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

much further. Here our lake has not only definitely begun, but also partly accom-
plished its homeward journey. To evacuate and extinguish the lake basin altogether
has been too much for Ides, and his Caor Flu., Cosminus Flu., Capoumo Flu., and
Menamis Flu. still take their origin in the old traditional lake of Barros. But he has
changed its name into Lac Kananor et Cunabetee. The latter name, whatever its
derivation may be, we have already found on Coronelli's map, the former, Kana-nor,
may simply be a careless spelling of Koko-nor. For there is no other Koko-nor on
the map, and Croce Lac includes all the lakes of Odon-tala.

But where is Lago de Chiamay? It has wandered north-westwards and is one
of the sources of the Ganges, in the middle of the Himalayas. With a slight change
of spelling the name is the old one from Barros' days, Lac Giamai! Both the Indus
and the Ganges have two lakes at their upper course, and just north of both rivers
Kabul is placed. The whole arrangement has a certain resemblance with Kircher's
map and his Origo Gangis et Indi. The two lakes of the upper Indus do not, how-
ever, awake our suspicions, for the upper one is the Wulur lake, and the lower one
is situated below Attock. So much the more important is the fact that Ides shows
the Ganges as coming from two lakes, one in the Himalaya, the other north of the
mountains. The one in the Himalaya, Lac Giamai, is the Manasarovar. On Orte-
lius' map, (Pl. XXII), we had two copies, both called Chiamay, on Ides'
map we have also two copies, though only one of them is called Chiamay.

From where has Ides got his information, and what news has induced him to
undertake such a radical change? The Jesuits in Peking! In his narrative he de-
scribes his meeting with Fathers GRIMALDI and THOMAS PEREYRA, and he tells us
that none less than the famous Father Gerbillon served as interpreter at the audi-
ence which Emperor Kang Hi accorded to the Russian Ambassador.¹ The Jesuit
Fathers no doubt knew a good deal about Tibet, which they have not described in
their letters and books. Only a few years after the visit of Ides the Jesuits in Peking
got a very good native description of the two lakes, Mapama Talai and Lanken, or
Manasarovar and Rakas-tal, of which they were told and firmly believed that they
gave birth to the Ganges, and to no other river. Why could not Gerbillon have
got some earlier news from Chinese sources, and told Ides that in his opinion the
Chiamay lacus was the real source of the Ganges, while Barros and Martini had
confused it with another lake, the existence of which nobody so far had any oppor-
tunity to deny.