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| 0583 |
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 |
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asked or offered in advance. At last, after much careful
sounding, I fathomed the folklore belief which furnished the
clue to the mystery. All the Korla people had grown up
under the influence of the old tradition, which elsewhere also
haunts the outskirts of the great desert, about 'old towns'
buried by the sands, and full of hidden treasure. This
tradition was firmly coupled with a belief that such ruins
were guarded by demons, which prevented them ever
being seen a second time by those who were lucky enough
to discover them.
It was but a survival of the popular legend of which
Hsüan-tsang, the great pilgrim, had already heard a
localized form between Khotan and Keriya, and which I
had occasion to relate in the narrative of my former
journey. Musa Haji and his fellow-hunters had tried
their luck in searching for the ruins of their local 'Kötek-
shahri,' on different occasions and in different desert
areas. They had bona fide offered their guidance in the
fond hope that my supposed magic would be powerful
enough to overcome the evil genii hiding the walled
town of which their own imagination had before let
them only catch a glimpse—apparently in a dust-storm!
They now felt sorry for the failure of my 'Wilayet arts'
to secure them a chance of discovering all those hidden
treasures.
After marching up the Inchike Darya, Lal Singh and
myself separated on January 12th, 1908. While he was
to follow the hitherto unmapped river course right through
to Shahyar, I myself struck by forced marches through
the broad belt of unsurveyed desert north-westwards, and
after reaching the great northern caravan route at Bugur,
made my way to Kuchar. At this great and ancient
oasis I utilized a week's halt for visits to the interesting
ruins close by, which had during the preceding five years
been searched successively by Japanese, German, and
Russian archaeological parties, and had finally been cleared
with a thoroughness and method deserving of all praise
by the French mission under Professor Pelliot. Kuchar,
situated at the foot of the T'ien-shan, and watered by two
large rivers which debouch here, may by reason of its
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