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| 0161 |
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 |
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There could be no doubt that the main purpose of this
*Limes* was to safeguard the territory south of the Su-lo
Ho. This was indispensable as a base and passage for
the Chinese military forces and political missions sent to
extend and consolidate imperial control in the Tarim Basin
and beyond. It was equally clear that the enemy, against
whose irruptions from the north and north-west this base and
line of communication had to be protected, were the Hsiung-
nu, the ancestors of those Huns who some centuries later
watered their horses on the Danube and the Po.
With this fact once established, how the horizon seemed
to widen both in time and space ! The very existence of
this *Limes* brought out the important geographical fact that
the desert hill region north of the Su-lo Ho marshes, now
quite impracticable owing to the absence of water, must then
have been passable for small raiding parties. In historical
perspective, too, it was stirring to think that this western-
most end of the 'Great Wall' had not been built for mere
passive defence, a purpose so easily associated with every
'Chinese Wall,' but, like more than one Roman *Limes*
within a century or so later, primarily to keep the route
open for a vigorous strategic advance. But of such
historical affinities and connections more anon.
Fascinating as it was to let my thoughts wander far
away to Roman borders I had known, it was easier still to
forget altogether the lapse of long ages, while the humble
accessories of the life once led on this desolate frontier lay
before my eyes seemingly untouched by twenty centuries.
The men, indeed, had passed away, those who kept guard
and those against whose raids the great line had been drawn
right through the desert. Yet nature had changed scarcely
at all, and on this ground its forces had failed to efface the
work of man.
Never did I realize more deeply how little two thousand
years mean where human activity is suspended, and even
that of nature benumbed, than when on my long recon-
noitring rides the evenings found me alone amidst the
débris of some commanding watch-station. Struck by the
rays of the setting sun tower after tower far away, up to
ten miles' distance and more, could be seen glittering in a
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