(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.
