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.]