Knowing the spots where water is to be had, they are
able to live there, and to keep their cattle alive, while it is impossible
to discover them.' It seems to me clear that Marco Polo alludes here to
the several river courses which, after flowing north of the Niya-Charchan
route, lose themselves in the desert. The jungle belt of their terminal
areas, no doubt, offered then, as it would offer now, safe places of
refuge to any small settlements established along the route southwards."
XXXIX., P. 197.
OF THE CITY OF LOP.
Stein remarks, Ruins of Desert Cathay, I., p. 343: "Broad
geographical facts left no doubt for any one acquainted with local
conditions that Marco Polo's Lop, 'a large town at the edge of the Desert'
where 'travellers repose before entering on the Desert' en route
for Sha chou and China proper, must have occupied the position of the
present Charklik. Nor could I see any reason for placing elsewhere the
capital of that 'ancient kingdom of Na-fo-po, the same as the territory of
Lou-lan,' which Hiuan Tsang reached after ten marches to the north-east of
Chue-mo or Charchan, and which was the pilgrim's last stage before his
return to Chinese soil."
In his third journey (1913-1916), Stein left Charchan on New Year's Eve,
1914, and arrived at Charkhlik on January 8, saying: "It was from this
modest little oasis, the only settlement of any importance in the Lop
region, representing Marco Polo's 'City of Lop,' that I had to raise the
whole of the supplies, labour, and extra camels needed by the several
parties for the explorations I had carefully planned during the next three
months in the desert between Lop-nor and Tunhuang."
"The name of LOB appears under the form Lo pou in the Yuan-shi, s.a.
1282 and 1286. In 1286, it is mentioned as a postal station near those of
K'ie-t'ai, Che-ch'an and Wo-tuan. Wo-tuan is Khotan. Che-ch'an, the name
of which reappears in other paragraphs, is Charchan. As to K'ie-t'ai, a
postal station between those of Lob and Charchan, it seems probable that
it is the Kaetaek of the Tarikh-i-Rashidi." (PELLIOT.)
See in the Journ. Asiatique, Jan.-Feb., 1916, pp. 117-119, Pelliot's
remarks on Lob, Navapa, etc.
XXXIX., pp. 196-7.
THE GREAT DESERT.
After reproducing the description of the Great Desert in Sir Henry Yule's
version, Stein adds, Ruins of Desert Cathay, I., p. 518:
"It did not need my journey to convince me that what Marco here tells us
about the risks of the desert was but a faithful reflex of old folklore
beliefs he must have heard on the spot.
