240 
R. Hoernle —Three further Collections of 
[No. 4, 
hopes of discovering buried treasure, undertook the excavation of a 
“ house ” near Kuchar (not Kugiar), and there found the manuscripts 
as well as the bodies of some “ cows.” It is now clear, what this 
so-called “house” was. It was evidently the stupa or vihara, with 
the usual settlement of Buddhist monks, from which the Bower MS. 
also was dug out. 29 From the fact that Dildar Khan obtained posses¬ 
sion only of one half of the find, it may safely be concluded that his 
search in the vihara was a joint-undertaking with some one else to 
whom the other moiety of the find (the Bower MS.) went. Who this 
other person was, appears from Major Bower’s account, in the Geogra¬ 
phical Journal, 29 of the acquisition of his manuscript, in which he 
informs us that “a Turk! who had been in India [Afghanistan ?] told 
him that he and one of his friends [the Afghan merchant Dildar Khan ?] 
had gone there [to the ancient vihara] and dug for buried treasure, but 
had found nothing except a book [the Bower MS.].” But further, Mr. 
Macartney’s report accounts only for “ two other manuscripts ” or, more 
correctly, for two portions of the bundle of manuscripts, which was 
discovered together with the Bower MS. But there is every proba¬ 
bility that there was a third portion of that bundle. For the collection 
of manuscripts which is now in St. Petersburg and which was sent there 
by the Russian Consul in Kashgar, contains complementary parts 
of some of the Weber MSS. (see infra , under Set la), and must origi¬ 
nally have come from the same source as the latter manuscripts and 
Set I of the Macartney MSS. It follows, therefore, that Dildar Khan, 
if he really obtained possession of the whole of the moiety of the Kuchar 
find, must have divided it into three portions: one portion he gave to 
Munshi Ahmad Din (and thus to Mr. Weber), while of the remainder 
he gave one portion to Mr. Macartney, the British Agent, and the 
other to the Russian Consul. This, from his point of view, would be 
a natural and impartial division between the representatives of the two 
Empires whom he no doubt wished to gratify ; and that he did not 
introduce either of those officers into the secret of his diplomacy is 
equally natural. But there is one comfort in all this, that we have 
probably not yet heard the last of that Kuchar discovery, and that we 
may hope that further instalments of the manuscripts, found on that 
occasion, may yet come to light. Of most of the manuscripts which 
constitute the Weber MSS. collection, only the merest fragments—a few 
leaves—have yet been recovered, and of the palm-leaf manuscript (No. I 
of the Fragments, described on p. 218) which must also have been 
29 See Proceedings As. Soc. Beng ., 1890, p. 221 ; Journal, Js. Soc. Beng., Vol. 
LX, Part I, p. 93; the Geographical Journal (Roy. Geogr. Soc. of London), Vol. V, 
1895, p. 255. 
