[1] This distance is taken from a tracing of the map prepared
for Dr. Bushell’s paper quoted below. But there is a serious
discrepancy between this tracing and the observed position of
Dolon-nor, which determines that of Shang-tu, as stated to me in a
letter from Dr. Bushell. [See Note 1.]
[2] These particulars were obtained by Dr. Bushell through the
Archimandrite Palladius, from the MS. account of a Chinese traveller
who visited Shangtu about two hundred years ago, when probably
the whole inscription was above ground. The inscription is also
mentioned in the Imp. Geography of the present Dynasty, quoted by
Klaproth. This work gives the interior wall 5 li to the side,
instead of 2 li, and the outer wall 10 li, instead of 4 li.
By Dr. Bushell’s kindness, I give a reduction of his sketch plan
(see Itinerary Map, No. IV. at end of this volume), and also a
plate of the heading of the inscription. The translation of this is:
“Monument conferred by the Emperor of the August Yuen (Dynasty) in
memory of His High Eminence Yun Hien (styled) Chang-Lao (canonised
as) Shou-Kung (Prince of Longevity).” [See Missions de Chine et du
Congo, No. 28, Mars, 1891, Bruxelles.]
[3] Ramusio’s version runs thus: “The palace presents one side
to the centre of the city and the other to the city wall. And from
either extremity of the palace where it touches the city wall, there
runs another wall, which fetches a compass and encloses a good 16
miles of plain, and so that no one can enter this enclosure except
by passing through the palace.”
[4] This narrative, translated from Chinese into Russian by
Father Palladius, and from the Russian into English by Mr. Eugene
Schuyler, Secretary of the U.S. Legation at St. Petersburg, was
obligingly sent to me by the latter gentleman, and appeared in the
Geographical Magazine for January, 1875, p. 7.
[6] In the first edition I had supposed a derivation of the
Persian words Jádú and Jádúgari, used commonly in India for
conjuring, from the Tartar use of Yadah. And Pallas says the
Kirghiz call their witches Jádugar. (Voy. II. 298.) But I
am assured by Sir H. Rawlinson that this etymology is more than
doubtful, and that at any rate the Persian (Jádú) is probably
older than the Turkish term. I see that M. Pavet de Courteille
derives Yadah from a Mongol word signifying “change of weather,” etc.
[7] [See W. Foerster’s ed., Halle, 1887, p. 15, 386.—H. C.]
[8] A young Afghan related in the presence of Arthur Conolly
at Herat that on a certain occasion when provisions ran short the
Russian General gave orders that 50,000 men should be killed and
served out as rations! (I. 346.)
[10] [Cf. Paulin Paris’s ed., 1848, II. p. 5.—H. C.]
[11]Shen,
or coupled with jin “people,” Shenjin, in this
sense affords another possible origin of the word Sensin; but it
may in fact be at bottom, as regards the first syllable, the same
with the etymology we have preferred.
[12] I do not find this allusion in Mr. Beal’s new version of
Fahian. [See Rémusat’s éd. p. 227; Klaproth says (Ibid. p. 230) that
the Tao-szu are called in Tibetan Bonbò and Youngdhroungpa.—H. C.]
[13] Apparently they had at their command the whole
encyclopædia of modern “Spiritualists.” Duhalde mentions among
their sorceries the art of producing by their invocations the
figures of Lao-tseu and their divinities in the air, and of making
a pencil to write answers to questions without anybody touching it.
[14] It is possible that this may point to some report of the
mystic impurities of the Tantrists. The Saktián, or Tantrists,
according to the Dabistan, hold that the worship of a female
divinity affords a greater recompense. (II. 155.)