The River of Golden Sand: The Narrative of a Journey Through China and Eastern Tibet to Burmah ...J. Murray, 1880 |
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Common terms and phrases
amongst animals appeared arrived ascended baggage bamboo Bat'ang Bhamo bridge brought butter buttered tea called Ch'êng-Tu Chao Chin-Kiang Chin-Sha Chin-Tai China chopsticks Chung-Erh coolies covered crossed cultivation Dalai Lama descended flat grass half head hills horses Huang-Fu huge hundred feet I-Ch'ang Indian corn journey Kashgar lake Lamas Lamassery Lassa leaving Lekin Lit'ang Liu-Pi looked Ma-Fu Mahometan Man-Yün Marco Polo Margary matchlocks Mesny miles Ming dynasty morning mountains mules muleteers native chief nearly never oaks Peh-ma pines plain ponies province Pu-Erh tea rain rank rice ride river road roof round sandstone seemed servants side silver slopes soldiers soon spur Ssu-Ch'uan steep stone stream summit of pass Ta-Chien-Lu Ta-Li Ta-Li-Fu taels Tibet Tibetan told town traveller trees tsanba valley village walls wild wood yaks yards Yün-Nan Yung-Ch'ang
Popular passages
Page 346 - ... attending. And the disease, by being communicated from the sick to the well, seemed daily to get ahead, and to rage the more, as fire will do, by laying on fresh combustibles.
Page 11 - So each of these three parts is separately walled about, though all three are surrounded by the common wall of the city. Each of the three sons was King, having his own part of the city, and his own share of the kingdom, and each of them in fact was a great and wealthy King. But the Great Kaan conquered the kingdom of these three Kings, and stripped them of their inheritance.1 Through the midst of this great city runs a large river, in which they catch a great quantity of fish. It is a good half...
Page 248 - The height of this animal was 4 feet 10 inches, and from the point of the nose to the root of the tail 10 feet 6.
Page 342 - These people have neither idols nor churches, but worship the progenitor of their family ; " for 'tis he," say they, "from whom we have all sprung." They have no letters or writing ; and 'tis no wonder, for the country is wild and hard of access, full of great woods and mountains which 'tis impossible to pass, the air in summer is so impure and bad ; and any foreigners attempting it would die for certain.
Page 155 - Shie-Gi-La is crossed at an altitude of 14,400 feet. From here gentle slopes lead down about 700 feet to the plain. This is 8 to 10 miles wide, and stretches out for many miles east and west. Opposite, a range of hills bounds the plain ; behind it rises the magnificent range of the Surong Mountains, stretching as far as the eye can see to the east and west; snowy peak rising behind snowy peak — where, even at that great distance, vast fields of snow almost dazzle the eye as the sun shines on them....
Page 343 - After leaving the Province of which I have been speaking [Yung ch'ang] you come to a great Descent. In fact you ride for two days and a half continually down hill. . . . After you have ridden those two days and a half down hill, you find yourself in a province towards the south which is pretty near India, and this province is called AMIEN. You travel therein for fifteen days. . . . And when you have travelled those 15 days . . . you arrive at the capital city of this Province of Mien, and it also...
Page 133 - ... feet above its neighbours. It was a magnificent peak, and at this distance looked almost perpendicular. Its name in Tibetan is Ja-ra (King of Mountains), and I never saw one that better deserved the name.
Page 11 - Sea, — a very long way, equal to 80 or 100 days' journey. And the name of the River is KIAN-SUY. The multitude of vessels that navigate this river is so vast, that no one who should read or hear the tale would believe it. The quantities of merchandize also which merchants carry up and down this river are past all belief.
Page 346 - ... in the east, where bleeding from the nose is the fatal prognostic, here there appeared certain tumours in the groin, or under the armpits, some as big as a small apple, others as an egg; and afterwards purple spots in most parts of the body: in some cases large and but few in number, in others less and more numerous, both sorts the usual messengers of death.