Page:Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms (Faxian, Giles).djvu/25

Rh far as the eye can reach in order to mark the track, it would be impossible to succeed but for the rotting bones of dead men which point the way. After travelling seventeen days, about 1,500 li, they arrived at the country of Shan-shan.

This land is rugged and barren. The clothes of the people are coarse, like those of the Chinese, the only difference being that they use felt and serge. The King of the country is a convert to Buddhism. There may be some 4,000 priests, all belonging to the Lesser Development. The religion of India is universal among the people and Shamans of these kingdoms: but there are distinctions of refinement and coarseness (in their practice of it). From this point travelling westwards, the nations that one passes through are all the same in this respect, except that the Tartar dialects they speak are