Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1898 — Ancient Manuscripts Exhumed. [ARTICLE]

Ancient Manuscripts Exhumed.

The ancient cities buried by the sands of Central Asia are gradually giving up their treasures, and quite a large collection of manuscripts are now being accumulated in Calcutta, mainly in the library of the Asiatic society of Bengal. Three considerable “finds” of these have lately been received in Calcutta. The manuscripts are of various ages and different materials, such as bark, palm-leaves and very coarse varieties of paper, some of which are coated with gypsum. They are for the most part very flimsy and owe their preservation to the extreme dryness of the climate. They have been found in tombs and other buildings buried in the sand in Chinese Turkestan. They were picked up by peasants in the locality and passed on as curiosities of no great value to traders, who took them to the towns and there disposed of them. One if the collections just mentioned was made by George Macartney, the agent of the Indian government at Kashgar, in and around that city; t while another was given to Captain Godfrey of Leh by some Central Asian traders to show their gratitude to him for helping their caravans across the passes one severe winter; while a third was made a few yetAs ago by Mr. Weber, the Oriental scholar. An examination of these is now being madS by Dr. Hoernle, the president of the Asiatic society of Bengal. It is thought that the literature discovered in these buried cities will turn out to be mainly religious and ceremonial.