monuments themselves are of considerable antiquity, notably the Hsia Yii 

 Ch'ii Shui Pi, the pair of Mohammedan monuments, the Nestorian tablet, 

 and the sixteen classics. The stones are usually oblong in shape, and over 

 six inches thick. In many, the sides have been decorated with beautiful scroll 

 work, showing marked signs of Indian influence. In some of these designs 

 are figures of animals and birds that strongly call to mind the Assyrian 

 sculptures. Especially is this the case with some lions, which bear no 

 resemblance whatever to the conventional Chinese form. For a moderate 

 sum excellent rubbings of all the monuments can be bought from the 

 gate-keepers of Monument Grove, who are moreover ready with any amount 

 of information, accurate or otherwise. 



In a large pagoda a mile or so south of Hsi-an are two Buddhist 

 monuments dated the fourth year of Yung Hui, which corresponds to the year 

 653-4 A.D. of our Calendar. They tell of the visit of a Chinese pilgrim to 

 India to learn what he could of Buddhism ; of how, after crossing the Ganges, 

 he studied the language of the country and the new faith ; and of his eventual 

 return to Hsi-an, where he was loaded with honours. The stones further 

 relate how he translated 250 Buddhist books into Chinese ; but perhaps their 

 date is the most interesting feature, coming as it does within a year or so of 

 a date upon the Nestorian tablet. This seems to suggest that Christianity 

 and Buddhism may have reached parts of China almost simultaneously. 



A few other monuments or tablets may be noticed here, though they 

 cannot be said strictly to belong to Hsi-an Fu. Two of these form a pair 

 near Chou-chih Hsien, a small town situated at the foot of the Middle-South 

 Mountains (Chung-nan Shan), fifty miles west of Hsi-an. On these monuments 

 are inscribed the whole of the Tao-tei-ching, the Taoist classics. At Yao 

 Chou, a large town some fifty miles north of Hsi-an, is a broken Buddhist 

 tablet dated 529 a.d. This is one of the oldest monuments in the district, 

 but is otherwise of no great interest. There are besides, tablets, though of no 

 very ancient date, cemented into the walls of the buildings within the grounds 

 of the hot springs at Lin-t'ung Hsien, and testifying to the heahng properties 

 of the waters. 



At Hsi-an we were detained some days by the necessity of taking 

 astronomical observations, but by May 6th we were once more on the road to 

 Lan-chou. After clearing the western suburb and traversing some ten miles 

 of low-lying country, we once more crossed the Wei Ho, and stopped the first 

 night at Hsien-yang Hsien, which lies on the bank of that river. About three 

 miles from this town the road begins to ascend a series of loess steps, and from 



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