Richmond times-dispatch. [volume], August 29, 1915, Image 37

About Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
Magazine Features by
Fanioun Artists and Authors,
Illustrated In Colors
Now Discoveries?Thing*
not Found in Hooks?Oddi
ties from all over Clio World
PART
s i x
Sir Aurel Steiny F.R. G. S., the
Explorer, Finds the Ancient
Chinese City Where They Dressed
Up Pretty Dummies and Set
Them on the Walls; the Wife I
of the Hun Chieftain Who Was
Besieging the City Saw the Pretty
Mannikins and Became H?? oVeS?"
so Jealous She Made Her citj!rG?otPRid8of
, , . tha Hun's Army
Husband Withdraw His byM?inpi"in?nK
Army andJThus the From a Painting.
~| Chinese City Was Saved
Marco Polo, tho Amazing: Thirteenth Century Italian
Explorer, Who Discovered the City Now Bedis>
covered by Sir Aurel Stein.
SIR AUREJL STEIN, the noted British explorer, reports
that he has found the mysterious ruined city of
Kharkha-Khoto, in Interior China, -which can be no
other than the strange city of Etzlna, described by the old
Italian adventurer, Marco Polo.
This discovery is very Interesting for many reasons and
especially because It confirms the accuracy of Marco Polo,
?whose narrative a few years ago was laughed at as a mass
of exaggerations and Inventions.
This wonderful man travelled
through the whole of Central A&ia
0i?lime?:
ffo?g
|g Vv,^;:',?"/:';'.4
;A't-"-. ;
MWBWt
and China in the late It
part of the twelfth
and early part of the'
thirteenth centuries, about six hundred years ago. He saw
its splendid cities and became a favorite of the great Mongol
Emperor of China, Kublal Khan- For centuries after his
day, interior Asia was more or less a sealed mystery to
Europeans. It was really bccause people knew nothing of
the things Marco Polo wrote about that they laughed at him.
What makes the city of Kharka-Khoto or Etzinn particu
larly interesting is that it was saved from sack and destruc
The Great Wall of China, Near Which the City Explored by
Sir Aurel Stein Is Situated.
'AW
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s,; ?
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tlon by one of the most ingenious and amusing expedients
ever recorded. The great difference in the two forms of
the name, by the way, is because Marco Polo used the Mon
gol name for tho place, while Sir Aurel Stein gives the
modern Chinese* form.
The city, in enrly times, was besieged by an invasion of
Huns, who were overrunning the ancient Chinese Empire,
destroying, plllaglug and murdering. The gnrrison of tho
city was small and weak and provisions had nearly run out.
The only protection that the place had was a high fortified
wall, with a broad walk on top, built in tho style of the
Great Wall of China. The defenders were rapidly growing
too weak from lack of food to prevent the Huns from climb
ing the walls.
Now the Huns travelled with their numerous wives when
they went to war, for they liked to make merry while on tho
march- When they conquered a city, the choice of tho
plunder went to the favorite wives, while tho Hun generals
drank wJne from the skulls of their defeated enemies.
In this case the leader of the Huns had with him a beau
tiful wife, to whom he was momentarily devoted and who
was herself Intensely Jealous. She knew well her lord's
fickle nature and his tendency to run after some new typo of
beauty, especially if dressed up In an attractive manner.
The clever wife of the Chinese governor of tho city be
came aware of the domestic situation in the Hun leador's
camp and planned most Ingeniously to tako advantage of It.
Sho and the othor women of the city fixed up a number of
dummy figures painted to roprescnt pretty women and
dressed them in the most beautiful Bilk costumes, the secret
of making which was then only known to the Chinese.
These dummy figures were poked up over the battlements
and Indulged in the most remarkable antics before the aston
ished Huns. They danced, bowed, flirted, raado llttlo minc
ing gestures after the Chinese manner, and altogether mado
quite an entrancing spectacle.
When the Hun general's wlfo saw how much her husband
?was Interested in the spectacle she becamo mad with jeal
ousy. Sho wept, raged and stormed until sho made her hus
band miserable. Even Huns are human, and to appease his
wlfo tho goneral agreed to give up the siege of the city and
pass on elsewhere.
This episode was tho foundation of tho love for marlonotte
performances among the Chinese. They are a conservative
people and they have gono on enjoying tho same kind of
entertainment over since then.
Sir Aurel Stein rediscovered this city while exploring tho
remains of tho Groat Wall of China, which ?? yet vary
imperfectly known to Europeans. Stein started from Tun*
liuang nnd followed the wall for close on 260 miles eastward
The wall runs along this whole distance with its watch
towers and small military stations across what was always
an absolutely sterile desert.
The entire wall is eighteen hundred miles long and was
constructed between tho years 214 and 204 B. C- It has
been described by Professor Percival Lowell, of Harvard, as
the one human construction that can be seen from Mars.
He has calculated that narrow lines such as the Great Wall
can be soon from vast distances, provided always that their
length is greatly out of proportion to their width.
The wall was built to defend China from wild Mongolians
and Manchurlans, but they frequently conquered and then
used the wnll to defend themselves against later Invaders.
It is from twenty to sixty feet high and twenty-five feet
thick, with a broad roadway between parapets, along whidi
jin army can march from the sea to the deeerL
The lower portion Is of finely shaped blocks of granite and
the upper part of briok. The brickwork is loopholed to give
cover to tho soldiers. About every two hundred yards and
at every commanding position there is a big square tower#
to serve as a military barracks and fortress
Sir Aural Stein describes his remarkably Interesting ex
periences in a communication to the Royal Geographical S&
clety of England, of which he is a prominent member.
Ho found many ancient records on wood, fine pieces of
furniture and Implements of various sorts, all relics of an
early Chlneso civilization. Many of these things were
found In the ruined watch towers, where Chinese soldiers
had kept guard during tho first century before and after
Christ.
Ho explorod tho Provinco of Kansu, which was Invaded
first by tho Indo-Scythlans and then by the Huns, whose
later wanderings westward broke up the Roman Empire
and deeply affoeted the fall of Central Asia and Europe.
It was in this region that he found the ruined town of
Kharka-Khoto, or tho Etzina of Marco Polo's "Voyages."
The posKlon and remains proved to his satisfaction that It
could bo no other than Marco Polo's town. Here in ancient
times travellers bound for Karakoram, the old Mongol cap
ital, had to lay in viotuals for forty days In order to cross
tho great desert, where there was no habitation or resting
place. There was abundant evidence of the former existence
of much life and commerce in Interior Asia that has largely
disappeared
Among tho ruins he found the complete remains of Mi
early Chinese maiiaafttu UuaaLra.