XXX11 
Dr. Hoernle —Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
also distinctly Grecian. Mr. Macartney in liis Note on the find-places 
(see p. xxii) says: “ Some of the relics which have been found near 
Khotau are undoubtedly of Greek origin. In May, 1897, I was shown 
by a Russian merchant in that town a coin with an inscription in Greek, 
and three pieces of yellow crystals of an oval shape in which there 
were beautiful carvings of the classical type.” 
Local tradition with regard to the makers of the habitations and 
sepultures around Khotan is very uncertain, and possibly not altogether 
spontaneous. With reference to Qara Yantaq, in Islam Akhun’s iti¬ 
nerary, already quoted above, Mr. Macartney was informed, that it was 
once inhabited by “ Hindis,” a name by which Buddhists are said to be 
generally called in Eastern Turkestan, and which clearly points to the 
direct Indian origin of the Buddhism of that country. With regard to 
Kok Gumbaz Captain Godfrey reports (in his demi-official letter, 
No. 5208, dated 15th September, 1897) that “ local opinion seems to 
incline to the belief that the cemetery was either Jew, Kalmuk or 
Greek. The people to whom these graveyards are attributed are called 
in the Turki language Ujat which I believe now means “strangers.” 
This word is, however, I am informed, now obsolete. Dr. Bellew, in 
his History of Kashghar, says that Ujat means Native Christians, and 
refers I think, to Native Christians having lived near Khotan.” 23 With 
reference to the last observation of Captain Godfrey’s I may note that at 
Aq Sapil some sheets and leaves of manuscript were found (in M. 2, 
Set II) inscribed with characters in white ink, which seem to be 
Uighur writing such as was once used by the Nestorian Christians. * 
Considering how much we are at present dependent on native infor- 
,, mation with regard to every thing connected 
Need of further ex- ° 
with these sand-buried sites near Khotan, and 
ploration. . ,. , , . £ 
r how cautiously such information must be re¬ 
ceived, it is very desirable that the localities should be visited, examined 
and reported on by some European explorer with archaeological expe¬ 
rience. This is an undertaking well worth the support of the Indian 
Government and of Learned Societies. 
28 See the Report of a Mission to Yarkand , p. 127. Mr. Shaw in his Grammar 
of the Language of Eastern Turkistan (in the Journal, As. Soc. Bengal, Yol XLYI for 
1877), pp. 336 and 345, disputes this and says that Ujat is the name of a village 
near Khotan, the inhabitants of which were “ bad Musalmans.” But the passage 
from the Taskiratu-l-Bughra, which he quotes, really only proves that the people 
of Ujat were considered insincere Muhammadans at the time of its composition. 
At the time to which Dr. Bellew refers Khotan had not yet been converted to 
Islam. It was still Buddhist; and the people of Ujat, if they were not Buddhists, 
must have been Nestorian Christians. Probably they were the latter, and being 
forced to adopt Islam, did so only in outward appearance. 
