emporium of Chang-yih.(9) There they found the country so much
disturbed that travelling on the roads was impossible for them. Its
king, however, was very attentive to them, kept them (in his capital),
and acted the part of their danapati.(10)

Here they met with Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, Sang-shao, Pao-yun, and
Sang-king;(11) and in pleasant association with them, as bound on the
same journey with themselves, they passed the summer retreat (of that
year)(12) together, resuming after it their travelling, and going
on to T'un-hwang,(13) (the chief town) in the frontier territory of
defence extending for about 80 le from east to west, and about 40 from
north to south. Their company, increased as it had been, halted there
for some days more than a month, after which Fa-hien and his four
friends started first in the suite of an envoy,(14) having separated
(for a time) from Pao-yun and his associates.

Le Hao,(15) the prefect of T'un-hwang, had supplied them with the
means of crossing the desert (before them), in which there are many
evil demons and hot winds. (Travellers) who encounter them perish
all to a man. There is not a bird to be seen in the air above, nor an
animal on the ground below. Though you look all round most earnestly
to find where you can cross, you know not where to make your choice,
the only mark and indication being the dry bones of the dead (left
upon the sand).(16)

NOTES

(1) Ch'ang-gan is still the name of the principal district (and its
city) in the department of Se-gan, Shen-se. It had been the capital
of the first empire of Han (B.C. 202-A.D. 24), as it subsequently was