CHAPTER XVI 



KAMI, OR KUMUL 



" Camul is a province which in former days was a king- 

 dom. It contains numerous towns and villages, but the 

 chief city bears the name of Camul. The province lies 

 between the two deserts ; for on the one side is the great 

 desert of Lop, and on the other side is a small desert of 

 three days' j ourney in extent. The people are all idolaters, 

 and have a peculiar language. They live by the fruits 

 of the earth, which they have in plenty and dispose of 

 to travellers. They are a people who take things very 

 easily, for they mind nothing but playing and singing, 

 and dancing, and enjoying themselves. And it is the 

 truth that, if a foreigner comes to the house of one of 

 these people to lodge, the host is delighted. ..." 



Thus Marco Polo — the great Venetian traveller — some 

 600 years ago, briefly described Camul, or Kumul,* the 

 Hami of the Chinese. Although it is certain that he 

 himself never visited the locality and that his information 

 was gathered from hearsay, or, as Yule suggests, from 

 the personal experiences of his father and uncle, who 

 may have passed through Kumul, yet our descriptions 

 will show the accuracy with which Marco Polo's account 

 tallies with the Kumul of the present day. It is true 



^ Kumul appears in a variety of forms. According to Yule (Travels 

 uj Marco Polo, p. 211) Kamul is the Turki form of the Mongol name 

 ]<hamil ; it is also spelt Komul, while Khami, or Hami, is the Chinese 

 form of the word. The inhabitants are called Kumuliks. 



47a 



