Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/435

Rh the of. In the of the   he encounters the great  of the  on a  party,—a rencontre which it is interesting to compare with the visit of  to the great , sixty years before, in the same region. Passing by the present, and by , then inhabited by , he reached the basin of the Upper , which had recently been the seat of the powerful dominion of the , , or , known in earlier days to the as ', and to Hwen T’sang (by the same name) as ' or. His account of the many small states into which the empire had broken up is of great interest, as many of them are identical in name and topography with the high  states and districts on the Upper, which are at this day the object of so much  and  interest. Passing by, where he speaks of the great s still so famous, he crosses, and descends the of the  to Nagarahara, the site of which, still known as Nagara, adjoining Jalálábád, has recently been explored by Mr W. Simpson. Travelling thence to Pesháwar (Purushapúra), the capital of Gandhára, he made a digression, through the now inaccessible of Swat and the Dard states, to the Upper Indus, returning to Peshawar, and then crossing the  (Sintu) into the decayed kingdom of Taxila (Ta-cha-si-lo, Takshasilá), then subject to Kashmir. In the latter valley he spent two whole years (–), studying in the convents, and visiting the many monuments of his faith. We cannot follow his further travels in detail, and can only mention some of the chief points in his devious route. Such are Mathura (Mot’ulo), whence he turned north to Thánesar and the upper Jumna and Ganges, returning south down the valley of the latter to Kanyákubja or Kanauj, then one of the great capitals of India. The pilgrim next entered on a circuit of the most famous sites of Buddhist and of ancient Indian history, such as Ayodhyá, Prayaga (Allahábad), Káusámbhí, Srávastí, Kapilavastu the birthplace of Sákya, Kusinagara his death place, Pátalipútra (Patna, the Palibothra of the Greeks), Gayá, Rájagriha, and Nálanda, the most famous and learned monastery and college in India, adorned by the gifts of successive kings, of the splendour of which he gives a vivid description, and of which traces have recently been recovered. There he again spent nearly two years in mastering Sanskrit and the depths of Buddhist philosophy. Again, proceeding down the banks of the Ganges, he diverged eastward to Kámarúpa (Assam), and then passed by the great port of Támralipti (Tamlúk, the misplaced Tamalitis of ), and through Orissa to Kanchipára (Conjeveram), about. Thence he went northward across the Carnatic and Maháráshtra to Barakacheva (Baróch of our day, Barygaza of the Greeks). After this he visited Malwa, Kach’h, Suráshtra (peninsular Guzerat, Syrastrene of the Greeks), Sindh, Multán, and Ghazni, whence he rejoined his former course in the basin of the Cabul river. This time, however, he crosses, of which he gives a remarkable account, and passes by, (Kustana), and the vicinity of (Navapa) across the  to , whence he had made his venturous and lonely plunge into the waste fifteen s before. He carried with him great collections of s,, and s, and was received with public and imperial enthusiasm. The emperor Tai-T’sung desired him to commit his journey to writing, and also that he should abandon the and serve the. This last he declined, and devoted himself to the compilation of his narrative and the translation of the s he had brought with him from. The former was completed In  Hwen T’sang died in a  at. Some things in the of his last days, and in the indications of  recorded, strongly recall the parallel history of the s of the. But on the other hand we find the, on the approach of death, causing one of his disciples to frame a catalogue of his good works, of the s that he had translated or caused to be transcribed, of the  executed at his cost, of the s that he had given, of the  that he had ransomed from death. &ldquo;When Kia-shang had ended writing this list, the master ordered him to read it aloud. After hearing it the devotees clasped their hands, and showered their felicitations on him.&rdquo; Thus the &ldquo;well-done, good and faithful,&rdquo; comes from the servant himself in self-applause. The book of the biography, by the s Hwae-li and Yen t&rsquo;song, as rendered with judicious omissions by Stan. Julien, is exceedingly interesting; its receives high praise from the translator, who says he has often had to regret his inability to reproduce its grace, elegance, and vivacity. We cannot here give any idea of the uses which the accounts of Hwen T’sang have served in illustrating and, but must refer to the appended list of works.

 HYACINTH, also called, one of the most popular of garden flowers, &ldquo;supreme amongst the flowers of spring.&rdquo; It is no new favourite, having been in cultivation prior to 1597, at which date Gerard records the existence of six varieties, which are not indicated as particularly rare or novel. Rea in 1676 mentions several single and double varieties as being then in English gardens, and Justice in 1754 describes upwards of fifty single-flowered varieties, and nearly one hundred double-flowered ones, as a selection of the best from the catalogues of two then celebrated Dutch growers. One of the Dutch sorts, called La Reine de Femmes, a single white, is said to have produced from thirty-four to thirty-eight flowers in a spike, and on its first appearance to have sold for 50 guilders a bulb; while one called Overwinnaar or Conqueror, a double blue, sold at first for 100 guilders, Gloria Mundi for 500 guilders, and Koning Saloman for 600 guilders. Several sorts are at that date mentioned as blooming well in water-glasses. Justice relates that he himself raised several very valuable double-flowered kinds from seeds, which many of the sorts he describes are noted for producing freely. The original of the cultivated hyacinth, Hyacinthus orientalis, is by comparison an insignificant plant, bearing on a spike only a few small narrow-lobed washy blue flowers. So great has been the improvement effected by the florists, and chiefly by the Dutch, that the modern hyacinth would scarcely be recognized as the descendant of the type above referred to, the spikes being long and dense, composed of a large number of flowers; the spikes produced by strong bulbs not unfrequently measure 6 or 7 inches in length and from 7 to 9 inches in circumference, with the flowers closely set on from bottom to top. Of late 