Mir ’Izzat Ullah in modern days speaks of the prevalence of goitre at Yarkand.  And Mr. Shaw informs me that during his recent visit to Yarkand (1869) he had numerous applications for iodine as a remedy for that disease.  The theory which connects it with the close atmosphere of valleys will not hold at Yarkand. (J.  R. A. S. VII. 303.)

[Dr. Sven Hedin says that three-fourths of the population of Yarkand are suffering from goitre; he ascribes the prevalence of the disease to the bad quality of the water, which is kept in large basins, used indifferently for bathing, washing, or draining.  Only Hindu and “Andijdanlik” merchants, who drink well water, are free from goitre.

Lieutenant Roborovsky, the companion of Pievtsov, in 1889, says:  “In the streets one meets many men and women with large goitres, a malady attributed to the bad quality of the water running in the town conduits, and drunk by the inhabitants in its natural state.  It appears in men at the age of puberty, and in women when they marry.” (Proc.  R. G. S. 2 ser.  XII. 1890, p. 36.)

Formerly the Mirza (J.  R. G. S. 1871, p. 181) said:  “Goitre is very common in the city [of Yarkund], and in the country round, but it is unknown in Kashgar.”

General Pievtsov gives to the small oasis of Yarkand (264 square miles) a population of 150,000, that is, 567 inhabitants per square mile.  He, after Prjevalsky’s death, started, with V. L. Roborovsky (botanist) and P. K. Kozlov (zoologist), who were later joined by K. I. Bogdanovich (geologist), on his expedition to Tibet (1889-1890).  He followed the route Yarkand, Khotan, Kiria, Nia, and Charchan.—­H.  C.]

CHAPTER XXXVI.

OF A PROVINCE CALLED COTAN.

Cotan is a province lying between north-east and east, and is eight days’ journey in length.  The people are subject to the Great Kaan,[NOTE 1] and are all worshippers of Mahommet.[NOTE 2] There are numerous towns and villages in the country, but Cotan, the capital, is the most noble of all, and gives its name to the kingdom.  Everything is to be had there in plenty, including abundance of cotton, [with flax, hemp, wheat, wine, and the like].  The people have vineyards and gardens and estates.  They live by commerce and manufactures, and are no soldiers.[NOTE 3]

NOTE 1.—­[The Buddhist Government of Khotan was destroyed by Boghra Khan (about 980-990); it was temporarily restored by the Buddhist Kutchluk Khan, chief of the Naimans, who came from the banks of the Ili, destroyed the Mahomedan dynasty of Boghra Khan (1209), but was in his turn subjugated by Chinghiz Khan.

The only Christian monument discovered in Khotan is a bronze cross brought back by Grenard (III. pp. 134-135); see also Deveria, Notes d’Epigraphie Mongole, p. 80.—­H.  C.]

NOTE 2.—­“Aourent Mahommet”.  Though this is Marco’s usual formula to define Mahomedans, we can scarcely suppose that he meant it literally.  But in other cases it was very literally interpreted.  Thus in Baudouin de Sebourc, the Dame de Pontieu, a passionate lady who renounces her faith before Saladin, says:—­