[11] Cascar, Chascar, Cassar, Kaschgar, or Hasicar, according to
Forster. Cashgar is at the western end of the great desert, instead of
the eastern, as expressed in the text; indeed this route is most
confusedly, and almost unintelligibly laid down, probably from
corrupted transcription. The series ought to have been, the high table
land of Pamer, the province of Cashgar, and lastly, the desert of
Pelow or Belur. But care must be taken to distinguish this from the
chain of Belur-tag, which runs north and south, between Great and
Little Bucharia.--E.

SECTION VI.

_Of the city of Samarcand, the town of Lop, the Great Desert in its
Neighbourhood, and other remarkable Passages_.

Samarcand[1] is a great and famous city, in a fertile plain, and surrounded
by fine gardens. It is subject to the nephew of the great khan, and is
inhabited by a mixed population of Christians and Mahometans, among whom
there is little agreement; and in one of their disputes, the following
miracle is said to have happened, about an hundred years ago. Zagathai, the
brother of the great khan, then governed this country, and was persuaded to
become a Christian; and the Christians, through his favour, built a church
in honour of St John the Baptist, which was constructed with such skill,
that the whole roof seemed to depend for support upon one central pillar,
which was founded upon a large stone, which, by the permission of Zagathai,
had been taken from a building belonging to the Mahometans. After the death
of Zagathai, he was succeeded by a son who was not of the Christian faith,
and from him the Mahometans obtained an order, by which the Christians were
compelled to restore that stone; and though they offered a sum of money as
a compensation, the Mahometans absolutely insisted to have the stone
itself, hoping, by that means, to reduce the Christian church to ruins: But
the pillar lifted itself up, that the Mahometans, might remove the
contested stone, and still continues suspended in the air.

Departing from this city, we came into the province of Charahan[2], which
is about five days journey in length, and has plenty of provisions. The
inhabitants are mostly Mahometans, intermixed with some Nestorian
Christians, and are subject to the nephew of the great khan. They are
diligent artificers in various manufactures, but are much subject to thick
legs, and the _goitres_ or large wens on their throats, occasione