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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0347 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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CHAPTER XIX
FIRST FINDS OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS
It had not needed the discovery of the pictorial representation of
'Pothis' to make me eagerly look out for finds of ancient manu-
scripts. None had turned up during the excavations of the first
three days. But as if to revive my drooping hopes, a painted
tablet, badly defaced by decay and accretion of siliceous matter,
which was found in the last cleared cella, displayed a narrow strip
of paper with three lines of Indian Brahmi characters sticking to
the top edge and running transversely across the panel. The
paper, which, as it covers part of the painting, is plainly proved
to be a subsequent addition, had decayed even more than the
tablet itself. While on the latter two female figures, each holding
a swathed infant, could just be made out, it was impossible to read
more than a few detached characters in each line of the rotten
paper. But these letters were in a bold literary hand, very
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