se
capital is at Urumtsi. The native Mohammedan Princes of Hami have still
left to them a certain amount of home rule, and so lately as 1902 a decree
appointing the rotation of their visits to Peking was issued. The present
Prince's name is _Shamu Hust_, or _Hussot_."

XLII., p. 215.

THE PROVINCE OF CHINGINTALAS.

Prof. E.H. PARKER writes in the _Journ. of the North China Branch of the
Royal As. Soc._, XXXVII., 1906, p. 195: "On p. 215 of Yule's Vol. I. some
notes of Palladius' are given touching Chingkintalas, but it is not stated
that Palladius supposed the word _Ch'ih kin_ to date after the Mongols,
that is, that Palladius felt uncertain about his identification. But
Palladius is mistaken in feeling thus uncertain: in 1315 and 1326 the
Mongol History twice mentions the garrison starts at _Ch'ih kin_, and in
such a way that the place must be where Marco Polo puts it, i.e. west of
Kia-yueh Kwan."

OF THE PROVINCE OF SUKCHUR.

XLIII., p. 217. "Over all the mountains of this province rhubarb is found
in great abundance, and thither merchants come to buy it, and carry it
thence all over the world. Travellers, however, dare not visit those
mountains with any cattle but those of the country, for a certain plant
grows there which is so poisonous that cattle which eat it loose their
hoofs. The cattle of the country know it and eschew it."

During his crossing of the Nan Shan, Sir Aurel Stein had the same
experience, five of his ponies being "benumbed and refusing to touch grass
or fodder." The traveller notes that, _Ruins of Desert Cathay_, II., p.
303: "I at once suspected that they had eaten of the poisonous grass which
infests certain parts of the Nan Shan, and about which old Marco has much
to tell in his chapter on 'Sukchur' or Su-chou. The Venetian's account had
proved quite true; for while my own ponies showed all the effects of this
inebriating plant, the local animals had evidently been wary of it. A
little bleeding by the nose, to which Tila Bai, with the veterinary skill
of an old Ladak 'Kirakash,' promptly proceeded, seemed to afford some
relief. But it took two or three days before the poor brutes were again in
full possession of their senses and appetites."

"Wild rhubarb, for which the Nan-shan was famous in Marco Polo's days,
spread its huge fleshy leaves everywhere." (STEIN, _Ruins of Desert
Cathay_, II., p. 305.)

XLIII., p. 218.

SUKCHUR.

The first character of Suchau was pronounced _Suk_ at