THE DUNCANS 617 



themselves, who alone have any idea of their numbers, exaggerate 

 the total to such an extent, in their endeavour to increase their 

 prestige, that the figures cannot be relied upon. The estimates 

 vary in a bewildering way from 3,000,000 to 70,000,000 ; but 

 it seems that some reliance is to be placed in Mr. Broomhall's 

 carefully collected data and general summary of the maximum 

 and minimum Mussulman population of the different provinces. 

 The conclusion he comes to, is that the total number of Moham- 

 medans within the Empire is somewhere between 5,000,000 and 

 10,000,000. This, of course, includes the Turki-Moslem popula- 

 tion of Sin-Kiang, — which probably amounts to between 1,000,000 

 and 2,700,000 of the total, — as well as the true Chinese Moslem, 

 the Hui-hui, or Dungan. 



In spite of recent persecution the Moslems retain a strong 

 hold on what they possess, and, owing to their greater virility, 

 increase more rapidly than the Chinamen, and are therefore able 

 to keep up their numbers and make good the check caused by 

 recent insurrections, and the massacres which followed. It is, 

 however, probable that the Moslems have, on the whole, lost and 

 not gained ground during the last fifty years. 



Whether the pan-Islamic movement will cause a religious 

 revival or not, remains to be seen. Closer relations may spring 

 up between the Chinese and the Central Asian Moslem com- 

 munities, owing to the definite advance of the Moslem nomadic 

 tribes from Russian Central Asia into China, and to the rapid 

 increase of the resident population of Dungans in Dzungaria. 

 In fact, the chain of Islam across Asia is now complete. 



There is small likelihood, however, of a complete under- 

 standing taking place between China and her Moslem subjects. 

 The feeling between the two sections is more bitter to-day than 

 before the insurrection of 1862-77. The Moslem in China is also 

 probably more fanatical than his far western co-religionist, who 

 is slowly becoming accustomed to European ideas and to the 

 advance of science and increased facilities of communication. 

 Travellers in China state that only amongst the Moslems do 

 they meet with studied insolence and undisguised dislike. The 

 rebellions of 1862-77 tended to prove that the fanatical feeling 

 existing between the Moslems and Chinese had in no sense abated 



