Xxxiv., and accounts for its sanctity in Saracen eyes because it
had long formed a pedestal for Mahound!
And this notion gave rise to the use of Mawmet for an idol in general;
whilst from the Mahommerie or place of Islamite worship the name of
mummery came to be applied to idolatrous or unmeaning rituals; both very
unjust etymologies. Thus of mosques in Richard Coeur de Lion:
"Kyrkes they made of Crystene Lawe,
And her Mawmettes lete downe drawe." (Weber, II. 228.)
So Correa calls a golden idol, which was taken by Da Gama in a ship of
Calicut, "an image of Mahomed" (372). Don Quixote too, who ought to have
known better, cites with admiration the feat of Rinaldo in carrying off,
in spite of forty Moors, a golden image of Mahomed.
NOTE 3. - 800 li (160 miles) east of Chokiuka or Yarkand, Hiuen Tsang
comes to Kiustanna (Kustana) or KHOTAN. "The country chiefly consists of
plains covered with stones and sand. The remainder, however, is favourable
to agriculture, and produces everything abundantly. From this country are
got woollen carpets, fine felts, well woven taffetas, white and black
jade." Chinese authors of the 10th century speak of the abundant grapes
and excellent wine of Khotan.
Chinese annals of the 7th and 8th centuries tell us that the people of
Khotan had chronicles of their own, a glimpse of a lost branch of history.
Their writing, laws, and literature were modelled upon those of India.
Ilchi, the modern capital, was visited by Mr. Johnson, of the Indian
Survey, in 1865. The country, after the revolt against the Chinese in
1863, came first under the rule of Habib-ullah, an aged chief calling
himself Khan Badshah of Khotan; and since the treacherous seizure and
murder of Habib-ullah by Ya'kub Beg of Kashgar in January 1867, it has
formed a part of the kingdom of the latter.
Mr. Johnson says: "The chief grains of the country are Indian corn, wheat,
barley of two kinds, bajra, jowar (two kinds of holcus), buckwheat and
rice, all of which are superior to the Indian grains, and are of a very
fine quality.... The country is certainly superior to India, and in every
respect equal to Kashmir, over which it has the advantage of being less
humid, and consequently better suited to the growth of fruits. Olives
(?), pears, apples, peaches, apricots, mulberries, grapes, currants, and
melons, all exceedingly large in size and of a delicious flavour, are
produced in great variety and abundance.... Cotton of valuable quality,
and raw silk, are produced in very large quantities."
[Khotan is the chief place of Turkestan for cotton manufactures; its
kham is to be found everywhere. This name, which means raw in Persian,
is given to a stuff made with cotton thread, which has not undergone any
preparation; they manufacture also two other cotton stuffs: alatcha with
blue and red stripes, and tchekmen, very thick and coarse, used to make
dresses and sacks; if kham is better at Khotan, alatcha and tchekmen
are superior at Kashgar. (Grenard, II. pp. 191-192.)
Grenard (II. pp. 175-177), among the fruits, mentions apricots (ourouk),
ripe in June, and so plentiful that to keep them they are dried up to be
used like garlic against mountain sickness; melons (koghoun)
water-melons (tarbouz, the best are from Hami); vine (tal) - the best
grapes (uzum) come from Boghaz langar, near Keria; the best dried grapes
are those from Turfan; peaches (shaptalou); pomegranates (anar, best
from Kerghalyk), etc.; the best apples are those of Nia and Sadju; pears
are very bad; cherries and strawberries are unknown. Grenard (II. p. 106)
also says that grapes are very good, but that Khotan wine is detestable,
and tastes like vinegar.
The Chinese traveller, translated by M. Gueluy (Desc. de la Chine
occidentale, p. 45), says that all the inhabitants of Khotan are seeking
for precious stones, and that melons and fruits are more plentiful than at
Yarkand. - H. C.]
Mr. Johnson reports the whole country to be rich in soil and very much
under-peopled. Ilchi, the capital, has a population of about 40,000, and
is a great place for manufactures. The chief articles produced are silks,
felts, carpets (both silk and woollen), coarse cotton cloths, and paper
from the mulberry fibre. The people are strict Mahomedans, and speak a
Turki dialect. Both sexes are good-looking, with a slightly Tartar cast of
countenance. (V. et V. de H. T. 278; Remusat, H. de la V. de Khotan,
37, 73-84; Chin. Repos. IX. 128; J. R. G. S. XXXVII. 6 seqq.)
[In 1891, Dutreuil de Rhins and Grenard at the small village of Yotkan,
about 8 miles to the west of the present Khotan, came across what they
considered the most important and probably the most ancient city of
southern Chinese Turkestan. The natives say that Yotkan is the site of the
old Capital. (Cf. Grenard, III. p. 127 et seq. for a description and
drawings of coins and objects found at this place.)
The remains of the ancient capital of Khotan were accidentally discovered,
some thirty-five years ago, at Yotkan, a village of the Borazan Tract. A
great mass of highly interesting finds of ancient art pottery, engraved
stones, and early Khotan coins with Kharosthi-Chinese legends, coming from
this site, have recently been thoroughly examined in Dr. Hoernle's Report
on the "British Collection of Central Asian Antiquities." Stein. - (See
Three further Collections of Ancient Manuscripts from Central Asia, by
Dr. A. F. R. Hoernle ... Calcutta, 1897, 8vo.)
"The sacred sites of Buddhist Khotan which Hiuen Tsang and Fa-hian
describe, can be shown to be occupied now, almost without exception, by
Mohamedan shrines forming the object of popular pilgrimages." (M. A.
Stein, Archaeological Work about Khotan, Jour.
