in one piece with back of bezel. Hoop broken on one side of bezel. Diam. c. ⅝″, width of hoop 1⁄16″. Pl. XXIV.

L.F. i. 03. Fr. of paper; very tough and leather-like. Blank. Well preserved. 1⅛″×1⅛″.

L.F. i. 05. Fr. from end of wedge under-tablet (or very short wedge-tablet, complete in length). One edge split off, and point chipped. Obv. 3 ll. Khar., faint. Rev. traces of 2 ll. faint. Wood hard. 2 3⁄16″×(max.) 1 1⁄16″×⅛″.

L.F. ii. 01. Fr. of wood; worked on one face and showing traces of pink paint on both. Split and broken on all edges. 5⅛″×1⅛″.

L.F. ii. 02. a-c. Three wooden writing-sticks; roughly made, but in good condition. (a) Shows traces of having been covered with a red pigment. Length 7⅛″, diam. 1⁄16″.

(b) Retains bark, and appears to be cherry-wood. Length 11⅛″, diam. ⅜″. (c) Roughly split from thicker piece of wood. Length 6⅛″, diam. ⅜″. Pl. XXIX.

L.F. ii. 03. Wooden stick, cut at one end into four flat sides. Small hole drilled through at centre. Hard and well preserved. Length 13″, diam. 3⁄16″. Pl. XXIX.

L.F. ii. 04. Wooden pin, gently tapering, with thickened cylindrical head cut in one piece with it and orn. with fine incised spiral line. Good condition. For similar pins, see L.F. 05. a, 013-014, 3. 01-2; L.Q. iii. 04-06; also bone pin L.F. 3. 03. Length of whole 5″, of head 1⅛″, diam. of pin ⅛″, of head ⅜″. Pl. XXIX.

L.F. ii. 05. Mummified hind leg of kid. Matatarsus broken near head, shaft of tibia broken off near middle. Small fr. of stone embedded in tissues at the upper break. Length 11⅛″.

L.F. ii. 06. Wooden fire-stick (female), rough, un-shaped. At one edge, three 'hearths'; near other a round shallow fire mark; cf. Ser. i. pp. 233 sq., 263, 266, &c. Sand-encrusted. 7″×3⅛″×1″. Pl. XXIX.

L.F. iii. 02. Oats and straw, from SW. corner.

SECTION VIII.—FROM THE LOU-LAN STATION TO ĀLTMISH-BULAK

It was a joyful relief to find, on my return to the Lou-lan station, that brave Lāl Singh had safely arrived. With him were the men in charge of our camels, which had been sent for a brief rest to the spring of Āstin-bulak, south of Āltmish-bulak, and had been brought back to our base camp within a week as appointed. Lāl Singh's absence from our rendezvous at the L.A. station had been a cause of serious anxiety to me in view of the obstruction I feared he might have encountered from the Chinese authorities before starting from Tikenlik on the Tārim (Map No. 25. c. 3) into the desert eastwards. Fortunately the thwarting instructions issued from official head-quarters had failed to take effect at Tikenlik, just as in my own case at Mirān.¹

My plan for Lāl Singh's survey along the foot of the Kuruk-tāgh and by the Kuruk-daryā, and for his subsequent participation in explorations across and around the bed of the ancient Lop Sea, depended entirely on his being able to secure the camels and guidance of that plucky hunter, Abdurrahīm (Fig. 203), originally of Singer in the Kuruk-tāgh, who had accompanied him on his surveys of 1907 in the Western Kuruk-tāgh and who was known to have since moved to Tikenlik. Immediately after my arrival at Kāshgar I had taken care to let Abdurrahīm know, through the Hsien-kuan of his district, that we should need his camels and help for the explorations of the coming winter; and Lāl Singh on arrival at Tikenlik found him fully prepared with his