At Khotan, Jade Is Polished Up By Sixty Or Seventy
Individuals Belonging To Twenty-Five Workshops.
"At 18 miles from Su-chau, Kia-yu-kwan, celebrated as one of the gates of
China, and as the fortress guarding the extreme north-west entrance into
the empire, is passed." (Colonel M. S. Bell, Proc.
R. G. S. XII. 1890,
p. 75.)
According to the Chinese characters, the name of Kia-yue Kwan does not mean
"Jade Gate," and as Mr. Rockhill writes to me, it can only mean something
like "barrier of the pleasant Valley." - H. C.]
NOTE 3. - Possibly this may refer to the custom of temporary marriages
which seems to prevail in most towns of Central Asia which are the
halting-places of caravans, and the morals of which are much on a par with
those of seaport towns, from analogous causes. Thus at Meshid, Khanikoff
speaks of the large population of young and pretty women ready, according
to the accommodating rules of Shiah Mahomedanism, to engage in marriages
which are perfectly lawful, for a month, a week, or even twenty-four
hours. Kashgar is also noted in the East for its chaukans, young women
with whom the traveller may readily form an alliance for the period of his
stay, be it long or short. (Khan. Mem. p. 98; Russ. in Central Asia,
52; J. A. S. B. XXVI. 262; Burnes, III. 195; Vigne, II. 201.)
[1] Pein may easily have been miscopied for Pem which is indeed the
reading of some MSS.
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