国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

Mr. Chen also noticed that the family had a small vegetable garden. Their ef-
forts to cultivate wheat here were, however, unsuccessful.
There are large quantities of fish in the lower Tarim of our days, and many of
the water-fowl there furnish excellent meat, and their eggs are collected in the
season. Of larger game the boar and the antelope should be mentioned.¹ We have
no reason to suppose the animal life to have changed since the time of Lou-lan, or,
to express it more correctly, the faunae of Lou-lan's time have now returned to the
desert along with the life-giving water.
For further discussion of the autochthon population cf. pp. 143—145.

*

The activities of the several Japanese expeditions sent to Sinkiang between 1904
and 1911 by Count Otani and the Buddhist monastery Nishi Hongwan-ji in Kyoto
are known to me only through reviews of their publications² and the mention which
Stein makes of them. Of the original Japanese publications only one has been ob-
tainable: Mr Haneda's Description of some documents discovered by the mission
Otani in Chinese Turkistan (Toyo gakuho 1: 2, 1911). When the text of this chap-
ter was already in proof the large catalogue of the Korean National Museum in Seul
was received (Amamuna & Minamoto: Chosen Kobi-jitsu Taikwan). In the
third volume of this work Pl. 82 shows, inter alia, a water bag of skin from
Rooran (i. e. Lou-lan). More remarkable are the contents of Pl. 78 (Pl. 79—81
show some of the same objects enlarged). Unfortunately there is no accompanying
text, only a statement that the articles originate from the local people in
Central Asia (!) As to who collected the things, when and where, the cata-
logue gives no information. Now the following objects are easily identified as com-
ing from autochthon graves in the Lop desert: the four small baskets on the left
in the upper row of Pl. 78, the two felt head-dresses flanking the lower row, and
the raw-hide shoe in the centre of the lower row of the same plate. These things
are in fact so similar to my own finds from "Ördek's necropolis" that I feel prac-
tically certain that they originate from there too. Are these the results of the earlier
plunderings of the site? As stated byÖrdek the searches of the site were started
on the order of the Chinese Amban in Charkhliq. We know that Mr. Tachibana
of the Nishi Hongwan-ji expeditions was in Charkhliq in both 1910 and 1911. Did
he inspire the Amban to bring forth antiquities with the help of the natives, or did
the Amban start the action to suit Mr. Tachibana? Any of these possibilities seem
likely. It seems less probable that Mr. Tachibana himself went to "Ördek's necro-
polis", asÖrdek mentioned none but local people among the treasure-seekers.
A footnote in Stein 1928, p. 787, may be of importance in this connection: —