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

is produced here. A strip of arid sandy desert separates this district from Khutan and
Yúrungkásh on one side and Karyá on the other. The river of Chíra flows through the settle-
ment in several streams which get lost on the desert. The mulberry and æleagnus grow here
to perfection, and their fruits are esteemed better than those in any other part of the country.
The people are rich in cattle, sheep and camels, and manufacture excellent felts which they
sell at Khutan. There are gold mines in the hills to the south.

Karyá, 4,000 houses. This district resembles the last, and is a market town on the river
bearing its name. Its settlement extends for several miles up and down the stream till it is
lost on the Tákla Mukán desert to the north. Its productions are the same as those of Chíra.
At a day's journey to the south is the Soghrak settlement of 200 houses in a long glen. There
are gold mines here similar to those at Chamand on the other side of the hills in the Kurán-
ghotágh district. Further on in the mountains, at Kalakúm, where there is no habitation, there
are other gold mines, and mines of native sulphur. There is a road, two days' journey through
narrow defiles, from Kalakúm to Chamand which is a settlement of 200 houses.

Náya, 500 houses. This is a small district on the edge of the desert, and ends towards
the east at Mazár Bíbí Injila, or as it is commonly called Imám Ja'far Sadik. This is the
boundary, too, of the Khutan State in that direction, and is considered to be the limit of the
Amír's territory, although he claims possession of Cháchan, and has a Governor there. The
settlements of Náya are dispersed along the foot of the hills upon the streams issuing from
them, and are all of small extent, few containing 50 houses. There are gold mines in this
district, and more productive than elsewhere. Across a desert waste to the east is Cháchan.
This is a flourishing settlement of 500 houses on the banks of two rivers which unite on the
plain, and flow in a single stream towards Lob. The town is situated at the foot of a mountain
to the south, and a river flows on its west and its east. On these are planted the farmsteads of
the settlement. By the Chinese this place was used as a penal colony for Khutan. It now
belongs to the Amír, who has sent Daulat Beg of Khutan as his Governor there. The people
are very prosperous and industrious, and are fond of good living and merriment. They are
Musalmans, but very lax in their observance of the Shara or "Law."

A white stone called mláoh is quarried in the hills here and sent in large quantities to
China. Formerly Cháchan was a very important place on the caravan route from Khutan to
China. The ruins of the ancient city still exist on a ridge of hill overlooking the present
town. They cover a great extent of surface, and are mostly buried under drift sand, but here
and there their walls stand out, and are substantially built of brick and stone. Nobody knows
anything of their history except that the city anciently belonged to infidels and was destroyed
by the Musalmans. At the present day people dig in the ruins for the sake of the bricks and
stones, and sometimes find great treasure in gold and precious stones. There is a road north
from this to Lob, three or four days' journey across the desert by shepherd camps.

Inclusive of Cháchan the population of Khutan, according to the Chinese revenue returns,
is reckoned at 18,500 houses. This at seven persons per house will give the total population of
the State as 129,500 souls. But this, from all accounts, is much above the actual number now
to be found within its limits. Khutan communicates with Tibet and Kashmir by the Sánjú
road, with Yárkund by the Gúmá road, and with Lob by the Marján Uldí road along the
course of the Khutan River. Its frontiers are Sánjú on the west, Múnji near Gúmá on the
north-west, Marján Uldí on Táklá Makán to the north, and Imam Ja'far Sadik on the east.

Yárkand.—This is the most populous and most extensive of all the States of Káshghar,
and its city, which was in ancient times the capital of the country, is still the largest and most
wealthy in the whole valley. It is enclosed within fortified walls which are supported at inter-
vals by buttress bastions topped with loopholed turrets. The length of the city is from north
to south, but the walls describe an irregular figure, and have no surrounding ditch. Their
circuit is about four miles, and they are pierced by five gates or dábza = darwaza, viz., Alléu
or "Gold (gate)" on the south, Cáwnghat or "Melon" on the west, Tera-bágh or "Hide garden"
on the north, Masci or "Jester" on the east, and Kháuáh or "Monastery" on the south-east.

The city stands on the open plain, and is surrounded by wide spreading and populous
suburbs, which consist of farmsteads scattered about in small clusters amongst the fields and