Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 189 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0189	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

Hsüan-tsang drew his picture. It can be safely asserted that display of temper and bluffness
of words and manners are far rarer among the people of Khotan than, e. g., among those of
Kāshghar. The observations which I had occasion to make on this point, while watching during
months the conduct of my followers from the different territories, are in entire agreement with
popular verdict as current in the country itself. It charges the 'Kāshgarliks' with quick temper
and obstinacy, while the Khotanese are credited with hypocritical suavity ²⁰. Just because the
development of the population of the Tārim Basin under conditions determined by the same
geographical and historical influences must necessarily tend towards uniformity, such differences
as we have just observed, though they may now appear mere nuances, must be of special interest
to the historical student.

The fondness for enjoyments, which Hsüan-tsang and the T'ang Annalists noted in the Fondness
Khotanese of their days, still survives as fresh as ever. Of the multifarious occasions which for amuse-
serve rich and poor alike for the organization of fêtes and amusements, M. Grenard's descrip- ments.
tion gives a sufficient idea ²¹. Though it is difficult to make comparisons in a matter of this
sort without prolonged experience, I certainly carried away the impression that a Khotanese
crowd or party need less of a tamāshā to feel thoroughly happy than people elsewhere in
Turkestān, while their abandonment to the enjoyment of the hour, whether it be a religious
festival, family feast, pilgrimage, &c., or merely a novel sight, seemed always distinctly keener.

At all feasts and entertainments music, singing, and dancing are the chief diversions; Love of
and for them the Khotanese of to-day still show the same love and insatiable appetite which music and
Hsüan-tsang and other Chinese observers noted in their ancestors. Music and singing are dancing.
dear to the people all over Eastern Turkestān; but probably nowhere are small bands of
professional musicians more numerous and the demand for them greater than in Khotan ²².
It is a point of special interest that dancing, elsewhere practically confined to professional
dancers, women or boys, is a pastime freely indulged in by Khotanese of both sexes and of
all classes. This local peculiarity deserves the more notice since the practice must have
encountered the opposition of the clergy ever since the introduction of Islām, and is certainly
in strange contrast to the general gravity and decorum fostered by Muhammadan tenets.

This lively hankering after pleasures of all sorts must often lead to complete neglect of Adven-
serious material interests. It thus probably accounts to a great extent for the strikingly large turous
number of cases in Khotan where men of all trades and classes, after having ruined them- occupations.
selves, seek refuge in more adventurous occupations. Of such Khotan has always offered a
pleasing variety to those low down in their luck and averse to any constant exertion. Gold-
washing, jade-digging, and 'treasure-seeking' at old sites in the desert are all callings which
imply the certainty of great privations and hardships with a very limited possibility of sub-
stantial profit. Yet their attractions are great, like those of a lottery, and usually suffice to
prevent their votaries from ever returning permanently to settled lives. In this way the riches
which the Khotan region keeps, or is believed to keep, buried below the soil have probably
since early times exerted a demoralizing influence on social organization.

Notwithstanding the relatively large number of men following adventurous pursuits, the oasis Want of
of Khotan and the adjacent tracts are remarkably clear from crimes of violence. Considering how physical
little the existing administration could do to prevent them, we may ascribe this fact, partly at courage.
least, to that law-abiding disposition of the population which the early Chinese observers noted.

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