Sining Was Visited Also By Huc And Gabet, Who Are
Unsatisfactory, As Usually On Geographical Matters.
They also call it "an
immense town," but thinly peopled, its commerce having been in part
transferred to Tang-keu-ul, a small town closer to the frontier.
[Sining belonged to the country called Hwang chung; in 1198, under the
Sung Dynasty, it was subjugated by the Chinese, and was named Si-ning
chau; at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (from 1368), it was named
Si-ning wei, and since 1726 Si-ning fu. (Cf. Gueluy, Chine, p. 62.) From
Liangchau, M. Bonin went to Sining through the Lao kou kau pass and the
Ta-Tung ho. Obrutchev and Grum Grijmailo took the usual route from Kanchau
to Sining. After the murder of Dutreuil de Rhins at Tung bu mdo, his
companion, Grenard, arrived at Sining, and left it on the 29th July, 1894.
Dr. Sven Hedin gives in his book his own drawing of a gate of Sining-fu,
where he arrived on the 25th November, 1896. - H. C.]
Sining is called by the Tibetans Ziling or Jiling, by the Mongols
Seling Khoto. A shawl wool texture, apparently made in this quarter, is
imported into Kashmir and Ladak, under the name of S'ling. I have
supposed Sining to be also the Zilm of which Mr. Shaw heard at Yarkand,
and am answerable for a note to that effect on p. 38 of his High
Tartary. But Mr. Shaw, on his return to Europe, gave some rather strong
reasons against this. (See Proc. R. G. S. XVI. 245; Kircher, pp. 64,
66; Della Penna, 27; Davies's Report, App. p. ccxxix.; Vigne, II.
110, 129.) [At present Sining is called by the Tibetans Seling K'ar or
Kuar, and by the Mongols, Seling K'utun, K'ar and K'utun meaning
"fortified city." (Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, 49, note.) - H. C.]
[Mr. Rockhill (Diary of a Journey, 65) writes: "There must be some
Scotch blood in the Hsi-ningites, for I find they are very fond of oatmeal
and of cracked wheat. The first is called yen-mei ch'en, and is eaten
boiled with the water in which mutton has been cooked, or with neat's-foot
oil (yang-t'i yu). The cracked wheat (mei-tzue fan) is eaten prepared
in the same way, and is a very good dish." - H. C.]
NOTE 3. - The Dong, or Wild Yak, has till late years only been known by
vague rumour. It has always been famed in native reports for its great
fierceness. The Haft Iklim says that "it kills with its horns, by its
kicks, by treading under foot, and by tearing with its teeth," whilst the
Emperor Humayun himself told Sidi 'Ali, the Turkish admiral, that when it
had knocked a man down it skinned him from head to heels by licking him
with its tongue! Dr. Campbell states, in the Journal of the As. Soc. of
Bengal, that it was said to be four times the size of the domestic Yak.
The horns are alleged to be sometimes three feet long, and of immense
girth; they are handed round full of strong drink at the festivals of
Tibetan grandees, as the Urus horns were in Germany, according to Caesar.
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