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The monks, however, who had given up the worldly life and quitted their families, were all students of Indian books and the Indian language. Here they stayed for about a month, and then proceeded on their journey, fifteen days' walking to the northwest bringing them to the country of Woo-e. In this also there were more than four thousand monks, all students of the hînayâna.
At the end of that time the people of Woo-e neglected the duties of propriety and righteousness, and treated the strangers in so niggardly a manner that Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, and Hwuy-wei went back towards Kâo-ch'ang, hoping to obtain there the means of continuing their journey.
The clothes of the common people are coarse, and like those worn in our land of Han, some wearing felt and others coarse serge or cloth of hair; this was the only difference seen among them. Here they stayed for about a month, and then proceeded on their journey, fifteen days walking to the north-west bringing them to the country of Woo-e.
This stream is called by the Chinese, the river of the Nine Windings, from the circuitous turnings which it takes amongst the hills of Woo-e- shan. Here the finest Souchongs and Pekoes are produced, but I believe that they rarely find their way to Europe, or only in small quantities. The temple we had now reached was small and insignificent building.
How the earliest name for India, Shin-tuk or duk=Scinde, came to be changed into Thien-tuk, it would take too much space to explain. "It is employed, first, as a general name for ascetics of all denominations, and, secondly, as a general designation of Buddhistic monks." E. H., pp. 130, 131. Tartar or Mongolian. Woo-e has not been identified.
Woo-e has been put down as near Kutcha, or Kuldja, in 43d 25s N., 81d 15s E. The country of K'ieh-ch'a was probably Ladak, but I am inclined to think that the place where the traveller crossed the Indus and entered it must have been further east than Skardo.
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