22 
Dr. Hoernle— Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
Find-place. 
Nothing definite is known regarding tlieir exact find-place. Two 
fragments, Nos. 4 and 10, which were received 
by Captain Godfrey from some Pathan traders, 
are said to have been dug np, together with the Pothis Nos. 3 and 5 
of Set I and Nos. 4, 5, 6 of Set II, “ near some old buried city 
in the vicinity of Kuchar.” All the other documents were obtained 
by Mr. Macartney from a Khotan trader, Badrnddin, who either 
could not or would not give any information regarding their find-place. 
There is, however, 
No. 2. 
some reason to be¬ 
lieve that they may 
> 2i 1 J • 0 have come from 
Dandan Uiliq (see 
p below, p. 31). The 
.jrijffLl * \J three complete docu- 
J ft i ments name the place 
toy'll w ^ ere they were 
J (f\\ m written, but unfor- 
f ^ W * tunately, the first 
of its two letters 
being obsolete, it 
cannot at present be fully read. Full-size facsimiles of the two letters, 
as seen in the three documents, are shown in the marginal woodcut No. 2. 
Mr. Macartney and his Chinese Literate read it Lee-Sieh. Mr. Hopkins 
also reads it Lieli-sieh or Li-sieh, but he adds, that not only the sound 
of the first character is doubtful, but “ the second character may re¬ 
present an older sound sia, tsia, zia, tsa, tse , and the whole word might 
be Lizia or Litsa or Lid] a A From the document No. 1 it is certain 
that the place, whatever it was, was situated in the Chinese province 
of the “Six Cities” ( Liu-Clieng ) or, by its Turki name, Alti Shahr , 
that is, in the country now commonly known as Eastern or Chinese 
Turkestan. The Six Cities probably are Kuchar, Aksu, Ush-Turfan, 
Kashghar, Yarkand, and Khotan, with their respective territories. 3 
S A slightly different enumeration is given by Mr. N. Elias in the Translation of 
the Tarikhi Rashidi, p. 51. There Yangi Hissar is substituted for Kuchar, which, 
as said on p. 53, “was usually a dependency of Aksu.’’ The enumeration may have 
varied at different times, or with different informants. Mr. Elias’ enumeration is 
based on a statement of Dr. Bellew’s in the “ Report of the Yarkand Mission in 
1873,” p. 185. That Report, however, on page 33, refers also to another enumera¬ 
tion Alti Shahri Khutan or “ Six Cities of Khutan,” so called “ from the six towns 
composing it, viz., Ilchi, Karakash, Yurungkash, Chira, Kirya, and Naya.” In any 
case, as our document shows, Alti Shahr or “ Six Cities” is not a modeim term, as 
Mr. Elias ( l.c ., p. 51, footnote : “ it belongs to the present century ”) seems to have 
inferred from the statements of the Report, but goes back to a very ancient date. 
