Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-11

unknown, were represented in these cabalis-
tic writings. Now, alphabets are generally
less numerous than languages. and when
DIR. Stein, fresh from his own personal un-
earthings, saw that the genuine manuscript
showed no letters similar to those that had
been coming from this industrious forger. he
was able TO confound him and turn him
over to the mandarin for punishment
The true manuscripts are hard enough for
the photographs, since they seem to contain,
| in separate pieces, three distinct languages
one Is Sanskrit, one a language simply
called Central Asian, and Prof. Hoerule, TO
whom / showed the bundle bought by me,
says a third language. not yet deciphered,
also appears in some of the fragments.
Whether all the leaves in the manuscript
as handed to me had been taken from the
same site Father Hendricks could not
learn. Those in Sanskrit are almost wholly
Buddhist sacred literature, and they consu-
tute the bulk of the whole. Their approXi-
mate date is 100 A. ID. The other fragments
have not yet been studied sufficiently to nix
date.
Prof Hoerule in the short afternoon
which We spent together at oxford, was
able to determine only this as to the nom
sacred, non-Sanskrit pieces-that they
seemed to contain a contract for agficul-
tural materials l hope some of our schol-
ars may be interested to probe deeper. Dr.
Hoerule was good enough to say that he
would be glad to correspond with any one
desiring the aid of his work, which stands
almost alone in this field. AS ii is not prob
able that other examples of these finds will
be seen in this country for some time,
have placed these temporarily in the Smith,
sonian Institute with request that they be
made available, far as possible, to any
inquiring Photograph.
In the ruins known the Niya River Site
Or. Stein found wooden tablets covered
with what is known Indian kharostm
writing. Concerning this find DIR. Stein
says:
Deserted Centuries Ago.
There is ample evidence to. show that
this rema rkable site must have been de-
serted already within the first few CEN
turtles of Apart from the kha-
rcsthi writings of the tablets and the
lea Their documents. there is the eloquent
testimony of the coins. The very numerous
finds, extending over the whole area. IN
clude only copper pieces of the Chinese
Han dynasty. whose reign came TO a close
in A. ID. 221. The of wood as the only
writing material apart from leather is also
a proof of great antiquity. The use OF
paper for writing purposes Is atteSted IN
Chinese Turkestan from at least the fourth
century. AID. onward. yet among all the
ruined houses and ancient rubbish heaps
not the smallest scrap of paper was dis
covered"
Sven Hedin also found a site in which
the wooden tablets were numerous. and
the evidence generally pointed to destruc-
ton about $50 AID.
AS said above. the date suggested by my
Sanskrit leaves is much later-say AID. 100
same date of destruction for some OF the
sites examined by him. The older ruins
arc. generally speaking. further from Kho-
tan. further from the snow-capped noun
tains than the later examples.
The discoveries thus far made Indicate,
therefore, that during period or about
four hundred years there was a progressive
diminishment of the habitable area. 1t IS
ever shrinking toward the sources OF ire
streams. which find it ever more difficult to
fix a constant course across the wind-sWept
.fFaF
the desert preserver. but as preserver
ONLY of the empty husks of that life which
for season was permitted to flourish.
Starved Through Years.
These fatal movements. however. were not
cataclysmic There is no reason to suppose
that Gus forgotten brethren of the destroyed
GASES were smothered instantly as were
those of Pompeii or Martinique. There was
time TO starve through many years. per-
haps. until hopeless. they abandoned home
and farm to seek some friendlier spot where
they might meanly support their diminished
numbers.
to be folded in the warm bosom or the
sand while the centuries moved on. These
we now cherish as mementoes of that dra-
ma, intimate to each ore of us-the drama
Of human life and death.
The picture marked No. 1 is or fragment
of a leaf from volume of Buddhistic sa-
cred literature. The full length of the page
must have been about twelve IcneS, as -
shown by placing the various fragments
together The circular hole shown was at
about three inches from the end, and a
cord to hold the pages In orcer passed
through it.
No g is another fragment similar to No.
l. and No . is a wider leaf than those two.
No shows writing which is not in SAN
skirt: Ii is in some unknown tongue. These
fragments are probably the oldest known
examples of paper manuscript
No 3 represents wood carving probably
twelve centuries old. and No. shows some
clay figures found in the sand-buried cities.
Mr.. Oscar T. Crosby, to whom belongs the
distinction of first bringing to America
fragments of manuscripts from the ancient.
sand-buried cities in the Taklamakan desert
of Chinese Turkestan, is a resident OF
Washington, d. c.
Mr. Crosby and Captain Anginian, his
companion are tho only white who
have ever penetrated into northwestern
Tibet and their explorations have placed
towns mountains and rivers on what was
formerly blank space on the map. Mr..
Crosby was the first white man to visit the
Central Asian city Of Khotan.
But Mr.. Crosby's explorations have not
been confined to Central Asia. He was
the first American to cross the Abyssinian
plateau to the Nile country, and he added
much to the worlds geographical knowl-
edge of that region. He has also added
geogra phical accuracy to the maps or
Somaliland and the Soudan In Alaska and
Mexico, too, he has made extended explora-
tons He Is a graduate of West Point,
having entered from Mississippi, but he
gave up an army commission to become
an electrical engineer.