inese Traveller speaks of it as a
country where _good iron was found_, where (grey) squirrels abounded, and
wheat was cultivated. Other notices quoted by him show that it lay to the
south-east of the Kirghiz country, and had its name from the _Kien_ or
_Ken_ R. (i.e. the Upper Yenisei).

The name (_Kienkien_), the general direction, the existence of good iron
("steel and ondanique"), the many towns and villages in a position where
we should little look for such an indication, all point to the identity of
this region with the Chingintalas of our text. The only alteration called
for in the Itinerary Map (No. IV.) would be to spell the name _Hinkin_, or
_Ghinghin_ (as it _is_ in the Geographic Text), and to shift it a very
little further to the north.

(See _Chingin_ in _Kovalevski's Mongol Dict._, No. 2134; and for
_Baron-tala_, etc., see _Della Penna, Breve Notizia del Regno del Thibet_,
with Klaproth's notes, p. 6; _D'Avezac_, p. 568; _Relation_ prefixed to
D'Anville's Atlas, p. 11; _Alphabetum Tibetanum_, 454; and _Kircher, China
Illustrata_, p. 65.)

Since the first edition was published, Mr. Ney Elias has traversed the
region in question from east to west; and I learn from him that at Kobdo
he found the most usual name for that town among Mongols, Kalmaks, and
Russians to be SANKIN-hoto. He had not then thought of connecting this
name with Chinghin-talas, and has therefore no information as to its
origin or the extent of its application. But he remarks that Polo's
bearing of between north and north-west, if understood to be _from Kamul_,
would point exactly to Kobdo. He also calls attention to the Lake
_Sankin_-dalai, to the north-east of Uliasut'ai, of which Atkinson gives a
sketch. The recurrence of this name over so wide a tract may have
something to do with the Chinghin-talas of Polo. But we must still wait
for further light.[1]

["Supposing that M. Polo mentions this place on his way from Sha-chow to
Su-chow, it is natural to think that it is _Chi-kin-talas_, i.e. 'Chi-kin
plain' or valley; Chi-kin was the name of a lake, called so even now, and
of a defile, which received its name from the lake. The latter is on the
way from Kia-yue kwan to Ansi chow." (_Palladius_, l.c. p. 7.) "_Chikin_,
or more correctly _Chigin_, is a Mongol word meaning 'ear.'" (Ibid.)
Palladius (p. 8) adds: "The Chinese accounts of Chi-kin are not in
contradiction to the statements given by M. Polo regarding the same
subject; but when