hat province. [Mr. Rockhill (_Land of the Lamas_, p. 40)
writes: "Colonel Yule, quoting a Russian work, has it that the word Salar
is used to designate Ho-chou, but this is not absolutely accurate.
Prjevalsky (_Mongolia_, II. 149) makes the following complicated
statement: 'The Karatangutans outnumber the Mongols in Koko-nor, but their
chief habitations are near the sources of the Yellow River, where they are
called Salirs; they profess the Mohammedan religion, and have rebelled
against China.' I will only remark here that the Salar have absolutely no
connection with the so-called Kara-tangutans, who are Tibetans. In a note
by Archimandrite Palladius, in the same work (II. 70), he attempts to show
a connection between the Salar and a colony of Mohammedans who settled in
Western Kan-Suh in the last century, but the _Ming shih_ (History of the
Ming Dynasty) already makes mention of the Salar, remnants of various
Turkish tribes (_Hsi-ch'iang_) who had settled in the districts of
Ho-chou, Huang-chou, T'ao-chou, and Min-chou, and who were a source of
endless trouble to the Empire. (See _Wei Yuen, Sheng-wu-ki_, vii. 35; also
_Huang ch'ing shih kung t'u_, v. 7.) The Russian traveller, Potanin, found
the Salar living in twenty-four villages, near Hsuen-hua t'ing, on the
south bank of the Yellow River. (See _Proc.R.G.S._ ix. 234.) The Annals of
the Ming Dynasty (_Ming Shih_, ch. 330) say that An-ting wei, 1500 _li_
south-west of Kan-chou, was in old times known as _Sa-li Wei-wu-ehr_. These
Sari Uigurs are mentioned by Du Plan Carpin, as _Sari_ Huiur. Can _Sala_ be
the same as _Sari_?"

"Mohammedans," says Mr. Rockhill (Ibid. p. 39), "here are divided into two
sects, known as 'white-capped Hui-hui,' and 'black-capped Hui-hui.' One of
the questions which separate them is the hour at which fast can be broken
during the Ramadan. Another point which divides them is that the
white-capped burn incense, as do the ordinary Chinese; and the Salar
condemn this as Paganish. The usual way by which one finds out to which
sect a Mohammedan belongs is by asking him if he burns incense. The
black-capped Hui-hui are more frequently called _Salar_, and are much
the more devout and fanatical. They live in the vicinity of Ho-chou,
in and around Hsuen-hua t'ing, their chief town being known as Salar
Pakun or Paken."

[Illustration: Cross on the Monument at Si-ngan fu (actual size). (From a
rubbing.)]

Ho-chou, in Western Kan-Suh, about 320 _li_ (10