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tribute contained no jewels whatever, which fact throws doubt on the tradition. (34) It is said by some that in the west of this country there is the Jo-shai (“weak water”) and the Liu-sha (“flying sands, desert”) near the residence of the Hsi-wang-mu ( mother of the western king”), where the sun sets. (35) The Ch 'ien-han-shu says “from T’ iao-chih west, going over 200 days, one is near the place where the sun sets;” this does not agree with the present book. (36) Former embassies from China all returned from Wu-l ; there were none who came as far as T’ iao-chih. (37) It is further said that, coming from the land-road of An-hsi (Parthia), you make a round at sea and, taking a northern turn, come out from the western part of the sea, whence you proceed to Ta-ts’in. (38) The country is densely populated; every ten li (of a road) are marked by a t’ing; thirty li by a chih (resting-place). (39) One is not alarmed by robbers, but the road becomes unsafe by fierce tigers and lions who will attack passengers, and unless these be traveling in caravans of a hundred men or more, or- be protected by military equipment, they may be devoured by these beasts. (40) They also say there is a flying bridge (fei-chiao ) of several hundred li, by which one may cross to the countries north of the sea. (41) The articles made of rare precious stones produced in this country are sham curiosities and mostly not genuine, whence they are not (here) mentioned.

64. Under the Lesser Bear — meaning far to the north (of the Himalayas). No part of China is actually so far north as to have Ursa Minor in the zenith; this would require it to be within the Arctic Circle.

64. Empty into the Ocean. — This was the belief of most of the Greek and Roman geographers. See p. 100, where the map according to Pomponius Mela shows the Caspian directly connected with the Arctic Ocean, and Lake Maeotis connected by means of the Tanais, or Don, river. So Strabo (XI, vi, 1): “The Caspian is a bay extending from the ocean to the south. At its com- mencement it is very narrow; as it advances further inward, and particularly toward the extremity, it widens. . . . Eratosthenes says that the navigation of this sea was known to the Greeks; that the part of the voyage along the coast of the Albanians and the Gadusii comprised 5400 stadia ; and the part along the country of the Anariaci, Mardi, and Hyrcani, as far as the mouth of the river Oxus, 4800 stadia, and thence to the Jaxartes, 2400 stadia.” This passage, often ridiculed, is rather an indication of the strong probability that the Cas- pian and Aral Seas were joined together until after the Christian era, so that the Amu and Syr were in truth accessible to the Greek adven-