n_ or _Aniu_.--I have already pointed out that I seek this in the
territory about Lin-ngan and Homi. In relation to this M. Garnier writes:
"In starting from Muang Yong, or even if you prefer it, from Xieng Hung
(Kiang Hung of our maps), ... it would be physically impossible in 25 days
to get beyond the arc which I have laid down on your map (viz. extending a
few miles north-east of Homi). There are scarcely any roads in those
mountains, and easy lines of communication begin only _after_ you have got
to the Lin-ngan territory. In Marco Polo's days things were certainly not
better, but the reverse. All that has been done of consequence in the way
of roads, posts, and organisation in the part of Yun-nan between Lin-ngan
and Xieng Hung, dates in some degree from the Yuen, but in a far greater
degree from K'ang-hi." Hence, even with the Ramusian reading of the
itinerary, we cannot place _Anin_ much beyond the position indicated
already.

[Illustration: Script _thai_ of Xieng-hung.]

_Koloman_.--We have seen that the position of this region is probably near
the western frontier of Kwei-chau. Adhering to _Homi_ as the
representative of Anin, and to the 8 days' journey of the text, the most
probable position of Koloman would be about _Lo-ping_ which lies about 100
English miles in a straight line north-east from Homi. The first character
of the name here is again the same as the _Lo_ of the Kolo tribes.

Beyond this point the difficulties of devising an interpretation,
consistent at once with facts and with the text as it stands, become
insuperable.

The narrative demands that from Koloman we should reach _Fungul_, a great
and noble city, by travelling 12 days along a river, and that Fungul
should be within twelve days' journey of Ch'eng-tu fu, along the same
river, or at least along rivers connected with it.

In advancing from the south-west guided by the data afforded by the texts,
we have not been able to carry the position of Fungul (_Sinugul_, or what
not of G.T. and other MSS.) further north than Phungan. But it is
impossible that Ch'eng-tu fu should have been reached in 12 days from this
point. Nor is it possible that a new post in a secluded position, like
Phungan, could have merited to be described as "a great and noble city."

Baron v. Richthofen has favoured me with a note in which he shows that in
reality the only place answering the more essential conditions of Fungul
is Siu-chau fu at the union of the two gr