mind of the Asiatic may be impressed by these wastes of moving sands, and how little reason there is to wonder at the stories of ghosts, demons, and visions with which he has invested the region, may be judged by General Prejevalski's vivid description of it. "The effect of these bare yellow hillocks," he writes, "is most dreary and depressing when you are among them, and can see nothing but the sky and the sand; not a plant, not an animal is visible, with the single exception of the yellowish-grey lizards (Phrynocephalus Sp.) which trail their bodies over the loose soil and mark it with the patterns of their tracks. A dull heaviness oppresses the senses in this inanimate sea of sand. No sounds are heard, not even the chirping of the grasshopper; the silence of the tomb surrounds you."[1]
Hiuen Tsang's description scarcely varies from that of the Russian traveller. "These sands," he says, "extend like a drifting flood for a great distance, piled up or scattered before the wind. There is no trace left behind by travellers, and oftentimes the way is lost, and so they wander hither and thither quite bewildered, without any guide or direction. So travellers pile up the bones of animals as beacons. There is neither water nor herbage to be found, and hot winds frequently blow. When these winds rise, both man and beast become confused and forgetful, and then they remain perfectly disabled. At times, sad and plaintive notes are heard and piteous cries, so that between the sights and sounds of this desert, men get confused and know not whither they go. Hence there are so many who perish on the journey. But it is all the work of demons and evil spirits."[2]
And if the superstition of the Asiatic is moved by the mystic scenes of the desert, his cupidity is also stirred by the legends of buried riches which the submerged cities are supposed to
- ↑ Prejevalski, Kulja to Lake Lob, pp. 163–4,
- ↑ Beal's Si-Yü-Ki ii., pp. 324–5.
of wind. It is, no doubt, a fact that a high wind carries quantities of impalpable dust into the air, and that much of this gradually falls to the ground again when the storm subsides. In this way the dust showers are formed which have been described by the Georgian traveller Danibeg, in 1795, and by Mr. W. H. Johnson, who visited Khotan in 1865. But these showers cannot be held to account for the disappearance of towns, or even buildings, in the sudden and calamitous manner describe! by Asiatic authors. Their action would be extremely gradual, and could only submerge a building after operating for centuries, while that of the sand-dunes can accomplish it in a few years. (See, for Danibeg, Geogr. Mag. 1876, p. 150. Johnson in J. R. G. S. 1867, p. 5. Also note, p. 11.)
