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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



caravans visited the town yearly, and the first 

 sudden effect of this was to depreciate the value of 

 the silk. On the approach, however, of a Chinese 

 army in 104 b. c, matters improved, and the mar- 

 ket for the silk extended farther and farther west- 

 ward, until the Roman Empire was reached. 



For 120 years the way remained open, but at 

 the expiration of that time the Hiungnu again 

 gained possession of the trade-route, and the 

 Tarim Basin was lost to the Chinese for fifty-six 

 years. General Pan-chow then not only regained 

 the whole of the lost country, but also (95 a. d.) 

 led a victorious Chinese army across the Pamir 

 Steppe to the Caspian Sea, where, for a brief time, 

 the Chinese and Roman Empires were brought 

 into close proximity, without, however, any per- 

 mauent result. In 120 a. d. the Chinese again 

 lost their control of Turanian lands, and in 150 

 a. d. all direct communication with the west of 

 the Tarim Basin ceased. 



As regards the geography of this subject, one 

 of the most important points is to fix the site of 

 Tawan. Baron Richthofen considers that Remu- 

 sat's opinion that Tawan was the capital of the 

 modern Khokan or Ferghana is erroneous. Ta- 

 wan, he points out, was not the first kingdom 

 reached after crossing the Tsung-ling Pass (Terek- 

 dawan), but Hiusiun, whose king lived in Usi 

 (Osh ?), 500 li from the mountain-pass. It was 

 920 li from Usi to Tawan, which would bring us 

 to the great bend of the Jaxartes, near Oratepe, 

 which was called Sutrushna by the Arabs, a name 

 which we easily recognize in Su-tui-sha-na, which 

 it appears from Chinese sources was the subse- 

 quent name of Tawan. The people of Tawan 

 were a commerce-loving people, but brought the 

 silk only to the nearest markets, while the Ansi, 

 who possessed many towns, vessels, and wagons, 

 who were addicted to agriculture, and had stored 

 up riches, conveyed it to the northern slope of 

 the Iranian Plateau and the shores of the Caspian. 

 As regards the nationality of these traders, it 

 would appear from Tchang-kien's description that 

 they were Tajiks. They spoke different tongues, 

 but also had one common lingua franca for trad- 

 ing purposes, and there is ground for concluding 

 that the trading inhabitants of the Tawan, Tahia, 

 and Ansi kingdoms, were the Persian-speaking 

 predecessors of the Tajiks. 



In the Han annals, the Chinese complain that 

 they were prevented by the Ansi from entering 

 into direct commercial relation with the Ta-tsin, 

 or Romans. The silk reached India through the 

 medium of the Tahia, who inhabited the oases of 

 Balkh and Kunduz, and other districts south of 



the Oxus. In the last century before Christ the 

 Roman authors begin to speak of Seric stuffs, of 

 the land Serica, and its people, of which they 

 heard only indirectly and from vague report. 

 There is no proof that the Romans ever held di- 

 rect intercourse with the Chinese. 



With regard to the routes of the silk-traders, 

 we gather most information from Chinese sources, 

 and first among these we must place the annals 

 of the Han dynasty. At present we know of one 

 route in the valley of the Tarim which follows 

 the western and northern edge of the horseshoe 

 above referred to. Mediaeval travelers, Buddhist 

 pilgrims from China, Marco Polo, and Shah 

 Rukh's embassadors, testify to the existence in 

 their time of kingdoms and towns along the 

 southern edge of the basin between Khotan and 

 Lob-Nor, and these were united by diverse routes ; 

 but in the middle ages these latter were fast dis- 

 appearing, and there were traditions of buried 

 treasures, sand-covered towns, and even king- 

 doms which had disappeared beneath the en- 

 croaching sand-desert. In the time of the Han 

 dynasty things had not got so far, and these dis- 

 tricts were in a better condition. There were 

 then two kingdoms, called Liulan and Kuchi, on 

 Lake Lob, and Yuticn (Khotan), which are gen- 

 erally mentioned. There were roads between 

 Lob-Nor and Khotan, called the " southern roads," 

 one along the Tarim, and one along the southern 

 foot of the Tien-shan (the northern one). But 

 the latter, west of Kucha, was occupied in an- 

 cient times by hostile tribes, and the southern 

 road was more frequently used. The official 

 road extended from Liulan, on Lake Lob, for 720 

 li to Tsie-mo, where roads to the north and south 

 diverged. Hsiau-wan and Yung-lin appear to 

 have been situated on southern tributaries of the 

 Tarim which are now filled up with sand. The 

 road then led to Yutien (Khotan), Sokiu (Yar- 

 kand), and Sulei (Kashgar). The roads over the 

 Pamir and Terek Passes were certainly much 

 used ; but, unfortunately, a detailed description 

 of them is wanting. 



Turning to Western writers, we come first 

 upon Ptolemy, who wrote about 150 a. d., and 

 who derived much of his information from Mari- 

 nus (contemporaneous with Pan-chow, who con- 

 quered the Tarim Basin, and led his army as far 

 as the Caspian). The weight of evidence goes 

 to prove that Ptolemy's Serica denoted not merely 

 China, but also the basin of the Tarim, or the 

 greater portion of it, and the old silk-traders' 

 route lay at the southern foot of the Tien-shan. 

 The difficulty of identifying the places mentioned 



