Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 281 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0281	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

Khotan'. But though describing at length the discipline, &c., under which the prisoners worked,
he gives no indication as to the position of these 'old cities'.

A vague recollection of Abā Bakr's treasures and the operations by which he secured Alleged
them still lingers among the people in various parts of Eastern Turkestān ¹⁷. But there does origin of
not appear to exist anywhere a genuine tradition about specific localities; and in the absence Aiding-Kul.
of all traces of ancient débris or of earlier evidence of such a tradition we may well doubt
whether Halāl-bāgh was really among the places exploited by Abā Bakr, and whether it was
not his reputation alone which induced local literati like Ibrāhīm Mullah to connect his name
with the supposed origin of the Aiding-Kul. The configuration of the marsh itself did not
appear to me to lend any support to the assumption that it had an artificial origin. With its
springs and low sandy hillocks it resembles closely the marshes observed by me adjoining the
cultivated areas of the Keriya and Niya oases, and also north of Lop and of Tasmache in the
Khotan oasis. Immediately to the east of the Aiding-Kul, a good deal of marshy ground is
crossed by the road to Khotan town, while some three miles to the south the watercourse
feeding it from the Yurung-kāsh is also flanked by water-logged areas about the village of
Kācha (see map of Plate XXIII).

In reality there seems good reason for believing that the marsh of Aiding-Kul existed Mound of
long before Abā Bakr's time, and that we have a reference to it in a legend told by Hsüan- Naghāra-
tsang. Close to the south-eastern shore of the marsh there rises a mound known as Naghara- khānah.
khāna, which local tradition, as represented by Ibrāhīm Mullah, assumes to have formed part
of the wall enclosing the old city. M. Grenard was the first to recognize in this name, correctly
pronounced as Naghāra-khānah and literally meaning 'the house of the kettle-drum', the trace
of a local legend which Hsüan-tsang has recorded of a site in the vicinity of the ancient
capital ¹⁸. Though the conclusion he drew from this as to the position of the latter cannot be
maintained in view of what has been proved above, I believe the identification of the site
itself to be justified.

According to the story told at great length in the Hsi-yü-chi ¹⁹, there was once a great Legend of
stream of which the people of Khotan took advantage to irrigate their lands; Julien's and the Nāgini
Beal's versions make its course lie to the south-east of the capital and directed north-westwards; andminister.
the distance is given as 100 li in the former and as 200 li in the latter translation ²⁰. On the
stream ceasing to flow, the king inquired as to the cause of this calamity, and he was told
by an Arhat to propitiate the 'dragon', i.e. the Nāga, dwelling in the stream by sacrifices.
When this had been done, a woman emerged from the stream and, explaining the arrest of
the waters by the recent death of her husband, asked for a minister of noble birth to be given
to her in marriage. On the Nāgini's desire being announced, a great officer of state offered
to sacrifice himself for the restored flow of the water on condition that the king should found
a convent. After a solemn leavetaking the minister, dressed in white and mounted on a white
steed, entered the stream. When he reached the middle of the current he struck the water
with his whip and immediately disappeared. A short time after his steed came to the surface
again, carrying on its back a great drum of sandalwood. This was found to contain a letter to
the king in which the minister asked him to suspend the drum to the south-east of the city ²¹;
on the approach of an enemy it would sound in advance. The waters of the stream have

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