Identifier: ruinsofdesertcat01stei (find matches)
Title: Ruins of desert Cathay : personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Stein, Aurel, Sir, 1862-1943 Archaeological Survey of India
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
Chiang's stock of Turki was extremely slight, in spite
of some seventeen years' stay in the country, and at first
sounded scarcely more intelligible to me than Chinese. It
was the queer lingo which has grown up in the ' New
Dominion ', by a constant process of clipping and trans-
mogrification in Chinese mouths unable to pronounce the
consonantal combinations of real Turki or to use its
elaborate inflectional system. Still, we soon managed to
make intelligent guesses as to our mutual sayings, and
within a few hours from our first interview Chiang was
formally attached to my establishment and busily helping
to check Chinese names in my proofs. How I then wished
that years of Sinologist study could have provided, for
intercourse with my new Chinese assistant, that common
stock of scholarly interests which my knowledge of Sanskrit
had given me from the start, for work with my Pandit
friends in Kashmir !
But it did not take long, once we had been thrown
together in the constant intercourse of daily travel, before

Text Appearing After Image:
39- CHIANG-SSŬ-YEH, MY CHINESE SECRETARY AND HELPMATE.

CH.X CHIANG, A DEVOTED HELP-MATE 117

I began to realize how much gratitude I owed to Mr.
Macartney for his thoughtful choice. It was a piece of
real good fortune which gave me in Chiang, not merely
an excellent teacher and secretary, but a devoted help-
mate ever ready to face hardships for the sake of my
scientific interests. His vivacity and inexhaustible flow of
conversation lent attractions to the lessons I used to take
in the saddle while doing long marches, or else in camp
whenever it was pitched early enough in the evening.
Once I had mastered the very rudiments of colloquial
Chinese, his ever-cheerful companionship became a great
resource during long months of lonely travel and exertion.
From the very first his unfailing care, good manners
and tact assured me that I had not merely a faithful helper
by my side, but a gentleman and true comrade. Very soon,
with the true historical sense innate in every educated
Chinese, he took to archaeological work like a young duck
to the water.

Note About Images