70 TEMPLE OE С HOBS EN : 



These are all the observations I could make of 

 this people, of whom we saw little. The Mongols 

 spoke in a disparaging way of their physical and 

 moral qualities, and described their language to be a 

 mixture of Mongol, Chinese, and words of their own. 



The temple of Chobsen, which was the starting 

 point of all our subsequent excursions, stands on the 

 northern border of the hilly region which we have 

 mentioned. It is forty miles NNE. of Si-ning, in 

 37° 3' north latitude, and тоо° 58' east longitude 

 from Greenwich, fixing the latter approximately by 

 existing maps. Its elevation is 8,900 feet above 

 the sea. The temple comprises a principal shrine, 

 surrounded by a mud wall, and a number (perhaps 

 100) of smaller buildings, which were all destroyed 

 by the Dungans three years before our arrival, the 

 shrine alone, protected by its wall, escaping. 



The temple is of brick, in the usual quadrangular 



Vlangali, dated Peking, August 13, 1873, supplies further particulars 

 about the Taldi : ' It is certain that in the last century a colony of 

 Mahommedans, " turban wearers " from the western countries, settled 

 near Si-ning ; probably in the course of time they became like the 

 common Dungans, judgmg from those of the Si-ning Mahommedans 

 who brought rhubarb, to Kiakhta. As to the name of Taldi^ I suspect 

 that it refers to the general appellation of the emigrants from Taltu, 

 or Tartu (the Chinese reading is uncertain), in the sixteenth century, 

 and originated in the following way : when the inhabitants of Hami 

 were hard pressed by the sultans of Turfan, the Ming Government 

 built them a separate city 400 li from Suh-chau ; this city is mentioned 

 in Chinese history under the name of Kuyui-chcn (its extensive ruins 

 and aqueducts are still visible), but the settlers themselves called 

 it Taltii, in what language I know not ; a short time afterwards the 

 Turfanis advanced to Kuyui or Taltu and obliged its inhabitants to 

 remove to Kan-su, where they simply called themselves " people of 

 Taltu," without any other name to indicate the origin of their tribe. I 

 offer this explanation merely as a suggestion founded on actual fact.' 

 — M. 



