4 THE NORTHERN FRONTAGERS OF CHINA.

flowing more or less towards the North-west, it suddenly

at Lan chau turns nearly north, and after running thus
for a long distance turns east, and then almost due
south as far as the famous fortress of Tung kwan, where
it flows on almost directly east to the sea. The great
bend which it thus makes incloses the country of the
Mongol tribes of the Ordus and a large part of Shen

to its si.
doubles upon itself,

be
Now will

as
seen that
it

in it
channel runs north and south two places parallel
one another. In the western one the river runs the

to
north. In the eastern one to the south. The name Ho
si,

the river, might technically the country

of

west mean
either portion. used apparently
of

It

so
west has been
and perhaps more generally describing the

as
sometimes,
the great bend altogether. Klaproth seems
of

land west
it,
so
to

have understood but seems also that the Chinese

it

applied the name sense, not only the wild

in

wider

to
a

country west the great bend, but

of

of
to
the enclave the
is,

river itself, that the larger portion

of
si, to

the modern
government which might properly
be
of

as
Shen and was
in
si,

Ho nan, river,
of

Ho
as

i.e. south the since was

it
it,

closed by This,
with the Ordus land, was the
it.

take
I

some Chinese historians, and the Kha shi Khoshi

of

or
Ho
si

95

the Mongols (D’Ohsson, vol.

of

p.

note), and thus

in of it
i.

becomes clear how they should have applied the name

Ho the kingdom Hia, whose eastern limit was
of
to
si

fact that portion Yellow River running from Paoti

of

the
Tung kwan. Khashi the Mongols also gave this
to

Besides
country Tangut,
in
of

the name name bore other

it
a

languages; for, according Chinese-Uighur vocabulary

is to
a

cited by Klaproth, Ho translated Tangut, while

in
si

similar Chinese-Bukharian vocabulary translated Tang

it
is

hut (Beleuchtung und Widerlegung des Forsch. ueber die

Gesch. der Mitt. Asiat. Wolk des Herrn Schmidt,
p.

64). The
merely sign plural Mongolian,
of
in

in

this name the the

is is
t

really Tang ku, the Tang

as

and the name the same name

kiang the Chinese. The Tang kiang Tang ku formed the
of

or

Hia. They were divided into four tribes,

of

dominant race