It requires a months journey to cross this desert from south to north, but to go through it lengthways would take up a whole year.  Those who intend to cross the desert remain for some time in Lop, on purpose to prepare all necessaries for the journey, as no provisions are to be met with for a whole month.  These, with their merchandize, are loaded on asses and camels, and if provisions fall short in the desert, the unfortunate travellers are reduced to the necessity of killing their beasts of burden for sustenance, preferring the asses for this purpose, as the camels can carry much heavier burdens, and are satisfied with less food.  This journey is entirely through sands and barren mountains, in which water is found every day; yet at some of the resting places it is so scanty as hardly to suffice for a caravan of fifty of an hundred persons and their cattle.  In three or four places the water is salt and bitter, but in all the rest of the journey it is very good.  In the whole of this journey there are no beasts or birds to be seen.  It is reported, that many evil spirits reside in the wilderness, which occasion wonderful illusions to travellers who happen unfortunately to lag behind their companions calling them even by their names, and causing them to stray farther from the right course, so that they lose their way and perish in the sands.  In the night time also they hear noises as of their friends, and sometimes the sound of music is heard in the air, and people imagine that they hear the din of drums, as if armies were marching past.  To avoid the danger of separation, the travellers in the desert keep close together, and hang bells about the necks of their beasts; and if any one stays behind, they set up marks in the route, that they may know how to follow.

Having crossed the desert of Lop, we come to the city of Sachion[6] or Sachiou, which is subject to the great khan, and is situated in the great country of Tangut.  The inhabitants of this city are mostly idolaters, who have a peculiar language, mixed with a good many Mahometans, and some Nestorian Christians; this people are little addicted to merchandize or manufacture, and live on the products of their soil.  In this city there are many temples, consecrated to various idols, with monasteries of priests devoted to the service of these false deities, to which numerous sacrifices are offered with great reverence.  When a son is born to any person, he is immediately consecrated to the protection of some particular idol, and the father nourishes a sheep in his house for a year with great care; and on the anniversary day of that idol, he presents his son and the sheep as a sacrifice, with great reverence and many ceremonies, before the shrine of this tutelary deity.  The flesh of the sheep is boiled and set before the idol during the continuance of the prayers and invocations, as an offering for the preservation and protection of the boy, and the idol is supposed to inhale the savour of the meat.  After the religious ceremonies are finished, the meat is carried home to the father’s dwelling, where all the kindred of the family are convened, and feasted with great joy and devotion; but the bones are religiously kept in certain appropriated vessels.  The priests receive the head, feet, skin, and intrails, with a portion of the flesh for their share.