1897.] 
Central Asian Manuscripts. 
251 
that 1 am not disposed to believe that they are so old as the other 
manuscripts which came from Kuchar. All these came from the 
neighbourhood of Khotan, and there is nothing in the circumstances 
of their discovery which necessarily involves a very high antiquity, 
or need make them older than the early middle ages. The occurrence in 
them of what appears to me Uighur and Tibetan wilting also seems to 
point in the same direction. See also infra pp. 255 and 256. 
They are all written on a coarse, stiff paper, of a very dark dirty- 
brown colour. It is very different from the comparatively white and 
soft paper of the Kuchar manuscripts. The condition, however, in which 
they are now, may be partially due to their long burial in the hot, dry 
sand from which they were rescued. Unfortunately the dark colour 
of these Khotan manuscripts has proved a great difficulty in photo¬ 
graphing, and some of the Plates are not quite so clear as one would wish. 
Set II. This consists of two distinct parts, of very different shape 
and size. One part (Plates XVII and XVIII) consists of two large sheets 
of paper, measuring about 16x1 If inches. The second part (Plates 
XIX-XXII) consists of 12 sheets, of which eight are folded in the 
middle to make 2 leaves each. Hence there are 16 double-leaves and 
4 single leaves; that is, the 12 sheets make up 20 leaves. These leaves 
measure about 6fx4^ inches each; or a double-lesf measures 13JX 4| 
inches. The double-leaves show, close to their folded margin, four 
pin-holes, which seem to indicate that they were once stitched together, 
though no trace of a thread has survived. These 12 sheets are inscribed 
with four different kinds of characters ; nevertheless, of course, they 
might form a connected whole ; but this I am unable to determine. 
Accordingly I shall describe them in four separate, subordinate sets. 
Set II a. Plates XVII and XVIII show the two sides of one of the 
two large sheets. Each of these sheets bears writing in two different 
characters, and two different inks. The lines of writing are, as a rule, 
arranged so that two lines of black letters alternate with one line of 
white letters. On one side (Plate XVIII) the double lines of black 
writing are separated from the single line of white writing by straight 
lines strongly marked in black ink. The white writing appears to me 
to be in Uighur characters ; those of the black writing I am unable to 
identify. On one side (Plate XVIII) there are the distinct impressions 
of three seals ; the two outer ones in black, the middle one in white 
ink. The latter should be again in Uighur, 64 to correspond with the 
white writing. The regularity of the alternation of the white and 
64 One line has a curious resemblance to Kufic, and reminds one of ■ but it 
is probably an angular form of Uighur. 
