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| 0391 |
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 |
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arid. This does not mean that the climate two hundred years
ago was drier than now, — it may have been moister, —
but at this time the *change* from the moister conditions of
mediæval times to the drier conditions of the present pro-
duced its maximum effect. The direct cause of the disap-
pearance of the people from the villages of Turfan was the
raids of plundering Mongol nomads from the surrounding
mountains. To-day there are no Mongols in the mountains.
The country is too dry. The nearest are at Kara-Sher, a
hundred and fifty miles away. In mediæval times, however,
when there was more moisture and vegetation, the moun-
tains appear to have afforded homes to bands of Mongol
nomads. So long as they prospered, they lived, apparently,
on terms of comparative peace with their neighbors in the
plain. When the change from the mediæval climate to that
of to-day began to take place, the nomads must have been
the first to feel the pinch. Life, we may suppose, became
hard as their cattle and flocks began to dwindle, and the
bold mountaineers began to plunder their weaker neigh-
bors in the villages. The plain gradually lost a large part
of its settled inhabitants, and there was no chance for it to
recover while the Mongols remained. The Mongols more
than almost any other race despise agriculture. Therefore,
though they occupied the plain, they did not cultivate it.
They still presumably migrated from the plain to the moun-
tains in summer: and ceased to do so only when the moun-
tains became so dry as to be useless for flocks. Then they
migrated farther, perhaps dispossessing some other tribe;
and Turfan was left open once more to settlement by Chanto
immigrants from the Lop basin. The depopulation was
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