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0351 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / Page 351 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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polite convention called them, had already been safely
transferred to my improvised store-room.
Fortunately the Tao-shih, on his visit to the oasis, gathered
full assurance that our friendly relations had aroused no
resentment among his local patrons and that his spiritual
reputation had not suffered. On his return he was almost
ready to recognize that it was a pious act on my part to
rescue for Western scholarship all those relics of ancient
Buddhist literature and art which were otherwise bound to
get lost sooner or later through local indifference. So
negotiations could proceed about the compensation to be
offered to the Tao-shih in the form of a liberal present to
the cave temple which by his restoration he could claim
to have made his own with all its contents known or
unknown.
In the end he received a weighty proof of our fair dealing
in the form of such a number of silver ingots or 'horse-shoes'
as fully satisfied his honest conscience and the interests of
his cherished shrine. I received gratifying proof of the
peaceful state of his mind when, on my return four months
later to the neighbourhood of Tun-huang, he allowed
Chiang SsÅ­-yeh on my behalf to acquire a considerable
share also of the Chinese and Tibetan manuscript packets
for a certain seat of learning in the distant West. But my
time for true relief came when some sixteen months later
all the twenty-four cases, heavy with manuscripts, and five
more filled with carefully packed paintings, embroideries
and similar art relics, had safely been deposited at the
British Museum in London.
I need allude only briefly to the fate of what I had been
obliged to leave behind of that great trouvaille in the good
P