Serindia : vol.3 / 195 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0195	Serindia : vol.3
セリンディア : vol.3

But direct historical or archæological evidence to prove this there is none. Topographical
indications that the waters of the Keriya River once reached or closely approached the Tārim
there are, as already mentioned.⁸ But I can see no means for fixing the chronological limits of the
change even approximately. Mirzā Haidār's statement about the Keriya River being among the
rivers which empty their waters into the great lake in the desert eastwards is not likely to be based
on actual observation, direct or indirect, but reflects only popular belief, which in matters of
Turkestān hydrography is usually of the vaguest.⁹

What, however, I feel now firmly convinced of from personal knowledge of the ground is the
probability that this short line through the desert has served since early times for occasional
communication in case of special needs. That the hunters and shepherds visiting the terminal
course of the Keriya River at present know of its practicability as an oghre-yol, 'thieves' track', is
certain. It was this knowledge which induced my faithful old 'treasure-seeking' guide Turdi to
aid, about 1903, the attempt of a Khotan Beg who tried to escape from trouble with the local
Chinese administration by crossing the desert from the river's end to Shahyār—an adventure that
ended badly for the Beg as well as for honest Turdi.¹⁰ For exploits of this shady kind, for the
expeditions of robbers and others who had reason to avoid the highways, etc., this 'short
cut' through the Taklamakān is always likely to have been a temptation. It is in this sense,
I believe, that we have to interpret the popular tradition recorded in an old Turki legendary,
or Tadhkira, which pretends to describe the surprise attack made upon the infidels about
Keriya by a band of Muslim warriors who came from the Tārim by the route of the Keriya
River.¹¹

After revisiting Tonguz-baste on the bed of 1901, now wholly abandoned by the river, and
securing guides and additional labourers among the shepherds encountered, I proceeded once more
to the ruined site of Kara-dong (Map No. 30. D. 2). I found that the report about additional ruins
having come to light from among the dunes since my visit of 1901 was true, though their number
and extent proved scanty. Little had changed at the great ruined quadrangle (Fig. 302), of which
the portions not completely smothered by high sands had already been explored then.¹² But
elsewhere, to the south and south-east where the ground was more open and the dunes less high,
the latter had shifted their position to an extent which disclosed ruined dwellings not previously
noticed. As the site-plan, Plate 55, shows, the area over which these remains could now be traced
stretches from south to north for a distance of close on a mile, with a width of about one-third of
a mile. Bare patches of eroded ground within this area showed plentiful pottery débris, and this
was traceable also more thinly for about half a mile further south. Of special interest was the
discovery, immediately on my return to the site, of two small irrigation canals found now cropping
out from among the dunes. Each was traced at a number of points with a bearing from south to
north and a clear width of 1⅓ feet at the bottom. In conjunction with another new discovery, that

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