Prof. Pelliot remarks, Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, IV., July-Sept., 1904: “In fact a Chinese work has preserved but five k’i-tan characters, however with the Chinese translation.” He writes to me that we do not know any k’itan inscription, but half a dozen characters reproduced in a work of the second half of the fourteenth century. The Uíghúr alphabet is of Aramean origin through Sogdian; from this point of view, it is not necessary to call for Estranghelo, nor Nestorian propaganda. On the other hand we have to-day documents in Uíghúr writing older than the Kudatku Bilik.
BOOK FIRST.
ACCOUNT OF REGIONS VISITED OR HEARD OF ON THE JOURNEY FROM THE LESSER ARMENIA TO THE COURT OF THE GREAT KAAN AT CHANDU.
BOOK I.
VI., p. 63. “There is also on the river, as you go from Baudas to Kisi, a great city called Bastra, surrounded by woods, in which grow the best dates in the world.”
“The products of the country are camels, sheep and dates.” (At Pi-ssï-lo, Basra. Chau Ju-kwa, p. 137.)