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0383 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / 383 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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CHAPTER LXXIII

THE 'VALLEY OF THE MYRIAD BUDDHAS'

The heat of the season and the consequent impracticability
of employing our camels for transport precluded more
extended surveys on this interesting but terribly arid
ground along the foot of the outer ranges. So, after
despatching honest Turdi under old Mullah's guidance with
my heavy mail-bag to Tun-huang, whence they were to
make their way across the mountains to Abdal, I started
on the morning of the 29th of June for our expedition
into the Westernmost Nan-shan. It seemed almost too
soon to leave my cool and peaceful temple quarters at
Ch'iao-tzŭ; but I thought of the huge mountain area which
it was my intention to survey, and for which the next two
months were all I could spare.

Our first march was very pleasant, taking us westwards
through a delightfully green grassy plain to the oasis of
T'a-shih. Like Ch'iao-tzŭ, it seemed to count about two
hundred homesteads; but they were much scattered, and
the numerous uncultivated strips of land within the oasis
suggested want of water—or of people. I had by now
learned enough of Chinese notions of life not to wonder at
the total absence of cattle on the magnificent grazing we
passed through. For had not all the people I had met
since first reaching Tun-huang shown in many significant
ways that the nation's traditional abhorrence of anything
akin to the herdsman's semi-nomadic existence was as strong
among these settlers of the border as it might be among
the most town-bred folk farther east? So by sad ex-
perience I had learned that milk was never to be hoped for,
however splendid the grazing, unless there were Chinese
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