[118] Compare also Schuyler, Turkistan, Vol. II., pp. 127 ff.

[119] 175,000 perished in Kuldja alone.

[120] The question of the existence of volcanoes in Central Asia, especially on the Kuldja frontier, has always been a matter of doubt and discussion among geologists and Russian explorers. The Governor of Semiretchinsk, General Kolpakofsky, was, in 1881, able to report the discovery of the perpetual fires in the Tien shan range of mountains. The mountain Bai shan was found twelve miles northeast of Kuldja, in a basin surrounded by the massive Ailak mountains; its fires are not volcanic, but proceed from burning coal. On the sides of the mountain there are caves emitting smoke and sulphurous gas. Mr. Schuyler, in his Turkistan, mentions that these perpetual fires in the mountains, referred to by Chinese historians, were considered by Severtzoff, a Russian, who explored the region, as being caused by the ignition of the seams of coal, or the carburetted hydrogen gas in the seams. The same author further mentions that Captain Tosnofskey, another Russian explorer, was told of a place in the neighborhood from which steam constantly rose, and that near this crevice there had existed, from ancient times, three pits, where persons afflicted with rheumatism or skin diseases were in the habit of bathing.

[121] Wood, Journey to the Source of the River Oxus, p. 356. From the hills that encircle Lake Sir-i-kol rise some of the principal rivers in Asia: the Yarkand, Kashgar, Sirr, Kuner, and Oxus.

[122] Richthofen’s Remarks in Prejevalsky’s Lob-nor, p. 138. London, 1879.

[123] Called also Pourouts. Compare Klaproth (Mémoires, Tome III., p. 332), who has a notice of these tribes.

[124] H. W. Bellew, Kashmir and Kashgar. A Narrative of the Journey of the Embassy to Kashgar in 1873-4, p. 2.

[125] But Rémusat says that Karakash is a river and no town.

[126] Wood (Journey to the Oxus, p. 279) refers to a frontier town by the name of Ecla.

[127] Penny Cyclopædia, Art. Thian Shan nan lu.

[128] Rémusat, Histoire de Khotan, p. 35.

[129] Concerning the nomenclature of this region compare Rémusat, Histoire de Khotan, p. 66. See, moreover, ib., p. 47 ff., the legend of a drove of desert rats assisting the king of this land against the army of his enemies.

[130] “Galdan, better known by his title of Contaïsch”—Rémusat, Nouveaux Mélanges, Tome II., p. 29. See also Schuyler’s Turkistan, Vol. II., p. 168.

[131] Compare Rémusat (Nouveaux Mélanges, Tome II., p. 102), who has compiled a brief life of their leader Ubusha. De Quincey’s essay, The Flight of a Tartar Tribe. Ritter, Asien, Bd. V. pp. 531-583: Welthistorischer Einfluss des chinesischen Reichs auf Central- und West-Asien.

[132] Chinese Repository, Vol. V., pp. 267, 316, 351, etc.; Vol. IX., p. 113. Penny Cyclopædia, Art. Songaria. Boulger, Russia and England in Central Asia, 2 Vols., London, 1879. Schuyler, Turkistan, 2 vols., N. Y., 1877. Petermann’s Mittheilungen, Appendices XLII. and XLIII., 1875.

[133] This derivation is explained somewhat differently in Rémusat, Nouveaux Mélanges, Tome I., p. 190.

[134] To these Ritter adds the names of Wei, Dzang, Nga-ri, Kham, Bhodi, Peu-u-Tsang, Si-Dzang, Thupho, Tobbat, Töböt, Tübet, Tibet, and Barantola, as all applying to this country. Asien, Bd. III., S. 174-183.

[135] See Rémusat, Nouveaux Mélanges, I., p. 190, for notices of tribes anciently inhabiting this district and Bokhara. Compare also Heeren (Historical Researches, Vol. I., pp. 180-186), who gives in brief the accounts of Herodotus and Ctesias.

[136] Introduction by Col. Yule, in Gill’s River of Golden Sand.

[137] Called by Wood Kash-gow (Journey to the Oxus, p. 319). Chauri gau, sarlyk, and sarlac, are other names.

[138] This cross is mentioned by Marco Polo, Yule’s ed., Vol. I., p. 241.

[139] Prejevalsky, Travels in Mongolia, etc., Vol. I., p. 187.

[140] B. H. Hodgson, Notice of the Mammals of Tibet, Journal As. Soc. of Bengal, Vol. XI., pp. 275 ff.; also ib. Vols. XVI., p. 763, XIX., p. 466, and XXVI., No. 3, 1857. Abbé Armand David, Notes sur quelques oiseaux de Thibet, Nouv. Arch. du Museum, Bull., V. 1869, p. 33; ib. Bull., VI., pp. 19 and 33. Bull., VIII., 1872, pp. 3-128, IX., pp. 15-48, X., pp. 3-82. Recherches pour servir à l’histoire naturelle des mammifères comprennant des considérations sur la classification de ces animaux, etc., des études sur la faune de la Chine et du Tibet oriental, par MM. Milne-Edwards, etc., 2 vols. Paris, 1868-74.

[141] Klaproth, Description du Tubet, p. 246.

[142] Mission of George Bogle to Tibet and Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa. Edited by C. R. Markham. London, 1876, p. 265.

[143] Compare, for further discussion of this subject, Timkowski’s Mission to Peking, London, 1827, Vol. II., p. 349. Wilson’s Abode of Snow, p. 329.

[144] Essay towards a Dictionary, Tibetan and English. A Grammar of the Tibetan Language in English. Calcutta, 1834.

[145] Essays on the Language, Literature, and Religion of Nepal and Tibet, etc. London, 1874.

[146] Rémusat, Observations sur l’Histoire des Mongols orienteaux de Sanang Setsen, Paris, l’an 8. Ssanang Ssetsen, Geschichte der Mongolen, Uebers., von. J. J. Schmidt, Petersb., 1829.

[147] Rémusat relates the story of his origin, Mélanges Posthumes, p. 400.

[148] Klaproth, Description du Tubet.

[149] Authorities on Tibet besides those already referred to: Journal Asiatique, Tomes IV., p. 281; VIII., p. 117; IX., p. 31; XIV., pp. 177, ff. 277, 406, etc. Du Halde, Description of China, Vol. II., pp. 384-388. Capt. Samuel Turner, Account of an Embassy to the Court of Teshoo Lama in Tibet, London, 1800. Histoire de ce qui s’est passé au Royaume du Tibet, en l’année 1626; trad. de l’Italien. Paris, 1829. P. Kircher, China Illustrata. MM. Péron et Billecocq, Recueil de Voyages du Thibet, Paris, 1796. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, passim. Chinese Repository, Vols. VI., pp. 28, 494, IX., p. 26, and XIII., p. 505. Ritter, Asien, Bd. II., 4er Abschnitt, and Bd. III., S. 137-424. Richthofen, China, Bd. I., S. 228, 247, 466, 670, 683, etc. C. H. Desgodin, La mission du Tibet de 1855 à 1870, comprennant l’exposé des affaires religieuses, etc. D’après les lettres de M. l’abbé Desgodins, missionaire apostolique, Verdun, 1872. Lieut. Kreitner, Im fernen Osten, pp. 829 ff., and in The Popular Science Monthly, for August, 1882. Emil Schlagintweit, Tibetan Buddhism, Illustrated by Literary Documents and Objects of Religious Worship, London, 1863. Abbé Huc, Travels through Tartary, Tibet and China, 2 vols.

[150] This careful digest is contained in the Journal Asiatique for 1836 (April and May), and will repay perusal.

[151] The population of the Roman Empire at the same period is estimated at 85,000,000 by Merivale (Vol. IV., pp. 336-343), but the data are less complete than in China; he reckons the European provinces at 45,000,000, and the Asiatic and African colonies at the remainder, giving 27,000,000 to Asia Minor and Syria. The area of China, at this time, was less than Rome by about one-fourth.

[152] Sir G. Staunton, Embassy to China, Vol. II., Appendix, p. 615: “Table of the Population and Extent of China proper, within the Great Wall. Taken in round numbers from the Statements of Chow ta-zhin.”

[153] This interesting subject can then be left with the reader, who will find further remarks in Medhurst’s China, De Guignes’ Voyages à Peking, The Missionaries, in Tomes VI. and VIII. of Mémoires, Ed. Biot, in Journal Asiatique for 1836. The Numerical Relations of the Population of China during the 4,000 Years of its Historical Existence; or the Rise and Fall of the Chinese Population, by T. Sacharoff. Translated into English by the Rev. W. Lobscheid, Hongkong, 1862. Notes and Queries on China and Japan, Vol. II., pp. 88, 103, and 117.

[154] Sacred Edict, pp. 51, 60.

[155] China: Its State and Prospects, p. 42.

[156] Ta Tsing Leu Lee; being the Fundamental Laws, etc., of the Penal Code of China, by Sir G. T. Staunton, Bart., London, 1810. Section CCXXV.

[157] Chinese Repository, Vol. I., p. 332.

[158] Ibid., Vol. VII., p. 503; Vol. II., p. 161.

[159] Yule’s Marco Polo, Vol. II., p. 152.

[160] Penal Code, p. 79, Staunton’s translation.

[161] Voyages à Peking, Tome III., pp. 55-86.

[162] The shih, says Medhurst, is a measure of grain containing 3,460 English cubic inches. China: Its State and Prospects, p. 68. London, 1838.

[163] Annales de la Foi, Tome XVI., p. 440.

[164] Chinese Commercial Guide, 2d edition, 1842, p. 143.

[165] Chinese Repository, Vol. I., p. 159.

[166] Chinese Repository, Vol. II., p. 431.

[167] The Chinese, Vol. II., pp. 333-343.

[168] Journal of the Geolog. Soc., London, for 1871, p. 379.

[169] Im fernen Osten, p. 462.

[170] China: Ergebnisse eigener Reisen. Band I., S. 74. Berlin, 1877.

[171] Compare Kingsmill, in the Quar. Journal of the Geol. Soc. of London, 1868, pp. 119 ff., and in the North China Herald, Vol. IX., 85, 86.

[172] Yule’s Marco Polo, Vol. I., p. 395.

[173] Across America and Asia, pp. 291 ff.

[174] Five Months on the Yang-tsze, p. 265. Annales de la Foi, Tome IX., p. 457.

[175] N. C. Br. R. A. Soc. Journal, New Series, No. III., pp. 94-106, and No. IV., pp. 243 ff. Notes by Mr. Hollingworth of a Visit to the Coal Mines in the Neighborhood of Loh-Ping. Blue Book, China, No. 2, 1870, p. 11. Notes and Queries on China and Japan, Vol. II., pp. 74-76. North China Herald, passim. Richthofen’s Letters, and in Ocean Highways, Nov., 1873. Chinese Repository, Vol. XIX., pp. 385 ff.

[176] Compare Rémusat, Histoire de Khotan, pp. 163 ff., where there is an extended list of Chinese precious stones drawn from native sources.

[177] Murray’s China, Edinburgh, 1843, Vol. III., p. 276; compare also an article on this stone by M. Blondel, of Paris, published in the Smithsonian Report for 1876. Mémoires concernant les Chinois, Tome XIII., p. 389. Rémusat in the Journal des Savans, Dec., 1818, pp. 748 ff. Notes and Queries on C. and J., Vol. II., pp. 173, 174, and 187; Vol. III., p. 63; Vol. IV., pp. 13 and 33. Macmillan’s Magazine, October, 1871. Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, Vol. II., p. 564.

[178] Nephrit und Jadeit, nach ihren mineralogischen Eigenschaften sowie nach ihrer urgeschichtlichen und ethnographischen Bedeutung. Heinrich Fischer, Stuttgart, 1880. An exhaustive treatise on every phrase and variety of the mineral.

[179] Obtained from Badakshan. Wood, Journey to the Oxus, p. 263.

[180] Geological Researches in China, Chap. X.

[181] Humboldt, Fragmens Asiatiques, Tome I., p. 196. Annales de la Foi, Janvr., 1829, pp. 416 ff.

[182] Breton, China, its Costumes, Arts, etc., Vol. II.

[183] Bridgman’s Chinese Chrestomathy, p. 469.

[184] Chinese Repository, Vol. VII., p. 90.

[185] Zoöl. Soc. Proc., 1870, p. 626.

[186] Borget, La Chine Ouverte, p. 147.

[187] Chinese Repository, Vol. XII., p. 608.

[188] Ibid., Vol. VI., p. 411.

[189] Yule’s Marco Polo, Vol. I., p. 353.

[190] Wars and Sports of the Mongols and Romans.

[191] Oriental and Western Siberia, p. 416.

[192] Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, May, 1859, p. 289.

[193] Journal N. C. Br. R. A. Soc., Vol. IV., 1867, Art. XI., by T. Watters.

[194] Yule’s Marco Polo, Vol. I., p. 237.

[195] Yule’s Marco Polo, Vol. I., p. 246—where there is an admirable wood-cut of one from Wood.

[196] From Kulja to Lob-nor, p. 116.

[197] John Gould, Century of Birds. London, 1831-32.

[198] On the birds of China, see in general Les Oiseaux de la Chine, par M. l’Abbé Armand David, avec un Atlas de 124 Planches dessinées et lith. par M. Arnoul. Paris, 1877. R. Swinhoe, in the Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoölogical Soc. of London, and in The Ibis, a Magazine of General Ornithology, passim. Journ. N. C. Br. R. A. Soc., Nos. II., p. 225, and III., p. 287.

[199] Chinese Repository, Vol. VII., p. 213. Compare Yule’s note, Marco Polo, Vol. I., p. 232. Huc, Travels in Tartary, etc., Vol. II., p. 246. Bell, Journey from St. Petersburgh in Russia to Ispahan in Persia, Vol. I., p. 216. Also Heeren, Asiatic Nations, Vol. I., p. 98, where there is a résumé of Ctesias’ account of the unicorn.

[200] Chinese Repository, Vol. VII., p. 250. For a careful analysis of this relic of ancient lore, see the Nouveau Journal Asiatique, Tome XII., pp. 232-243, 1833; also Tome VIII., 3d Series, pp. 337-382, 1839, for M. Bazin’s estimate of its value.

[201] Yule’s Marco Polo, Vol. II., p. 46.

[202] Vol. III., p. 445.

[203] Conspectus of collections made by Dr. Cantor, Chinese Repository, Vol. X., p. 434. General features of Chusan, with remarks on the Flora and Fauna of that Island, by T. E. Cantor, Annal. Nat. Hist., Vol. IX. (1842), pp. 265, 361, and 481. Journal As. Soc. of Bengal, Vol. XXIV., 1855.

[204] Hanbury’s notes on Chinese Materia Medica, 1862; Pharmaceutical Journal, Feb., 1862.

[205] Baron Richthofen’s Letters, No. VII., to Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, May, 1872, p. 52.

[206] Darwin, Naturalist’s Voyage, p. 35, notices a similar habit of the sphex in the vicinity of Rio Janeiro. The insect partially kills the spider or caterpillar by stinging, when they are stored in a rotting state with her eggs.

[207] Compare Yule’s Marco Polo, Vol. I., p. 271; A. R. Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, pp. 87-91, American Ed.

[208] See also in Notes and Queries on C. and J., Vol. III., pp. 115, 129, 139, 147, 150, 170.

[209] From calculations of Humboldt it was estimated that the productiveness of this plant as compared with wheat is as 133 to 1, and as against potatoes, 44 to 1.

[210] Compare Yule’s Marco Polo, Vol. I., p. 197.

[211] The application of this name to the jujube plum by foreigners, because the kind cured in honey resembled Arabian dates in color, size, and taste when brought on the table, is a good instance of the manner in which errors arise and are perpetuated from mere carelessness.

[212] Compare Dr. H. F. Hance, in Journal of Botany, Vol. IX., p. 38.

[213] Travels in Siberia, Vol. II., p. 151.

[214] Wanderings in China.

[215] Chinese Repository, Vol. VII., p. 393.

[216] Mélanges Orientales, Posthumes, p. 215.

[217] 2357 and 2255 before Christ.

[218] Penal Code, Introduction, p. xxviii.

[219] Vol. XVI., 1810.

[220] Chinese Repository, Vol. IV., pp. 24-29.

[221] Chinese Repository, Vol. IV., p. 12; Chinese Chrestomathy, p. 558.

[222] The attributes ascribed to a chakrawartti in the Buddhist mythology have many points of resemblance to the hwangtí, and Hardy’s Manual of Buddhism (p. 126) furnishes an instructive comparison between the two characters, one fanciful and the other real.

[223] The remark of Heeren (Asiatic Nations, Vol. I., p. 57), that the names by which the early Persian monarchs, Darius, Xerxes, and others, were called, were really titles or surnames, and not their own personal names, suggests the further comparison whether those renowned names were not like the kwoh hao of the Chinese emperors, whose adoption of the custom was after the extinction of the Persian monarchy. Herodotus (Book VI., 98) seems to have been familiar with these names, not so much as being arbitrary and meaningless terms as epithets whose significations were associated with the kings. The new names given to the last two sons of Josiah, who became kings of Judah by their conquerors (2 Kings, 23: 34, and 24: 17), indicate even an earlier adoption of this custom.

[224] Chinese Repository, Vol. X., pp. 87-98. Indo-Chinese Gleaner, February, 1821.

[225] Staunton’s Embassy, 8vo edition, London, 1797, Vol. III., p. 63.

[226] Chinese Repository, Vol. XIV., p. 521; N. C. Br. R. As. Soc. Journal, No. XI.

[227] Chinese Repository, Vol. IV., p. 576.

[228] Missionary Chronicle, Vol. XIV., p. 324; Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 69; Heeren, Asiatic Nations, Vol. I., p. 246.

[229] M. Ed. Biot furnished a good account to the Journal Asiatique (3d series, Vol. III.) of the legal condition of slaves in China; see also Chinese Repository, Vol. XVIII., pp. 347-363, and passim; Archdeacon Gray’s China.

[230] Chinese Chrestomathy, Chap. XVII., Sec. 4, p. 570.

[231] A still more common designation for officers of every rank in the employ of the Chinese government has not so good a parentage; this is the word mandarin, derived from the Portuguese mandar, to command, and indiscriminately applied by foreigners to every grade, from a premier to a tide-waiter; it is not needed in English as a general term for officers, and ought to be disused, moreover, from its tendency to convey the impression that they are in some way unlike similar officials in other lands. Compare Notes and Queries on China and Japan, Vol. III., p. 12.

[232] Chinese Repository, Vol. IV., p. 138. Chinese Chrestomathy, p. 573.

[233] Fraser’s Magazine, February, 1873. China Review, Vol. III., p. 13. Note on the Condition and Government of the Chinese Empire in 1849. By T. F. Wade. Hongkong, 1850. Translations of several years of the Gazette have appeared since 1872, reprinted from the columns of the North China Herald.

[234] Essai sur l’Instruction en Chine, pp. 540-589.

[235] Chinese Repository, Vol. IV., pp. 188, 276-287; Vol. V., pp. 165-178; Vol. XX., pp. 250, 300, and 363. Mémoires concernant les Chinois, par les Missionaires à Pekin, Tomes VII. and VIII., passim.

[236] Compare an article by E. C. Taintor, in Notes and Queries on China and Japan. Chinese Repository, Vols. IV., pp. 148, 164, and 177, and XII., pp. 32 and 67.

[237] Dr. W. A. P. Martin, The Chinese.

[238] Mayers’ Manual of Chinese Titles furnishes the best compend for learning their duties and names.

[239] Rollin’s Ancient History, Chap. IV. Manners of the Assyrians. Heeren’s Asiatic Researches, Vol. I., Chap. II.

[240] Chinese Repository, Vol. VI., p. 48.