786 
THROUGH ASIA 
town in the year 1274, and merely states that, “the people 
are subject to the Great Kaan {i.e. Kublai Khan, the first 
Mongol Emperor of China), and are all worshippers of 
Mahommet. There are numerous towns and villages in the 
country ; but Cotan the capital is the most noble of all, and 
gives its name to the kingdom. Everything is to be had 
there in plenty, including abundance of cotton (with flax, 
hemp, wheat, wine, and the like). The people have vine- 
yards and gardens and estates. They live by commerce 
and manufactures, and are no soldiers.”* 
This brief account of the famous merchant of Venice 
holds good even at the present day, with the one ex- 
MEDALS FOUND AT KHOTAN 
29/23 of natural size 
ception that the present lord over Khotan is the Chinese 
(Manchu) Emperor Kwang Tsli. 
Marco Polo tells us, that in Kashgar and Yarkand he 
encountered Christians of the Nestorian and Jacobite 
sects, “both of whom had their own churches”; but he 
is silent as to the existence of such Christians in Khotan. 
Now amongst the objects which I found at Khotan was 
the extremely interesting ancient medal depicted above ; 
it proves that in former times Christian missionaries did 
find their way as far as Khotan. In all probability it 
was the badge of some Roman Catholic monastic order. 
On the obverse there is a figure of a monk crowned 
* Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, Book first, chap, xxxvi. 
