CHAPTER XXXV.

OF THE PROVINCE OF YARCAN.

Yarcan is a province five days’ journey in extent. The people follow

the Law of Mahommet, but there are also Nestorian and Jacobite

Christians. They are subject to the same Prince that I mentioned, the

Great Kaan’s nephew. They have plenty of everything, [particularly

of cotton. The inhabitants are also great craftsmen, but a large

proportion of them have swoln legs, and great crops at the throat,

which arises from some quality in their drinking-water.] As there is

nothing else worth telling we may pass on.{1}

NOTE 1.—Yarkan or Yarken seems to be the general pronunciation of

the name to this day, though we write YARKAND.

[A Chinese traveller, translated by M. Gueluy (_Desc. de la Chine

occidentale_, p. 41), says that the word _Yarkand_ is made of

_Iar_, earth, and _Kiang_ (_Kand?_), large, vast, but this

derivation is doubtful. The more probable one is that Yarkand is

made up of _Yar_, new, and _Kand, Kend_, or _Kent_, city.—H. C.]

Mir ’Izzat Ullah in modern days speaks of the prevalence of goitre

at Yarkand. And Mr. Shaw informs me that during his recent visit to

Yarkand (1869) he had numerous applications for iodine as a remedy

for that disease. The theory which connects it with the close

atmosphere of valleys will not hold at Yarkand. (_J. R. A. S._ VII.

303.)

[Dr. Sven Hedin says that three-fourths of the population of

Yarkand are suffering from goitre; he ascribes the prevalence of

the disease to the bad quality of the water, which is kept in large

basins, used indifferently for bathing, washing, or draining. Only

Hindu and “Andijdanlik” merchants, who drink well water, are free

from goitre.

Lieutenant Roborovsky, the companion of Pievtsov, in 1889, says:

“In the streets one meets many men and women with large goitres, a

malady attributed to the bad quality of the water running in the

town conduits, and drunk by the inhabitants in its natural state.

It appears in men at the age of puberty, and in women when they

marry.” (_Proc. R. G. S._ 2 ser. XII. 1890, p. 36.)

Formerly the Mirza (_J. R. G. S._ 1871, p. 181) said: “Goitre is

very common in the city [of Yarkund], and in the country round, but

it is unknown in Kashgar.”

General Pievtsov gives to the small oasis of Yarkand (264 square

miles) a population of 150,000, that is, 567 inhabitants per square

mile. He, after Prjevalsky’s death, started, with V. L. Roborovsky

(botanist) and P. K. Kozlov (zoologist), who were later joined

by K. I. Bogdanovich (geologist), on his expedition to Tibet

(1889–1890). He followed the route Yarkand, Khotan, Kiria, Nia, and

Charchan.—H. C.]