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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



shan and of the North Persian Ranges, civilized 

 nations formerly existed, and extended to the 

 banks of the Jaxartes and Oxus, and their tribu- 

 taries. With the exception of the less important 

 oases in the Tarim Basin, they were the first civil- 

 ized countries to be found west of China, from 

 which they were separated by thirty degrees of 

 longitude, the only practicable line of communi- 

 cation lying across steppes and deserts. 



The migrations of nations and the movements 

 of traders are very unlike, though both follow 

 distinct laws. The former have always chosen 

 localities which have afforded them broad, easy, 

 and natural routes into warm and fertile plains. 

 Mountains were only crossed where a low pass 

 gave easy access to the wished-for goal. These 

 successive waves of migration came from the 

 northeast ; but when they ventured into the basin 

 of the Tarim, they were caught in a cul-de-sac, 

 whence they could only escape by the way they 

 came. In prehistoric times migrations toward 

 China may have found their way into the re- 

 gion referred to. But as soon as its people were 

 capable of looking after their own interests, the 

 only available exit lay through the Dzungarian 

 trough between the Tien-shan and Altai Ranges, 

 mentioned above. Thence they invaded Europe, 

 Persia, and India. Mountain-passes naturally did 

 not present such insuperable difficulties to pass- 

 ing armies, and on several occasions large hosts 

 have made their way from China to Turan over 

 passes near the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes, 

 and from Turan to the western oases in the Tarim 

 Basin. 



The movements of traders follow entirely dif- 

 ferent laws. They invariably sought the short- 

 est routes between the two countries whose 

 goods they wished to exchange one for the other. 

 Among these goods, silk has played an important 

 part since the earliest ages. The duration of this 

 silk-trade is most conveniently divided into two 

 periods : the first from remote and uncertain 

 ages to about 114 b. a, being the period of indi- 

 rect traffic ; and the second from 114 b. c. to 

 120 a. d., being the period of direct commerce 

 between China and the Turanian plains. In the 

 book " Yue-kung," which treats of the history 

 of China during the last 4,000 years, silk is men- 

 tioned as an article of tribute in some of the 

 provinces, and we learn therefrom that the great 

 Yue aimed at introducing the growth of the mul- 

 berry and silk culture in the lands about the 

 mouth of the Yellow River. A thousand years 

 later the " Chuli Book," which contains the offi- 

 cial precepts of the Chu dynasty, makes frequent 



mention of silk, and it is probable that the pre- 

 cious jade of Khotan was largely exchanged for 

 it, though, probably, not by a direct traffic be- 

 tween the two countries. 



It is uncertain how far back silk-stuffs were 

 first exported to India and Western Asia. The 

 Chinese name for silk was Sz\ and it is curious 

 to observe that both this name and the product 

 itself made their way into Corea, Japan, Mongo- 

 lia, and (especially) Central Asia, and in later 

 times into Greece and the other European coun- 

 tries. After a time the letter r got affixed, and 

 the root-word was thus changed into ssir or sser. 

 The word Sherikoth in Isaiah probably refers to 

 the same, and the Arabs to this day call a piece 

 of silk goods saraqat. It is probable that Herod- 

 otus, in speaking of the fineness of the Median 

 dresses, alludes to silken stuffs. The first un- 

 doubted mention of the manufacture is to be 

 found in Nearchus (320 b. c), who speaks of the 

 Seric stuffs of India, of the people called Seres, 

 and of their country Sera. There is no evidence 

 to show by what route these silks reached India, 

 Persia, and Media. It is supposed that the princes 

 of the house of Tsin, who since the eighth cen- 

 tury before Christ occupied a small principality 

 in the western part of Shensi, extended their 

 dominion into Central Asia, and that by this 

 means the Chinese carried on direct trade with 

 the lands about the Oxus. This supposition 

 rests on three points : the mention of a coun- 

 try called Sinim by Isaiah, the frequent men- 

 tion of the name Matchin (which was supposed 

 to refer to China) by Firdusi in speaking of early 

 Persian history, and the frequent allusion in the 

 Mahabharata to the Tchina people in the north- 

 west of India. Against this, however, must be 

 remarked that the Tsin princes certainly never 

 penetrated into Central Asia, nor, as far as can be 

 shown, beyond the Yellow River ; that the name 

 Matchin was used to designate any powerful 

 princes of Turan, with whom the Persian kings had 

 intercourse ; while the researches of recent trav- 

 elers have disclosed the existence of a people 

 called Tchina in the Northwestern Himalayas. 

 There is no proof that the Chinese ever journeyed 

 beyond their western borders before the second 

 century of our era, or even that they knew of the 

 existence of other nations beyond their immediate 

 neighbors in Central Asia. The producers and 

 consumers of the silk were thus equally ignorant 

 of its destination and origin. There is good 

 reason for supposing that the inhabitants of 

 Khotan, who were known to the Greeks under 

 the name of Issedones, were the ehief medium of 



