---------------------------------------------------------------------- [A] [M. Grenard, who reproduces (III. p. 152) a good facsimile of the inscription, gives to the slab the following dimensions: high 2m. 36, wide 0m. 86, thick 0m. 25.—H. C.] [B] [Dr. F. Hirth (_China and the Roman Orient_, p. 323) writes: “O-LO-PÊN = Ruben, Rupen?” He adds (_Jour. China Br. R. As. Soc._ XXI. 1886, pp. 214–215): “Initial _r_ is also quite commonly represented by initial _l_. I am in doubt whether the two characters _o-lo_ in the Chinese name for Russia (_O-lo-ssŭ_) stand for foreign _ru_ or _ro_ alone. This word would bear comparison with a Chinese transcription of the Sanskrit word for silver, _rūpya_, which in the _Pen-ts’ao-kang-mu_ (ch. 8, p. 9) is given as _o-lu-pa_. If we can find further analogies, this may help us to read that mysterious word in the Nestorian stone inscription, being the name of the first Christian missionary who carried the cross to China, _O-lo-pên_, as ‘Ruben’. This was indeed a common name among the Nestorians, for which reason I would give it the preference over Pauthier’s Syriac ‘Alopeno’. But Father Havret (_Stèle Chrétienne_, Leide, 1897, p. 26) objects to Dr. Hirth that the Chinese character _lo_, to which he gives the sound _ru_, is not to be found as a Sanskrit phonetic element in Chinese characters, but that this phonetic element _ru_ is represented by the Chinese characters pronounced _lu_, and therefore, he, Father Havret, adopts Colonel Yule’s opinion as the only one being fully satisfactory.”—H. C.] CHAPTER XLII. CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF CUNCUN, WHICH IS RIGHT WEARISOME TO TRAVEL THROUGH. On leaving the Palace of Mangalai, you travel westward for three days, finding a succession of cities and boroughs and beautiful plains, inhabited by people who live by trade and industry, and have great plenty of silk. At the end of those three days, you reach the great mountains and valleys which belong to the province of CUNCUN.{1} There are towns and villages in the land, and the people live by tilling the earth, and by hunting in the great woods; for the region abounds in forests, wherein are many wild beasts, such as lions, bears, lynxes, bucks and roes, and sundry other kinds, so that many are taken by the people of the country, who make a great profit thereof. So this way we travel over mountains and valleys, finding a succession of towns and villages, and many great hostelries for the entertainment of travellers, interspersed among extensive forests.