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| 0069 |
Innermost Asia : vol.2 |
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merit, remarkable for the lifelike ease with which the animated poses are rendered, and for the
freedom of the drawing in all details. There is nothing to afford a definite indication of date ; but
judging from external conditions the print was probably found in a tomb. From tombs may
possibly also have come the two bronze mirrors, 01 and 034 (Pl. LXXI), the former showing on its
back a Chinese landscape in very low relief and the latter four Chinese lapidary characters. The
small stucco head of a woman, 024 (Pl. LXIX), is probably from a similar source. Among small
stone carvings the jade ' Netsuki ', 02 (Pl. LXXI), representing a reclining dog, and the jade fish,
013 (Pl. LXXI), are manifestly of Chinese workmanship. The steatite mould of a heart-shaped
leaf, 016 (Pl. LXXI), probably served for producing metal ornaments. Bronze objects of interest
are the mace-head, 028 (Pl. LXXI), resembling one found at Yōtkan, and the prism-shaped orna-
mented weight, 031 (Pl. LXXI). The fragments, 011 (Pl. LXXXVII), of a fine bamboo matting, inter-
woven with a figured silk, closely resembles the manuscript-roll covers of similar make from the
' Thousand Buddhas ' and may have served the same purpose.
During my first stay at Kara-khōja I took occasion to test a persistent rumour that ancient Search for
ruins never yet explored were to be found in the rugged outer range overlooking the oasis from alleged ruins
the north-west. I had already heard of them in 1907, when they were said to be hidden in the in Kuruk-
barren hills to the south-west of Murtuk. Again, on my passage through Pa-no-p'a, Aḥmad, the aghiz.
ill-fated rebel, stated that he had seen them once, while hunting in the hills about the gorge known
as Kuruk-aghiz. He had offered to guide me to them—once he had made his peace with the Chinese
local authorities. Several men of Kara-khōja, no doubt eager for a new ground to search for
treasure or antiques, offered themselves as guides to Kuruk-aghiz. So I let Afrāz-gul proceed
to that valley, provided with a sufficient supply of water to permit of a prolonged search in that
barren wilderness of eroded hills. The valley was found to debouch to the north of Sai-langar,
a resting-place on the road from Turfān town to Sengim-aghiz (Map No. 28. c. 3), and to be formed
higher up by a maze of deep-cut and extremely narrow gullies.¹⁰ But two days' thorough search
of them, carried right up to the watershed above Murtuk, failed to reveal any trace of former
occupation.
In the light of subsequently gathered information it became clear, in fact, that the alleged ruins
were but the local pendant of those legendary ' old towns ' in the desert that haunt the imagination
of people in certain of the smaller oases along the northern edge of the Taklamakān. Those ' old
towns ' once sighted by adventurous hunters, &c., can never be found again ; for the magic of evil
spirits is supposed to hide them, when searched for. Just as in the case of the Kōtek-shahri, in
search of which Mūsā Ḥājī of Korla had led me in January, 1908, into the desert north of the
Inchike-daryā,¹¹ the motive prompting our Kara-khōja informants had obviously been the hope
that my own European magic would prove superior to the wiles of the local demons and reveal to
them a new and rich site to exploit.
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697
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