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| 0306 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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occur very rarely ; but there is always the chance of sudden wealth,
and this suffices to attract at all times 'Bais,' i.e., small capitalists
from Khotan and other Turkestan towns. They engage parties of
labourers, ten to thirty strong, from among the poorest of the
agricultural class, and set them to work on a digging of proportionate
size. The men receive food, clothing, and six Khotan Tangas (say
two Rupees) as monthly pay. They have no share in the jade
finds, but get extra rewards in case of special profits. According
to Wang-Daloi's testimony, many never see any return for the
money they have sunk in these mining ventures. Yet from time to
time great hits are made. A Kashgar Bai, whom I found at one of
the diggings superintending his twenty men, acknowledged that
during the last three years he had cleared a hundred Yambus of
silver (say Rs. 13,000) worth of jade at an expense of some thirty
Yambus.
Though the Chinese administration exercises no control whatso-
ever over the jade mining, "claims" once opened are scrupulously
respected by other prospectors. I saw diggings which had been
left partially unexploited for many years ; yet I was assured that
the right of the original workers would never be disputed. None of
the diggings went to a greater depth than twenty feet from the
surface ; lower down, I assume, the water from the river would
probably percolate and stop the work. The flat deposits along the
river banks for a day's journey up the valley, up to the point where
the latter becomes a narrow gorge, are visited by jade-diggers. But
the work is carried on only intermittently and by small parties at
the various points which bear the general designation of 'Kumat.'
Now in the winter months only about two hundred men were
engaged in mining, and even in the summer, when the privations
of life in this barren region are less, the number probably is not
more than doubled.
Quite distinct from this jade-mining, the ancient industry of
"fishing" for jade in the river bed after the summer floods still
continues all along the valley above Jamada, just as described in the
old Chinese chronicles. No capital is wanted for this kind of
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