Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 292 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0292	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

wood to this outlying colony. The fact was brought home to me at the very time of my
arrival by the big bonfires which the local Bēg, instructed in advance from Pan Dārin's Yāmen,
had caused to be prepared to light up my way, a luxury which could not have been indulged
in within the main oasis. I was struck also by the prevalence of wood in the construction of
houses. Whereas in Khotan the free use of this building material is restricted to the dwellings
of the well-to-do and to other substantial structures, at Tawakkēl the houses even of simple
cultivators show the usual wooden framework and wattle walls covered with mud plaster. We
shall see from the account of the Dandān-Uiliq ruins that this observation is not without
antiquarian interest.

Conditions
of cultiva-
tion. After halting at Hong I moved my camp on the following day to the Bēg's house at
Āt-bāshi, some six miles further north, in order to complete there the arrangements for the
party of labourers I wished to take along. In view of the observations detailed above as to
the rise of the ground-level in the old cultivated area of Khotan, I was interested to note on
the march that in this comparatively recent oasis the roads and waste spaces lay nowhere more
than about one foot below the level of the neighbouring fields. The period of irrigation had
manifestly been too short here to permit of any appreciable rise in the level of the fields. It
was equally in keeping with previous observations to learn that the area of the colony might
be greatly extended towards the desert by the construction of additional canals. The abundant
supply of water which the river carries down during the spring and summer months would
suffice to bring under cultivation large tracts along either bank of the river now covered by
low dunes. The fertility of the 'sand' which forms the latter is well-known to the cultivators;
and since its appearance differs in no way from that of disintegrated loess soil within the
oasis, its identical origin from the fertile deposits of the river courses can scarcely be doubted.
But here as elsewhere along the southern edge of the Taklamakān desert no surplus of
population is available for such extended cultivation, nor is the administration capable of
undertaking fresh irrigation works on a large scale.

Engage-
ment of
excavation
labourers. The 11th of December was spent at Āt-bāshi in collecting a party of thirty labourers for
my intended excavations, together with four weeks' food supply. Notwithstanding the good
pay offered, 1½ Miskals per diem, more than twice the average wages for unskilled labour,
I should not have secured the requisite number of men had not stringent instructions to that
purpose been issued by Pan Dārin; for both on account of superstitious fears and in view of
the expected rigours of the winter, the cultivators were very reluctant to venture so far into
the desert. Fortunately the two Tawakkēl hunters, Ahmad Merghen and Kāsim Ākhūn
(father and son), were with me to inspire confidence. I had engaged them as guides; and
inured to all hardships, and by the experience of their roving life intelligent far beyond the
villagers' horizon, they soon proved most useful in looking after the labourers both on the
march and at excavation work. I took care to select the physically fittest from among
the men brought before me, and to assure their being supplied with all needful warm clothing
and an adequate store of food. Each man had to bring his 'Ketman', the hoe in common
use throughout Turkestān, which proved an excellent implement for work in the sand. For the
carriage of their food-supplies and other impedimenta the few camels I could spare from my
train of eight were not sufficient. So they were supplemented by a dozen donkeys, which offered
the advantage of needing a minimum of fodder. For the camels only a quantity of oil made of rape
seed could be taken along. Half a pound daily of this for each animal proved remarkably effective
in keeping up their stamina during the trying desert marches, when they had to go without grazing
or fodder of any kind and sometimes for days without water. Our ponies, for which the desert

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ